Greening Fayette
Fayette County Conservation District continues popular tree sale. Orders due March 14
Ben Moyer
Signs of spring have proven elusive but take heart. The Fayette County Conservation District’s annual tree sale is on the horizon, a spring predictor here for longer than district officials can recall.
“I’ve been working here for 26 years,” said Doug Petro, Fayette Conservation District manager. “They were already doing the sale when I started, and nobody back then knew when it began.”
Speaking personally now (this columnist), back in the 1980s I worked for the PA Dept. of Environmental Resources, Bureau of Soil and Water Conservation in its Harrisburg office. That agency assisted conservation districts with funding and program development. Nearly all 66 conservation districts in the state held a tree sale, and there was unofficial consensus that Fayette County’s district had begun the tradition.
“Now, I don’t know of another conservation district that’s still doing this,” Petro continued. “But it’s a service to the community that people like. We start getting calls in December. But it gets 10 or 12 thousand trees planted in the county every year. That adds up for the local environment.”
The deadline to order trees is March 14. You can pick up an order form by stopping in at the Conservation District office at 10 Nickman Plaza along “old” Rte. 119 in Lemont Furnace. You can also print the form directly from the district’s website at www.fayettecd.org
The district offers several apple varieties and one variety each of cherry, peach, plum, and pear. Fruit trees are sturdy saplings 4-6 feet tall, packaged individually.
“The fruit trees are popular for small backyard orchards,” Petro explains. “Otherwise, we offer only native species that grow in western Pennsylvania. In that way we are promoting environmentally sound plantings. We don’t sell any of the popular ornamentals, so we are not competing with commercial nurseries.”
Native forest tree species available include red oak, red maple, yellow buckeye, river birch, silky dogwood, green ash, and eastern white pine. Native trees are sold as units of six seedlings, ranging from 6 to 24 inches tall.
Historically, conservation districts primarily served the farm community. So, many non-farm citizens are unfamiliar with districts or their work. But this is changing as conservation districts take on a broader role in natural resource conservation at the local level.
The conservation district concept arose after the Dust Bowl disaster in America’s heartland in the 1930s, when prolonged drought, poor farming practices, and high winds blew away much of America’s most basic natural resource, its soil. The Dust Bowl displaced thousands of families who could no longer make a living on their abused croplands.
Pennsylvania set up its 66 districts (every county except Philadelphia) in 1947 to provide local leadership in farm conservation programs available through the federal government. A local board of directors and their staff recruit cooperating farms to implement conservation practices that prevent soil erosion, protect water quality, and boost long-term farm productivity. The federal Natural Resources Conservation Service provides technical expertise, and the Farm Service Agency helps share the cost when farmers make long-term improvements to farmland that benefit the environment, farm neighbors, and society.
Today, conservation districts offer diverse community services in addition to their traditional role in agriculture. Fayette’s annual tree sale helps support its environmental education work with schools and the public.
“We use tree sale proceeds to fund our scholarship program,” said Terri Springer, Fayette’s resource conservation technician. “Fayette County high school students or students already enrolled in a post-high school program can apply for scholarships in an agriculture-related field of study, environmental science, or a related major.”
The district awards four $1,500 scholarships every year. Most support study at local universities like Penn State or West Virginia, but Fayette District scholarships have helped fund local students’ education as far away as North Dakota State University.
The Fayette Conservation District also manages the Dirt and Gravel Road Program popular with county municipalities. Dirt and Gravel Road projects place an erosion-resistant crushed-stone surface on dirt roads that improves travel while preventing the release of muddy sediment into streams.
The Fayette District plays a vital role in a cooperative effort among natural resource agencies to combat the spread of invasive species and insect pests in Fayette County. Fayette’s District leads the Southern Laurel Highlands Plant and Pest Management Partnership, whose mutual cooperation enables the state bureaus of State Parks and State Forests, the Game Commission, National Park Service, and organizations such as the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy to pool their talents and funding to manage destructive invasives such as Japanese knotweed and Hemlock Woolly Adelgid that threaten native ecosystems.
Petro said some Fayette County residents have bought tree seedlings every spring for the 26 years he’s worked for the district. “We would miss them if they didn’t come,” Petro said.
For more information about the tree sale call the Fayette County Conservation District at 724-438-4497.