Yarborough quoted in Kennebec Journal article on Mount Pisgah blueberries
David Yarborough, a blueberry specialist with the University of Maine’s Cooperative Extension and a professor of horticulture in the School of Food and Agriculture, spoke with the Kennebec Journal for an article about wild blueberries on Mount Pisgah in Winthrop. Conservationists with the Kennebec Land Trust, an organization that manages Mount Pisgah, said highbush blueberries used to flourish on and around the mountain, but have flowered less and less in recent years. Local conservation efforts have allowed second-growth oaks and pines to again thrive, but at the same time have blocked sunlight from the understory where blueberry bushes grow, according to the article. “Sun is the source of all energy,” Yarborough said. “If the blueberry plants don’t get sun, they don’t get energy, and they can’t make fruit.” He estimated there are 44,000 acres of commercial, lowbush blueberry crop in Maine concentrated largely along the coast and just 200 acres of highbush crop, the article states.