March 10, 2006 — The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) and the Ferguson Forest Centre in Kemptville are very pleased to announce receipt of a generous gift of $2,000 from Tree Canada, Canada’s largest tree awareness organization, to continue work on the Regional Butternut Recovery Program.

Butternut is found across southern Ontario in mixed hardwood stands. Although it rarely occupies much of the forest, it adds to the biodiversity. It is an important source of food for wildlife, and adds to the aesthetic and cultural values we obtain from the forest. Butternut is a valuable wood, used by carvers and wood workers. The species is being decimated across its range by a disease called Butternut Canker. Butternut Canker was first described in Wisconsin in 1967, although symptoms have been noted for over 50 years. The canker is an invasive alien fungus which threatens the existence of butternut. In July 2005, it was officially placed on the Endangered Species List by the Canadian Wildlife Service under the Species at Risk Act.

"The efforts of RVCA, the Ferguson Forest Centre, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and other partners in ensuring that the butternut tree remains as part of our eastern Ontario forests is much appreciated", said Jeff Monty, President of Tree Canada. "This donation comes from the generous contributions made by the Canadian public to our "Disappearing Act" campaign for butternut recovery efforts", he added.

The Regional Butternut Recovery Program calls for 2,000 seedlings to be planted this spring on 150 different sites. The intent is to plant small numbers of trees on as many sites as widely separately as possible to get more butternut trees on the landscape. Butternut seed source identification work has plotted over 70 locations where mature butternuts could potentially provide seeds for future seedling production. These sites are all registered in the new "Butternut Geo-Database". At the same time, the search is on for apparently-disease-free butternut trees in the hope that there may be some natural resistance to the fungus already out there.

Dell Hallett, General Manager at RVCA, said "We appreciate Tree Canada’s support for the butternut recovery work in eastern Ontario. Working relationships like these make a big difference to the success of our forest management programs."