Fayette Conservation District ushers spring with seedling sale
If you haven’t yet seen a robin, but need some sign of spring on the horizon, take heart. The Fayette County Conservation District has announced its 2018 seedling sale, an annual rite of spring that’s been offered to Fayette County residents longer than the district’s current staff can remember.
“The Fayette Conservation District has been doing this sale for well over 30 years. It goes back so far we don’t have good records,” said district manager Doug Petro.
In the annual sale, the conservation district makes available tree seedlings that farmers, gardeners or suburban residents can’t easily find. All the species offered are native to Fayette County and western Pennsylvania.
“We’re trying to promote not only tree-planting and all the benefits that brings to the environment but planting native trees that are an original part of this region’s ecosystem,” Petro observed.
Hardwood species available include a hybrid American chestnut, American hornbeam, sweet crabapple, persimmon, winterberry holly, shadblow serviceberry and white oak. Available conifers are eastern white pine and American red pine. Depending on the species, hardwood and conifers come in bundles of six to eight seedlings and are four to 18 inches tall. All hardwoods and conifers cost $8 per bundle.
Several apple varieties are offered including Golden Delicious, Crimson Crisp, Honey Crisp and Royal Court. Other fruit trees are Montmorency cherry, Harrowsweet pear, Methley plum and Loring peach. The fruit trees cost $12 per each seedling.
“This sale brings in some revenue that we feel is used in a good way,” Petro said. “And it also has the benefit of getting over 11,000 tree seedlings and about 3,000 fruit trees planted around the county every year. It’s good conservation practice.”
Petro explained that the conservation district uses proceeds from the seedling sale to grant scholarships to area youth.
“The seedling money goes into natural resource education of youth from Fayette County,” Petro said. “We always send one student to the Conservation Leadership School, and our board generally grants three $1,500 scholarships to area college students going into science, environmental conservation or some similar program.”
Conservation districts operate all across the United States. In Pennsylvania, districts have the same boundaries as counties, but in some states conservation districts are organized on a watershed basis, independent of county lines. Each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties has a conservation district except Philadelphia County.
Conservation districts had their beginning in the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s when poor farming practices and extended drought caused extensive soil erosion across the nation’s Great Plains farm belt. Dust storms sometimes carried the once fertile topsoil from the plains and deposited it on large eastern cities.
In 1935 Congress passed the Soil Conservation Act, which made technical expertise in soil conservation available to farmers through the Soil Conservation Service. The law also encouraged states to authorize the formation of conservation districts to direct the work of federal natural resource agencies within their borders.
Pennsylvania later passed the Conservation District Law of 1945, which enabled counties to form conservation districts and accept and administer some state funding.
All districts in Pennsylvania are guided by a board of directors comprised of local residents appointed by county commissioners.
Traditionally, conservation districts have worked most closely with farmers, formulating conservation plans for farms to reduce erosion, keep streams clean and make farms more productive in the long-term.
More recently, districts have served the non-farm community through environmental education, watershed monitoring and management, and the highly successful Dirt and Gravel Road Program, that reduces sedimentation into streams from dirt roads in rural areas.
“The core of what we do is still farm-related,” Petro explained. “But everyone, no matter where they live, can become involved in conservation of natural resources. We now have six staff members who provide all kinds of conservation services and education to residents throughout Fayette County.”
Seedling sales were once run by nearly all conservation districts in the state, and there is evidence that Fayette was the first district to do so.
“And we’re one of the last districts doing this; there’s maybe only 10 or 15 now across the whole state that still offer seedling sales,” Petro said.
Bluebird nesting boxes are also available from the conservation district in this year’s sale. The boxes, costing $12 each, come with instructions for placement to attract eastern bluebirds.
To order seedlings, call the Fayette County Conservation District at 724-438-4497 and request an order form. You can also pick up an order form at the District office at 10 Nickman Plaza in Lemont Furnace.
Completed orders and payment must be received by March 19. Seedlings will be available for pickup from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 6 and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 7.
“People seem to love this event and look forward to it every spring,” Petro said. “They tell us they’re glad we still do this.”
Ben Moyer is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and the Outdoor Writers Association of America.