Trout stocking workshops to take place March 31

PARIS — Each year the Oxford County Soil and Water Conservation District offers a Native Conservation Plant Sale of evergreen seedlings, trees, shrubs, ferns, vines, groundcovers and perennials. The proceeds of this sale support the programming offered by the Conservation District in Oxford County.

Conifers (evergreens) are beautiful trees that also provide valuable timber and windbreaks, while staying green throughout the year. All species will be offered in groups of 10 and will be bare rootstock, needing to be planted quickly. The conifers included in this year’s sale include Fraser fir and balsam fir, Colorado blue spruce, Norway spruce and white spruce, Canadian hemlock and white pine.

This year the Native Conservation Plant Sale has been aligned with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension bulletin no. 2500, “Gardening to Conserve Maine’s Native Landscape: Plants to Use and Plants to Avoid.” All of the plants included in the sale are considered “native.”

Native flowering plants include columbine, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bloodroot and Jacob’s ladder; perennial ferns include hay-scented fern, marginal wood fern and interrupted fern; vines and ground covers include bearberry, trailing arbutus, lowbush blueberry and cranberry; shrubs include redosier dogwood, pussy willow and witherod; and trees include black gum, American hophornbeam and northern red oak. In all, a total of more than 90 native plants are being offered.

This year the annual trout sale will offer brook, brown and rainbow trout to those with private ponds. A permit from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is needed. This year all deliveries of fish will be made directly to the ponds by Shy Beaver Hatchery.

The OCSWCD is also offering two workshops, both on Saturday, March 31. A farm pond construction workshop and a trout stocking workshop will each begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Oxford County Extension Office in South Paris. Candace Gilpatrick, an engineer with the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and Sonny Pierce of Shy Beaver Hatchery will lead these events. There will be a fee of $5 per workshop, which includes snacks, beverages and lunch; preregistration is preferred but not required.

The deadline for all sales will be April 30. All sale forms may be picked up at the office at 17 Olson Road, Suite 3, can be downloaded from the website, www.oxfordswcd.net, or requested by emailing jean.federico@me.nacdnet.net. For information call 743-5789, ext. 111.

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