• July 2023/ Connie Barlow / Federal government adopts new rule to authorize assisted migration for "experimental populations" of endangered species
In June 2022 the government proposed to modify the ESA regulation (not the statute) so as to no longer require "experimental populations" to be placed within "historical range". I filed a comment (as a citizen) supporting that change, which you can access by scrolling down this webpage or accessing directly my August 2022 entry. At the same time I went into the Wikipedia page: "Endangered Species Act of 1973" and created a new section titled "Climate adaptation".
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This month, the government finalized the change, so I added this para (with references) to the wikipedia page:
"The U.S. Department of Interior on June 30, 2023, announced its decision to modify the section 10(j) "experimental populations" rule generally as proposed a year earlier. The press release summarized the reason for the change as, 'At the time the original 10(j) regulations were established, the potential impact of climate change on species and their habitats was not fully realized, yet in the decades since have become even more dramatic. These revisions will help prevent extinctions and support the recovery of imperiled species by allowing the Service and our partners to implement proactive, conservation-based species introductions to reduce the impacts of climate change and other threats such as invasive species.' The rulemaking action includes a section summarizing 25 topics entailed in comments submitted in 2022, along with the agency's official response to each."
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This is a hugely significant shift in federal policy that would seem to finally allow (perhaps even motivate?) the agency staff in USF&WS to officially authorize "assisted migration" poleward of Florida Torreya, as we Torreya Guardians have been doing since 2005 — thanks to an "exception" (just for plants) in the statute itself that enables citizens to plant horticulturally produced seeds outside of "historical range." I predict, however, that the agency will not act — unless I (and others?) once again petition the government to utilize this new tool or at least issue a written decision as to why it will not.
And, yes, it is possible for a citizen (without any legal help, nor costs) to submit a formal petition — as I did September 2019 when I petitioned to "downlist" Florida torreya from endangered to "threatened", based on the accomplishments of Torreya Guardians. Access directly my September 2019 comment on this page where I link to MY DOWNLIST PETITION; and then the October 2021 comment where I posted access to the agency's decision NOT TO DOWNLIST. Alas, the agency is probably not legally required to respond with any depth to a petition merely to shift how it implements its current recovery plan. The latest recovery plan update occurred in 2020, and the interval between such updates appears to be about 10 years. Nonetheless, the agency will have to respond at least in a sentence or two as to when they would consider applying the new regulation to Florida Torreya.
For a summary of the problematic episodes that Torreya Guardians have faced in the official resistance to "assisted migration" poleward of this "glacial relict" species from its peak glacial refuge in Florida, access the "Case Study of Agency and Institutional Failures" page on this website.
• June 2023/ Eric Hongisto / Huge California Torreyas documented north of San Francisco
Editor's note: In the past several years, three Californians have been contributing photos of Florida Torreya's giant cousin that is native to the Coast Range north of Santa Cruz, CA. The four below by Eric Hongisto are now on the Samuel P. Taylor State Park torreya page. Find more via our California Torreya main page. (And notice how massive trees often form from uniting basal regrowth stems — thus indicating much older root stock below, possibly thousands of years old.)
• June 2023/ Court Lewis / My two tallest torreyas now 6 feet tall (Unicoi, TN)
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COURT LEWIS reports June 2023: "Here is a photo of the two biggest specimens I have. They're both about 6 feet tall, although it's hard to tell that since they're surrounded by grass that I've let grow too high.
I only have a total of 5 survivors out of 34 planted 6-7 years ago.
The one that grew out of a free-planting in the soil is the third largest (not pictured here). It's about 4 1/2 ft tall. Two others are smaller: 1-2 feet.
... All of mine that have thrived are on sloping ground."
See all his photos and reports at Unicoi TN torreya page.
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• June 2023/ Fred Bess and Connie Barlow / Lack of peer-reviewed science prolongs Fusarium fears within Torreya Keepers group
Editor's note: The lack of peer-reviewed scientific discernment is still evident in the disease pathology stance blocking support for seed distribution — even by the institutions administering the official recovery plan for this endangered species. When Fred Bess (who planted the farthest north, Cleveland, set of seed-producing torreyas) heard of a Facebook debate on this topic, he stepped in to present an alternative view. Fred contributed 6 points, of which 3 are excerpted here:
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EXCERPTS from Fred Bess's comment in a Facebook thread:
... 3. I know from personal experience that T. taxifolia is winter hardy to (at least) -17F (-27C) here in my own yard and they are fully exposed to the weather and salt spray from the 5 lane road I live on. This seems good evidence that the species was not originally a southern tree. If it were, why would it have the need to be that cold tolerant? More likely as many other southern US species it had to move south during the Ice age, but was unable to move back north, likely because its seed dispersers had gone extinct.
4. Is there any data on Fusarium hardiness? Not every fungus can survive severe cold, especially if it is living within plant tissues that are completely exposed to those sub zero temperatures. Have any studies been done on this?
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5. I have an issue with the Fusarium testing on other species. I've seen the photos of completely dead Pinus and other genera in the lab. Just because a plant is killed in the lab does not mean it would be an issue in a natural habitat where there are other factors. Exposing any living organism to a possibly deadly pathogen is likely to end as those experiments did. I suspect those plants were grown in the lab as well and did not have the benefit of mycorrhizal associations that could have helped the trees deal with a fusarium infection....
Editor's note: Fred's full comment is available on his Ohio Torreya page, as the May 2023 entry within the Endangerment (causes of) webpage, and within the long facebook discussion thread. Reading this thread motivated webmaster, Connie Barlow, to send an email to the Fusarium expert in USDA, plus a climate-range-shift specialist there she has communicated with in past years. Connie wrote, in part:
REQUEST: Could a group of USDA scientists evaluate and publish what is known and unknown about the science concerning: (a) native v. non-native origin of the newly identified Fusarium torreyae; (b) whether "glacial relict" history accounts for the small "historical native" range;
(c) possibilities for successful reintroduction of Torreya into Florida, absent genetic engineering; (d) whether unpublished lab experiments in Florida that injected the fusarium into clippings or potted specimens of spruce, fir, and pine species native to high altitudes of the southern Appalachian mountains offer reliable evidence for halting seed distribution from the ex situ groves and perhaps also from mature horticultural plantings in North Carolina and Ohio; (e) scientifically credible next steps for producing peer-reviewable and thus publishable results on the actual disease risks of continuing Torreya seed distribution northward of Florida and Georgia.
• May 2023/ Jeff Morris / Photos of his tallest Torreya trees in Spencer, NC
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The foreground tree in each photo is a Torreya taxifolia.
The tallest (left) is 14 feet in height, and it bore fruit in 2022. The foreground tree in right photo is about 9 feet tall and is 4 or 5 years younger.
More photos and commentary at the Spencer, NC Torreya page, which is in central North Carolina, 40 miles northeast of Charlotte, 700 foot elevation. |
• May 2023/ Lamar Marshall / First year of seed production near Franklin, NC
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Beginning with seeds donated from the 2013 generation of seeds, Lamar Marshall reports,
"I have six surviving Torreyas, a few of which are producing seeds for the first time."
More photos and commentary at the Cowee Valley, NC Torreya page, which is 8 miles north of Franklin on a south-facing slope at 2,200 foot elevation.
Maintained as a full-sun site by lawn-mowing.
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• May 2023/ Connie Barlow / USGS surveys USF&WS staff on views about "assisted migration" of endangered species. Conclusion: staff are cautious.
SCROLL DOWN first to a JUNE 2022 entry on a proposed USF&WS regulation authorizing "assisted migration" by removing "historical range" as the sole locus for endangered species recovery. THEN RETURN HERE:
This 22-page government document is a superb introduction to the concept and controversy about using assisted migration as a climate adaptation tool for endangered species.
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In addition to the usual statement of risks of "invasion in recipient ecosystems", disease spread, and project failures resulting in wasted government money, there were several new risks, controversies, or complexities that I was unaware of — either because they pertain mostly to animals or to the complexities of bureaucracies.
RISKS pertaining only to ANIMALS: (a) suffering or death during capture and transport, (b) loss of genetic diversity from the source population, (c) walking, flying, or swimming away from their intended "recipient ecosystem", and (d) requiring a lot of money to prepare, do, and monitor.
RISKS pertaining only to BUREAUCRACIES (not actions freely undertaken by citizens, such as Torreya Guardians): (a) INADEQUATE FUNDING for staff and/or NGOs to engage in all steps from planning to soliciting comments and then all aspects of carrying out the project. (b) INSECURE FUNDING to ensure monitoring and adjustments over many years. (c) LITIGATION by public either at source or recipient site.
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TOPICS LACKING IN THIS GOVERNMENT REPORT:
1. PLANTS were not specified as being less risky and costly than animals.
2. No mention that NORTHWARD PLANTINGS IN PLACE at botanical gardens, urban streets/parks, and private residences can be evaluated as free, long-term experiments for assessing actual risks of project failure or harm to recipient ecosystems (such as we have done for Torreya in our "Historic Groves" webpage).
3. No distinction in historic consequences/risks of MOVING SPECIES WITHIN THE USA V. FROM ANOTHER CONTINENT.
4. Despite use of the term "paleontological" twice, there was no consideration that forestry scientists in America are well aware of GLACIAL-INTERGLACIAL MIGRATIONS OF TREES SPECIES regularly forming "novel ecological communities" during the transition times.
BARLOW'S CONCLUSIONS:
1. Overall I gained additional compassion for USF&WS agency staff who are dedicated to the prospect of helping endangered species fully recover. Yet the bureaucracy they work within necessarily poses hurdles, complexities, inertia, shifting political priorities, insecure long-term funding, and endless oppositional public constituencies and lawsuits such that stepping out boldly on assisted migration will continue to be an unwise choice — no matter how good the "decision frameworks" may become.
2. The only climate-motivated "assisted migration" that will occur for endangered species will be those undertaken by CITIZENS WHO USE THE EXISTING "EXCEPTION" FOR PLANTS in the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The USF&WS will not do it. Overall, then, the best way to assist plants who could benefit from assisted migration is to cease attempting to list them as threatened or endangered. NGOs and citizens should simply move plants on their own, of course using the best science for doing so wisely.
• Access Barlow's marked-up copy of the 22-page government document.
• April 2023/ Connie Barlow / 10 germinated seeds from 2021 Torreya harvest (after 2 winter stratifications) planted within 3 deer-proof treefalls
After two winter stratifications in Michigan, 30 of 78 torreya seeds harvested in autumn 2021 in North Carolina had germinated. (None had germinated the previous spring, after only 1 winter stratification.)
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Contrary to her usual practice of avoiding planting sites where deer are overpopulated, Connie planted the first 10 germinated seeds into such a forest — because she found three treefalls of sufficient size and branch density to serve as natural exclosures against deer.
LEFT: Connie at the third treefall site in the forest alongside the cemetery in Ypsilanti, MI. Here she planted 4 germinated seeds, at least 6 feet apart, along the distance of the biggest fallen tree. The curving stalks of the invasive subcanopy dominant, Amur honeysuckle, form a helpful mesh for excluding deer.
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More photos and commentary at the Ypsilanti, Michigan Torreya page.
• April 2023/ Connie Barlow / Seed germination results after two winter stratifications
After a second winter stratifying in Michigan 78 torreya seeds (from the 2021 seed harvest in North Carolina), Connie photographed and inventoried the results.
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• After 2 winter stratifications 39% of the total 78 seeds had newly germinated.
• Whether or not a seed shows a thin slit on its germinating point makes no difference in next spring germination.
• Any seed with a trifold crack (wider than a slit) at the germinating point will germinate the next spring.
• Any seed with punky (weak) regions on its seed coat are just as likely to germinate as seeds with perfect coats.
• None of the 9 seeds (slit or unslit) that evidenced a dark, circular depression at the opposite (round) end of the seed germinated after their second winter.
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More photos and commentary at the Ypsilanti, Michigan Torreya page. Visit the "Germinating seeds" section within our "Propagation" page for more photos and guidance from other Torreya Guardians, along with information gathered from scholarly papers.
• April 2023/ Connie Barlow / Review paper features Florida Torreya as one of a very few examples of "assisted migration" already underway — anywhere in the world.
"The application of assisted migration as a climate change adaptation tactic: An evidence map and synthesis", 2023, by William M. Twardek and 5 coauthors, published in Biological Conservation. The paper states: "Assisted migration has been implemented very few times as a conservation tactic.... Assisted migration was most common for plants (particularly trees), followed by birds, and was rarely implemented for other taxa."
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The text highlighted at left of FLORIDA TORREYA is the team's summary of just five case studies globally that were carried out "for the purpose of conservation or management, rather than for experimentation or some other purpose."
Torreya Guardians is noted as a "citizen science group." Our results are judged as "interesting."
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• February 2023/ Connie Barlow / Preparing for 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act
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December 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act in the USA. I was a senior in college then and cannot recall that I was aware of that momentous event.
Lots of organizations are beginning to appear in the news about it. At left is the image used by the Center for Biological Diversity in their 2 February 2023 press release, titled "Celebrating 50 Years of Endangered Species Act Success".
Three national journalism outlets already contacted me — just for background. Whether and how Torreya Guardians shows up in the news this year is yet to be determined. Suffice it to say that, as founder of our group (and still, chief contact), I will do my best to insist on a site visit to one or more of our successful volunteer planters. |
I regard our website as the best archival source for anyone to learn our history, to dig into the controversies, and to easily access the online resources of the official recovery program (both USA government and the several participating institutions). Because the US official "Record of Actions" page is difficult to use in its tabular form, today I excerpted and posted in pdf what I regard as the most important historical records of action documented officially.
• February 2023/ Buford Pruitt / Remembering squirrels are important local seed dispersers
BUFORD PRUITT, a wildlife biologist, is a very successful planter of Florida Torreya at his rural home near Brevard, NC. Visit Pruitt's Torreya webpage on this website. This month he contributed a 3-page advocacy essay: "Torrey Squirrels"
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"...Torreya Guardians already know that the Eastern Gray Squirrel can affect our assisted migration tactics. This rodent (1) raids mother trees of their seeds, (2) steals potted seeds, and (3) caches seeds in developed areas and wildlands that can germinate and grow into naturally occurring individuals and colonies.
Although we know this third thing, and we are happy about it when new seedlings 'volunteer,' we have historically focused on the first two annoyances. In my view, this is because our historical charge has been to propagate and migrate. Obviously, we cannot increase the population until we learn how to propagate and nurture it. I believe we have now done those two things well enough to start looking at natural colonization strategies...."
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• February 2023/ Connie Barlow / Using our Torreya photos and learnings in my photo-essay to help Coast Redwood planters
Although Genus TORREYA will always be my top priority as a citizen volunteer, beginning in 2014 I started video documentation and advocacy of assisted migration for other tree species, too. These are listed and linked in my "Climate, Trees, and Legacy" webpage.
Owing to 18 years of an itinerant lifestyle with my husband, Michael Dowd, (which ended during the covid lockdowns), I have been blessed with in-forest experience of COAST REDWOOD. I was surprised that I learned far more about this stunningly miraculous species by many months of exploration of regrowth redwood forests — rather than the old growth in parks.
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As with Torreya, Coast Redwoods have lignotubers and a nearly immortal ability to use prolific basal sprouting to regrow giant trees from the same root system, post-logging (and post-fire).
In 2023 journalist interest in "assisted migration" has soared, and Torreya Guardians is of interest to them.
But of greatest interest are the old horticultural plantings of this California giant that document how fog belts of the Pacific Northwest (even B.C.) already superb habitat for helping redwoods track climate warming and drying. |
To help both the journalists and the northward planters learn about redwood's growth capacities, I found that PHOTOS and LEARNINGS about genus Torreya that our group has made actually offer important insights for the assisted migration of Coast Redwood. Therefore, I created a multi-part PHOTO-ESSAY, "Growth Capacities of COAST REDWOOD". Two sections feature what we have learned about genus TORREYA: "Fallen Branches Sprout by Layering" and, especially, "Propagation from Cuttings."
• January 2023/ Connie Barlow / Robin Wall Kimmerer advocates "helping forests walk"
Robin Wall Kimmerer spoke at the "Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit" at the University of Colorado, December 2022. The video was posted on youtube January 2023. The LINK here goes directly to timecode 41:04, where Robin uses her own Indigenous term, "helping forests walk," to speak about "assisted migration" of plants as a traditional application of the value of "reciprocity" among native peoples on this continent.
EXCERPTS: "I think about the cultural value of thinking that our actions are not only on behalf of human people, of course, but on behalf of our more-than-human relatives. An aspect of that, that we can share, to perhaps guide some climate-related solutions are things like assisted migration — what one of my really respected teachers, Henry Lickers, called, 'Helping forests walk.'
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"... It is our responsibility as human people who have been gifted by so much from the plants that we need to reciprocate with our gifts — particularly in this time when the climate is changing so fast that our plant relatives can't move on their own. So the kinds of things that I would advocate sharing with the climate science community are these strategies of things like assisted migration. That is, the way in which our people participated in carrying our plant relatives around, from place to place, to new habitats as the environment changed.
"It's an exchange of gifts: our human gift of mobility and seed planting in return for the gifts of the plants. And those kinds of broad values coupled to action."
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• January 2023/ Paul Camire / Photo update of Michigan torreyas plus news of Chinese Torreya video
Editor's Note: In addition to sending photos of his within-forest plantings of torreya in Michigan — all protected by deer-proof cages, PAUL CAMIRE alerted me to a Chinese video (on youtube) of that country's native Torreya grandis.
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Connie Barlow writes:
The IMAGE LEFT is how the screen captures I took now appear within the "Other Species of Genus Torreya", section of our immense webpage titled, "Natural History of Torreya taxifolia.
Visit that section to access the video — and to read in the caption what I learned about this genus — including the likelihood that harvesting of the seed for processing into a highly regarded "nut" food occurs well before the ripening is complete. Early harvesting ensures that the seed coat has not yet hardened, and thus does not need to be removed.
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• January 2023/ Connie Barlow / Our CALIFORNIA TORREYA webpage is updated and expanded
Torreya Guardians now has a Torreya californica subgroup! Our website made it possible for citizens in the home range of California Torreya to connect with, thus far, one volunteer planter (with an excellent forested ravine on his property) in the Pacific Northwest.
For many years, Californians have been contributing photos of their own native Torreya trees (close cousin of Florida Torreya) that they encounter in the wilds of the Coast Range and Sierras. I then post the photos in the California section of this website. Initially, posting the Torreya californica photos was simply to help our own planters of this genus in the eastern USA locate suitable habitats.
It is gratifying that "assisted migration" has now begun for California torreya — well before it might qualify for listing as an endangered species. Endangered species listing of Florida Torreya in 1984 made it difficult for we citizens, beginning in 2005, to access genetically diverse seeds for our northward planting efforts.
Below is the new and expanded Table of Contents for the California Torreya page:
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• December 2022/ Michael Heim / A Wollemia Christmas Tree in Wisconsin (potted, of course)
Like our own glacial relict, Torreya taxifolia, Wollemia is making a last stand in the coolest place it could find: the bottom of deep, nearly inaccessible canyon in southeastern Australia. Sadly, unlike Torreya, there is as yet no citizen or governmental project aiming to "rewild" this remarkable tree into a poleward location (are there any in the southern hemisphere?) where it could thrive over a larger geographic range.
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PHOTO LEFT: Our Wisconsin Torreya planter sent us this photo of the Christmas tree that he, as a self-described "plant nerd," is enjoying this season. It is none other than the famous "living fossil" plant of Australia, discovered alive in 1994. This is the monotypic genus Wollemia.
All Wollemia here in the USA in horticultural circulation are rooted branchlets. Mike sets this potted specimen outdoors in the warm seasons, bringing it back inside each winter.
PHOTO RIGHT: Earlier this month, Mike sent Torreya Guardians this photo of an ericad shrub native to the southern Appalachians that he had planted in his Wisconsin forest: Pieris floribunda.
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• December 2022/ Eric Hongisto / Documented another large CALIFORNIA TORREYA (Bolinas Ridge)
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ERIC HONGISTO writes:
I found another great grove near top of Bolinas Ridge, above Samuel P Taylor park — maybe 200 trees inside a mature Fir and Bay mixed forest.
Most of the Nutmegs [Torreya] are on the young side. The best one was a huge double clonal structure. PHOTO LEFT.
FYI, 5 miles from parking lot, if you use 'proper trails' and then some bushwack down from ridge (approx. 800') to the tree. 38.01850&° N, 122.73963° W
NOTE BY EDITOR, Connie Barlow: I like to post photos by Californians who are finding new giant California Torreya trees — usually by bushwhacking into likely areas. It is a reminder that there is no scientific evidence on size or age contraints for Florida torreya. By the time botanical documentation occurred, settlers had been utilizing the valuable wood. As well, I have seen photos of Asian species (T. grandis and T. nucifera) that are as big as those documented in California.
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• December 2022/ Buford Pruitt / December 2022 photos of 14 torreyas planted in my forest, BREVARD, NC
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LEFT: Photos of one of the biggest and one of the smallest torreya trees.
EDITOR'S NOTE: See photos of all 14 trees, along with other photos and reports, in the chronologically organized Brevard NC torreyas.
That page goes back to 2012, based on seeds Pruitt received from the 2010 and 2011 harvests by Torreya Guardians.
Pruitt reports that height differences are primarily attributed to differences in sunlight. He also reports that none have yet grown any reproductive buds, and that deer haven't browsed the leaders and long branches that protrude over or through the cages. He keeps them caged primarily to prevent buck antler-rubbing (and is thankful that his neighbors hunt deer on their properties).
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• December 2022/ Paul Camire / News article links Torreya at Caroline Dormon preserve (Louisiana) with Torreya Guardians planting at Junaluska, NC
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In 2008, the first group planting of Florida Torreya by Torreya Guardians took place at Corneille Bryan Native Garden in Lake Junaluska, NC.
I found this undated article online (probably from the Charlotte Observer). It shows that Caroline Dormon of Louisiana visited that garden long ago — and several Torreya Guardians visited in 2018 the giant female Torreya that Caroline had planted at Dormon Preserve.
As it turns out, the writer of this article, Elizabeth Lawrence, was a famous gardener herself. As presented on the website of Elizabeth Lawrence House and Garden:
Elizabeth Lawrence (1904-1985) is an internationally known garden writer. She is regarded as one of three preeminent figures in the horticultural history of the Southeast, sharing this short list with Thomas Jefferson and J.C. Raulston. She is also listed among the top twenty-five gardeners of all time. The work she did while designing, writing and gardening at her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, contributed greatly to that status.
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• December 2022/ Connie Barlow / "Budcapping" the leader growth is added to deer-prevention section of our PROPAGATION page
A Minnesota Public Radio News story on DEER-PROOFING WHITE PINE SEEDLINGS in Minnesota was added to our webpage here of Best Practices for PROPAGATION. The article was published 22 November 2022 and is titled, "Bringing back the white pine, a foundational American tree", by Dan Kraker, Deer Lake, Minnesota.
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BEST PRACTICE:
BUDCAP THE LEADER WITH PAPER AND A STAPLE
... So John Rajala's father, Jack, started fiddling with different ways to discourage deer from munching the trees. They experimented with rotten egg mixes, and different commercial products. But what worked best was stapling a folded piece of paper over the bud. Simple, but backbreaking and incredibly time-intensive work. It's called "budcapping," and now it's used by pretty much anyone who plants trees in the North Woods.
Jack Rajala detailed the work in his book titled Bringing Back the White Pine. John Rajala said over the years his family has planted, and budcapped, millions of white pines. You see evidence of it all throughout the forest, small squares of white paper topping tiny trees dotting the forest floor.
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Note: Wisconsin Torreya planter, Mike Heim, reports: "I'm already budcapping my tuliptrees with knee-high nylons held on by twist-ties from supermarket cilantro bundles."
• November 2022/ Sharon Mohney / Virginia planter chooses sites with fern and lycopod evergreen camouflage
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Sharon Mohney in Buchanan, VA captured this photo of an unbrowsed seedling camouflaged by an evergreen fern.
Notice that this site has two flags. When freeplanting the seeds in November 2020, she marked each site with a flag. Now, when she spots a seedling, she installs a second flag, so that the seedling locations are documented — and thus can be confirmed in future years as to survival and possible demise by deer browsing.
She wrote: "The plant in the foreground of my photo is, I believe, Diphasiastrum digitatum rather than a Selaginella. I have used it as a protective cover for my torreya plantings when Christmas ferns weren't nearby."
Editor's note: This innovation in using a clonal evergreen lycopod for camouflage is very interesting, so I added this photo and caption to the camouflage section of our Freeplanting webpage.
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• November 2022/ Connie Barlow / 83 seeds from 2022 harvest planted in DEER-FREE forest slopes; ongoing experiments with 2021 harvested seeds
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My share (some 400 seeds) from this year's harvest of torreya seeds from one horticultural planting in Clinton, NC, is mostly being used at or near my home in Ypsilanti, Michigan, for experimental plantings — especially at exceedingly rare DEER-FREE SITES along our major river. (Deer herbivory has been so problematic for volunteer planters that losses have been great or investments in deer-proof cages have been necessary.)
Each DEER-FREE site is located on a downtown stretch of steeply sloping forested edges of the Huron River. These were reinforced long ago by solid concrete lower portions (red outline on map above) or a series of concrete and asphalt blocks onto which trees and woody plants (especially Amur Honeysuckle) have taken hold. Natural regeneration over many decades have produced patches of good soil into which I put seeds (usually 4 to 6 inches deep, to escape detection by rodents) of America's most endangered conifer tree.
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PHOTO ABOVE shows the unusual cracked seedcoats of a small portion of the 2022 harvest, through which the vibrant red seed itself is seen — clearly, not yet rotting. So these I needed to put into final destinations immediately. As well, the cracked seed farthest right displays a dark indentation on its round, non-germinating end (germination happens at the pointy end). So some of these seeds I also planted this month (turquoise outline above).
PHOTO BELOW shows the remaining seeds from 2021 harvest being tested in a safe, outdoor container. Scrutiny of seed characteristics (especially "slit" v. "unslit" over the germination point after a second full summer) may help us predict which seeds require only one additional winter to sprout. (Visit the Torreya Guardians PROPAGATION page for many more learnings and recommendations.)
VISIT Connie's YPSILANTI MICHIGAN Torreya webpage.
• November 2022/ Connie Barlow / New VIDEO summarizes history of TORREYA GUARDIANS
EPISODE 35: Torreya Guardians - Reflections by Connie Barlow
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While cleaning and sorting torreya seeds freshly harvested from a private home in Clinton, NC, Connie extemporaneously delivers the history of significant beginnings, achievements, and frustrating institutional obstacles that she and other volunteers encountered during nearly two decades of action and advocacy in behalf of this endangered subcanopy tree.
The final 5 minutes is where she explains the new governmental proposal to authorize "assisted migration" for climate threatened species, such as this glacial relict.
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Length: 43 minutes, with timecoded table of topics in the youtube caption. Access the full list of TG videos.
• November 2022/ Eric Hongisto / Photo of large CALIFORNIA TORREYA north of San Francisco
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ERIC HONGISTO writes:
"This torreya is one of the largest in the three known groves at Fort Ross State Historic Park.
This grove has 15 trees connected over 1/4 acre. It is directly on the San Andreas Fault, east of the creek.
You can see the tree being pulled slowly, and adjusting.
On both sides of the fault are old growth redwoods."
NOTE BY EDITOR, Connie Barlow: Beginning about two years ago, several Californians have been sending me photos and ideas about Florida Torreya's California cousin. Although there is no doubt that the species could do well in the subcanopy of Pacific Northwest forests, the rugged topography of this Coast Range section of California affords the trees shady north slopes and deep canyons for healthy living today. I have been adding these new photos, with captions, to the California Torreya webpages I maintain on this website.
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• November 2022/ Fred Bess / Report of torreya seed harvest, Cleveland OHIO
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November 3:
"After the squirrels got a fair number from the two front females, the count is +/- 230 seeds."
Update November 6:
"As I was mowing the lawn I found an additional 15 seeds under the Torreyas that had apparently dropped off — mostly from the big female in the front yard."
Access Fred's torreya webpage: Cleveland, Ohio.
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• October 2022/ Connie Barlow / Two new articles show our pioneering of "assisted migration" is becoming mainstream
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In the OCTOBER 2022 section of the lengthy "Assisted Migration Scholarly Links" webpage on this website, I posted links and excerpts for two really important articles:
• "Last Resort: Moving Endangered Species in Order to Save Them" by Zach St. George, in Yale Environment 360. This is the first substantive news report of a historic proposal in June 2022 by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to amend its regulations in order to expressly authorize "assisted migration" as a tool for not just "protecting" relict species in place but to enable full-out "recovery" by moving them to habitats where they can thrive. (See the August and June entries below on this page, where I excerpted the regulatory proposal.) In this new article, the work of Torreya Guardians is mentioned: "A group of private citizens planted the endangered Florida Torreya, an evergreen in the yew family that is native to riparian areas in Florida and Georgia, far to the north, throughout the eastern United States."
• "Potential for Assisted Migration of Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) to Vancouver Island", by Richard S. Winder et al., was published by Natural Resources Canada. I point to it here because, if we are considered too radical, then what about this professional proposal to move California redwoods to Canada?! (Also, I am referenced in the article for my video documentation of thriving horticultural plantings in the Seattle area.)
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• October 2022/ Mike Heim / After two winters and summers, two torreya seedlings have appeared
Mike Heim took photos of two new seedlings that emerged from seeds planted directly into his forest (within a fenced deer exclosure). He wrote: "It's taken 2 winters for them to germinate. Probably more on the way next year." More information on Mike's Hayward, Wisconsin Torreya page.
• October 2022/ Connie Barlow / Info on a wild forest in China containing 2,800 Torreya
A 2022 news report, China: Wild, ancient Torreya Forest in Hunan, China:
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EXCERPTS (of English translation): ... It is the city tree of Ningxiang City.... Yueshan Village occupies more than 68% of the forest land, and more than 2,800 wild Torreya trees are hidden in the depths of the forest. They were discovered by the forestry department for the first time around 1990.... A thousand-year-old Torreya tree came into view. The diameter of the trunk was so thick that it took six adults to hold hands to surround it. In the passage of time, it has stood quietly here for more than a thousand years.... The torreya tree likes a humid, low-light and cool climate, and the mountainside with less direct sunlight is the best habitat. The wild ancient torreya community is located in the mountain forest at an altitude of 200 to 500 meters in Yueshan Village, and the villagers living in the surrounding area are not familiar with it.
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• September 2022/ Bob Miller / Joyful discovery of a torreya (from seed planted May 2015) by a log while removing invasives
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Email from BOB MILLER ( |
