David Milarch has offered 2000 Archangel Champion Black Willow trees to help remediate the groundwater pollution discovered in Traverse City, MI. Local 29&8 television reporter Tom Kramer filed a story about the offer.
Milarch has been cloning trees for almost 20 years, first as the Champion Tree Project, now the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, and he says here in northern Michigan, several species of trees are particularly good at getting pollutants out of the ground and away from water supplies.
[pl_blockquote cite=”David Milarch”]We have the national champion black willows on the old state hospital grounds,” says Milarch. “We’ve made tens and tens of thousands of clones of those trees and they are the best fresh water, phytoremediation of heavy metals, dioxins from soil and water and wet areas. For the higher and drier areas, we use the aspens and the cottonwoods.[/pl_blockquote]
I am a consulting forester that is doing a risk assessment on a large black willow that is 65″ dbh…How old would this trees be plus or minus 20 years? The trunk is in good shape..the leaves are healthy ….Thanks Dennis Renken