WILDING IN THE WINDERNESS
Ann Marie Zeller
Our garden in Foxglen is at the bottom of a slope in a good area for gardening, at least as far as Flagstaff gardening goes. Every year in May and June the garden dries out and the fires come. Often giant planes and helicopters fly overhead dropping slurry and water. Our forests are thick and ready to burn so my husband and I decided to get out and have a look at the forest. We took a wilding trip.
A wilding permit allows people to go out onto the National Forest and dig up trees. The permits are available in the fall and spring while the trees are dormant and the ground is not frozen. They may be purchased at the Peaks Ranger Station just past the mall on Marketplace, 5075 Highway 89. The wrong office is located on Thompson, next to the Arizona Daily Sun. It’s an interesting place but still the wrong office.
The office at the Peaks Ranger Station was full of flyers, books, displays and all kinds of information. Wilding permits are $1.00 per tree foot with a minimum purchase of $20.00 or 20 feet of trees. This year Douglas fir, White fir, Ponderosa pine, Pinion pine, juniper, oak, and locust could be dug up. Aspens haven’t been available for four years because they’re having difficulty surviving. Aspens are hard to grow in town anyway.
We checked the permit maps and cross-referenced them with a forest service map. There are several wilding areas. We decided to look at the wilding area near the Arizona Snowbowl. The rules are simple: no digging up trees on private land, stay 100 feet from the main road, fill in your holes, and hand tools only.
The process is more difficult, especially when we wanted to insure every tree’s survival. When we got into the forest, we realized how dense and unhealthy it is. We could have dug up 10,000 small trees and still made no impact. The secret to digging up the trees is to think small. Small trees are easier to dig, plant, and put in the truck. A small fir tree will double in size in four years, quadruple in eight and be quite large in sixteen. We brought two pointed shovels, a large plastic pot, our permit, the forest service map, and the wilding permit information and maps.
We picked a four foot fir on a slope in the rocks. It took us nearly an hour to dig up the little tree. Next, two trees two feet high in a flat area without rocks was much better. We loaded the trees into a large plastic pot and head home.
When planting the trees think big, such as what the trees will look like full size. Calculate the fences. Dig big holes. Place the tree in the middle of the hole and use the soil mark on the trunk as a guide about the depth. Transplants should not have their trunks deeply covered with soil or mulch. With the soil dug from the planting hole, mix one part peat moss for every two parts of soil. This will help the plant retain moisture and keep the soil from compacting too much, allowing the tree’s roots to grow more easily. Finish filling the hole with the soil and peat moss mixture. Periodically tamp the soil with your foot and add water to remove air pockets and pack the soil firmly around the roots. Create a 'saucer' around the edge of the planting by building up a two inch high ridge to prevent water from escaping before it soaks into the ground. Water the new plant well. Allow the water to soak into the ground and ensure that the soil around the planting stays moist. Adequate water supply is essential for the survival of the tree. New trees need water almost every day for the first month or so and then twice a week for the rest of the year. Once established they will survive without being watered.
For a few dollars and a lot of work, we can help the forest thrive and beautify our yards.
Ann Marie Zeller was a winner of the 2010 Garden Competition. Dana Prom Smith, editor of GARDENING ETCETERA, can be reached at stpauls@npgcable.com and blogs at http://highcountrygardener.blogspot.com.
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