This hobby is very fulfilling; planting the trees or sending them away with customers to be planted, knowing that I have made a tiny contribution to the replanting of trees on our depleted earth. It is not, however, without its setbacks large and small. During the winter of 2020/21, a vole, or likely many voles had taken up residence under a seemingly perfect protection of thick snow, feasting on the tiny trunks and roots through a complex tunnel network. Upon discovery in March 2021 as the snow level receded, I learned half of my trees (about 500) were unsalvageable and only 5% were unscathed. After much soul searching in the weeks following the devastation caused by the voles, my passion for trees coupled with the importance of the mission convinced me that I must keep going, even in the face of adversity to make this earthly contribution however small it may be. Further encouragement came from witnessing the incredible resilience and determination that a tree has to survive. Those with unaffected roots revealed hidden buds below the injury, sprouting new stems that shot up at incredible speed. After a few months and some pruning, most of the salvageable trees had returned to their vigorous selves.
I find it very interesting to observe the natural environment around my property. Especially the re-establishment of an ecosystem that had been essentially reduced to a barren wasteland after developing the property back in 2017. That year there was barely a tweet to be heard when roaming the grounds and now, 4 years later, there is a rich diversity of wildlife grappling for their niche in the environment, sometimes to the detriment of the tree nursery. If 2019 and 2020 were the years of the white-marked tussock moth caterpillar infestation that partially defoliated countless trees, 2021 was the year for the vole and the slug. Two slug species’ populations exploded in my yard aided by the wet summer and left unchecked by the absence of predators. They were a menace, consuming large parts of my seedlings under the veil of night. My old, dilapidated greenhouse was a magnet for them devouring seedling after seedling upon the benches. It seemed miraculous that they could quickly appear and get up there in the first place. It became such a problem that I would go out late each night with a flashlight and purge countless dozens. Despite the damage they caused it was interesting to observe and learn about their behaviour. This has enabled me to employ new methods for next year that should reduce the amount of damage.
It was time to close the nursery for the winter and put my new vole deterring theories into practice. Apparently, they don’t like to climb but prefer to stay close to the ground. The perimeter of the enclosure was wrapped in 24-inch-high hardware cloth buried 6 inches into the ground and then wrapped again with plastic. Multiple traps were set throughout the enclosure. A moat of compact stones was installed to prevent burrowing under and just in case this was not enough each sapling was wrapped in a DIY cage. I was so determined to avoid a repeat of winter 2021 but I realized this was not a sustainable preventative measure as the individual cages were far too labour intensive. During winter, it would also be imperative to keep shoveling a path all the way around as deep snow would enable the voles to breach the enclosure across the snow surface.
My wife often teases me about how untechy I am and why I’m more suited to the great outdoors. This teasing did not however deter me from undertaking a digital project that was not my forte. Tenacity, on the other hand, is a great strength of mine and I felt confident that this would be enough to see it through. And so www.treadwelltrees.ca was born in March 2022 after 4 months of navigating the steepest learning curve of my life. I knew I had to build the website myself because I wanted to have the creative control and know-how to make frequent modifications without the hassle and expensive fees of hiring a web designer. My main objective was to design a feature that allowed customers to search by attributes to find the perfect tree to suit their requirements. For each species these numerous attributes included height, longevity, sun requirements, salt tolerance and many, many more. Each species took an entire evening to research and there were 80 plus species in my inventory. I developed several logo designs before finally deciding on the one below. Needless to say, it was a colossal undertaking, but the finished product was well worth it. There is the odd minor glitch that I can’t resolve but overall I am really proud of the result.
