Applied Ecological Services, Inc.
Wisconsin Office
17921 Smith Road,
P. O. Box 256
Brodhead, WI 53520
Phone: 608.897.8641
Voicemail: 608.897.4898
AES Fax: 608.897.8486
TCRN Fax: 608.897.2044
Info@AppliedEco.com

Illinois Office
120 West Main St
W. Dundee, IL 60118
Phone: 847.844.9385
Fax: 847.844.8759

Kansas City Office
1904 Elm Street
Eudora, KS 66025
Phone 785.542.3090
Fax 785.542.3570

Minnesota Office
21938 Mushtown Rd
Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone: 952.447.1919
Fax: 952.447.1920

East Coast Office
1100 E. Hector Street Suite #398
Conshohocken, PA 19428
Phone: 610.238.9088

Giving back to the soil

In recent years, mycorrhizal fungi have been the talk of the conservation and restoration community because when present in the soil, mycorrhizae helps produce healthier plants. The fungi exist in nature but are considerably depleted today in restoration sites where soils have been disturbed. Commercial nurseries have tapped into the benefits of mycorrhizae in recent years to increase plant and tree sales. Last year, AES and its sister company, Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries, conducted cutting-edge experiments testing the effects of mycorrhizae on native plants looking beyond dollar value to the ecological value these famous fungi could bring back to the land and its plant, animal and insect communities. The dirt on mycorrhizae: "Mycorrhizal fungi form a mutually symbiotic relationship with plants, obtaining food (sugar) from the plant by attaching to and penetrating the root structure while at the same time aiding the plant in the uptake of water and nutrients. The fungus acts as additional root hairs, actually extending the root structure of the plant sometimes for miles, in the wild," explained Taylor Creek Nursery Manager Corrine Daniels. Some of the claimed benefits of mycorrhizae include increased plant growth and vigor, increased flowering and yield, as well as increased transplant survivability. Certain species of mycorrhizal fungi even help to ward off disease. Taylor Creek started incorporating mycorrhizae in their containerized plant production last summer, having purchased the fungal inoculate in granular form at an initial investment of $2,000. The greenhouse experiment, being conducted by Greenhouse Manager Tara Hering, includes a control group, a mycorrhizae group, a slow-release fertilizer group, and a mycorrhizae mixed with slow-release fertilizer group as the treatments, with wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium) as the species. "We decided to try the mycorrhizae in potted plant materials, not only to get a higher quality plant, but also to improve the quality of our restoration work," said Hering, who holds a master's degree in plant and soil science. Although she is still completing statistical analysis of the experiment, she has seen definite differences between the treatments. "The control group has been the least healthy of all the treatments, and the groups receiving fertilizer appear healthiest," she commented. Although both groups treated with fertilizer bloomed and produced seed, those groups treated with both mycorrhizal fungi and fertilizer yielded twice as much seed as those groups treated with fertilizer only.	Taylor Creek's Shannon Flaherty, off-site seed collection coordinator, transplants native species for one of their largest endeavors to date the Chicago Botanic Garden project.
"Now, we have finished the greenhouse stage of the experiment and have moved those plants into the ground. We are going to monitor seed production and plant survivability/establishment over a period of two to three years. We will experiment with different species this year, too," said Hering. "Basically, we want to document if we've produced a more vigorous plant. Even now, there is a huge difference in the plants you walk out there and it's very striking." The "whole company" symbiosis: In addition to the nursery experiment, AES has assisted with an experiment testing the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi in prairie restoration. At their Kankakee Sands Field Station, AES provided seed and assistance in a study conducted by Indiana University post-doctoral student Peggy Schultz, investigating the influence of mycorrhizal fungi on the establishment of different prairie species. Schultz also collaborated with others at Argonne National Laboratory and the Morton Arboretum in a similar study funded by the Chicago Wilderness Society that produced some very interesting results. "From the study results, you could infer that there is a suite of fungi in prairie remnants that is more beneficial to later successional plant species, and that the less diverse suite of fungi found in disturbed sites, such as old fields, aren't as beneficial to the later successional, more conservative species," said AES Ecologist Bill Stoll. "Therefore, mycorrhizal fungi may play an important role in restoring high quality, diverse prairie communities." Stoll himself conducted significant research on mycorrhizae in his master's degree program at San Francisco State University, which comes in handy in his role as ecological advisor to the Taylor Creek nursery experiment. In the mid-90s, Stoll studied the mycorrhizae in western montane coniferous forests; specifically, the lodgepole pine forest at Yellowstone National Park. His research there documented that some fungal species previously not considered to be mycorrhizal were, in fact, mycorrhizal _ and as such, were contributing to the re-establishment of young lodgepole pine forests following the 1988 Yellowstone wildfires.
Taylor Creek evolving as a plant supplier: Through their continuing experimentation with mycorrhizae and other cutting-edge methods, AES and Taylor Creek aim to produce the best quality native plants _ and, ultimately, the widest diversity of native species available. "Our goal is to supply nearly a million plants over the next year," said Jack Broughton, marketing manager for AES/Taylor Creek. "Because we have invested in our capability to create really high quality native plants and to grow-out large numbers of plants, we're evolving from just a seed nursery into a large-volume seed and plant supplier." "We've become a one-stop plant shop, instead of customers having to get some species here and others there," added Corrine Daniels. "And because we do the actual restorations ourselves, we grow things here that aren't just `showy,' we grow things that have other value ecological value instead of just aesthetic value. Our motivation is a bit different than most." And that, according to Broughton, also offers design opportunities for their clients. "When AES designs a restoration from an ecological systems approach, you can get 250 native species in that restoration, because we have the species available at Taylor Creek. So, customers enjoy much greater bio-diversity from an AES project because, first of all, our ecological consultants are knowledgeable about the plants; and secondly, our own nursery is growing them right here." AES and Taylor Creek's commitment to quality and quantity recently earned them one of their largest projects: planting the shoreline of the lagoons at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, a six-mile project for which Taylor Creek is supplying 40,000 native plants and AES is providing the installation services. "The bid went out to all the landscape contractors in the area and we won, partly because we grow the plants ourselves. Our contracting division can offer high quality, diversity and lower cost because we do the nursery work internally," Broughton concluded.

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