Ecological Restoration

When the Lake George Land Conservancy establishes a preserve, ecological restoration is often needed to help restore areas of the property to a more natural state and to help re-establish the natural processes that should occur.  Methods that have been employed to assist the restoration include the planting of native trees in former logging landings and gravel pits, hydroseeding the same areas, and controlling invasive plants.

With the help of volunteers and local school groups, native tree seedlings have been planted to help give natural forest succession a boost in areas that have been scarred by past activities.  Tree species that have been planted include eastern hemlock, red oak, green ash, shagbark hickory, and red-osier dogwood.  Once planted, tree tubes are placed over the trees to prevent damage from wildlife, and netting is placed over the tops of the tubes to prevent birds from flying into the tubes.  Without the netting, a bird may fly down into the tubes, but the tubes are not wide enough for the birds to extend their wings and fly out, resulting in the bird being trapped.

With the help of the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, two sites protected by the LGLC, the Gull Bay Preserve and the Cat and Thomas Mountains Preserve, were hydroseeded with seeds of native plants.  These two areas were previously used as gravel pits, and are susceptible to erosion because the ground cover has been removed.  At the recommendation of botanists, a mixture of herbaceous plants (fox sedge, Canada wildrye, switchgrass, Virginia wildrye, and sand lovegrass) were mixed with mulch and lime and sprayed over the bare ground.