Enjoy, but from a distance. That’s the message from Dorris Ranch in Springfield, where 1,200 sapling hazelnut trees will be planted in February. It’s to make the working farm resistant to a fungus.
George Dorris’s farm was Oregon’s first commercial filbert, or hazelnut, orchard. But the trees are infected with a blight that, if untreated, will kill them. Willamalane has a 20- to 25-year plan to replace most of the trees. Spokesman Kenny Weigandt said the park was closed in January when 19 acres of trees were removed.
He told KLCC, “Once you start to see baby trees starting to pop up, we really are going to ask that people can respect the trees and be cautious of them. Once they’re in the ground, our orchardists and our staff have to really nurse those to make sure that they’re going to be fruitful trees.”
He said the first wave of new trees, planted in 2016, now produces a bountiful crop, and changing the species of filberts also means they won’t need as much chemical treatment. At the request of its board in November, Weigandt said, Willamalane stopped using Class 1 and Class 2 pesticides in the park.
Weigandt said the next wave of tree replacement is likely a few years away, to allow time for this year’s new trees to bear fruit, and to raise funds for the next stage. To maintain its National Historic status, four acres of original trees near the park’s barn will not be replaced.
There's more information on Willamalane's Dorris Ranch page, here.
