The Botetourt 4-H Outdoors Skills Club is seeking the community’s help to collect acorns and other nuts to be planted at the Virginia Department of Forestry’s Augusta Forestry Center nursery.
Each year about this time, the VDOF announces its acorn and nut collection program, and this year the 4-H club is helping.
Local property owners, churches and businesses who collect the acorns and nuts from their property can contact the 4-H office at 473-8260 or Ed McCoy at 540-339-0622 and the 4-H club will pick up the nuts. Those who prefer to have youth gather the nuts can arrange that by calling McCoy. The club will collect the nuts on Sunday, Oct. 6. They must be delivered to the nursery by October 17.
The VDOT nursery is seeking 12 species of acorns or nuts to plant at the Augusta Forestry Center. Eventually, the acorns collected by Virginians will grow into seedlings and become future forests.
Although gathering acorns seems like a simple task, it is greatly helpful to the department because some species are more difficult to find near the Augusta Forestry Center and it is expensive to purchase the acorns, according to the VDOF.
“Each year we ask Virginia landowners to collect acorns so that we can use them for planting hardwood trees in our nursery,” Assistant Forestry Center Manager Joshua McLaughlin said. “By next year, those acorns will have grown into seedlings that landowners across the state can then purchase to plant on their property.”
This year, the tree nursery needs 12 species of acorns:
- black oak,
- black walnut,
- Chinese chestnut,
- chestnut oak,
- Northern red oak,
- pin oak,
- sawtooth oak,
- Southern red oak,
- swamp chestnut oak,
- swamp white oak,
- white oak
- willow oak.
Collection tips
September and October are the best months to collect acorns.
The Virginia Department of Forestry suggests looking for acorns in open yards and parking lots rather than heavily wooded areas. Not only is it easier to pick up the nuts in these cleared areas, but it is also easier to identify their species. It does not matter if the nuts have caps on them. Acorns and nuts can be raked up for easier collection.
Identification
When identifying the species, it can be helpful to look at the acorn’s stem and leaf if attached. The Virginia Department of Forestry also offers a chart with identification information on their website at http://www.dof.virginia.gov/tree/acorn-descriptions.htm.
If you are still unsure about the acorn species, you can contact Joshua MacLaughlin at the Augusta Forestry Center, 540-363-7000.
Storage
Keep the nuts in a breathable, non-plastic bag or sack with minimal debris, like leaves or sticks. The department requests that donators label the bag with the species of acorn and the date of collection. Before dropping your acorns off, store the bag in a cool area, like a fridge or basement.
Drop-off
Those who collect nuts may also drop them off at the Botetourt County Extension Service Office in Fincastle by Friday, Oct. 4 at noon or contact McCoy.
