The Trump administration has budgeted $1.2 million for removing trees at East Potomac Golf Links, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post, as the president seeks to redevelop the beloved D.C. course. The funding for the tree removal is coming from visitor fees collected at the biggest national parks, such as Yellowstone and Yosemite, the documents show. The National Park Service earlier this month cut down more than 400 trees on the course, which has become a flash point in Trump’s efforts to renovate sites across D.C., before U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued an order to stop the work. Katie Martin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, said in a statement that the administration was carrying out a long-held plan to address “tree overgrowth at the course” as part of President Donald Trump’s D.C. Safe and Beautiful initiative. “The National Park Service determined the funding source for this D.C. Safe and Beautiful project,” Martin said, without responding to other questions about the funding. Park advocates said funding for the tree clearing plays into wider concerns that the administration will divert public money from more urgent priorities to Trump’s beautification efforts…
Detroit, Michigan, Ne2ws, October 29, 2026: The Inside Outside Guys: Now is a good time to prune your trees
One common theme this time of year is tree pruning. The questions often address one of three concerns: 1) Is this a good time? 2) Does it matter which branches I cut? 3) Is there a concern regarding species? We refer to the MSU Extension Service for our reply. Most trees require periodic pruning to control the size of the plant, the distribution of branches, and the production of fruits on certain species. Autumn is a good time for this because most trees are either dormant after they drop their leaves or they have slowed their activity for the winter ahead. Additionally, many pests that might otherwise feast on the raw cuts are less a concern in the colder weather…
Columbia, Missouri, Missourian, October 29, 2026: McBaine bur oak tree undergoes seasonal maintenance
The arborist company Trees, Forests and Landscapes, based out of St. Louis, regularly works on the tree. Mike Sestric, the owner and president of the company, was at the site Thursday and spoke about his team’s process. This trip marks their third time at the tree. The company has come out every couple of years to do soil amendments and fertilization treatments, Sestric said. On Thursday, the crew worked on removing dead wood, lightening the load of some limbs and doing an overall inspection of the canopy. Sestric said the trunk of the tree is hollow, so much of the weight is in the limbs. These measures help take some weight off to keep the tree standing…
Seattle, Washington, KOMO-TV, October 28, 2026: Hazardous trees prompt closures at two Snohomish County parks
Snohomish County Parks will close parts of Paradise Valley Conservation Area and all of Southwest County Park because hazardous trees could fall and injure visitors. Paradise Valley Conservation Area near Woodinville will close Thursday while crews build a trail reroute. The park is scheduled to reopen Friday, but several trails and buildings will remain closed. Southwest County Park in Edmonds is closed until further notice. “We understand these are beloved parks by the community, but the safety of our visitors is our top priority,” Snohomish County Parks Director Sharon Walker said. At Paradise Valley, hundreds of Douglas fir trees in a 64-acre section of the 793-acre park have been affected by laminated root rot, a fungal disease that damages roots and can cause trees to die and fall. The new trail will connect to the Wetland Plateau Trail and provide access to unaffected areas…
New York City, WABC-TV, October 28, 2026: Invasive box tree moth found on Long Island for first time
New York State is warning residents to watch for the box tree moth after the invasive pest was found in Nassau County for the first time. The box tree moth is an invasive pest that feeds on small trees and shrubs. State officials said the moth has been detected in several upstate counties, where 34 counties are under a quarantine of sorts because of the pest. According to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the Nassau County detection marks the first time the insect has been found outside that quarantine zone. “This is the first time we have had them on Long Island,” said Evan Dackow with Jolly Green Tree and Trunk Care. The invasive moth begins its life cycle as a greenish-yellow caterpillar with black stripes and spots and is particularly dangerous to boxwood plants…
A federal judge on Monday barred the Trump administration from cutting any more trees at East Potomac Park without first obtaining a court order, delivering a significant win to preservation advocates and local golfers challenging President Donald Trump’s plan to remake the public golf course and sharply rebuking the administration’s account of why the trees were removed. In a blistering 70-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes found that recent tree-clearing was undertaken to advance Trump’s broader plan to replace the historic public course with a Tom Fazio-designed championship layout. Reyes called the administration’s stated rationale — that the cutting was a separate effort to carry out a 2019 preservation report — “pretextual.” Reyes opened her opinion by describing the extraordinary clash between Trump’s public statements about his plans for the course and the government’s contrary position in court, writing: “Rarely, if ever, has the United States Department of Justice urged a federal court not to believe the sitting President…
Dead tree branches are by no means static but move throughout the day. Geoinformatics researchers at Heidelberg University tracked these movements in a study conducted in cooperation with the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI). With the help of an autonomously operating laser scanning system, the scientists mapped a specific forest plot at regular intervals. Using a specially developed tracking algorithm, they were able to quantify even small branch movements, which are driven by changes in humidity. Their approach opens up new opportunities for automated monitoring, which could make it possible to assess tree health based on characteristic movement patterns. The work is published in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology…
The cooling benefit of trees. Turns out they provide more than just beauty. Where there is more shade, there is more life. Whether golden, red, or green, they’re especially stunning this time of year. But Harrison Garcia, a Northwestern Medical student and researcher, says it doesn’t take a scientist to realize how nice trees are. Still, Garcia and his Northwestern University colleagues examined the urban canopy – the protective leafy layer that helps cool city streets. “There’s been a lot of studies on the urban heat island effects by which concrete can absorb heat and put people under more heat stress,” Garcia said. “Between hotter and cooler neighborhoods, neighborhoods that were cooler and had an increase in canopy, had reduced mortality over time…”
This year, America’s most famous Christmas tree will hail from a tiny hamlet in Central New York. A mighty 76-foot Norway spruce from West Edmeston will serve as the 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Rockefeller Center announced Monday. West Edmeston is about 28 miles south of Utica in rural Madison County. The towering tree is approximately 75 years old, Rockefeller Center said. It was donated by Rebecca Decker. The glamour shot shared of the tree shows the spruce standing tall against a sky colored with a double rainbow. In the pastoral foreground of the photo, a chicken picked her way across a field. The 11-ton spruce is slated to be cut down on Nov. 5, ABC 7 reported. It will then be ferried to New York City, where it is set to arrive in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center on Nov. 7. Crews will then spend weeks decking the tree in its holiday best. It will be encircled with more than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights and topped with a 900-pound Swarovski star covered in 3 million dazzling crystals, Rockefeller Center said. The 2026 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will start at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Millions of people are expected to tune in as the tree with roots in Central New York is illuminated on live TV. This is far from the first time the world-famous Christmas tree was found in Upstate New York. The 2025 Rockefeller Center tree, another Norway Spruce, hailed from East Greenbush, an Albany suburb. A majestic Norway spruce from Vestal in the Binghamton area was tapped as the star tree in 2023, while another from Queensbury south of Lake George was chosen to be the Rockefeller Center tree in 2022…
A recently-filed lawsuit says the City of Portland was negligent and failed to ensure the Urban Forestry division of Portland Parks was removing dead and decaying trees. The lawsuit was filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit court on behalf of Danielle Devine, who was struck by a falling tree while walking her dog. According to court documents, Devine was walking on the Nature Loop Trial at Gabriel Park the morning of October 25, 2024 when a tree more than 65 feet tall broke from its base, struck her in the body and head, and knocked her unconscious. The lawsuit, posted in-full below, alleges that the tree had severe decay at the base with white rot fungus and was also leaning over the trail, making it very likely it would fall on anyone walking on the trail. The lawsuit further alleges that City Forester Jenn Cairo told a Parks Committee in May 2024 that they started a pilot program to maintain trees in 2022, and that more than 135 parks had been inspected and maintained…
As autumn leaves change color and fall, experts say these seasonal shifts can reveal important signs about tree health and stress, which may help prevent power outages. “It’s that time of the year when the days are getting shorter, nights are getting colder and the leaves are turning and falling. But these vibrant colors are not only beautiful, they also offer clues about the health of your tree,” said StormTeam 5’s Sean Kelly. Russell Holman, Eversource supervisor of vegetation management, said fall foliage can help identify trees that are struggling and whether pruning or removal may be necessary. “A tree that is under stress will drop its leaves earlier, turn fall foliage earlier and will also be able to show indications of disease on the tree,” Holman said. Holman emphasized the importance of observing how quickly leaves change. If a tree’s leaves turn several weeks before surrounding trees, it may be experiencing drought stress. “So when we are looking at fall foliage, we are looking at how soon the leaves are turning, what part of the tree is turning sooner than another. That may be an indicator of stress in that portion of the tree and it would be a way of a magnifying glass at looking closer at what’s going on in that particular section,” Holman said…
Halloween may be just around the corner, but there could be something scarier than ghosts and goblins lurking in your backyard. They’re called “zombie trees,” and while they may look perfectly healthy from the outside, they could be dead or seriously decaying on the inside. These trees can pose a safety risk to homeowners, especially as the Quad Cities approaches the winter months, when strong winds, snow and ice can cause weakened branches or entire trees to fall. Robert Spartz, a certified arborist with the Davey Tree Expert Company in the Quad Cities, says identifying a dying tree isn’t always easy. “We tend to look for signs, right? Certain things that will lead us to believe that there could be an internal issue with the tree,” Spartz said. Some of the warning signs include cracks or cavities in the trunk, rotting wood, dead branches and animal activity. Spartz says animals living inside a tree can indicate internal decay, potentially making it a higher-risk tree. Another major warning sign is the presence of mushrooms growing on the trunk or near the base of a tree…
