Portland, Oregon, Oregonian, September 16, 2020: ‘Hundreds of thousands of trees’ need to be removed along Oregon 22; nearly 300 miles of state highways closed indefinitely

Nearly 300 miles of roads remain closed across Oregon with no timetable for reopening and “hundreds of thousands” of trees need to be removed along Oregon 22 alone before highways are safe for travel. That’s according to the Oregon Department of Transportation, which released preliminary information Wednesday showing how significantly intrastate travel could be affected by the wildfires for months to come. Wildfires are still burning in several sections of the state, and fire officials have said that some of the blazes will continue burning until heavy rains come later this year. According to a new transportation map released this week, nearly a dozen highways are closed entirely, many for long stretches. The closures will impact travel across the Cascade Mountains in several key spots – with Oregon 138, Oregon 22, Oregon 126 and Oregon 242 all closed at critical spots with no timetable for reopening. Those roads are key arteries connecting Roseburg, Salem and the Eugene-Springfield areas to Central Oregon. U.S. 20 and U.S. 26 remain open, as does Oregon 58, which connects the Eugene area to U.S. 97. As of Wednesday afternoon, roughly 281 miles of highway are closed due to wildfire damage, or roughly the distance on Interstate 5 between Portland and Medford. “It’s fair to say this is a whole new level of damage,” Katherine Benenati, a transportation department spokesperson, said in an email. “These are some of the most hazardous conditions and some of the most widespread damage we’ve seen in years…”

Huntington, West Virginia, Herald-Dispatch, September 16, 2020: Cicadas will soon erupt again. Prepare your trees for the invasion.

If past is prologue, then one night next May, a funny-looking insect – plump, brown, hunched – will emerge from the ground, crawl up the nearest vertical perch and cast off its mantle. Within an hour or two, the periodical cicada will fill out to its adult form, with beady red eyes and glassy wings framed with orange ribs. Soon thereafter, hundreds, thousands, millions more cicadas will join the creature for one of the natural world’s most bizarre spectacles: a six-week bacchanalian feast of loud music, acrobatics and, yes, sex, stretching from Georgia to New York. Before this wonder fades for another 17 years, there will be a couple of lingering reminders that this wasn’t some surreal dream. The garden will be littered with the carcasses of three species of spent cicadas. More ominously, the ends of the branches of shrubs and trees will begin to droop and turn brown. The female cicada lays eggs in slits she has cut in thin branches. This ensures that the ensuing hatchling nymphs will drop and burrow into soil laced with tree roots, for they feed off the root sap. The egg-laying also means that branches from the point of injury to their tips will probably die back. On big old oaks or hickories, the resulting branch flagging is unsightly, but it’s a temporary eyesore that the tree will outgrow. But for young, small trees, the dieback can harm the tree’s future and desired shape by pruning twigs destined to become its main branches. In extreme cases, the wounds can allow disease to move into the tree and kill it. The female cicadas prefer branches that are roughly between one-quarter and one-half of an inch in diameter, and each individual makes several cuts. “For trees planted in the past four years, you may want to consider protecting,” said Stephanie Adams, plant health care leader at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill. Young redbuds, crab apples and cherry trees are among the types of trees that are at risk…

New York City, The New York Times, September 16, 2020: This Tree’s Leaves Look Soft and Inviting. Please Don’t Touch Them.

The lore that shrouds Australia’s giant stinging trees, of the genus Dendrocnide, is perhaps as dubious as it is vast. Tales abound of nightmarish encounters with the hypodermic-needle-like hairs of its leaves injecting a toxin that drives men to madness and has prompted horses to hurl themselves off cliffs. Some of these stories are centuries old and cannot be verified. But as Edward Gilding can attest, these legends contain at least one lick of truth: the absolute agony of being stabbed by the fine, downy hairs that adorn the leaves and stems of Dendrocnide. The trees, which can grow taller than 100 feet, are found throughout the rain forests of eastern Australia, where they are known to torment hikers. “It’s like having a nail shoved into your flesh,” said Dr. Gilding, a biologist at the University of Queensland and self-described sting connoisseur. The sting from the trees’ hairs also has immense staying power, doling out anguish in waves for hours or days. Some anecdotes have reported intermittent pain lasting months; a few especially bad stings have even landed people in the hospital…

Sacramento, California, KOVR-TV, September 16, 2020: Nevada City Group Sitting In Trees To Protect Them From Being Cut Down By PG&E

Some people in Nevada City are going to new heights to stop PG&E from cutting down trees. These protesters are not marching, but climbing to make sure one tree, in particular, does not get chopped down. Pitts and others are doing this for a particular reason.“What’s happening is we are having a lot of trees taken out unnecessarily, completely thoughtlessly. Like just making a huge mess; taking away our heritage,” Pitts said. That heritage is heritage trees. PG&E said some trees have to go because they’re too close to power lines and pose a fire risk. “Part of it is obviously to protect the number of the heritage trees that are here. We’re concerned about the trees that are not really presenting a threat in themselves,” Lorraine Nauman, a tree protester, said. “This particular tree was planted 160 years ago by one of the original tree foundation members in the county here,” Pitts said. Pitts told CBS13 that the tree they climbed to protect from being cut down is an Atlas cedar spruce. It’s not native to the Nevada City area. PG&E said 263 trees are marked to be cut down in Nevada City to provide shorter, smaller and smart Public Safety Power Shutoffs. But instead of cutting down, many want the utility to look down and put their power lines underground. “Undergrounding, in this case, is not a panacea to all of the problems,” Brandi Merlo, PG&E spokesperson, said. “It’s still subject to its own issues including weather impacts, dig in potential, lightning strikes…”

New York City, WCBS-TV, September 15, 2020: Homeowners In Roslyn In Tree Fight With PSEG Long Island Over High Voltage Wires

Homeowners in one North Shore community are in the midst of a tree fight with their utility over high voltage wires and tilting power poles.Families say PSEG Long Island is responsible for maintaining safe easements in their back yards. Down the street from Roslyn High School, Overlook Terrace has 34 homes with backyard PSEG Long Island easements containing power poles. They hold, among other wires, cables so strong they can electrocute. One of homeowner Cary Ratner’s 60 foot tall maples is in a precarious position. “I have a tree that’s a real peril,” Ratner said. “I tried to get a tree surgeon, three of them. They won’t go near. It’s too close to the high voltage. It’s 13,000 volts.” Next door, Jeffrey Kane’s 65 foot elm tree is also bending amid the high voltage wires, which is located on the right of way maintained, according to law, by PSEG Long Island. A stiff wind in hurricane season could topple branches. “That’s the problem. I am concerned that it will be dangerous,” Kane said…

Tallahassee, Florida, Democrat, September 15, 2020: It’s raining squirrels: They’re cute, clever and falling from trees

Imagine its terror when a gust of wind whips a baby out of its snug nest to free fall through the air and then slam into the ground. If it’s lucky, it lands on rain-softened earth, not asphalt. St. Francis Wildlife is caring for 175 of these babies now, with more arriving every day. This is peak baby squirrel season. Every afternoon storm blows baby squirrels from their treetop nests. Tree trimmers also unknowingly cut down their homes. Squirrels are a paradox. They can be destructive, annoying pests. But they are also intelligent, curious, agile, and yes, valuable. Because all the little nut and seed treasures they squirrel away are never dug up, squirrels provide us with free gardening services and invaluable timber resources. With a little effort and ingenuity, we can learn to live in harmony with these resourceful little neighbors that have managed to survive on this continent for 36 million years…

Chicago, Illinois, Sun Times, September 15, 2020: Chicago is a leader in planting trees for the environment, but ComEd crews ruin them

The Sun-Times editorial California’s wildfires and Chicago’s derecho reveal cascading damage of climate change is spot on! We should not feel helpless, though, because we can move Illinois in the right direction during the current clear climate change crisis. Chicago has been a leader in reducing carbon emissions by planting some 300,000 trees over the last two decades. With the destruction of 7,300 trees throughout the city and county, we need to step up. Change always begins at the local level. Our neighborhood group, the Edgewater Glen Association, has partnered with Open Lands and received 11 trees to replant after the unprecedented derecho storm. For years our group has focused on tree replanting for every tree removed because of aging or disease. However, as ComEd sends out chainsaw crews to cut back trees encroaching on power lines, we have witnessed a very anti-environmental approach. Untrained ComEd crews have butchered mature trees so badly that they reduce the trees’ lives to less than five years…

Moon Crew, September 15, 2020: The story of a tree falling in Houston

I have watched this video — counting conservatively — over 500 times in the last 24 hours. Listen to that “ohhhhhhhh.” Even before he hits the “goddammit,” this amateur tree surgeon is yelling to God from his doomed heels. That is a cry from the soul to this cursed earth: Why have you turned against me, giver of life? Why has that which brought shade and life now become a swift hammer of a cruel justice beyond my understanding? What is that man with the rope supposed to be doing here, exactly? The “goddammit” — full-throated, delivered from a place of total despair in a raspy yowl best described as something between Yosemite Sam and an irate South Park yokel — only seals a universal moment. It is when fate finds a check written with your stupidity, and also the moment when fate decides to cash that check with such force, it overdrafts you straight into hell. First, know this: The screaming man in the video is not dropping a tree onto his own house. That house belongs to Matt Bieniek’s family. I spoke with him yesterday over the phone, after he saw his own house being assaulted on the internet by poorly executed tree surgery…

U.S. News and World Report, September 14, 2020: Explainer: How This Year’s Destructive U.S. West Wildfire Season Came to Be

Dozens of conflagrations have raged across more than 5 million acres (1.6 million hectares) in Oregon, California and Washington state since August, laying waste to several small towns, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 35 people. The region’s increasingly dry and overgrown forests have become large-scale tinderboxes over decades while wildfires have become more frequent, more intense and more deadly. Here’s why. U.S President Donald Trump blames poor forest management – mainly a failure to cull overgrown forests – for the increasing number and intensity of fires. The governors of California and Oregon – the states worst hit this season – say climate change is largely responsible. Scientists say both factors are at work. Starting in the early 1900s, wildfires were fought aggressively and suppressed, which led to a build-up of dead trees and brush in forested areas. That means more fuel for bigger, more intense and damaging wildfires. But changes in climate and weather patterns — warming temperatures, periods of drought and erratic rains – also are causes. “We don’t want to minimize the impact of climate because it’s significant already and because it’s growing in the future,” said Dan Cayan, a climate researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The region generally experienced a relatively dry winter, leaving forests particularly dessicated and vulnerable to extreme heat that materialized in August. Dry, gusty winds, known as Santa Ana in Southern California and Diablo in Northern California, contributed to the fires’ rapid spread…

Providence, Rhode Island, Journal, September 14, 2020: Microscopic worm poses big threat to R.I.’s beech trees

A disease that can be deadly to beech trees was found for the first time in Rhode Island this summer, threatening thousands of the trees known for their smooth, silver-gray bark. A homeowner in the Ashaway village of Hopkinton contacted the state Department of Environmental Management in June after noticing something was wrong with the beech trees on her property. A DEM forester and Heather Faubert, a University of Rhode Island plant scientist, visited the site in the southwest part of the state and confirmed that the trees were afflicted with beech leaf disease. Discovered in Ohio in 2012, the disease has spread to Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. It was found in Connecticut last year and this summer in Massachusetts, too. After the initial discovery of the disease at the home in Ashaway, Faubert, who coordinates the URI Plant Protection Clinic, found it spread throughout a nearby beech forest in an area off Route 91. Thousands of trees there showed the telltale signs of the disease: unnatural stripes between the veins of their leaves. Many of the leaves withered, yellowed and died as a result of the damage and the trees were forced to expend vital energy during the hottest and driest part of the year to leaf out a second time. A tree can do that only so many years in a row before the stress can kill it. The disease can spread to American beech trees, the species native to the Eastern United States and southeastern Canada, as well as European beech trees, an imported variety found on the grounds of mansions in Newport and other places. It can also affect Oriental beech trees…

Colorado Springs, Colorado, Gazette, September 15, 2020: What you’re really doing when carving an aspen tree in Colorado

To carve an aspen tree — to take a blade to the trunk for the sake of your initials, for example — is to do harm. Harm to a being with a life expectancy much like our own: 100 years, if we’re lucky. To leave your mark, “it may sound cool,” says Dan West, an aspen expert with the Colorado State Forest Service. “But that tree might not survive because of what you’re doing.” A cut to the human arm is a possible portal for infection. Same for an aspen tree. Though the risk might be greater in aspen, considering “aspen are one of the most diseased and infected trees in North America,” West says. Otherwise, yes, a wound to our body is much like a wound to Colorado’s favorite tree of autumn. On our travels to behold the golden displays, we’ve all seen it. Gashed groves. White bark disrupted by black scars that look nothing like nature’s doing. There’s someone’s name. There’s someone’s message that doesn’t matter. There’s some date marking what might be some romantic occasion. There’s a heart housing the names Megan and Jon. Paul Rogers, director of the Western Aspen Alliance based at Utah State University, came by this one once. A harsh revision was made — an “X” over “Megan” and a message above: “MEGAN IS A SKANK.” “It didn’t work out over time, their relationship, apparently,” Rogers says. But the advocate scientist cares not for such drama. Nor do the trees care for our drama and whatever vain impulses lead us to scarring their skin. It’s a particularly thin skin. That’s what makes aspen particularly susceptible. “Because of the thin skin,” Rogers says…

Fastcompany, September 14, 2020: This tool is mapping every tree in California to help stop megafires

If you zoom in on a new map of California, you’ll start to see that the fields of green that represent the forest are actually made up of individual green points, and each point represents a real, individual tree. The tool, called the California Forest Observatory, uses AI and satellite images to create an ultradetailed view of the state’s forests—aiding work to prevent the type of catastrophic megafires that the state is experiencing now. Scientists at Salo Sciences, a startup that works on technology for natural climate solutions, began creating the tool after interviewing dozens of experts in California about the state’s challenges with wildfires: They need more detailed, up-to-date information about the forests so they can better predict how fast and in what direction fires will spread, and remove the most hazardous fuels. Even the rough satellite maps that exist now are often three years out of date, making it hard for agencies to plan their work. The new tool will be updated annually after the fire season ends, if not more often. Firefighters can use the tool to predict how current fires may spread as they’re burning. But just as critically, the state can also use the map to plan forest management to prevent future megafires. “What we really found was California more than anything has a vegetation and fuel load problem,” says David Marvin, cofounder and CEO of Salo Sciences. “This has occurred because, for the last century, we’ve been suppressing wildfire, and we’ve gotten really good at doing so. CalFire, the state fire agency, puts out something like 96% of fires, and we have thousands of them every year…”

Los Angeles, California, Times, September 13, 2020: 150 million dead trees could fuel unprecedented firestorms in the Sierra Nevada

Two years ago scientists warned that a massive tree die-off in the Sierra Nevada could set the stage for forest conflagrations akin to World War II fire bombings. The Creek fire, which forced the dramatic helicopter evacuations of more than 200 campers over Labor Day weekend in California, may be a hint of far worse to come in future years. It is burning in the Sierra National Forest, an epicenter of the bark beetle attacks that killed nearly 150 million drought-stressed trees during the last decade. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that dead stands in the Creek fire contain 2,000 tons of fuel per acre. As of Saturday, the fire had charred more than 196,000 acres, destroyed 365 structures and was threatening 14,000 more in the vicinity of Big Creek, Huntington Lake and Shaver Lake. Firefighters don’t expect to contain it until mid-October. For those who have studied the potential fire effects of the vast beetle kill, the Creek fire is a harbinger. “I don’t want to be alarmist. But I think the conditions are there,” said Scott Stephens, a UC Berkeley professor of fire science and lead author of a 2018 paper that raised the specter of future mass forest fires as intense as the Dresden, Germany, and Tokyo firebombings…

Inc. magazine, September 13, 2020: This Company Sends Foresters Into the Woods to Prevent Wildfires–and Save Lives

The devastating wildfires that swept through Northern California in recent years have left a new problem in their wake: dead trees that threaten people, roads, and gas and water lines. Enter American Tree Medics, which hit the 2020 Inc. 5000 with more than $2 million in 2019 revenue. The family-owned company uses a team of arborists and foresters to perform 15-minute diagnostic evaluations–factoring in each tree’s species, age, and other characteristics–and decide which ones need to be cut down. “Time is critical in these situations,” says co-founder and CEO Heidi Britt. The Modesto, California-based company earned $2.1 million last year from clients including the city of Santa Rosa and Butte County, site of the deadliest wildfire in California’s history, 2018’s Camp Fire. Employees use tape measures, magnifying glasses, hatchets, and other tools to give each tree a health score. Removing dead, dried-out trees can improve the overall health of the forest and hinder the spread of wildfires… The company creates teams of certified arborists, foresters, and loggers. All new employees shadow a professional for several months before they can perform assessments on their own…

Las Vegas, Nevada, Review-Journal, September 13, 2020: Seedlings from 9/11 Survivor Tree ‘doing very well’ in Las Vegas

Two ornamental pear seedlings have grown stronger in the past year, but they have not yet received permanent homes in Las Vegas. Last year, Las Vegas was selected as a recipient of the seedlings from the Survivor Tree Seedling Program as a symbol of hope after the mass shooting that occurred on Oct. 1, 2017. The Survivor Tree was recovered from ground zero with broken roots and branches after the 9/11 attacks in New York City. The tree was rehabilitated and replanted at the Sept. 11 memorial in 2010, according to the organization’s website. The program launched in 2013 with the harvested seedlings from the tree to share the message of solidarity. According to Las Vegas officials, the program sent a pair of seedlings in case one was damaged in transport. In the past year, the seedlings have grown, but they’re still too small to be planted. They are housed in the city’s tree nursery, where Steven Glimp, park maintenance manager for the city, cares for them. “The trees are doing very well and we look forward to their continued growth so that we can plant them next year,” Glimp said in a statement provided by a city spokesman. “The city of Las Vegas is honored to be a recipient of these trees.” City officials have not decided where the trees will be planted. Options include the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden or the Las Vegas Fire Department Station 5, which hosts a 9/11 remembrance ceremony each year and has a piece of World Trade Center steel on display…

Las Cruces, New Mexico, Sun, September 13, 2020: What to do when wind damages trees

Question: I lost about 1/3 of my crabapple tree and probably more than 1/2 of a mimosa tree in the wind storm on Tuesday. Is there anything I should do to try to help them?
Answer: Great question! The short answer is, “No, at least not urgently, and there’s no need for any type of wound sealant.” For now, in case it helps you rest easier, imagine what your trees would do if they were all alone in the forest and were damaged by wind gusts. They’d just sit there and be fine. That is, unless there are any immediate risks, like a car parked underneath or an area of high pedestrian activity nearby where a partially broken limb could fall and hurt someone. Aside from considering bodily harm and property damage, the next step mostly depends on the damage. How thick were the branches that were broken? How many branches, approximately, per tree? And are they within easy reach from the ground? Evidence from tree research has confirmed that clean-cut wounds (as opposed to scraggly jagged tears) seal better and faster. Trees’ natural responses to injury are partly influenced on the time of year and the growth stage. For example, responses may be faster in the active growing season than in the dormant season. In the coming weeks, you or a trained arborist can clean up the jagged branch breaking points to help the trees seal those wounded areas more easily. It is important that the wider base of each branch called the branch collar be left intact so that the cambial layer just inside the bark can grow over the wound to seal it…

Detroit, Michigan, WDIV-TV, September 10, 2020: Residents concerned over safety issue after fallen tree, debris litter Detroit street

A big mess on a Detroit street turned into a big safety concern. Washburn Street, on Detroit’s east side, was littered with debris and a large tree that came crashing down recently during wild weather. The damage wasn’t just an eyesore, but also a potential safety issue for residents. Neighbors wanted it cleaned up, so they called Help Me Hank to investigate. Hank Winchester found that the city had done some tree trimming on Washburn Street at about the same time DTE was doing some work in the area. Some who reached out weren’t exactly sure who created the mess, they just wanted it cleaned up. Winchester was alerted to the issue when someone Tweeted to him, Detroit mayor Mike Duggan and DTE Energy. Come to find out, DTE did not cause the mess. Detroit forestry crews were doing work here at about the same time as the DTE project. However, as it was being sorted out, DTE jumped into action and sent a crew to help. Winchester learned it was a city issue and Detroit city officials were quick to respond, sending a crew out to clean up the large mess and everything left behind. Washburn Street is now clear of the clutter and is no longer a safety concern for those living in the area…

Phys.org, September 10, 2020: Historical climate fluctuations in Central Europe overestimated due to tree ring analysis

“Was there a warm period in the Middle Ages that at least comes close to today’s? Answers to such fundamental questions are largely sought from tree ring data,” explains lead author Josef Ludescher of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). “Our study now shows that previous climate analyses from tree ring data significantly overestimate the climate’s persistence. A warm year is indeed followed by another warm rather than a cool year, but not as long and strongly as tree rings would initially suggest. If the persistence tendency is correctly taken into account, the current warming of Europe appears even more exceptional than previously assumed.” To examine the quality of temperature series obtained from tree rings, Josef Ludescher and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (PIK) as well as Armin Bunde (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen) and Ulf Büntgen (Cambridge University) focused on Central Europe. Main reason for this approach was the existing long observation series dating back to the middle of the 18th century to compare with the tree ring data. In addition, there are archives that accurately recorded the beginning of grape and grain harvests and even go back to the 14th century. These records, as well as the width of tree rings, allow temperature reconstructions. A warm summer is indicated by a wide tree ring and an early start of the harvest, a cold summer by a narrow tree ring and a late start of the harvest. The trees studied are those from altitudes where temperature has a strong influence on growth and where there is enough water for growth even in warm years…

Oakland, California, East Bay Times, September 10, 2020: Legendary West Coast apple tree dies short of its 200th birthday

An apple tree thought to be the oldest in the Pacific Northwest has died at 194 years of age. The Old Apple Tree in Vancouver, Washington, was planted in 1826 when fur traders of the Hudson’s Bay Company settled in the area. It was considered the matriarch of the region’s bustling apple industry and produced a green apple that was on the sour side but great for baking. “While we knew this day would come, we hoped it was still years away,” Charles Ray, urban forester for the City of Vancouver, told CNN. Around 2015, the team of experts caring for the tree noticed that the cambium layer — the growing part of the trunk — was starting to die back, Ray explained. That contributed to the creation of a spiral crack in the trunk, which hollowed out over the years. The tree finally died in June. “The tree itself has taken on its own persona. It’s a living organism, just like us, and it’s been faced with a lifetime of challenges,” Ray said. “It stood there for generations and witnessed the world change around it.” “When anybody speaks of the oldest apple tree in the Northwest, everybody knows it was that apple tree,” David Benscoter, a retired FBI agent who now runs The Lost Apple Project, told CNN. “I’m sure people never thought it could reach that age…”

Tallahassee, Florida, Democrat, September 10, 2020: How to manage drought stress in trees with mulch, water, soil care

Could your trees be dying of thirst? We’ve recently had some heavy rains so surely there is no issue for our favorite trees, right? While we commonly have dramatic heavy rain events, the effects do not always last long. A few days of no rain and our landscapes begin to dry out once again. The thirst that mature trees have is significant. A single live oak can consume hundreds of gallons of water in a single day. That is why we need to constantly consider the needs of our trees and our soil. According to NOAA, the Florida Panhandle has been in a significant long-term deficit for rainfall. NOAA measures drought conditions on a bi-weekly basis and for 80% of the last 32 months, we have been in a below normal or drought condition. This has a number of effects on mature trees that are easily undetected. One of the first things to happen when the soil dries is that roots start to die, starting with the small fine roots first. The dry soil becomes hardened and often filled with air gaps. Roots become dry, brittle, and die. This leads to decay and one of many root rot diseases. Next, the air fills the pores, cracks, and gaps in the soil. That air has to escape before moisture can occupy the pore space…

Sacramento, California, Bee, September 9, 2020: ‘Ground zero’ for dead trees. How California mega-drought turned Creek Fire into inferno

California’s mega-drought officially ended three years ago but may have turned the Creek Fire into a monster. By killing millions of trees in the Sierra National Forest, the historic drought that ended in 2017 left an incendiary supply of dry fuel that appears to have intensified the fire that’s ravaged more than 140,000 acres in the southern Sierra Nevada, wildfire scientists and forestry experts said Tuesday. “The energy produced off that is extraordinary,” said Scott Stephens, a wildfire scientist at UC Berkeley. “Large amounts of woody material burning simultaneously.” What’s more, the Creek Fire is shaping up as a frightening template for other wildfires that could ignite in heavily forested areas that suffered extensive tree loss. “This might provide this first glimpse into the future we’re in for,” said LeRoy Westerling, a climate and wildfire scientist at UC Merced. Brittany Covich of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency that funds projects aimed at reducing wildfire risks in forests, said what’s happening in Fresno County could easily take place in the Tahoe National Forest and other areas with lots of dead trees.“That’s the fear we have across the Sierra Nevada,” Covich said…

Albuquerque, New Mexico, KOB-TV, September 9, 2020: Tree removal companies experience surge in business following storm

The storm Tuesday evening rolled in with business opportunities for tree removal companies. The owners of Eric’s Tree Care, Joel and Bonnie McMullan, said their team was out removing debris from people’s homes since the winds hit. “The phone has been going off since about four yesterday,” said Joel. His wife has been trying to keep up with the calls. “It’s been very hectic. We’ve had limbs fall on houses. Split trees, split in half. We have uprooted trees. The whole thing falls over,” she said. Bonnie said the extra business is a blessing. “It’s important for us to go out and help get these limbs out of people’s houses and everything. We want to make sure their houses are ok,” said Bonnie. However, she said it’s also sort of a curse. They have a crew of only six people. “We’re trying to get to as many as we can, but there’s only so many we can get to in a day,” she said. Other companies like Baca’s Trees are in the same boat. The business says they got more than 50 calls before noon for removals. Needless to say, they’re busy. But they ask people to still call the professionals. Bonnie said it can be dangerous if someone tries to handle a downed tree…

Fremont, Ohio, News-Messenger, September 9, 2020: Tree of Heaven is a devil to control from spreading

“There’s a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly … survives without sun, water, and seemingly earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.” — ”A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” Betty Smith’s best-selling 1943 novel traced the story of Francie Nolan from her impoverished early life in the tenement districts of Brooklyn in 1912 to her first year at the University of Michigan. The tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, was her metaphor for Francie’s iron determination to grow and prosper, even under the most adverse conditions. Smith could hardly have picked a more apt symbol of persistence and the resolve to succeed at all costs. It’s difficult not to admire the tree’s robust life force. On the other hand … For modern urban planners and all but the most forgiving of homeowners, Ailanthus is largely considered a true pain in the derriere. Interesting history, interesting ecology, but an absolute bear to control…

Futurism, September 9, 2020: Too Much CO2 Is Killing Trees, Scientists Say

As humanity continues to pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, scientists had long hoped that a portion of it would get gobbled up by plants — including the Earth’s vast forests — instead of contributing to climate change. They were right — to an extent. The prediction that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide would speed up forest growth held up. But new research suggests that these fast-growing trees also die significantly younger, according to Agence France-Presse, at which point they’d release carbon once again as they decompose. Unfortunately, the link between higher atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and accelerated lifespans was observed across a wide span of tree types and species, according to research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. That suggests that other trees may not be able to pick up the slack. “Our findings, very much like the story of the tortoise and the hare, indicate that there are traits within the fastest growing trees that make them vulnerable, whereas slower growing trees have traits that allow them to persist,” study coauthor and State University of New York forestry expert Steve Voelker said in a press release. For the last few decades, AFP reports, society has reaped the benefits of forests’ ability to absorb atmospheric carbon. But those benefits may soon end, as a sort of environmental reckoning approaches — though, to be fair, University of Arizona researchers found in 2013 that decomposing forests release less carbon than previously predicted…

San Francisco, California, Chronicle, September 8, 2020: Bay Area farm loses 100,000 bay trees in fire — but it’s not the end for this spice company

From the look of it, one Vacaville family farm’s blackened soil and silvery white ghosts of some 100,000 trees might have looked like the end for their spice business. But the Attard family survived a similar fire almost 32 years ago. And this time, they knew something they didn’t know then: Their California laurel trees could start growing back within months. Paul Attard and his family, of Napa Mountain Spice Co., sell certified organic bay leaves to Spice Islands and other companies. They harvest them from the mostly wild California laurel trees that cover their property on a ridge straddling Solano and Napa counties. The land happens to be located right near one of the remote cameras used to monitor wildlife that caught some of the dramatic first moments of the LNU Lightning Complex the night of Aug. 18, which ultimately killed five people and has destroyed almost 1,500 structures. Due to the fire, Attard estimates the company will lose $1 million in sales…

London, UK, Daily Mail, September 9. 2020: Global warming: CO2 ‘reduces lifespan of trees’, study says

Trees with faster growth rates die younger across multiple countries and species, which reduces their overall carbon storage capacity, a new study claims. Researchers analysed tree-ring data of more than 200,000 records of 110 species across Europe, Asia and the Americas. They found faster tree growth, indicated by tree rings, is causing earlier mortality and the release of the carbon back into the atmosphere. Many scientists believe planting more trees will offset the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from human activity. But shorter lifespans of trees will actually make them grow faster and have less time to absorb atmospheric CO2 than anticipated, the new study claims. The new study further calls into question predictions that greater tree growth means greater carbon storage in forests in the long term…

Anchorage, Alaska, Daily News, September 5, 2020: Why are spruce trees turning orange in the Alaska Range?

While wandering middle Alaska this summer, I noticed orange spruce trees along the entire length of the Denali Highway, from Paxson to Cantwell. In what looked like a dendrological case of frostbite, tips of every branch were afflicted with something. The real show happened when the wind blew: An entire valley glowed apricot. After the wind died, a Tang-like orange powder floated on rivers and puddles. It was as if someone had pepper-sprayed the Denali Highway. I suspected an insect outbreak — maybe the orange dust was millions of little eggs laid on spruce branches — but insect expert Derek Sikes of the University of Alaska Museum of the North said bugs were not to blame. It was a tree disease known as spruce needle rust, which infects only the current year’s needles of white, black and Sitka spruce trees. The orange powder is composed of millions of tiny spores, which the rust fungus uses to reproduce. Paul Hennon, an expert on forest diseases, wrote about spruce needle rust fungus in a 2001 bulletin for the Alaska branch of the USDA Forest Service…

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Patriot-News, September 8, 2020: Tree falls on man in York County, killing him: coroner

A man died Monday in Warrington Township when the tree he was cutting down fell on top of him, authorities said. The York County Coroner’s Office was called around 7:33 p.m. for a special rescue on the 800 block of Old Mountain Road. The man was pronounced dead an hour later, according to Coroner Pamela L. Gay. Gay said the man’s death was accidental and the result of “traumatic asphyxiation.” His identity will be released once family and next of kin are notified…

Bangor, Maine, Daily News, September 7, 2020: These funny looking, fuzzy orange galls won’t hurt your oak tree, or you

Orange galls, fuzzy galls or fuzzy orange galls, no matter what you call them if you have an oak tree in your yard or on your property you likely have them. The culprit is the Cynipid wasp, a tiny member of the Vespidae family that lays its eggs on oak tree leaves. “The gall is the plant or tree’s reaction to the insect’s egg,” said Jim Dill, pest management specialist with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. “The leaf tissue grows around the wasp egg.” The gall then serves as a protective shell in which the wasp larvae can grow and feed, Dill said. In the case of the fuzzy orange galls, these growths look like tiny balls of fluff. Early in the summer, they are a light tan. As the season goes on they start to darken until in late August and September they are deep orange and brown. Around that time the gall, with the wasp larvae inside, falls off the leaf and the wasp will burrow into the ground until it pupates. It’s a lifecycle that can last one or two years, Dill said…

Sacramento, California, KCRA-TV, September 5, 2020: PG&E to cut down 200+ trees in Nevada County

People in Nevada City learned this week that Pacific Gas and Electric will begin cutting down more than 200 trees beginning next week. PG&E said it’s out of safety. Some residents, however, claim the utility is not handling the tree removal process correctly. Bob Nienaber, who lives along West Broad Street in Nevada City, recently noticed somebody spray painting the tree in his front yard and wondered what was going on. When he asked what crews were doing, he said he was told “PG&E was going to be removing a couple of trees in its path of sight to make sure the lines were safe.” When he got in his car and drove up the street, he said he “started seeing the markings everywhere.” Nienaber learned PG&E is scheduled to chop down 263 area trees beginning the day after Labor Day. City Planner Amy Wolfson confirmed the action. “About a hundred of those are on city property,” she said. “And then the remaining trees are all on private property.” Workers had marked which ones would be coming down with yellow spray paint. PG&E sent KCRA a statement, saying in part: “PG&E is required by law to assess and manage vegetation that poses a threat, including trimming overhanging limbs and branches above power lines…”

Las Vegas, Nevada, Sun, September 7, 2020: Climate change threatens Joshua Tree’s traditional home

Drive just outside of Las Vegas and they appear. Twisted, warped, their branches reaching out like alien hands, the Joshua tree is a symbol of the Mojave Desert. But the survival of the tree in its traditional range is at risk because of climate change, according to the National Park Service. With the desert getting hotter, drier and more susceptible to wildfires, some of the tree’s habitat could become inhospitable to the plant, scientists say. Joshua Tree National Park, about 200 miles from Las Vegas in California, could be virtually bare of the plant by 2070, according to a 2019 study by the University of California, Riverside. In the best-case scenarios, a sharp reduction of greenhouse gases could keep the trees at 18.6% of their historic range — from western Arizona to eastern California, the study found. The demise of the tree would “represent the collapse of the higher-elevation Mojave Desert ecosystem,” said Patrick Donnelly, the state director for the Center for Biological Diversity. The tree provides food and shelter for many desert animals, he said. The Joshua Tree Genome Project, a multistate scientific collaboration, has set out to sequence the tree’s genome to gain insight into how the tree might adapt to a changing climate…

Ars Technica, September 5, 2020: Could a tree help find a decaying corpse nearby?

Since 1980, the University of Tennessee’s Forensic Anthropology Center has plumbed the depths of the most macabre of sciences: the decomposition of human bodies. Known colloquially as the Body Farm, here scientists examine how donated cadavers decay, like how the microbiomes inside us go haywire after death. That microbial activity leads to bloat, and—eventually—a body will puncture. Out flows a rank fluid of nutrients, especially nitrogen, for plants on the Body Farm to subsume. That gave a group of University of Tennessee, Knoxville researchers an idea: what if that blast of nutrients actually changes the color and reflectance of a tree’s leaves? And, if so, what if law enforcement authorities could use a drone to scan a forest, looking for these changes to find deceased missing people? Today in the journal Trends in Plant Science, researchers are formally floating the idea—which, to be clear, is still theoretical. The researchers are just beginning to study how a plant’s phenotype—its physical characteristics—might change if a human body is composing nearby. “What we’re proposing is to use plants as indicators of human decomposition, to hopefully be able to use individual trees within the forest to help pinpoint where someone has died, to help in body recovery,” says UT Knoxville plant biologist Neal Stewart, coauthor on the new paper. As a large mammal like a human decomposes in a forest, its breakdown transforms the soil in a number of ways. The body’s “necrobiome”—all the bacteria that was already in it when it was alive—replicates like crazy in the absence of an immune system. This necrobiome mixes with the microbes in the dirt. “The soil microbiome will change and, of course, the plant roots will also sense some changes,” says Stewart. But, he adds, “we don’t really know what those changes are…”

 

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