ATFE teaching community how to prune fruit trees

Fruit trees are common in Akwesasne, but many people don’t even know they have them, or don’t know that their poor, unhealthy tree could produce delicious, healthy fruit if just a little bit of pruning was done.

The Akwesasne Task Force on the Environment - an organization comprised of representatives from the Mohawk Nation Council, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and St. Regis Mohawk Tribe – has been traveling to various orchards and yards in the community to give community members a hands on lesson pruning.

“There are a lot of fruit trees here that people are neglecting because they don’t know how, or they’ve never been taught how to prune,” said Margaret George. “We’ve done quite a few already.”

George said the ATFE is showing tree owners what pruning is and how it benefits the tree.

“What we’re doing is opening it up and untwisting,” she said. “What we’ve found is a lot of them are pretty bad but you’ve got to keep it going…when you open it up you get more fruit and healthier fruit. By pruning you get rid of diseases and you get more fruit production. It also improves the quality of the fruit.”

George said there are all kinds of different fruit trees in the community, from apple trees to pear trees.

After the ATFE shows the pruning procedures they can also help share information about the upkeep required. They also try to teach about harvesting.

George said that learning to prune is also one way the ATFE is encouraging community members to be healthier – to learn healthier eating habits and have access to healthier fruits.

Since the ATFE doesn’t have enough people or hours to go around every year pruning all the fruit trees in Akwesasne they are focusing this year on training community members how to do it themselves.