New Trees planted near Magothy Bay

Friend and sometime contributor David Boyd sent this notice via email:

DCR recently acquired a 55 acre field off Latimer Siding as an addition to the Magothy Bay Preserve, as you are likely aware. Today I was part of a group of about 20 people who did a large scale planting in that field to provide increased habitat for migrating songbirds, among other things. This morning a truck loaded with 1100 wax myrtle shrubs in 3 gallon containers arrived at the site. We unloaded them onto DCR trailers and the group spent the entire day planting them. While there are still some that remain to be planted, we managed to plant approximately 700 wax myrtles, just today!!! That’s 10 rows of plants spaced on 40 foot centers for a distance of 0.6 miles. Essentially, rows of wax myrtles for nearly as far as the eye can see. As these shrubs grow and mature, and other plants are added by the bird droppings of neotropicals and other birds using these wax myrtles, this is going to be a fantastic addition to the habitat down near the southern tip of the peninsula. There are also going to be some willow, white, pin and scarlet oaks planted there as well. 

The planting area is in a 55 acre field that is bounded to the west by Route 13, to the south by Latimer Siding Road and to the east by Seaside Road. The full-length rows are about 6 tenths of a mile long and there is a wax myrtle planted every 40 feet, with an occasional oak thrown in for good measure.

About 700 of the wax myrtles were planted this past Tuesday and there are another 400 still to plant for a total of 1100 wax myrtles. Not nearly as many oaks, maybe a hundred or two will be planted, but they will be substantially bigger.

Along with members of DCR, the Eastern Shore Master Naturalists provided much of the labor for the planting.