New trees

Thanks to a grant the BioWorks Butterfly Garden will be getting 12 new trees, mostly Dahoon Holly (Ilex cassine) to replace a number of Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera) that have been slowly failing over the last few years.

To be ready for the big tree planting this Saturday, Florida's Arbor Day, meant that we had to remove the remaining eight Wax Myrtle trees. Removing 12 year old trees, even if they are half dead, either requires a great deal of digging or one very big truck. We choose the latter option.

One of our fabulous museum donors, TJ Couch, donated the services of his fairly remarkable restored military vehicle: a Kaiser-Jeep M35A2 6x6 2 1/2 ton cargo truck, affectionately known worldwide as the "deuce and a half". Mr Couch and his great big snarly vehicle made short work of the sickly trees.

Check out this spectacular video that shows the ease with which this truck can dislodge and move a tree. The wee human wandering through the frame is me (at about 5' tall for purposes of scale).


The video quality may not be fantastic, but it certainly gets the point across.

Come on out on this Saturday, January 10th 2009, to celebrate Florida's Arbor Day and help us plant some trees. 12 trees will be going into the grounds next to the BioWorks Butterfly Garden and a whole lot more will be planted in our forest preserve. Check out this link to The Longleaf for more information about Florida's Arbor Day celebration at MOSI and how you can volunteer to help.