The 1996 spring field days are upon us! See the announcements for the Fillmore R. Park Nut Grove Spring Field Day, The Oak Valley Plantation Spring Field Day, and the Dolman Ridge Plantations Spring Field Day.
In the Projects Section there are four items to note. A nut dyers Workshop is in the offing. A possibility of unbeknownst 150 butternuts planted in the 1950s along the Dolman Ridge. An opportunity for nut plantings along MacKay Lake in Rockcliffe. Lastly, maybe a Nut Tree Tour in the eastern reaches of Eastern Ontario this fall.
Lots of news to report. On the AGM; about ECSONG winning the RVCF's coveted Earth Day Conservation Award 1996; about the Urban Forest Workshop; about new developments toward a Canadian Oak Crops Industry; about ECSONG experiences exhibiting at the Ottawa Spring Home Show; about interplanting of black walnuts and spruce; about urban nut grove possibilities on Smyth Road; and lastly about butternuts by the National Defence Medical Centre.
The Nut Grower has been busy. Consider soil temperature and growth rate. Reconsider walnut toxicity problems. Consider $1400/tonne for mixed oak leaves and acorns.
Consider estimating the 1996 nut crop for Eastern Ontario. Consider developments in the nut hulling business. Consider salvaging your doomed butternuts. And consider the latest techniques in squirrel barricading.
Look over the Marketplace, review the ECSONG 1996/97 Calendar of meetings and events, and mark your calendar, check the member list for friends and neighbours you should be nut culturing with, and note the brochure and dues form that you can use to recruit new members!
See you at the spring field days!
FRP Nut Grove Spring Field Day
The activities at the Fillmore R. Park Nut Grove in the Baxter Conservation Area begin at the ECSONG annual general meeting on the third Saturday in March. At the AGM, which has been held in the McManus Interpretive Centre at Baxter for many years, many attendees take a few minutes at the lunch break to walk to the nut grove. This look-see helps plan the activities for the Spring Field, wherein any winter damage is usually take care of.
This year's FRP Nut Grove, schedule as is usual, for the first Saturday may, this year falling on May 4, 1996. The day begins at about 10:00 AM and wraps up about 3:00 PM. Pruning and mulching are important activities. Also, pushing back the surrounding bush is also tackled. Everyone is welcome to the field day, which is a grand opportunity to get hand-on experience with nut culture. The nursery at FRP is largely devoted to starting trees for RVCA projects, but the rapidly growing interest in nut growing in this region (witness the unexpected interest shown at ECSONG exhibits at the Ottawa Spring Home Show, and the Urban Forest Workshop) suggests that a place for nut seedlings might again be needed.
The FRP Nut Grove Liaison Committee (Cliff Craig, chair, and members Alec Jones, Allan Gillis, Jim Ellis, Dave Johnstone, Mark Schaefer and Ted Cormier) reports that it expects a visit by the students of the KCAT Agro-forestry Course under the direction of Dave Chapeskie of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). The Committee is also planning its Fall Field Day for Saturday, 14 September 1996, will also provide grove tours for Envirofest II.
For the Spring Field Day, bring your lunch and drinks, and shovels, pruners, rakes so you can pitch. Bring your family, friends and neighbours. Everyone is welcome! For more information, call Cliff Craig.
The Oak Valley Plantation, a joint project between ECSONG and the South Nation River Conservation Authority (SNRCA), plans a major spring field day this year on Saturday, May 18, 1996. The Liaison Committee, including Dr Ralph McKendry chair, and members Dr George Truscott, Ernie Kerr, Irene Woolford and Josée Brizard of the SNRCA, invite everyone to come and bring their family, friends and neighbours. The highlight of the day will be the planting of many new seedlings and nut seeds. Tours through the site will be conducted. The latest stratification, germination and nutnursery techniques (including carpet mulches) will be pointed out in the Truscott Nursery on the site.
You will see and hear about the Pioneer Homesteads Memorial Park, co-located with the plantation, which will be officially opened later this year in a special ceremony slated for Wednesday, June 19, 1996 , at 7:00 PM. Six memorial plaques are already being prepared and will be placed shortly. The park is a joint project with ECSONG, SNRCA and the Eastern Valley Heritage Foundation The site Historian is Clarence Cross. If your ancestors pioneered in the Oak Valley region, consider sponsoring a plaque in their memory.
The Oak Valley Spring Field Day begins at 9:30 AM (come then or later), and will end by mid-afternoon. Bring along a lunch and refreshments. Also bring along your gardening tools (wheelbarrows and big baskets most welcome), as you will get the opportunity to test your knowledge of nut culture in planting, caring and pruning under the guidance of experts. For more information, call Ralph or any liaison committee member.
Dolman Ridge Plantations Spring Field Day
As the Dolman Ridge Plantations Liaison Committee (Steve Palmer chair, with members from the NCC, MNR, Canadian Chestnut Council, Moe Anderson, and Mark Schaefer) gets its 1996 season underway, the $1000 grant from the Eastern Ontario Model Forest to release the American Chestnuts and the other nut trees in their vicinity has accomplished its task. Ted Cormier has completed this work already! The site consequently looks very good.
The spring field for the Plantations will take place on Saturday, June 8, 1996, starting at 9:30 AM. A walking tour is being planned that will take visitors through the major plantations on the site. We will be examining black walnut, butternut, bitternuts, shagbark, horsechestnut, American chestnut, red oak, bur oak, nut pines, and possibly other species. Some time will be spent on the butternut canker issue as the site show extreme damage. Visitors will be invited to volunteer to be trained as canker police, and then to cruise the region spotting, examining and documenting canker instances. But more so , to be able to detect in sick sites trees that are either unaffected (possibly resistant, or just not yet infected) and trees that show recovery from the illness (clearly resistant to the canker). With many people on the prowl, more of the resistant trees will be found sooner, and their propagation can proceed posthaste. Consequently, butternuts in this region may be on the mend much sooner.
Everyone is welcome top the Dolman Ridge Plantations Spring Field Day. Bring your family, friends and neighbours. Bring your field tree guide, your camera and your camcorder. Also, bring a lunch and drinks. There are facilities, and a lovely picnic area.
The program will wrap up mid-afternoon. For more information, contact Steve Palmer or Ted Cormier. See you all at Dolman Ridge!
The 19th AGM of ECSONG was held in the McManus Interpretive Center at the Baxter Conservation Area, hosted by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority.
A new slate of Officers for ECSONG's 1996/97 year was elected. Dr Ralph McKendry turned over the chair to Len Collett. Ralph's two years as chair ensured ECSONG burst into the limelight, as we are now entertaining many offers to participate in major public events. The general public is thus becoming rapidly aware of the many benefits of planting nut trees. On behalf of the membership, The Nuttery thanks Ralph for his energetic and wise leadership.
ECSONG thanks Len Collett for his accomplishments as vice-chair over the last two years, and offers him its congratulations on his election as chair. We foresee that the plateaus reached by Ralph will be consolidated, and that Len will be opening more, and new, vistas for the Society in the year to come.
Congratulations to Ted Cormier on his election to vice-chair of ECSONG for 1996/97. Ted is one of Canada's premier nutseed collectors, and the owner of The Seed Source in Oxford Mills, Ontario. Ted and his spouse Isabelle were the recipients of ECSONG's 1996 Achievement Award. Ted accomplishment were also noted in an article in Issue 34, March, 1996 of the Forestry Forum, the newsletter of the Eastern Ontario Model Forest.
ECSONG is both pleased and honoured to have Art Read re-elected to the position of Treasurer, as he is the best treasurer we have ever had! And to have Dr George Truscott reelected as Secretary, as his meeting minutes, inter alia, are accurate, precise and wonderful prose to boot!
Thanks again to last year's executive, and congratulations to our new officers.
Guy Lefebvre of Source Wood Products of Cornwall dazzled everyone by producing a bag of butternuts that had been harvested about 35 years ago and kept in their shells all this time. He will be doing germination tests on the nuts. But... he also offered some for taste-testing. Believe or not, the nuts were still edible! Though clearly not fresh, the flavour and texture were only slightly off, and there was no hint of mould or decay in the kernel. And, surprisingly, there had been no special storage program for these nuts, except to have been kept in the shell.
ECSONG was pleased to have Pam Smith-Hlady give the annual lecture at this AGM on the subject of stratification dos-and-donts. The presentation showed the very high level of skill, experience and knowledge Pam has at her fingertips. Everyone attending learned a great deal about successful stratification techniques and we believe is it true that ECSONG took a quantum leap forward in its collective knowledge of this vital step in the propagation of nut trees. Our sincerest thanks to Pam for giving her precious time to teach us!
The Rideau Valley Conservation Foundation (RVCF) chose this year to gives its coveted Earth Day Conservation Award to ECSONG for its long term, dedicated efforts in re-establishing nut trees to their former prominence throughout Eastern Ontario, and to combine this goal with creating a thriving agriculture around nut trees to provide locally grown nuts to the table.
The award was presented to Len Collett, ECSONG chair by Mary Ellen Morris, chair RVCF at the Earth Day Concert held at the Gloucester High School on Friday, April 19, 1996. The MC for the evening, John Lacharity of CBO radio, described the award and ECSONG activities. He specially noted the key roles played by Fillmore Ronald Park and Alec Cobden Jones in launching the chapter. He mentioned the Fillmore R. Park Nut Grove, of which the RVCA is specially proud, the Oak Valley Plantation, and the Dolman Ridge Plantations as landmarks in conservation and restoration of nut trees in Eastern Ontario.
ECSONG is particularly proud to have been singled out by the RVCF for this award.
Trees certainly are second class citizens in modern North American cities, and Ottawa is no exception, though we do have more trees than most.
On Saturday, April 20, 1996, the Urban Forest Citizens Committee hosted a one day workshop in Ottawa City Hall to explore improving the tree cover of Ottawa. ECSONG was present as an exhibitor, sharing space with the Eastern Ontario Model Forest. Besides seeing many members of ECSONG, including Alec and Kathleen Jones, Hank Jones, Ralph McKendry, Mark Schaefer and Iola Price, exhibitors spoke many participants about the value of nut trees in the urban setting. Hopefully, such events as this workshop will improve the urban tree situation, and nut trees will continue to play an expanding and prominent role in the urban forest.
The discussion about the possibility of harvesting natural acorns in Eastern Ontario to produce high-valued commercial products continues to expand.
The other species of nuts could well be included in any oak crops industry because the techniques of processing these other species is not much different from handling acorns. A proposal to plan such an industry has been drawn up by Cobjon Enterprises Inc of Ottawa, and is now receiving reading by both the federal and provincial governments. All things being equal, this work may get underway this year. For more information, contact Hank Jones at Cobjon 723-9648
ECSONG's most successful exhibition so far was undoubtedly its booth in the Ottawa Spring Home Show held at Lansdowne Park over the Easter weekend, the 5th through 8th of April, 1996.
Exhibitors Ted and Isabelle Cormier, Hank Jones, Terry McEvoy, Alex Mucha and Ernie Kerr shared the 38 hours of exhibiting required by the show. Some 40,000 people attended, most passed by our booth, and many stopped to talk about their own experiences and interests in nuts. Quite a few visitors reminisced about happy childhood experiences with butternuts in particular, and wondered where all the trees had gone. We had a sack of butternuts and big nut cracker, so we took those folks for a trip down memory lane!
We learned a great deal ourselves about local nuts from our visitors. One told about gardening successfully under black walnuts by simply using raised beds. Apparently not only does the gardener gets the longer growing season associated with raised beds, but no juglone seems to reach the plants. Everything grew beautifully! Another visitor told about as a child eating hickories found growing in a big ravine well up into the Gatineau Hills north of Ottawa Hull. They were most certainly bitternuts, but they were not eaten right after harvest but stored for a year beforehand. Could the bitterness dissipate with time in storage? Many people as it turned out were owners of nut and proud of it! Many gave us their names so we could follow up in the fall to harvest their crops.
We handed out hundreds of brochures and other literature. All-in-all, the show was a tremendous success for us, and our booth staff had a wonderful (but exhausting) time of it! We will likely be invited back for the next show - we should definitely go.
Ralph McKendry reports that stock from the Oak Valley nursery has been successfully interplanted amongst spruces in riparian settings in the region. The South Nation River Conservation Authority (SNRCA) has been planting spruces in abandoned areas of their property for some time. Not all the trees survive, so openings appear. Black walnuts have been planted in some of these openings, rather try to replant spruce. The experiment has been successful enough that this strategy will continue. The Oak Valley nursery can expect to continue supplying black walnuts for this purpose for some time to come.
Nut Planting Opportunity in Alta Vista
The Faircrest Community Association is working on a ambitious program to plant trees on a piece of National Capital Commission (NCC) land bounded by Lynda Lane, Billings Avenue and Smyth Road. While the details are being worked out, the Association is undertaking a nursery in the Robert Andrew Russell Park on Billings Avenue in preparation. The organizers, including Joyce Wright (731-8521) and Joanne Frembd (733-8084) are asking for help with nut trees and shrubs for the nursery. Members who have an interest in this area and the project should get in touch with Joanne.
Butternuts on Alta Vista behind the CDA Building
At the Urban Forest Workshop (see the article elsewhere in this issue), The Nuttery had an opportunity over lunch to talk with Joanne Frembd (733-8084) about butternuts in the city. Joanne noted that there are a number of butternuts along the path that goes behind the Canadian Dental Association building on Alta Vista near Smyth Road. This paved path traverses a wooded, natural area along a creek on the edge of the National Defence Medical Centre grounds. The butternut trees are in the woods there.
Joanne invites members to take a walk through the area to locate the trees, which could then be examined for canker and or for the 1996 crop forecast.
Our thanks to Joanne for bringing this site to our attention.
Soil Temperature and plant growth
In our northern regions soil temperature is important in growth and ripening. Even a small increase in temperature can make a significant difference. Besides the usual factors such as slope and aspect, shelter from wind and mulches can increase the temperature by a few degrees. Darker mulches are preferred over light coloured mulches. Perhaps ECSONG should look into this matter to test the effects of various mulches on both growth and ripening.
What price acorns and oak leaves?
In Asia, the antler of elk and deer are valued as medicine, specially the velvet. Prices can reach $700 Cdn per kilogram. In South Korea, Mr Ryu and his wife manage 20 elk on 0.64 acres (or 800 pyong) in Taegeon, about 150 kilometers from Seoul, as reported in an article by Bill Strautman in the April 2, 1996 issue of the Grainews. The Ryu's gross about $100,000 per year from the operation. His land cost $1000 per pyong (there are 1250 pyong per acre). In the summer, he gathers brush and leaves from the surrounding area to feed the animals. In the winter this is not possible, so he buys oak leaves and acorns from North Korea and China for $1400 per tonne ($1.40 per kilogram). Each animal eats about a tonne each of the leaves and the acorns per winter.
As the 1996 nut growing season gets started here in Eastern Ontario, what size of crop might we expect come the fall? The Nuttery wants to find out, so it is asking members to watch their trees, and those of their neighbourhoods as well, as the summer unfolds. As the seasons progress, note the flowering, then the seed set, and the maturing of the nuts. Determine the numbers and species of the trees. Try to make a crop estimate, say in units such as bushels, or in numbers of nuts, on each tree. Remember, even no crop is a crop estimate. When you are reasonably sure about the set and the likely harvest, send the data to the Nuttery. Include your name, approximate tree locations and the date along with your estimates. You can phone 998-8917 in Ottawa if there is little to report, or fax your data to 993-8528, send by letter to The Nuttery, c/o Cobjon Enterprises Inc., PO Box1349, Station B, 59 Sparks St, Ottawa K1P 5R4.
The data will be compiled with the help of Cobjon Enterprises Inc, and the results reported in the next issue of The Nuttery in September, 1996.
Alcon's nut processing services
Alcon, the company that provides nut hulling services to nut growers and harvesters in the eastern Ontario region, has begun an R&D program to expand this service.
The R&D program will develop a Canadian designed and made hand-nutcracker for sale, probably before the summer. The possibility of an hydraulic cracker device is under investigation. Also, a continuous, motor-driven cracker will be developed.
The program will finalize the design of the third generation nut huller and build a commercial model. A larger huller is being considered that would run off a farm tractor's PTO. A hulled-nut washer and drier will be built that will complement the hulling machines to deliver thoroughly clean and dry nuts for bagging.
It is planned that some of these pieces of equipment will be ready this fall in time for the harvest in late September. The present hullers are being modified again to improve their performance. These will be the first line machines for this years harvest. For more information, call Mark at Alcon 723-9648.
As most of you already know, the butternut population across North America is being devastated by a fatal canker disease. Already most southern butternuts have gone, and the infection are wide spread even here in the north. A program is underway to find and propagate butternuts shown to be resistant. There is reason to be optimistic as such trees are known to exist.
However, most trees are doomed. Guy Lefebvre and others have suggested that dying trees should be cut, in part to possibly slow the spread, but at the same time to at least gain the wood. Though the logging industry might be interested in such a harvest in ideal conditions, most butternuts are too isolated to offer economical advantage. If you are the owner of a doomed tree, you could consider harvesting it yourself. This would remove the illness from the site, and provide you with valuable butternut wood that could be crafted into future heirloom furniture for your progeny. Members are invited to contact ECSONG's new chair, Len Collett, who is interested in such work and may be able to advise or assist you in your endeavour.
Nut growers confront squirrels in their nut nurseries and with in situ plantings. In an interview with Ralph McKendry, The Nuttery learned of the latest techniques in guarding nuts from squirrel predation as practised at the Oak Valley Plantation near Winchester Springs, in their Truscott Nursery (Dr George Truscott, Research Nurseryman).
When planting nuts in situ, try this technique. Turn the soil removing the grass turf in a one to two foot circle. For each planting, obtain a large juice can with both ends removed, a 2-liter plastic pop bottle with the bottom removed, a long stake and a wire tie. Plant three or more seeds, of one or more species, close together within the circumference on the juice tin. Press the can surrounding the nuts four inches into the ground. Press the pop bottle into the can right-side up, to act as both a guard and greenhouse. Put the stake well into the ground and use the wire tie to secure the bottle to the stake. Leave until the second year ends, then remove the structure for reuse elsewhere. Either weed the extra seedlings leaving the chosen one to continue growing, or transplant the rejects into other sites.
In the nursery, begin by obtain enough eight inch high cement blocks with which a foundation, or subsoil barrier, for the perimeter of the nursery bed will be built. The blocks are dug into the ground to leave about two inches above soil. Next construct a frame box of 2 by 2 boards as follows. Make box frame about two and half to three feet high, eight feet (or less) long and three to four feet wide. Cover the ends, sides and one face with four-to-the-inch, galvanized hardware cloth. The foundation of blocks are placed so the inverted box sits squarely on the blocks. Now squirrels cannot penetrate into the nursery. To work on the nursery, lift the box off the foundation, and when finished, replace it.
For more information about these two techniques, contact Ralph or George.
Nut Dyer's Workshop this fall
As noted in earlier issues of The Nuttery, plans are underway to hold a workshop this fall on how to use nut dyes on wool. The Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) is prepared to provide its McManus Interpretive Center for the workshop for Saturday, September 28, 1996, in the afternoon. The RVCA would also help publicize, organize and host the workshop. This is a most attractive offer! There would be a small workshop fee, probably about $15/person to offset costs.
Planning for the workshop can start in earnest. If you are interested in getting involved in this phase of the work, give The Nuttery office a call at either 998-8917 (Hank Jones) or 723-9648 (Alcon).
Ted Cormier reports that a grant to the Dolman Ridge Plantations from the Eastern Ontario model Forest through the Eastern Ontario Nut Tree Culture Project has made it possible to release the Sweet American Chestnuts by the parking lot opposite the entrance to the NRCan Magnetics Laboratory. This work was done these past few weeks.
Also, The Nuttery has found out through the Gloucester Historical Society that some 150 butternuts were planted by residents, across the road from the old Mackie Farm back in the 1950's throughout the bush. This is exciting news! The trees would be approaching fifty years old now. Details will be made available at the upcoming Dolman Ridge Plantations Spring Field Day on Saturday, June 8, 1996 as reported elsewhere in this issue of The Nuttery.
We are pleased to announce completion of the work project at Dolman Ridge Nut Tree Plantations on Anderson Road near Mer Bleu. This work was funded by the EONTC project and the cooperation of the NCC who allowed the work to be undertaken. Many thanks to Doug Wathausen for his enthusiastic support. At the same time a survey of other areas of nut trees in the adjoining landscape was taken. A tour of the area is tentatively planned at 9:00 AM on Saturday June 8, 1996 to introduce this important nut tree area to members and other interested persons.
Site 1: Parking lot - Anderson Road. This area contains plantations of American chestnut, black walnut, shagbark, bitternut, and black cherry all in the need of release from competition from birch poplar and alder. These species were cut down and the brush dragged further into the bush where they were laid flat. The released nut trees will have more room to fill out and hopefully produce greater nut yields. Some further thinning of nut trees may be required in the future as they may still be crowded for space.
Site 2: Oak Plantations - Anderson Road. This area is located just north (200 meters) from Site 1, consisting of white, bur and red oak. The main competition to the oaks is white birch, many of which are dead or in decline. The red oak have prospered well dominating any competition reaching to sixty feet. The bur oak has also done well. Both stands need thinning but this would require substantial time and effort. The white oak stand is suppressed by the birch and some thinning was attempted. The size and number of birches in this stand may it difficult to fell them without damaging the oaks.
Site 3: Dolman Ridge Road NCC Compound and adjoining property. This area consists of plantations and open fields. There are small components of nut trees within plantations, as well as scattering of nut trees in open filed areas. Examples of red and bur oak, shagbark and bitternut hickory, black walnut, butternut, hazelnut can be found. A map of these scattered plantings should be made.
Site 4: Butternut Plantation - Anderson Rd Access Road ½ mile west. Unfortunately this plantation has a high infestation of butternut canker. In this respect it is well suited as a training area for a butternut canker identification workshop. With the current down sizing of the MNR, few funding for research related to the conservation of butternut is in jeopardy. it falls to groups such as ECSONG to carry on the torch. Identification of "resistant" trees is the key, and interested members could be trained in this task to in aid butternut conservation. Long time observers of butternut in the landscape will develop expertise needed for this research.
Site 5: Black Walnut Plantation - Ridge Road. The Black Walnut have done well in this area but need to be thinned out to optimize future growth.
Site 6: Korean Nut Pine Plantation - ½ west Ridge road just south of access road. These nut pine are now producing cone crops and seem to be in good health. Thinning of stand nay be required in a few years.
A Rockcliffe restoration project
This past winter, a new, major sewer project cut a swath ten meters wide along the steep, southern shoreline of MacKay Lake in Rockcliffe. Soon this strip will be ready for planting back to native, natural cover (with a narrow walking trail down the middle). Iola Price, an ECSONG member, is in charge of the restoration. She plans to include nut trees and shrubs in the work. She is asking where she might obtain a few native plants such as hazels, hickories, walnuts, oaks and buckeyes.
Anyone with information or specimens is asked to contact Iola ASAP.
PS. Iola will be leading a nature walk through the area, including this restoration site, on Sunday, June 16, 1996. everyone is welcome. Contact Iola for more information.
It has been proposed that ECSONG sponsor a nut tree tour around Eastern Ontario similar to the highly successful tour organized by MNR and OMAFRA several years ago. Dave Chapeskie of OMAFRA has suggested that the ministry may be able to help us with such a tour again. This is good news!
The tour would take a day, on a hired bus, and would visit a number of sites in the eastern reaches of the region, to be carefully selected. It is possible that the tour could be arranged for this fall, maybe as the program for the ECSONG Fall Field Day slated for Saturday, October 5, 1996.
We will be talking to Dave about this possibility soon, so maybe we will know quickly if we can do a fall tour this year. Watch the fall issue of the Nuttery coming this September for details should we be successful.
Calendar of Meetings and Events for 1996/97
Nuttery 15/1 Deadline for submissions: Friday, April 19, 1996
Nuttery 15/1 ships: Tuesday, April 23, 1996
Fillmore R. Park Nut Grove Spring Field Day : Saturday, May 4, 1996
(May 11 rain date)
Oak Valley Spring Field Day: Saturday, May 18, 1996
Dolman Ridge Spring Field Day: Saturday, June 8, 1996
Executive Meeting: Tuesday, August 27, 1996
Nuttery 15/2 Deadline for submissions: Friday, August 30, 1996
Nuttery 15/2 ships: Tuesday, September 3, 1996
FRP Nut Grove Fall Field Day: Saturday, September 14, 1996
Oak Valley Plantation Fall Field Day: Saturday, September 21, 1996
Nut Dyers Workshop (to be confirmed): Saturday, September 28, 1996
Chapter Fall Field Day: Saturday, October 5, 1996
Executive Meeting: Tuesday, December 17, 1996
Nuttery 15/3 Deadline for submissions: Friday, January 3, 1997
Nuttery 15/3 ships: Tuesday, January 7, 1997
Chapter Winter Meeting: Wednesday, January 15, 1997
Executive Meeting: Tuesday, February 18, 1997
Nuttery 15/4 Deadline for submissions: Friday, February 28, 1997
Nuttery 15/4 ships: Tuesday, March 4, 1997
AGM 96/97: Saturday, March 15, 1997
Provided by ECSONG. Feel free to copy with a credit.