{"id":341534,"date":"2021-09-15T18:30:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-humans-and-squirrels-team-up-to-collect-tree-seeds-and-save-the-planet\/"},"modified":"2021-09-15T18:30:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:30:43","slug":"how-humans-and-squirrels-team-up-to-collect-tree-seeds-and-save-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-humans-and-squirrels-team-up-to-collect-tree-seeds-and-save-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"#How humans and squirrels team up to collect tree seeds\u2014and save the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How humans and squirrels team up to collect tree seeds\u2014and save the planet<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Human gatherers of tree seeds are letting beady-eyed, bushy-tailed subcontractors take the lead\n <\/div>\n
\n The forest\u2019s location is secret. Chris McGee, tree seed collector, will permit only disclosure of the nearest town: Dornoch, Ont., 175 km northwest of Toronto. On a clear morning before most have awoken, McGee arrives in the plantation. Rows of red pine trees stand as silent sentinels. A red squirrel high in their branches emits what the naturalist Charles G.D. Roberts described in this magazine in 1930 as \u201ca shrill chr-r-r-r of virulent disapp<\/a>roval.\u201d McGee smiles. He sees the squirrel as an ally and a friend.<\/p>\n

McGee steps over stone fences that date back to before tree-planting converted this field to forest. Pine resin stains his hat brim and tars the mouth of his pail. McGee\u2019s trained ear hears (though a carpet of needles cushions its impact) the plop as each cone cut by a squirrel falls to earth. The rodents \u201csquirrel away,\u201d if you please, the cones in hiding places\u2014which McGee has come here to find.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe red squirrels\u2014those are my workers,\u201d says McGee, who by day is a recruiter in the aerospace industry. \u201cThose are my buddies. I can\u2019t get up an 80-foot pine tree to get those cones. You have to train the eye to see the caches. They are masters of hiding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Seed<\/p>\n

Seed collector Chris McGee out prospecting different types of trees in anticipation for seed picking in the fall on June 25, 2021. (Photo by Carlos Osorio)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

To mitigate climate change, the Trudeau Liberals pledged in 2019 to plant two billion trees in a decade. Trees sequester carbon and thus cool the planet. Enacting this campaign promise will require many tree planters. But tree planters need seedlings, and seedlings grow from seeds. Toiling in anonymity are the resupply forces of reforestation campaigns, the tree seed collectors, and their frequent partners, the red squirrels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the first link in the chain,\u201d says McGee, one of the province\u2019s independent, certified tree seed collectors. The collectors supply seed to tree nurseries<\/a> to grow seedlings. The seedlings then go to tree planters. McGee notes of seed buyers: \u201cIf they don\u2019t get good seed, what are they going to do?\u201d But now, with hotter summers and farmers clearing woodlots, McGee and others warn that seed collection is increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n

Chris and his brother Colin are fourth-\u00adgeneration collectors. Trees produce seed on cycles of up to five years; the brothers succeed because they know where and when to look. Like the squirrels, they are ruthless about keeping secrets. On forms he submits with seeds for payment, Chris leaves blank the space labelled \u201cUTM\/GPS coordinates,\u201d and indicates only the nearest town.<\/p>\n

MORE: The sense of urgency around climate change is trending up<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The McGees\u2019 late uncle Bob, who loved to dole out nicknames, included the squirrels as family and called all squirrels \u201cSid.\u201d The name stuck. \u201cI am hoping Sid has them down at the end,\u201d McGee says as he walks deeper into the forest. \u201cHe has his favourite spot. It\u2019s like an Easter egg hunt. The little kid in us comes out.\u201d (Canadian researchers in a 1987 paper called squirrels \u201cdetrimental to forestry\u201d but hard to control. How should one gather tree seed? \u201cCollecting cones already harvested by squirrels is probably the most practical approach.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Collectors have other tricks. For red and silver maple, they set out during spring in the still air of dawn or dusk, spread tarps under a tree, climb a ladder and bang the branches with a pole. For pea-sized tamarack cones, in August they ascend ladders in mosquito-infested swamps. Collectors check seeds for viability, too; for example, they \u201cfloat\u201d acorns in water. An acorn that floats is infertile. Collectors also scout forests every year in spring and summer to assess tree flowers and gauge future seed crops.<\/p>\n

The job pays poorly and is getting harder. A hotter climate means some years pine cones open and disperse their seeds before the squirrels can cut them, notes Mark McDermid, seed and stock coordinator at the non-profit Forests Ontario. Southern Ontario counts fewer forests, too, laments Paul Richardson, owner of Pineneedle Farms tree nursery in Pontypool, Ont., northeast of Toronto.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Have Guelph\u2019s delightful \u2018fairy doors\u2019 become a\u00a0forest plague?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One spring day, Richardson bought 20 litres of silver maple keys from McGee and planted them the same day. \u201cWithout seed pickers,\u201d he says, \u201cour industry ends.\u201d Asked about Trudeau\u2019s tree-planting promise, he says, \u201cTwo billion trees\u2014it\u2019s a lot.\u201d Adds McGee: \u201cIt\u2019s cool to say, \u2018Let\u2019s plant two billion trees.\u2019 But the collectors are aging.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGee often collects seeds for Forests Ontario, which, with its partners, has planted over 34 million trees across Canada since 2008 and owns about 205 million seeds in cold storage. In his car on the day he visits the pine plantation, McGee carries a Forests Ontario purchase order for seven hectolitres of red pine cones, at $225 per hectolitre (a tight fit in a large potato sack). It\u2019s not much: after five hours, he nets one bucket of cones, worth $40.<\/p>\n

Climate change has buffeted the seed collectors\u2019 workplace, bringing on invasive insects, ticks, drought, volatile weather. Tree planting can mitigate these threats. While McGee applauds the ambition of Trudeau\u2019s planting target, he says the PM \u201cprobably doesn\u2019t understand the challenging nature of collecting the kind of seed that they are going to need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The viability of tree-planting pledges relies on adequate compensation for seed collectors. In this regard we can learn from McGee, who is scrupulous about rewarding his own furry, four-legged subcontractors. Along with buckets and burlap bags to transport cones, McGee carries bags of peanuts, sunflower seeds and \u201cfloated\u201d acorns\u2014not viable as seeds but still tasty to a squirrel. He replaces the cones he takes with other food. \u201cI would never rob from them,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are doing all the work.\u201d
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