SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/134296
Henslow's Sparrows, Bobolinks, and Grasshopper Sparrows to thrive. * Removing exotic plant species to provide opportunities for re-establishment of native plant species. July 1-3, 2013, will signify 150 years since the largest battle ever fought in North America. Over much of that time, historic topographic features and their significance had been lost. As a result, visitors and historians could not fully understand the Battle of Gettysburg. But through their continuing efforts, the staff members at Gettysburg National Military Park (NMP) are undoing the effects of time, and realizing the goals of the NPS to preserve the features that were significant to the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. Because of their work and attention to detail, current and future generations can better understand this historic event. John Kmitta is associate publisher at Green Media, and editor of Landscape and Irrigation magazine and Arbor Age magazine. Green Media editors Eric Schroder and Steve Noe contributed to this piece. Special thanks to the National Park Service and Gettysburg National Military Park for the wealth of background information that made this feature possible, as well as for their special assistance on site at Gettysburg National Military Park. For more information, visit www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm or www.gettysburgfoundation.org/ RANDY KRICHTEN, orchard manager for the Gettysburg National Military Park, poses in front of "The Barn with the Bullet Hole" as it is known to the locals; it also is known as "The Trostle Barn." The hole is just below the diamond-shaped patterns in the brickwork. It was near this barn that General Dan Sickles lost his leg to a Confederate cannonball. — Photo by Eric Schroder Pruning for Historic Appearance As part of the overall battlefield cultural landscape rehabilitation described in the 1999 General Management Plan (GMP), Gettysburg National Military Park (NMP) has been systematically reintroducing orchards into the cultural landscape. A primary goal is to manage the orchards to achieve a historic appearance rather than fruit production. Pruning in these orchards is limited to the removal of dead and diseased wood, crossed branches, and other conditions that threaten the health of the tree. Pest control has been modified to treat only those pests that threaten the health and structural stability of trees. It is believed that these actions will have a positive impact on the historic character and appearance of orchards, and also reduce possible safety concerns for visitors. In 1847, the influential agricultural writer Andrew Jackson Downing published his "Fruits and Fruit Trees of America." This occurred at a time when farmers were taking up commercial orcharding as a vocation more than any other time in American history. During this era, farmers were planting at least a handful of fruit trees for subsistence and/or curiosity. Nearly every farmer on the battlefield had a small orchard of some type. Many of these were for home use, with occasional surpluses being sold at market. Downing believed a lack of pruning helped to promote the longevity of an orchard. He also believed "high heading" the tree canopy kept fruit out of the reach of cattle and swine (Dolan, 2009). During the mid-19th century, most fruit trees had a rounded head, and were un-pruned, with a 4- to 6-foot-high trunk before the first scaffold branches (Dolan, 2009). When several orchards were first being established, Gettysburg NMP began experimenting with pruning techniques to achieve an historic appearance. Staff used historic photographs taken during and after the battle to guide its efforts. Structural pruning begins when the trees are first planted, and this initial www.stma.org pruning begins to establish their mature appearance. The young trees are pruned back to a height of 3 feet. Limbs that are broken and those with narrow crotches are removed, and the scaffold branches are shortened to approximately 15 inches. Reducing the tree's height and shortening the scaffold limbs stiffens the branches so they are able to support the weight of new growth. As the trees grow for the next 5 years or so, they are pruned aggressively in order to train them to have a strong central leader and to set up the structure of the scaffold limbs. The limbs are pruned to remain relatively horizontal to the ground, so they do not interfere with the limbs growing further up the trunk. The trees are pruned to a pyramidal or Christmas tree shape, and as the trees grow, the lower scaffolds are removed and the limbs are pruned to keep them flattened. Again, limbs that are diseased, dead, growing up or down, or growing toward the trunk are removed so they do not interfere with each other. As the trunk is raised to the desired height of 4 to 6 feet, the trees are left to grow naturally, and their appearance takes on a rounded head. At this point, the trees will no longer need to be pruned, and eventually the trees will take on their own characteristics and shapes. The only pruning that will be necessary from this time on is to remove crowded, dead or diseased branches. Sidebar provided by Gettysburg National Military Park and the National Park Service. Resources: Dolan, Susan, A Fruitful Legacy: A Historic Context of Orchards in the United States, with Technical Information for Registering Orchards in the National Historic Register of Historic Places, U.S Government Printing Office, 2009. SportsTurf 29