That’s nuts: Naturalist organizing planting bee near the Coves

If, from one acorn, a mighty oak can grow, what can a couple of thousand acorns – all from one tree – accomplish?

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Thom McClenaghan and other volunteers hope to find out this Saturday.

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They’ve got about 3,000 acorns and 1,000 hickory nuts to plant at Euston meadows, an area being naturalized and connected to the Coves.

The acorns came from one tree in a yard neighboring McClenaghan’s.

“It’s a marvelous tree and it was loaded with a staggering number of acorns,” he said.

“Last year, there were no acorns anywhere. This year, I’m not sure whether you’d call it a make-up year, but there were tons of them.”

He started collecting early one morning and with his neighbor’s help, gathered “easily” 3,000 acorns, McClenaghan said.

About 1,000 are the highest quality, showing no signs of weaver fly worms that can eat the heart out of an acorn, he said.

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The acorns inspired him to look for more nuts. He went to Front Street where two hickory trees stand on either side of a bike path.

“The ground was covered with hickory nuts. So, I got a pair of grandkids to help me and in the space of an hour, we gathered almost 1,000.”

First as an elementary school principal at Arthur Ford in London and then as a Friends of the Coves leader, McClenaghan built a relationship with Union Gas, now Enbridge, and its green initiative program.

In the past, Enbridge sent him workers and retirees to help plant trees, and it was a phone call from the company in the spring that got him thinking about a big project, McClenaghan said.

Enbridge’s green team in the London office plans to send some volunteers Saturday, said team member and employee David Peeters.

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“We try to beautify parks and work with nature,” he said.

Given the benefits of trees in battling climate change by absorbing and storing greenhouse gases, Londoners should be planting them whenever they can, McClenaghan said.

“We have a serious problem on this planet and it’s solvable by planting trees. We should be planting trees everywhere.”

At Euston meadows, the trees will serve as a screen between the meadow and residences surrounding the area, he said.

The trees would also help bring back wildlife, including meadowlarks and bobolinks.

The meadows are connected by woods at one end to the Coves, an unusual and increasingly popular natural feature of London, McClenaghan said.

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“I’m staggered at the amount of people using the trails in the Coves.”

The Coves is an Upper Thames River Conservation Authority designated environmentally sensitive area that runs between Springbank Drive and Wharncliffe Road. The area contains three ponds, an abandoned oxbow of the Thames River, and steep wooded ravines.

The Coves watershed plan includes rehabilitating the area.

McClenaghan said he’s not sure how many nuts can be planted in a day toward that rehabilitation.

“If we don’t make it all on Saturday, we’ll poke away at it as long as the ground is soft.”

Any leftover acorns or hickory nuts will be delivered to London’s Million Tree Challenge, an effort from ReForest London and the city, McClenaghan said.

Those interested in volunteering can email [email protected].

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Twitter.com/RandyRatLFPress

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