Friday, July 14, 2017

Confirmation of Two New Die-off Sites: Baring and Port Ludlow

Tuesday (July 11th) of this week I visited two new candidate die-off sites:


  • A vacation home's yard outside of Baring, Washington,  about 25 miles west of Stevens Pass.  This is at present a minor site, but interesting due to its location: far from any previously previously reported sites, disconcertingly close to the Cascades.   There are bout 30 dead ferns in a few clusters.  All ferns observed on neighboring properties are healthy.  First observed in 2016.  
  •  A private second growth forest near Port Ludlow, Washingtion, 80 miles west of Baring, 20 miles north of the Kitsap sites documented below.  Extensive die-off along 200 yards of trail.
Though neither of these sites meet the stringent criteria I have previously proposed(400 sq. ft., symmetrical,  high density, formerly uniformly sword fern understory), I judge both to be convincing instances of the die-off we see elsewhere.    

Two Short Videos from Baring



One Longer Video from Port Ludlow



2 comments:

  1. 1. Has anyone tried growing spores or plugs in the contaminated soil? (I have a good supply of spore.)
    2. Have any other polystichums been tested in the soil of the site?
    3. Have any other native ferns been tested there?

    Sue Olsen

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  2. Hi Sue,

    The only experimental plantings we have tried so far are of two sword ferns, three years ago at "Ground Zero" in Seward Park. One of these two nursery-sourced ferns survives and appears healthy.

    David Perasso and Marianne Elliott propose controlled greenhouse experiments (similar to your question #1 above) using soil from ground zero. Perhaps your spores would come in handy there.

    I will be putting in about 150 plants to ground zero before the end of December. I made my selection (generously supplied by the Green Seattle Partnership) before the now-obvious strategy of planting ferns occurred to me. I will see if the Friends of Seward Park can help with the purchase of ferns to go in at the same time.
    I do not know (perhaps you do?) of other polystichum species which are native to the PNW, and thus suitable for Seward Park's old growth forest - we don't want to introduce non-native species if we can help it.

    Thanks for offering these ideas!

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