In search of the elusive butternut

Jeff Green | Sep 08, 2011

Photo: Doug Lee, Kevin Hanse and Steve Pitt, harvesting Butternuts.

Well, not that elusive on this day.

Kevin Hansen and Steve Pitt have been working on the Butternut Recovery Project for several years and part of the project involves collecting seed from healthy trees. The project is sponsored by the Forest Gene Conservation Association

Butternut trees have been hit with a canker that has decimated the butternuts in the northern United States and has moved into Ontario in recent years, infecting up to 95% of the butternut stock. While there is no cure for the canker, some trees seem to have a resistance to it and manage to survive while others wither and die.

Through the Butternut Recovery Project, landowners who have butternut trees on their property have been asked to contact Kevin Hansen, who will come out and look at the trees, determine if they are infected, and enter them in a database.

He also contacts the landowners to see if any of their trees, whether they are infected or not, are producing butternuts in a given year. If they are, he comes out and collects the nuts in order to plant them and build up a stock of seedlings for planting later on.

The hope is that by planting as many butternuts as possible, the tree stock may be able to get ahead of the canker.

Doug Lee, of Godfrey, is one landowner who contacted the Butternut Recovery Project. There are about 100 butternut trees on the various farm properties owned by Lee’s family, and some of them are in pretty good shape. This year, about five of Lee’s butternut trees produced seed, and two of them were pretty well laden.

So, bright and early on September 6, Steve Pitt, who is the stewardship co-ordinator for the Lennox and Addington Stewardship Council in addition to working on the Butternut Recovery Project, and Kevin Hansen, met up with Doug Lee at his property off the Ball Road.

Armed with some pails, bags, and extension poles that are normally used for pruning taller trees, the men headed over to a nearby butternut, which, although stunted because it is basically growing out of a rock, is still in an open spot and producing seed. It also shows little if any sign of the canker.

Doug Lee was wearing a construction hat. We soon found out why.

We were all full of advice for Steve Pitt, who was wielding the pole, as to where he should be hitting the branches to knock the still-ripening butternuts off.

The thing is, when you are looking up, your face is exposed, and a butternut falling from 30 feet up gains a fair bit of momentum. We quickly realised it was better to face the ground and listen for falling butternuts as we scrambled to find them among the leaves, rocks and debris in the vicinity of the tree. But that still left the tops of our heads exposed. Better a hard hat than a soft head

The second tree was older, taller, and also in pretty good shape. It was also full of nuts.

After a couple of hours of knocking and climbing and gathering, a full bag and a large pail of butternuts were gathered, which Steve Pitt estimated to be about 750 butternuts.

“This year has been better than the last couple of years for nut production, a lot better,” said Steve Pitt. “We would be lucky to fill half a small pail at some locations last year.”

Pitt said that a sample of the nuts would be sent to a facility in Sioux St. Marie, where they will be tested to make sure they are pure butternuts, and not crossed with walnut or some other similar species, though he said that was not likely, given the location of the trees in this case.

The nuts will be planted in a nursery within a couple of weeks, and the seedlings will be left to grow for about 2 years before they will be transplanted to locations in Frontenac and L &A County.

Anyone with butternuts should contact Kevin Hansen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 613-449-0732