The Boulder Apple Tree Project seeks expansion

On a cool, cloudless Sunday morning, people flocked to the space between the Museum of Natural History and the Mary Rippon stage on the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) campus. The group was made up of students, educators and community volunteers, all sharing one goal: categorize and learn about apple trees as part of this year's Apple Blitz, sponsored by the Boulder Apple Tree Project (BATP).

"I'd say there's no other fruit that's adapted to this country as the apple," said artist and blitz attendee Sam Van Aken. "Before [the] modern era, apples were grown for fresh eating in the summer, they were grown for cider, and the winter varieties you could keep from December into July of the next year, so they, just in that, they don't ripen within one season, apples are something we have all year."

The BATP came about largely because of ecologist and CU professor Dr. Katherine Suding. She said every day she walked a path behind her house that runs alongside a vast field. One day, to  her surprise, her children came home with a sack of apples.

"One of those trees in that field that I had walked past hundreds of times was an apple tree. I had to go see," she said in her 2019 TEDxCU talk. Suding's talk focused on the idea of curiosity, but through the lens of her work with the BATP, which continues to this day. She has since involved Dr. Lisa Corwin, who also teaches at CU Boulder, and Amy Dunbar-Wallis, a research associate and the BATP's Program manager.

"The greatest thing about this project is that it brings people together, who otherwise might not ever meet," said Dunbar-Wallis. "It's a really great day of exploration for everybody and in past blitzes when they come back, everybody is so happy and so chatty and they want to share the best apples. It's a lot of fun."

The BATP splits focus between the science of finding and categorizing trees and exploring the history of them. Suding said many settlers would bring apple saplings or even seeds to plant in their new homes. Trees could be found on many homesteads and orchards were numerous. Worldwide, there are as many as 7,500 varieties of apples, Suding said. In looking at historical records, she and her team found that more than 400 varieties were grown in early 20th century Colorado.

While many of those early trees have since died, many still remain, and the BATP seeks to find these trees, save historic varieties and share their findings with the community. The autumn Apple Blitz is the program's largest categorizing event, although some students will seek out and tag trees throughout the year as well. In December, students are able to share their research and findings with community members at their annual symposium, and in March, there's a community grafting day.

"I love the grafting event, because it's super fun to basically start a new tree," said Corwin. "Grafting is a new beginning for these old, historic trees, so it's super exciting to have these people who are so enthusiastic about planting these old varieties that, for all we know, we could lose if we don't graft them."

Corwin added that this project is also powerful because of the interaction between the CU community and the Boulder community at large. She said this year is special because it's a good apple year--trees typically only bear substantial fruit every other year--and there aren't as many restrictions in place due to the pandemic. "We're excited to have the opportunity again to travel with students and get them to new sites and have them learn about things that could potentially make a big impact in the community."

Being able to travel freely to collect data is crucial to BATP's research. The students hope to expand up to Lyons and beyond. Already, they are involving students at University of Northern Colorado and have partnered a number of times with Front Range Community College (FRCC) students.

Students are central to the BATP's success--Terry Bilinski, a field ecologist who joined the project in 2019, focused on helping establish the curriculum for the CU class that works with the project. "Ecology is really a great field because it's diverse in terms of what you can do...[it] can allow you to travel all over the world...[and] you're always thinking about interconnections," she said.

"Ecology here at CU Boulder teaches students a lot of critical skills...students are able to engage in real research that potentially will have an impact on how we manage urban apple trees...and because the project is relatively new, students have been able to be involved in refining the research, testing methods," Bilinski said.

In addition to the established class for CU students, the BATP has established a three week summer bridge program with FRCC, where students are responsible for tagging as many trees as possible within that time. Involvement with FRCC is ongoing, and three of their students were student leaders at Sunday's blitz.

"A program like this is really important because we are hoping to empower new biology students and new undergraduates so they feel like their science skills have an impact, that they have something to offer," said Dunbar Wallice.

This particular sentiment--of taking a class that has an impact--was shared by students who attended the blitz this year. Grace Nieuwendaal said that she wanted a science credit that allowed her to go beyond the classroom and be in nature. Jonathan Absalom, who's also been in the Introduction to Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Research class, is excited for the hands-on aspect of this work. "It's a really cool project, to bring a research project directly to the community," he said.

Community member Doug Anderson, said, "I really love the story of apple trees. I like the history. I'm fascinated by the variety and the chance to find the kinds that are out there that people have thought were lost."

Another volunteer was documentary filmmaker Elisabeth Glass, who heard about the BATP through her research for a documentary about heritage apples. "I'm really excited about the historic nature of the trees," she said. "I think the trees we're going to see today were planted by early settlers in the Boulder Valley area."

To stay up to date with the BATP, sign up for their newsletter or share tips about apple trees you've found. You can contact the team via their website: https://appletreeproject.org/