A federal judge says any plans to remove trees to make way for the long-debated Champlain Parkway in Burlington should be paused — at least temporarily. U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford’s decision came one day before critics of the project say tree removal was scheduled to begin. Crawford approved a request for an emergency temporary restraining order in an ongoing lawsuit led by those critics, who call themselves the Friends of Pine Street. In May, the group filed a motion for preliminary injunction, which would pause the project until the lawsuit could be either settled or heard by a jury, but Crawford has not yet made a decision on that motion, according to court files. The project, which has been debated and delayed by various legal actions for decades, would connect Burlington’s downtown with Interstate 189. The city hoped to begin construction on the parkway this summer. Despite the ongoing lawsuit, an update that the Friends of Pine Street say was issued by the city’s project team Tuesday announced that construction vehicles were being mobilized on June 14 and that the crews would begin clearing trees and stumps between Home Avenue and Lakeside Avenue the next day. The city of Burlington did not respond to multiple attempts to verify that announcement, which was attached to the motion as evidence and contained hyperlinks to the parkway’s project website…
Linda Smalley was at work when a tree from a vacant lot around the corner fell into her backyard, crushing her fence and knocking pieces off her deck. When she saw the damage and thought about how much it would cost to fix, “all I could do was walk away,” the 63-year-old Germantown homeowner said. “That was a hard hit.” After some of the shock wore off, she started contacting city and state officials. “I just knew I was gonna get some help,” she said. That was in 2016. Six years later, part of the tree is still lying in her yard. Smalley can barely see the tree itself, now hidden beneath the plants that have crept over it season after season, year after year. Smalley, who has owned her home for two decades, has discovered how difficult seemingly straightforward problems can become and how elusive help can be for folks without a lot of money in Philadelphia. A fallen tree can turn into a years-long headache for homeowners who have unaccommodating neighbors and can’t afford removal. Because of the circumstances around the tree’s collapse onto Smalley’s property, city departments and officials say they can’t do anything to help…
Sacramentans should continue to water their trees regularly despite the city’s watering restrictions on lawns and landscapes. While residents can only water their lawns and landscapes twice a week during the dry season until the end of October, trees are exempt from this restriction, according to the city. Why are trees exempt from this rule, and how can I keep my trees healthy? Trees make up a significant part of Sacramento, with the city maintaining around 100,000 trees, said Carlos Eliason, spokesman with the city’s department of utilities. “It’s a huge part of our landscape,” Eliason said. “They provide a lot of benefits, and we want to keep them healthy during times of drought.” Some benefits of trees include shade, oxygen, better air quality, less erosion and pollution, and more. In Sacramento, trees provide shade for homes and buildings, helping to reduce energy consumption. Unlike other plants on lawns, trees don’t grow back as easily, and can take hundreds of years to reach their full maturity, Eliason said. During last year’s drought, many trees died off due to a lack of water…
Psychology Today, June 13, 2022: Trees Lower Medication Sales for Heart and Mood Disorders
Although I’ve spent a significant proportion of my life studying social behavior in various wild mammals and birds, I’ve always been impressed with how being in forests and among diverse flora calms me down—taking time to smell the roses, if you will—and makes me deeply appreciate the environs in which I’ve been extremely fortunate to spend a great deal of time. As part of this personal rewilding, I’ve often wondered not only why this is so but also what the trees and other flora are experiencing—if they’re thinking and feeling in their own ways. While some people have thought this is rather bizarre, recent research has clearly shown that asking if plants are intelligent, are able to learn, have their own sorts of feelings, or can actually affect our behavior isn’t all that weird. A few weeks ago, I read a fascinating book called Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America by German forester and best-selling author Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst, which focuses on how we use all our senses when we walk in the woods and how we can become “forest detectives” and awaken “to the ancient past and thrilling present of the ecosystem around you…”
They are the largest trees in the world, living monuments with massive trunks and towering canopies that can thrive for 3,000 years. But ancient sequoia trees, which have been decimated by severe wildfires around California’s Sierra Nevada, are struggling to keep up with ever worsening conditions. And this summer, they could face their worst fate yet. The trees, which grow in a narrow band of the Sierra Nevada, are accustomed to frequent wildfires — their tree rings show fire recurring every six to 30 years. But the worsening intensity of recent blazes have been too much for them to handle. Since 2020, three fires have resulted in the loss of 13 to 19 percent of the entire population, said Christy Brigham, chief of resources management and science at Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. In August 2020, the Castle Fire killed up to 10,600 trees. And as many as 3,637 sequoias were killed or will ultimately die as a result of the September 2021 Windy and KNP Complex fires in the southern Sierra Nevada, according to the National Park Service…
Three workers with Solvay Electric Department were hospitalized after being electrocuted Tuesday morning. The Solvay Police Chief tells CNY Central two of the workers were in a bucket trimming trees when a tree limb hit the powerline and burnt them in the face. The third worker suffered a cardiac incident on the ground. Now, the National Grid is weighing in on the dangers between powerlines and trees. Jared Paventi, who is the strategic communications manager of National Grid says “electricity is dangerous.” He says it is safer to assume the worst saying people should assume any wire is a live wire. After hearing about what happened in his village, Solvay resident Josh Belser says needs to cut down some branches in his own yard. He says the risk is not worth “ignoring a few branches.” Paventi stresses no one should ever underestimate the power of a fallen tree or powerline when in some cases, they can be deadly…
Trees are workhorses on a farm. Stream bank trees improve and protect local water quality. Their strong roots help keep soil in place, their leaves provide shade and a natural fence for grazing animals and livestock and fruit and nut species can provide an entirely new crop for farmers. Take it from Lancaster County farmer, Tim Sauder, who’s “Aha” moment sprang from a little patch of grass under a black walnut tree along the driveway by his house. The best grass on the dairy farm, especially in summer when pastureland is typically brown, hot, and dry, was under that tree. “A little bit of shade helps those grasses to really thrive,” Sauder said. “That is what the cows really like.” Sauder’s farm, Fiddle Creek Dairy became the first of five farms to plant trees as part of a three-year study about silvopasture-the intentional integration of trees and grazing livestock on the same land. When planted and mature in a pasture, trees can enhance herd health by offering shade, shelter, better quality grazing, and reduced stress on livestock, especially during summer’s relentless heat. Livestock return the favor as they graze in pastures, providing manure that feeds trees and makes the soil healthy. And they find a fun way to interact with the shelters that protect the trees as they grow…
A layer of mulch is a powerful way to defend your plants against summer heat, drought and overbearing weeds, while improving the soil to nourish their roots. But what is the best kind of mulch? “There are many materials you can use to create a mulch layer,” said Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist in the Plant Clinic at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “The critical thing is that it should always be made from plants.” Plant-based mulch is powerful because it emulates the way plants live in nature. When leaves, stalks, dead branches, and other plant materials fall to the ground, they form a protective layer over the soil. That layer of leaf litter keeps soil moist around plants’ roots and insulates them against extremes of heat and cold. Over time, a wide array of soil-dwelling organisms, including insects, fungi and bacteria, will consume the litter, breaking it down to improve the soil…
The parkway in front of Marco De La Rosa’s home remains bare. There isn’t a sapling to bloom in spring or a shade tree to temper the summer heat along this stretch of seven properties in a row in Gage Park, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood on the Southwest Side. De La Rosa tried to change that. More than 2 ½ years ago, the former environmental science student asked the city to plant a tree. He’s still waiting. “I feel disappointed,” he told the Tribune. “But I also don’t feel surprised.” Over the past decade the city has backtracked on ambitious goals made years ago to provide residents with trees, particularly on the South and West sides where researchers say trees are needed the most, a Tribune investigation found. The failures come as research shows trees blunt the warmer, wetter effects of climate change in the Great Lakes region…
A tree surgeon was crushed to death while cutting down a dying Ash tree on a National Trust estate which fell on top of her after being sheared off 25ft above where she was stood, an inquest heard. Debbie Austin, 42, had been felling diseased Ash trees at Ightham Mote, in Sevenoaks, Kent, in December last year. The ‘highly experienced’ arborist had been working as part of a team of three when the trunk of the Ash unexpectedly split and collapsed onto her. She had been working for Estate and Field Management Ltd, to clear a number of the dying trees for the National Trust estate on December 7. An inquest into her death heard that the standard way to fell trees is to climb them and cut into small sections from the top. But Ash trees with dieback disease are known to be brittle, making them too dangerous to climb and use the normal method of cutting the foliage safely. Coroner James Dillon heard that Miss Austin and her two colleagues, William Jordan and Jerry Edwards, agreed to use the more traditional method of cutting the tree manually from the bottom of the trunk…
BBC Wildlife magazine, June 13, 2022: Oak tree guide: The secret life of the oak
The oak is a symbol of strength and essence of Englishness, and is a vital and fascinating haven for wildlife. In Britain, oak trees host at least 280 species of insect – more than any other native tree. These feast on the seeds, wood, flowers and foliage, so during their growing season oaks face onslaughts from armies of leaf-chewers, sap-suckers, leaf-miners and galls. None forms a more crucial link in woodland food-webs than the leaf-eating larvae of three moths: the mottled umber, winter moth and green oak tortrix, which can sometimes defoliate entire branches. In spring, these moths’ eggs hatch and their caterpillars provide food for tits, pied flycatchers and other songbirds; at the height of the breeding season, a pair of blue tits may feed 700 caterpillars to their nestlings each day. Tits and flycatchers – for which oaks also provide nest sites in tree-trunk cavities – synchronise their egg-laying with oak bud-burst and the hatching of moths’ eggs. If either event moves by only a couple of weeks, it can have a huge impact on the birds’ breeding success…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing its plans for combatting the Asian long-horned beetle (ALB) infestations in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina in 2022. Every year, APHIS evaluates and determines the most effective options to achieve ALB eradication and eliminate the pest from the United States. “People living in and around ALB infestations are part of the eradication strategy,” said Josie Ryan, APHIS’ National Operations Manager for the Asian Long-horned Beetle Eradication Program. “Checking your trees for the beetle and reporting any suspicious tree damage helps us find the beetle sooner and eliminates the beetle quicker, which saves more trees.” Currently, 288.4 square miles are under federal quarantine for ALB in the United States: 110 square miles in Worcester County; 53 square miles in central Long Island, New York; 49 square miles in Clermont County, Ohio; and 76.4 square miles in Charleston and Dorchester counties, South Carolina…
Every day for 40 years, John D. Sweetman sat beneath an old oak tree in his yard and waved to the cars driving by on Route 896. He was “a working man,” his great-grandson Matthew Sweetman said; so when he retired from working on the farm that he bought in the 1940s, he wanted to sit outside, smoke his pipe and talk to people. Pennsylvania-based artist Kathy Ruck was one of the many who traveled past the Sweetman farm on her way to work, and seeing John Sweetman beneath the tree became a part of her daily commute for almost a decade. “It just made everybody’s day to see him there,” Ruck said. Even after John Sweetman died in 1990 and parts of the farm were sold and converted into luxury homes, the white oak lived on. And then, on June 7, it fell. “I was in disbelief,” Matthew Sweetman said. The tree – which Matthew Sweetman estimated to be over 300 years old – had always seemed “kind of invincible” to him. He said he was at the beach when his father, who lived next to the farm, called to tell him that the tree had “completely toppled over…”
People who lived in northern Aroostook County during the early 1980s remember the invasion of forest tent caterpillars that swarmed the area in the millions. Memories of roads made slick with crushed caterpillars and the stench when the insects died en masse in large numbers still linger. That’s why St. John Valley residents who have noticed more tent caterpillars than usual creeping into the neighborhoods are a little nervous. With woods covering nearly 90 percent of Maine and the forest products industry contributing more than $8 billion to the state’s economy, an insect that can strip deciduous trees of leaves is a formidable threat. The caterpillars were first seen in eastern Quebec and by 1979 were found in approximately 20,000 acres of St. John Valley woodlands. In 1980, they had spread into northern Maine, infesting 120,000 acres and reaching their peak at around 800,000 acres in 1982, according to Maine Forest Service entomologist Dave Struble in a 2018 interview. “My brother got married in late May [1981] and it was awful,” Leland Roy of Fort Kent said. “Roads were gross with so many caterpillars being run over and you could hear them pop under the tires…”
One of the largest trees in the state is coming down. A mammoth of an Elm tree in Lisbon, ND has been diagnosed with Dutch Elm Disease. The tree located at Rose Street Park is an American Elm, which is the North Dakota state tree. It ranks second in the state for the species on the 2021 Register of Champion Trees. It has a circumference of 17 feet and 7 inches, is 58 feet tall, and has an average crown spread of 100 feet. Residents say it has been a point of interest and brought fond memories for many generations. Some want to turn the tree into keepsakes, which may not be possible due to the disease. The report submitted by the NDSU Plant Diagnostic Lab recommends the tree be removed because trees infected with Dutch Elm Disease can spread the disease to healthy trees…
Boy, it has been a bad couple of years for trees. Not only did we lose a lot of trees to last year’s cold, but there are a lot of trees that were heavily damaged from that same cold that need a lot of pruning. Not to mention that there are a lot of trees that took damage from that cold, but aren’t really showing it right now. Mostly, this “hidden damage” is confined to live oaks and some red oaks. The problem with this is, that even if a tree has a full canopy and looks good, it’s not as strong as it looks, and other problems that come along may be able to get a foothold – or at least more of a foothold in the tree than they normally could – as the trees’ defenses will be weakened. To top that off, there have been a lot of fires this year that destroyed a lot of trees. And by the way, I’m not trying to lessen the damage to structures and other capital property that people suffered – I’ve been to some of the burned areas, and that kind of damage was pretty severe in some places, and I feel for those people…
The Town of Mashpee is fining three property owners who defied a stop-work order by clear-cutting trees on their land in violation of a town bylaw, Town Manager Rodney C. Collins said during a Mashpee Select Board meeting on Monday, June 6. Landowners began work on June 2 to cut down trees on four lots of previously wooded land behind Chapman Funerals & Cremations on Route 151, bounded by Algonquin Avenue to the east. Not all of the trees have been cut down, Mr. Collins said, but it is “a significant amount.” The town was made aware of the clear-cutting by an abutter to the properties and conducted an inspection, finding the action to be in violation of Chapter 84, Section 2, of the town bylaws, Mr. Collins said. This bylaw requires property owners to have an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan to remove a significant amount of existing vegetation on their land. The town issued stop-work orders on June 3 to each property owner…
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is taking additional action following suspected price gouging after last month’s tornado in Gaylord. The Notice of Intended Action (NIA) is related to but separate from a Department action taken against Canary Date Sculpting – doing business as Canary Tree Service – last month. The Department received a consumer complaint related to the removal of two trees following the May 20 tornado. The company that approached the resident was identified as E & B Contracting, a limited liability company from Kentucky. Prior to meeting with the representative from E & B Contracting, the resident had received a quote from a Gaylord-area tree service to remove the two trees for $4,200 if paid by insurance. “According to the consumer, you told her you could do the work for less than the price that had been bid by the local company. In so doing, you persuaded her to not trouble her friends, and assured her the billing would be done to her insurance company and she would not have to pay anything out-of-pocket,” the NIA states. The NIA also explains that the E & B representative said that he would provide a written cost estimate before starting the work, only for the consumer to later learn the job was done without that commitment being met. Through investigating the complaint, it was determined the billing for E & B Contracting was submitted to insurance by Canary Tree Service, which is the same company that faces its own NIA currently. The invoice submitted for the removal of the two trees was for $33,962.50, thus prompting the new NIA filed against E & B Contracting Wednesday…
New research from an international team of researchers reveals that tree growth seems to be restricted by cell growth rather than photosynthesis. The study was published in the journal Science on May 12th and was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II. The study also has startling implications. Forests currently absorb and store a large portion of our current carbon dioxide emissions. If forest growth slows, so will the trees’ capacity to absorb carbon and slow climate change. Additionally, the study found that photosynthesis and tree development react differently to different climate cues, suggesting that existing forest carbon sequestration models may overestimate forests’ ability to store atmospheric carbon. The results highlight the significance of accounting for mechanisms other than photosynthesis when predicting how much carbon trees can store…
More than 150 trees have been marked for removal along Cleveland Avenue in both Falcon Heights and St. Paul, but before they’re gone tree lovers will hold a funeral for them – or perhaps a celebration. According to Ramsey County officials, Cleveland Avenue will be reconstructed from Como Avenue to Larpenteur Avenue in both directions – the purpose of the project being to replace aging pavement, stormwater infrastructure, and city utilities (water main and sanitary sewer), then construct a new separated trail and sidewalk. Following community meetings, Ramsey County’s design team identified a road layout with one driving lane in each direction, one bike lane in each direction, and a multi-use path on the east side of Cleveland Avenue that it determined was best for the public. But before crews start cutting, the trees will be celebrated one final time. “Will it be a funeral march or a celebratory parade? We’re not sure,” said People for the Cleveland Avenue Trees in a news release…
Associated Press, June 8, 2022: Florida faces $1.2 million verdict for killing citrus trees
The owner of a commercial nursery has won a $1.2 million judgment against the Florida Department of Agriculture in the latest verdict against the state agency for destroying citrus trees in the 2000s during an attempt to stop the spread of costly tree diseases. A jury in Orlando last week determined the state agency had destroyed more than 160,000 citrus plants in an effort to stop citrus greening and Gary Mahon deserved the $1.2 million as compensation at fair market value. Mahon’s company, Pokey’s Lake Gem Citrus Nursery, cultivates fruit trees in Zellwood, Florida. The Department of Agriculture had argued Mahon did not deserve compensation since he could have avoided his losses by moving his citrus plants into greenhouses. Mahon’s attorneys disputed that interpretation of the law. In 2008, Florida lawmakers passed legislation requiring citrus plant growers to sell or destroy plants not grown in greenhouses to protect the state’s citrus industry from citrus greening. Citrus greening is among the biggest threats to the U.S. citrus industry since infected trees produce fruits that are green, misshapen and bitter. The disease can eventually kill infected trees, though it is harmless to humans. “While the Florida Legislature and Department of Agriculture meant well by passing and enforcing this law, it had a catastrophic impact on citrus nursery growers,” said Alexander Clem, Mahon’s attorney. “Our client fought for years to get justice for the thousands-upon-thousands of plants he was forced to destroy, and we are thrilled he will be compensated and can move on with his life…”
Fast Company, June 9, 2022: Tree planting programs can actually do more harm than good
French oil giant TotalEnergies announced last November that it aims to plant 40,000 hectares (or more than 98,000 acres) of trees in the Republic of the Congo. It’s an offset program for the multinational oil company, which will ostensibly allow it to neutralize its carbon emissions; the trees will capture an estimated 10 million tons over 20 years. But the company opted to plant acacias in the Batéké Plateau, a region of savanna in Central Africa. Many experts think it’s a mismatch of environment and species, meaning the trees won’t thrive, and they’ll endanger existing ecosystems. In the past 30 years, tree planting has increased by 288%. Trees are planted for a number of reasons: for forest restoration; to produce commodity crops like rubber; for wood supply; and by companies and organizations claiming to help combat climate change and biodiversity loss. But more often than not, it’s not done right—with groups planting species in inappropriate locations, and with a lack of follow-through to ensure trees are surviving. A new study aimed to assess the extent of this problem, finding that tree planting is extremely widespread, including in incompatible environments. As a better solution to climate change, the study’s author favors allowing the natural regrowth of forests over continued forced planting…
Live Science, June 8, 2022: Is this the oldest tree in the world?
The world’s oldest tree may have been standing for centuries when the first boulders were erected at Stonehenge, new research suggests. The ancient giant, an alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides) known as the “Gran Abuelo” (or great grandfather in Spanish) that towers over a ravine in the Chilean Andes, may be roughly 5,400 years old, a new computer model suggests. If that date can be confirmed, it would make the Gran Abuelo nearly 600 years older than the current official record holder(opens in new tab) for world’s oldest tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) in California known as “Methuselah.” However, the alerce’s exact age is still somewhat contested, because confirming that requires analysis of the tree’s rings — a method known as dendrochronology, and the gold standard for determining a tree’s age — and that data is currently incomplete. The underlying data for the model has not yet been publicly released or submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. Whatever its age, the tree is in peril and needs to be protected, said Jonathan Barichivich, a climate and global ecology scientist at the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory in Paris, and the researcher who created the model. “It’s really in poor condition because of tourism,” and the tree has also been affected by climate change, Barichivich told Live Science
Nicolas Troyano is on a mission to remove the invasive ivy that is strangling so many huge trees in Chestnut Hill. He even has a slogan for his campaign, which always seems to elicit a smile. “I call it ‘If you give a schist about Chestnut Hill, please eliminate invasive English ivy!’” Troyano said. The Chestnut Hill resident has been on a one-man crusade since last fall, taking it upon himself to cut English ivy away from the massive trees near the entrance to Cresheim Valley Drive, just off the intersection with Lincoln Drive. Troyano’s late father came to the U.S. in 1936 to get away from the Spanish Civil War, where he was on the Republican, anti-Fascist side. He escaped on a Russian ship and became a deep sea navigator and pilot. Troyano, who grew up in Brooklyn and Long Island, came to Philadelphia in 2005 for a three-year internship in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and decided to settle here after earning his doctorate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At first, he lived in West Philadelphia, but moved to Chestnut Hill in 2010 when he said his Penn-area neighborhood became too dangerous. “I fell in love with the Wissahickon,” Troyano said. “I never saw a park like this in a city anywhere, and I have traveled the world. I never saw trees this size outside of California…”
The science surrounding the iconic western Joshua tree is grim. The tree’s suitable habitat is expected to decline substantially by 2100 due to climate change, especially in the southern portions of its range — meaning the Joshua tree would largely be unable to survive in its namesake park by the end of this century. Identifying and protecting areas known as “climate refugia,” where Joshua trees may be able to thrive at higher elevations amid rising temperatures and climate change, will become even more important to the species’ survival. Outside of the park, the western Joshua tree’s habitat extends northeast through fast-growing high desert cities like Victorville, Hesperia and Palmdale, where California residents themselves have increasingly sought refuge from high housing prices — a crucial point for opponents who say listing the species would slow development in the region. Approximately 40% of the western Joshua tree’s range is on private lands, and one analysis by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service projected that between 22% and 42% of the habitat within the southern part of the tree’s range may be lost by 2095 due to urban growth and renewable energy development, although less than 1% of the habitat within the northern part of the tree’s range in Inyo and Kern counties is expected to be lost during that same time period…
One live oak in downtown Charleston won’t provide shade to passersby much longer. The oak on Murray Boulevard is caught in the crosshairs of renovations to the Low Battery sea wall, one of the city’s most popular pedestrian destinations. Nearby resident JoAnn Dobres said she grew concerned about the tree’s fate as she saw construction fencing popping up around it. She has admired it from her window since moving to the area a year ago. When construction started, she began asking neighbors if they knew anything about the city’s plans for the tree. “There’s been a sense of us having a blocked view which I never felt,” she said. “It always felt to me that it was a part of the view.” The four-phase sea wall renovation project underway is the first major overhaul of the Low Battery since it was constructed in the early 1900s. As it faced deterioration, city officials planned not only to reconstruct the wall and the pedestrian walkway alongside it but also include drainage improvements and raise the height of the wall to better tackle sea level rise…
It is an inevitable problem faced by the Florida Department of Transportation: spend thousands to landscape a state roadway, then risk having it damaged by a car crashing into it. Recently a car slid off the exit ramp from the Hart Expressway to University Boulevard, apparently missing newly planted trees and hopefully sparing the driver any injuries. But those trees and lots more the FDOT just planted as part of an $880,000 landscaping project on the Hart Expressway are in their last months of becoming one with the land. So what does the FDOT do if a crash damages landscaping? Whenever damage occurs on state roads and adjoining property, the FDOT tries to recover losses with the appropriate insured party, spokesman Hampton Ray said. This includes damage to guardrails, overpasses due to over-height vehicles like on Hendricks Avenue recently and replacement to landscaping in its establishment phase. “For beautification projects, the contractor will work to salvage damaged landscaping,” Ray said. “Depending on the damage to the landscaping, additional funds may be necessary and paid by the insured party to recover losses…”
There is an abundance of green flakes coating the sidewalks and cars right now, and it seems hard to avoid the white cottony tufts in the air lately. There’s green film on the waters along the shores of Lake Champlain and if the wind blows, be prepared to be met with clouds of fluff. So what is happening with all this green film and white fluff? The short answer: oak, birch, and cottonwood trees are releasing a lot of pollen, but the good news is that tree pollen will be on its way out shortly. So although budding trees in May have produced all the pollen in the air, as spring transitions into summer, the ever-present pollen will fade. The green dust that has been coating cars, the sidewalks, and anywhere else it can find is most likely birch or oak pollen. These two types of trees produce the yellow and green colored pollen that is building up in the area…
Phys.org, June 6, 2022: Research finds tree plantations encroaching on essential ecosystems
Trees store carbon, filter the air, create habitat, and supply a host of other benefits for animals and people. Planting the right trees, in the right places, in consultation with local communities, can support goals like addressing climate change and improving lives. However, new research led by Matthew Fagan, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC, finds that some trees planted in the tropics may be doing more harm than good. The study, published in Nature Sustainability, examined the increase in tree cover across the global tropics between 2000 and 2012. Fagan and colleagues found that, surprisingly, tree cover gains during that period were equally attributable to natural forest regrowth and the creation of tree plantations. The most common tree plantation species were rubber, eucalyptus, and oil palm. Tree plantations are not always harmful to the environment, and even much-maligned oil palm can be farmed sustainably, Fagan explains. However, the study found that 92 percent of new tree plantations were in biodiversity hotspots, threatening a range of plant and animal species. Also, 14 percent of plantations were in arid biomes, where trees are unlikely to thrive and likely to damage existing ecosystems. And tree plantations had encroached into 9 percent of accessible protected areas in the humid tropics, such as national parks…
An estimated 640 trees were cut down over the past year in Vancouver because of a city council decision last June connected to reducing wait times for builders to begin construction on tree-covered properties. The temporary change to a section of the tree bylaw allowed builders to cut down trees up to 30 centimetres in diameter, an increase from the 20-centimetre threshold established long ago by council. The move was done to allow “low-risk” permit applications from builders to be processed faster and only require an arborist’s report when trees exceeded a certain size, or if a life-safety issue was connected to a property’s landscape. In a report before council in June 2021, city staff estimated 200 small trees would be lost over the year-long relaxation of the bylaw. But a new report that goes before council Tuesday (June 7) said approximately 640 trees were felled over the past year…
Longtime city resident Toni Wurth likens recent work done on her property to a “tree massacre.” Florida Power & Light (FPL) “asked me several months ago if they could prune around the power lines on my property,” said Wurth, whose property stands on the west end of town and between U.S. Highway 98 and Santa Rosa Sound. “I agreed.” She said that on May 23, a crew from FPL “literally butchered several hundred square feet beside my driveway. They not only destroyed my trees but didn’t clean up well and left huge ruts from their tires and scattered plant debris.” According to an FPL spokesman, the company followed industry-standard pruning guidelines and would repair the ruts and perform other cleanups. The recent work was the first time a power company cut trees and other vegetation on her property in the 30 years that she’s lived there, Wurth said…
Bradford pears (Pyrus calleryana) are one of my least-favorite trees, to put it as nicely as possible. From a distance (and behind closed windows), their display is quite beautiful. Their smooth, dark trunks and branches topped with enormous clouds of white flowers make an impressive sight, especially when there are dozens of them flanking a stretch of a suburban parkway. These trees became a favorite of landscapers and designers because they are hardy, grow quickly to an impressive height, bloom in the spring, and provide fall color. I also imagine that these landscape designers did not actually live anywhere near these demon trees. Like so many pretty things, there’s a dark side to these trees. They have become such a problem that some areas have banned the sale of this cultivar and are paying homeowners to remove and replace them…
For months, JC Davis has been trying to rally his community to fight for the trees that surround his lifelong home. He and other residents around Summit Lake are worried that a planned Department of Natural Resources timber harvest could result in landslides, flooding and water quality issues. Several local and statewide environmental groups have joined the cause, and more than 500 people have signed a petition titled “Save Summit Lake!” The Thurston County Board of Commissioners is the newest group to join the fight. The board, made up of Carolina Mejia, Gary Edwards and Tye Menser, sent a letter to state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and the Board of Natural Resources on June 1 opposing the proposed Delica cuts above the south shore of Summit Lake. The letter states that the proposed cut of 16 acres would create flooding, property damage, increased sedimentation, water quality problems and more. “The collateral effects of these particular cuts are unacceptable given the particular context of their proximity to Summit Lake,” the commissioners wrote…
With a pop like a potato chip bag bursting, the plastic bags holding hundreds of itty-bitty tree seeds exploded like confetti across the vacuum chamber. It’s February 1971, and astronaut Stuart Roosa has just returned from flying the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. Loblolly Pine, Sycamore and Sweet Gum seeds, all three natives to Texas, traveled 238,900 miles into space tucked neatly into Command Module pilot Roosa’s personal items. The U.S. Forest Service chose five North American tree species for the journey. Roosa had an early connection with nature. At 17, he joined the forest service to prevent wildfires and preserve forests. Overcoming a fear of heights, Roosa successfully became a smoke jumper — an elite group of fire fighters that parachute into otherwise inaccessible wilderness areas. The thrill of flying and mission-oriented work appealed to Roosa, soon set on a life in the air. Roosa’s path from conservation to NASA went by way of becoming a U.S. Air Force pilot. Completing gunnery training at Del Rio AFB in Texas, Roosa earned his wings at Williams AFB in Arizona. In 1966, Roosa joined the Apollo program…
Strangely splendid, the Joshua tree of the Mojave Desert captivated Minerva Hamilton Hoyt. A wealthy Southern belle and Pasadena socialite, Hoyt’s desert trip in the late 1890s consumed her imagination. The landscape seemed surreal, as if transplanted from another planet. The desert, and specifically Joshua trees, would define much of her life ever after. In an appeal to conservationists in 1929, the Los Angeles Times quoted Hoyt: “Over thirty years ago I spent my first night in the Mojave desert of California and was entranced by the magnificence of the Joshua grove in which we were camping and which was thickly sown with desert juniper and many rare forms of desert plant life. A month ago … I visited the same spot again,” she continued. “Imagine the surprise and the shock of finding a barren acreage with scarcely a Joshua tree left standing and the whole face of the landscape a desolate waste, denuded of its growth for commercialism.” Hoyt systematically set about protecting the rest of the beloved desert from the same fate. She consciously cultivated respect for desert plants through a series of extravagant desert displays in Boston, New York and London. The Los Angeles Times characterized the shows as incredibly lavish, noting that Hoyt filled seven freight cars with desert rocks, plants and sand and shipped it all back East. She flew in desert flowers twice a day, storing them in her hotel bathtub before installation…
Need to cool off? Grow your own shade by planting this summer with Trees Louisville to make money back on purchases of trees in Jefferson County. Trees Louisville, a nonprofit organization, is partnering with Louisville Parks and Recreation, offering rebates for Jefferson County residents for each tree (three maximum) they purchase and plant. The organization was founded in 2015 with the rebates program starting in the spring of 2017. Trees Louisville has given out rebates for more than 700 trees since its inception. Rebates are being offered only for certain types of trees available through a list on the Trees Louisville website, including…
Outside Buckingham Palace in London, a towering “Tree of Trees” has been erected as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The sculpture, made of 350 smaller trees and plants, was designed by British “starchitect” Thomas Heatherwick and will serve as the centerpiece for one of the celebration’s key events — the lighting of beacons across the UK to honor the British monarch’s 70 years of service. The 69-foot tall “Tree of Trees” comprises hundreds of indigenous British species ranging from hazel to field maple trees — each planted in aluminum pots decorated with the Queen’s cypher. According to Buckingham Palace, the installation aims to “put the importance of trees and nature at the heart of (the Jubilee)” and the Queen’s global tree planting efforts over her seven decade reign. It also reflects a recent tree-planting initiative by The Queen’s Green Canopy, that led to one million trees planted between October 2021 and March 2022. The sculpture has been divisive on social media since its unveiling last week. One user wrote that the design was “absolutely beautiful,” while another likened it to resembling a “cell phone tower.” The “Tree of Trees” has also drawn comparisons to London’s much maligned artificial hill, the Marble Arch Mound, a temporary visitor attraction that was widely criticized on social media. Marble Arch Mound was designed to inject more nature into the city but was seen to have completely missed the mark. Some users similarly believe the ‘Tree of Trees’ bears little resemblance to a tree…
A couple who had been together for 12 years were killed on Sunday, May 29, when a tree toppled onto them as they were camping, Wisconsin cops say. Sandy Michael Langseth II, 39, and April Marie Sheldahl, 45, from White Bear Township, Minnesota, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Price County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin. Deputies say Langseth and Sheldahl were seated at a picnic table while camping along Flambeau River when the tree fell on top of them. A third person seated at the picnic table was uninjured, as was a fourth person who was at the campsite, the sheriff’s office said. Fishermen aided the campers until first responders arrived. One of them, according to deputies, noticed the wind pick up in the area about 10 minutes before they heard the tree fall, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. An obituary for Sheldahl states she “enjoyed being a mother, laughing with friends, being outside, campfires, fishing, gardening, flowers, plants and being with friends and family…”
R.J. Ellison sized up the gash broken into the aspen tree rooted in the mulch bed before him. Several injectable vial-like containers of green liquid spilled out of his tool bag laid on the fertilizer near the tree’s base. After measuring the diameter of each of the three narrow, divergent trunks, Ellison removed a drill and punched a shallow hole into the tree, low to the ground. Lining up the tip of the fungicide and nutrient solution into the opening, he tapped the small bottle in, breaking through the thin bark and letting the vascular system begin absorbing the liquid. “The process starts instantly, that it’s trying to seal this wound,” said Ellison, a certified arborist and Wyoming Lawn Pro employee. Each trunk would get two small drill holes and each hole would get one dose of the nutrient mix, aimed toward fighting back the Cystospora canker plaguing that aspen and other trees in Campbell County this year. Although the fungicide and nutrient treatment may help, there is no cure for the tree disease affecting trees in the area this season. The drought conditions of last summer helped grow the disease and the wet months of this spring helped spread it to trees throughout Gillette, said Wendy Clements, city arborist…
Portland, Oregon, Tribune, June 2, 2022: Rogue ‘Gresham Lumberjack’ terrorizes trees
Someone won’t stop chopping down trees in Gresham natural areas, and now the city is hoping for the public’s vigilance in catching the vandal. Since last August, an unknown person or group has been cutting trees down on the Springwater Trail, particularly around the Seventh Street Bridge just west of Regner Road. To date nearly 100 trees that are at least 16 inches in diameter have been chopped, as well as hundreds of smaller trees. The perpetrator appears to use a handsaw, and even more bizarrely, the “Gresham Lumberjack” doesn’t seem to have any interest in the wood beyond wanton destruction. All told, officials are saying this has resulted in nearly $200,000 in damages when considering the effect on long-term restoration efforts along the trail and Johnson Creek. The city asks if the community sees someone actively damaging trees along the trail, contact the non-emergency police line at 503-823-3333. If there is any additional information, report it via the MyGresham app…
Newsweek, May 27, 2022: Scientists Say Tundra Could Be Lost in 30 Years as Trees Take Over
The tundra is also home to rare species like reindeer, snow owls, polar bears, and lemmings. Professor Ulrike Herzschuh heads the AWI’s Polar Terrestrial Environmental Systems Division. She said: “For the Arctic Ocean and the sea ice, the current and future warming will have serious consequences. “But the environment on land will also change drastically.” The broad expanses of tundra in Siberia and North America will be massively reduced as the treeline, which is already slowly changing, rapidly advances northward in the near future. The scientist warned: “In the worst-case scenario, there will be virtually no tundra left by the middle of the millennium.” Herzschuh explained: “In our study, we simulated this process for the tundra in northeast Russia.” “The central question that concerned us was: which emissions path does humanity have to follow in order to preserve the tundra as a refuge for flora and fauna?” Herzschuh and her team warn that only consistent, global climate protection measures will allow around 30 percent of the Siberian tundra to survive to mid-millennium. The scientists think that in all other, less favorable scenarios, the unique habitat will disappear in its entirety. The scientists at the AWI said that the average temperature had shot up by more than 2°C (35.6°F) in the High North during the past 50 years. They underlined that this was a much bigger increase than anywhere else on the planet. Their computer simulation showed that larch forests were currently spreading northward at a rate of up to 20 miles per decade. By the year 2050, just less than 6 percent of today’s tundra would remain in the majority of the AWI experts’ scenarios. However, highly effective global initiatives would be needed to rescue 30 percent…
The city’s tree warden is seeking volunteers to stick shovels in the ground now so residents can seek shade in the future. Leo Kelly, the city’s tree warden, said he is “at the ground level” with a plan to execute a $10,000 grant from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to plant and maintain a canopy of trees in the most urbanized parts of the city. To do it, he is hoping to enlist volunteers. “I hope to garner some interest from neighborhoods, but also from businesses and educational institutions so people can learn about what it is to maintain trees and understand the benefits,” he said. The term he created is “tree tender” for volunteers who can help to initiate what he hopes can grow into a larger program, such as New Haven’s Urban Resources Initiative, a nonprofit partnership that draws on involvement from Yale University and community groups to plant and replant trees to create community green spaces in New Haven. “I know the people are out there and I’m hoping they are willing to help,” Kelly said. “We’ve got to start somewhere…
A group of more than 100 people gathered for a rally at the Mojave Desert Land Trust headquarters to garner support for placing the western Joshua tree on the state’s list of endangered and threatened species. Speakers at Thursday’s event in Joshua Tree discussed the threats to the iconic plant and the importance of the tree to other desert species, which include humans. “It’s helping to create oxygen, it’s helping to nourish pollinators, it’s helping to sequester carbon to help mitigate our climate change,” said MDLT’s joint executive director Kelly Herbinson. “Just by being it’s protecting us as a species.” The California Fish and Game Commission is set make the final decision on June 15 and 16 whether to list the western Joshua tree as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act…
The German capital Berlin and the surrounding areas are experiencing another dry spring. Residents of Berlin are trying to help the trees by watering them, but experts say that unless there is some major and long-lasting rainfall soon, then many trees will be beyond saving. The trees of Berlin are thirsty, and Sebastian Herges has made it his mission to help as many as he can. For two years the tree watering activist has spent his free time cycling around the German capital to water trees – mostly saplings that are vulnerable when there is a drought. He is one of the hundreds of Berliners doing their bit for the trees of the city. “When a human is thirsty, we can just reach for a water bottle, and then we are relieved,” said Herges. “The trees can’t do that, they need to be helped. And that’s why I’m here, watering.”
Berlin and the surrounding areas have simply not had enough rainfall over the last four years. Since 2018, which was an extremely dry year, the groundwater levels have continued to decrease annually. Metrologist Jörg Riemann calls it a huge “water deficit.“ “Normally each square metre in Berlin and the surrounding Brandenburg (area) gets about 600 litres of rainfall per square metre for the year, January to December. Since 2018 we have had a deficiency of about 400 litres per square metres.” Timo Bittner is an arborist running the largest tree service company in Berlin and he said it is having a direct impact on the trees…
Earlier this month, Gary Schroeder coordinated a volunteer effort to plant 300 trees in the Haflin Creek Trail area, but silviculturist Tim Leishman said many of the seedlings are now at risk of dying as a result of the unusually dry climate this year. “We’re looking at anywhere from a 25% to 40% seedling survival rate,” Leishman said. The Haflin Creek Trail, which begins north of Durango along East Animas Road (County Road 250), is part of the Missionary Ridge trails system. Schroeder said the trail had once been a hidden gem in Durango, passing through different vegetative zones with stunning intermittent views of the La Plata Mountains and the Hermosa Valley. But after the Missionary Ridge Fire burned the area in 2002, the vegetation never completely recovered. “I used to hike there when I lived here in the ’80s,” Schroeder said. “I moved back to Durango a couple of years ago, and was sad to see that the area had changed so much.” The fire burned hot enough to wipe out most species in the area. The Missionary Ridge trail system once contained ponderosa pines, Douglas firs, piñon pines and junipers, but since the fire, the region has mainly consisted of scattered oak brush…
Bob Barker started his career as a logger. Now, he’s responsible for the creation of an entire forest. As it turns out, Bob is pretty good at growing things. “It was a very rewarding thing to do,” the 93-year-old said. Bob bought land in rural Whatcom County in the 1990s to plant and harvest trees. In that first year he lost nearly 4,000 saplings to voles – mouse-like rodents. “The voles had enjoyed this new element in their diet,” Bob quips. Bob then learned about a federal program called the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) that pays people to conserve land and preserve plant life. After taking care of his vole problem, Bob started planting again. He estimates he and his trusty spade planted 50 trees an hour. Over the course of the next 25 years he planted 30,000 trees, most of them all by himself, over 71 acres of land. “To come out in the morning and plant a few hundred trees and come back the next year and see their existence on the property is pretty exciting,” Bob said…
House Digest, May 31, 2022: Fast Growing Trees To Create Shade In A Hot Sunny Backyard
Beating the summer heat can be especially hard to do in a wide-open backyard that is severely lacking in good shade. You might have the best barbecue recipe on the block, but the neighbors won’t be too happy if they’re roasting in the sun while trying to enjoy it. Pergolas and gazebos can be expensive and difficult to install, and there are only so many picnic table umbrellas you can get away with. One of the best, all-natural, and attractive permanent solutions is to invest in wide-canopied shade trees. As noted by the Arbor Day Foundation, there are many options when choosing trees that bring both shade and beauty to an empty yard or open garden. Some trees take years to mature to a large enough size to create a viable amount of shade. However, there are plenty that will grow fast and get the job in no time. Tall shade trees are a vital part of any finished landscape and their presence will bring a serene sense of calm to your backyard. Where else are you going to hang a hammock and relax with a good book other than between the branches of two stately trees? If you’ve got available space, keep reading as we round up the best fast-growing trees to provide those sought-after shady spots that will guarantee more fun and relaxation outdoors, even when it’s super hot…
In two separate 3-2 votes, the Conroe City Council returned two controversial ordinances to their pre-December 2018 versions in order to slow the clear-cutting of trees related to new development. Newly appointed Mayor Pro Tem Curt Maddux and Councilman Todd Yancey were the nay votes on both actions. The action came after numerous residential developers spoke during public hearings on the issue urging the council to leave the ordinances in their post-2018 version claiming the pre-2018 versions don’t allow them to build more affordable homes due to the rising cost of materials, labor and land. Councilwoman Marsha Porter made a motion to up the minimum lot size to 50-foot from 40-foot and asked for a committee to be formed with representation from the council, developers and community to consider amendments to the ordinance that could benefit developers but protect trees. Coon seconded the motion noting it is just to “hit the pause button” to allow further research on the ordinances…
A former state representative has been charged with putting spikes in trees on state-owned land in an attempt to prevent logging. Chris Balch of Wilton, who was a Democratic state representative from 2018 to 2020 representing a 10-town district in the Monadnock Region, has been charged by the state Division of Forests and Lands with two counts of criminal mischief and two counts of timber trespass from an incident earlier this year. Balch was arraigned in Milford district court and has said in Facebook posts that he will plead not guilty. A case management hearing has been scheduled for June 6. Balch allegedly drove metal spikes through trees in two forests in Wilton: the Russell-Abbott State Forest and the adjacent Heald Tract, owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. The spikes are meant to damage lumber mill saw equipment after trees are cut down. They can also pose a danger to workers in mills and to loggers cutting trees. Balch allegedly left paper signs warning about the spikes…
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, KELO-TV, May 30, 2022: Tree service companies staying busy
Severe weather this month has taken a heavy toll on trees across KELOLAND. Local tree service companies have been busy removing downed trees and branches from this weekend’s storms. Arbor Master Tree Service says it will take a long time for the trees to come back from all this damage “Well it’s probably going to take the rest of the year to clean up all the damage but I think we are going to see some of the reminisces of this storm for a few more years yet,” Slavic Vokottrub, with Arbor Master Tree Service said. Spruce trees have been the most commonly damaged trees in the storms…
Hundreds of trees are proposed to be cut down for a 43-unit apartment complex around a wetland area in southeast Ann Arbor. Auburn Hills-based developer Trowbridge Companies submitted plans to the city earlier this year for a proposed development called Platt Road Townhomes along the west side of Platt Road just north of Interstate 94 and Southeast Area Park. The project is still under review by city staff and new drawings from April show the developer proposes cutting down 208 trees with diameters of eight inches or more, including some trees designated as landmark trees. The plans do not indicate the number of smaller trees that might be removed. The proposed layout for the development shows 11 clusters of buildings along a U-shaped street configuration with two entrance/exit drives off Platt Road and an existing wetland area in the middle remaining, plus a fenced detention basin…
Our often-wet springs bring with them the perfect conditions for many plant diseases. While moist weather can create conditions for diseases on many plants, sick trees in the landscape tend to draw our attention. Knowing the signs of common tree diseases can help you determine whether your help is needed or if the tree can manage the disease on its own. Anthracnose is a fungal disease favored by cool, wet weather that can affect sycamore, oak, maple and many other shade trees. Younger leaves may turn black and wither while older leaves have brown areas following the major veins of the leaf. Leaves dropping from the tree is common, and at a glance these leaves may appear to be completely healthy (no brown or black spots) as the petiole of the leaf is sometimes the only affected part. In 2017, anthracnose was so severe on our sycamore trees that many homeowners reported trees that lost all their leaves…
Detroit, Michigan, WJBK-TV, May 26, 2022: Tree truck crushed by oak tree in Oakland County
Oh, the irony. An Oakland County tree trimming truck was crushed Wednesday in Groveland Township when an oak tree fell on top of the vehicle. Around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Michigan State Police said Groveland Road was closed when a large oak tree fell on top of a truck. The truck is part of the company Paul’s Tree Care, which specializes in tree trimming, removal, shaping, and more in Waterford. The information from MSP does not state if the tree company was trimming the tree that fell on top of the truck, however the tree has a clean cut mark, indicating that someone was cutting the tree before it fell onto the truck. The oak tree landed in the cab of the truck and would have surely injured someone if they were in the seat. However, MSP said the driver and passenger were not injured. Paul’s Tree Care sent a crane to lift the massive oak off the truck…
A mother is dead and a daughter is injured after a tree fell on a house in Gaffney. The Gaffney Fire Department responded to the scene at around 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 on East Jeffries Street. Fire Chief Jamie Caggiano told Fox Carolina that there were two women sitting on the front porch of the house and four kids inside. The kids were able to crawl out the window. They say the women, the 78-year-old mother and 58-year-old daughter, were trapped on the front porch of the house.Sadly, the mother died at the scene, according to the Cherokee County Coroner’s Office.The coroner identified the woman as 78-year-old Thelma Jordan Carroll. According to the coroner, Carroll was sitting on a wooden bench on the front porch of her daughter’s home at about 4:50 p.m. The coroner says it is believed that straight-line winds caused a large tree to fall on the house causing the roof to collapse and trapping her and her daughter, 58-year-old Phyliss Knighten, under the debris…
Cherry Blossom trees that were gifted from Japan 12 years ago are finally going to be planted in Cincinnati. The city of Adachi, Japan gifted the Queen City ten Cherry Blossom trees as part of the Krohn Conservatory’s Butterflies of Japan show in 2010. However, a complicated quarantine process delayed their arrival. The trees entered the United States that same year, but due to their type, had to be placed in the National Plant Germplasm Quarantine Center, regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where they were tested for viruses. Unfortunately, three springs in a row, the trees tested positive for various viruses, preventing them from reaching Cincinnati. But, since the trees were an international gift, and considering the historical significance of Japan gifting trees to the U.S., staff at the quarantine center went “above and beyond” to make sure the trees could arrive in Cincinnati, Andrea Schepmann, former Krohn Conservatory director, said…
Southern California is often called a gardener’s paradise because we can grow an amazing variety of plants. It’s warm enough to grow many tropical and subtropical fruits such as citrus, avocado, guava, sapote, cherimoya, and mango. The inland valleys encompass a surprising range of microclimates in which some temperate fruits can survive (or even thrive) if planted in a spot that offers adequate winter chill. Cherries require more winter chill than most other temperate fruits, so they do not grow well in most of Southern California (Cherry Valley being an exception). If you plant a Bing cherry here, it may survive for a year or two, but it will produce little or no fruit and eventually decline due to inadequate chill – kind of like the tree version of sleep deprivation. If you still want to grow cherries because of their beauty and don’t mind getting tart fruit, there are some varieties that will do well in our warm climate…
As the megadrought bakes California, leaving parched lake beds and aggressive water restrictions in its wake, the state’s creeks and wetlands are more fragile, and vital, than ever. Punishments handed down to landowners who damage that delicate environment are now matching that seriousness. A Bay Area winery executive is facing a multi-million dollar state fine for allegedly removing trees and destroying a small wetland on a rural patch of land east of Cloverdale in Sonoma County. Hugh Reimers and Krasilsa Pacific Farms could be on the hook for up to $3.75 million in fines for allegedly cutting down trees, grading, ripping and other activities near tributaries to Little Sulphur Creek, Big Sulphur Creek and Crocker Creek in the Russian River watershed, according to the state water board…
If you feel like your allergies are getting worse and allergy season is lasting longer, it’s not just you. Researchers said in the past three decades pollen levels have increased and allergy season has started earlier. But can we really blame our increasingly running noses and itchy eyes on … sexism? In various posts on TikTok, like this one, which has been shared and viewed millions of times, users explained that “botanical sexism” is why allergies and asthma across the United States have gotten worse because “landscapers and city planners thought male trees were easier to maintain.” The theory has also been amplified on Twitter with users claiming, “it’s just one more way in which males are ruining the planet.” Is “botanical sexism” to blame for our worsening allergies because cities plant mostly male trees? The viral theory that urban landscaping is sexist and making our allergies worse needs context…
Scientists in Chile believe that a conifer with a four-metre-thick trunk known as the Great Grandfather could be the world’s oldest living tree, beating the current record-holder by more than 600 years. A new study carried out by Dr Jonathan Barichivich, a Chilean scientist at the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory in Paris, suggests that the tree, a Patagonian cypress, also known as the Alerce Milenario, could be up to 5,484 years old. Maisa Rojas, who became Chile’s environment minister in March and is a member of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hailed the news as a “marvellous scientific discovery”. Known in Spanish as the Alerce, the Patagonian cypress, fitzroya cupressoides, is a conifer native to Chile and Argentina that belongs to the same family as giant sequoias and redwoods…
Bloomberg, May 26, 2022: Tree-Boring Beetle Could Cost South Africa $18.5 Billion
A tree-boring beetle the size of a sesame seed could cost South Africa $18.5 billion over the next decade as millions of urban trees are expected to die and will have to be removed and fruit, nut and lumber plantations are harmed, researchers estimate. The polyphagous shot-hole borer, which arrived in South Africa in 2012, has spread into eight of the country’s nine provinces with some infestations more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) apart, researchers from Stellenbosch University and the University of Pretoria said in a study released this week. Growing infestations by the beetle, which has killed trees in outbreaks in Israel and California, could kill 65 million, or about a quarter of South Africa’s urban trees, over the next 10 years, the researchers said. That would result in costs of $17.5 billion, mostly in the form of the expense of removing dead trees. Damage to avocado and lumber plantations would increase the total cost by about another $1 billion. This is “the largest current outbreak of this invasive pest globally,” the researchers said…
Newsweek, May 19, 2022: Rainforest Trees Have Been Dying at Faster Rate Since 1980s
Tropical trees in Australia’s rainforests have been dying at double the previous rate since the 1980s, seemingly because of climate impacts, according to the findings of a long-term international study published Thursday in the Nature journal. This research has found the death rates of tropical trees have doubled in the last 35 years, as global warming increases the drying power of the atmosphere. Deterioration of such forests reduces biomass and carbon storage, making it increasingly difficult to keep global peak temperatures well below the target 2°C (35.6°F), as required by the Paris Agreement. Today’s study, led by researchers from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Oxford University, and French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), has used uniquely long data records from across Australia’s rainforests. It finds average tree death rates in these forests have doubled over the past four decades. Researchers found trees are living around half as long, which is a pattern consistent across species and sites across the region. And the impacts can be seen as far back as the 1980s, according to the team…
A metro Atlanta couple paid a local tree trimming service more than $3,000 to remove three trees, but the crew only cut one and then abandoned the job after only two days. “I don’t understand how you can go to bed at night and treat people this way,” the grandson of Annette Hudgens, 85, said of Toby’s Tree Service in McDonough, Georgia. Hudgens and her husband had used the service before. Hudgens had given up hope the company, owned by Toby Spires, would return. A month later, her husband Bill passed away at age 90. Hudgens’ grandson and her neighbors said they made several attempts to reach Spires, but never got past the company’s receptionist. Toby’s Tree Service has been in business for 22 years. Spire’s company has good reviews, but several customers complain online the company disappeared before completing the work. One customer started his complaint on the Better Business Bureau’s website with one word: “Run!” The BBB issued an F rating…
An invasive beetle that kills off ash trees has been discovered in Dallas County, and tree experts are calling for immediate action. The beetle is the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a wood-boring beetle that targets all ash trees. According to a release from Texas Trees Foundation, the beetle poses a substantial threat to Dallas’ urban forest, on both public and private land: EAB kills unprotected ash trees within 2-3 years of infestation and can eliminate entire stands of ash trees within 10 years. The urgency has escalated because, on May 19, the Texas A&M Forest Service confirmed the presence of EAB in Dallas County. Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer beetle was unknown in North America until its discovery in southeast Michigan in 2002. Since then, it has spread to 35 states including Texas, where it was first detected in Harrison County in Northeast Texas in 2016…
Wind is a powerful force in the lives of trees. It helps them reproduce by spreading seeds and pollen, it governs their growth and height, and it brings down the old and the weak. Such was the case Saturday when thousands of trees in Ottawa were damaged or uprooted during the powerful spring storm that battered the region with what have been described as “hurricane-force” winds gusting to 120 km/h. Hydro Ottawa said the storm did significantly more damage to the local electrical distribution system than either the 1998 ice storm or the 2018 tornadoes. Much of that damage was done by downed trees and limbs. Ian Laidlaw, district manager for Davey Tree Ottawa, said the firm has responded to hundreds of calls for service in the past three days — more than anyone at the tree service can remember during the past 45 years. So why did so many trees crack or topple in this storm? Many factors were at play, but the essential element was wind, said Michael Petryk, a certified arborist and director of operations at Tree Canada, an Ottawa-based non-profit dedicated to improving the country’s tree canopy…
Two-day-per-week outdoor watering restrictions are set to begin June 1 in Los Angeles. But there’s an important exception to the rule in place to reduce water use during the region’s dry spell. Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday that the water restrictions do not apply to tree watering. The mayor said the region needs its trees to keep things from getting worse. Trees can capture stormwater, improve water quality and reduce flood risk, along with helping air quality and the impacts of heat waves. Nearly 60 percent of California is in extreme drought, the second-most severe category in the weekly US Drought Monitor report. That includes a large swath of northern Los Angeles County. Ninety-five percent of the state is in severe drought. Garcetti met with California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot Friday. “Even here in Los Angeles, one of the true conservation capitals of the world, we need to continue to take advantage of the tools at our disposal that will help us get through drought,” Garcetti said. “We need to conserve now more than ever, and watering our trees is a critical part of our work to become a more sustainable and drought resilient state…’
Derek Wasiecko usually scouts jobs ahead of time, and his clients typically mull over the quotes he delivers. But Tree Climbers of Colorado is swamped after a late May snowstorm brought branches raining down on homes, cars and lawns across the Denver metro area. “It’s crazy, I started at 7:00 a.m. yesterday, and probably worked until 7:30 p.m. or something,” Wasiecko said. “But it was good. Can’t turn down a bunch of people coming to me.” Good for business, but bad for trees. Jennifer Newton pulled up a chair and watched as Wasiekco and his crew cleaned up the branches from her yard and climbed through her 60-foot-tall ash tree, chainsawing snapped limbs and guiding them safely to the ground. “It hasn’t killed my house. The ones that have been falling are good,” she said. “I’m crossing my fingers. I’ve done a lot of praying.” Newton’s ash tree has been through this before. She said there’s a late snow every few years that weighs down the tree’s branches and causes some damage. She estimates it’s 90 years old, and hopes it bounces back from the damage like it has so many times before. “I’ve been in this house 32 years, so I’ve been watching this tree get smaller and smaller every storm,” she said…
Phys.org, May 19, 2022: Climate change is killing trees in Queensland’s tropical rainforests
In recent years, the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northeast coast has seen multiple events of mass coral bleaching as human-caused global warming has driven sustained high temperatures in the ocean. Alongside the Coral Sea is another spectacular natural wonder: the rainforests of the World Heritage-listed wet tropics of Queensland. It turns out the same climate change forces contributing to coral bleaching have also taken a toll on the trees that inhabit these majestic tropical rainforests. In new research, we and our co-authors found that mortality rates among these trees have doubled since the mid 1980s, most likely due to warmer air with greater drying power. Like coral reefs, these trees provide essential structure, energy and nutrients to their diverse and celebrated ecosystems…
T&D World, May 23, 2022: Davey Tree Builds Training & Research Center in Ohio
The Davey Tree Expert Company is building a new science and learning campus — the Davey Tree SEED (Science, Employee Education and Development) Campus in Kent, Ohio. The 170-plus acre property, which formerly housed the Oak Knolls golf course and Franklin Elementary School on State Route 43, will be the new home to Davey Tree’s specialized training and research facilities. It is being designed to ensure that Davey continues to attract and retain the most qualified, well-trained and engaged employees possible. Planned facilities include a 25,000-square-foot training center and associated offices, a 10,700-square-foot indoor climbing center, 18 spans of non-energized utility right-of-way, laboratories and greenhouses, a container nursery and multiple research plots and fields. The training center classrooms will more than double the size of the current classrooms at the Davey Institute across the street at Davey Tree’s corporate headquarters. The classrooms are used to teach many of Davey’s educational and training programs, including the Davey Institute of Tree Sciences (D.I.T.S.) classes, which is Davey’s flagship training program in biological sciences, safety, tree and plant care and management techniques. The anticipated completion of the SEED Campus is 2026. Research and training have started taking place on the property, including tree and shrub plantings on research plots and utility and safety training…
A brother and sister who hired a company to cut down a 200-year-old black walnut tree on Cleveland Metroparks’ property last year have pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge. Todd Jones, 57, of Bay Village and Laurel Hoffman, 54, of Elyria agreed to repay the Metroparks $20,000 as part of the plea deal, which the pair entered Wednesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Judge Timothy McCormick ordered the pair to serve six months in the Cuyahoga County Jail, but he suspended the sentence. The pair will not have to serve jail time. Prosecutors said Jones and Hoffman hired a tree felling company in September to cut down the tree that was located about 7 feet from Jones’ property line in the Mill Stream Run Reservation in Strongsville. Jones told the company, including in writing, that the tree was on his property, prosecutors said. After the tree was cut down, Jones and Hoffman sold it to a Geauga County sawmill for $2,000, prosecutors said. Metroparks rangers learned of the tree being cut down more than a week later. The park estimated the tree was worth about $28,000 and said that it cost more than $100,000 to clean up the area because of the mess…
Stamford, Connecticut, Advocate, May 21, 2022: Across Connecticut, once-lush beech trees are dying
Last year, when John Lucak took his daily, four-mile walk in Waveny Park in New Canaan, the world was green and beautiful. This year, not so lush. The 300-acre park has groves of near-defoliated beech trees with stunted, ruined leaves. “They look horrible,” Lucak said. Welcome to beech leaf disease, and a world where one of the most important trees in our forests may go the way of the American chestnut — lost in a decade or two. It’s not just in New Canaan. Geordie Elkins, operations manager at Highstead, the arboretum and land conservation organization in Redding, said he’s seen beech leaf disease there for the first time this year. Far to the north, at Great Mountain Forest, whose 6,000 acres straddles Norfolk and Falls Village in Litchfield County, forester Jody Bronson found the disease in a stand of beech trees deep in the woods. “This is a place that’s miles from any road,” Bronson said…
The official tree of Toronto, after a sadly almost entirely ignored public online vote, is the… oak. This doesn’t surprise me, or you. Ask a Torontonian to name a tree and well, how about oak, something he associates with wine barrels. If you asked them to name a wood, they’d say Ikea, which means MDF (medium density fibreboard) with a laminate veneer, but Ikea doesn’t make trees (yet) so let’s have oak for the municipal win. The poll also included maple, birch and pine. I suspect people don’t think of the maple as a tree but as a leaf. I wanted to vote for birch but didn’t want to offend anyone. On the other hand, city trees are for urination, unofficial bike stands, centres of root stifling and compression, poster-stapling and tagging. A white birch, so very peelable, wouldn’t last a week. That left the pine — there were two kinds listed compared to eight kinds of oak — which would have been the best choice. We are a winter city that needs evergreens to soften the angles of its drab, boxy architecture…
Boy, I sure wish it would rain. As I have said many times in the past, because of the 2011 drought, I’m mentally damaged — or maybe what I mean by that is I’m more mentally damaged than I was before the drought. Anyway, since I certainly do remember the 2011 drought — and the nasty, record-breaking, hot summer that went with it — these dry, 100-degree-plus days in the middle of May are making me nervous. As I have said before, I liken how I now feel about drought with the way the people who went through the great depression felt about money and the ups and downs of the economy. The one thing that is a positive is that our lakes are in decent condition for water. Oh well, June is almost here, and it’s supposed to be our rainiest month of the year. So hopefully something will develop there. So, thinking about the dry times right now, and the 2011 drought — which by the way, lasted three years — it actually has bearing on our current dry times, vis-à-vis trees…
A wrongful death lawsuit claims Portland failed to properly prune a towering oak tree that fatally crushed a man near the border of Powell Park in 2020. Jonathan D. Nichols, 45, was inside a van parked on Southeast 22nd Avenue when a thick tree branch suddenly cracked and fell onto the van, killing Nichols and injuring another person just before 9 a.m. June 25, 2020, according to the suit and first responders. Nichols’ mother, Pamela S. Nichols of Boise, seeks $2 million from the city of Portland for failing to trim the 93-foot-tall red oak, which was part of the city’s heritage tree program. The “unbalanced” tree branch extended beyond the natural shape of the canopy, causing it to splinter due to “excessive end weight,” according to the lawsuit, filed in late March in Multnomah County Circuit Court. “The city knew or should have known that trees at Powell Park, including the red oak, constituted a hazardous condition,” the suit says, noting that a limb on another heritage oak in the park fell on an unspecified date before Jonathan Nichols’ death…
Minneapolis, Minnesota, WCCO-TV, May 16, 2022: Good Question: How Do Trees Know When To Bloom?
In a matter of days, we’ve gone from a cold spring to one that’s bursting with warmth and color. That had us wondering: How do trees know when to bloom? And did it take longer than usual this year? Good Question. Jeff Wagner explains why nature follows its own schedule and not ours. From the edge of the Mississippi River to parks and yards, another sign that spring has sprung hangs from above like a colorful canopy. “It’s so much more green and everything’s blooming,” said Anna Doolittle, a student at St. Thomas University as she walked with a friend along a trail near the river. “It’s crazy the difference.” “When they get what they need, they’ll leaf out and they’ll bloom,” said Val Cervenka, forest health program coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. How do trees know when to bloom? “It depends on the tree…
Joshua Lashomb owns Josh’s Tree and Landscaping out of Liverpool, and he says he’s shelling out more money because of gas prices. As of Wednesday May 18, the average price for a gallon of gas in Onondaga County was $4.79 according to AAA. Lashomb said he’s paying over $2,500.00 per week to fill up all of his equipment, when in 2021 he was paying around $1,500.00 per week. “Interesting for sure, adapting, adjusting to either you know a shortage, gas/diesel being crazy expensive,” said Lashomb. He said he’s had to make some changes. “So instead of leaving that chipper on for instance, we’ll leave it on idle and we’ll shut it off a lot.” He says it help saves them on gas. Lashomb told NewsChannel 9 he’s charging, on average, around $100.00 more per job to help cover the costs. “Most customers this year when they got their renewal letters for lawn mowing they completely understood. We sent a fuel letter out saying if fuel reached over $4.00 a gallon you know prices will be x-amount…”
Flowering cherry trees are some of the common tree species you’ll find in the United States. The ones that put on a show everywhere from Seattle to Boston, are cultivars of popular Southeast Asian natives, which were crossed together hundreds of years ago. “Japan famously gifted [some] to Washington, D.C., in the early 1900s,” says Blake Watkins, the Operations Partner at Monster Tree Service. Since these show-stopping beauties, which break into blossom at the start of spring, are such a joy to behold, you’re likely wondering how to introduce them to your own yard. Here, Watkins explains how to grow and care for this tree type, which blooms all across the United States. Flowering cultivars are grafted, says Watkins, and their root stocks can be large and aggressive despite the tree’s small stature. This is why it is important to “use caution when planting near hardscapes,” like a driveway or sidewalk, he explains; cherry trees’ root systems can compromise their integrity. He suggests triple-checking the planting directions for your specific tree, since each variety has its own special needs—but as a general rule of thumb, they should be planted 20 to 40 feet apart in a hole that is as deep as the root ball and twice as wide…
For centuries, the Abenaki people of the northeastern U.S. and Canada looked at maple sap as a gift from their creator, arriving at a time just before spring when their ancestors’ food reserves were low. But the sweet, amber syrup and the people who produce it today face an uncertain future. The continent’s iconic sugar maple trees — revered for their sap and fall colors — can’t escape the changing climate. Rising temperatures affect the maple trees, with the warmer climate bringing more weather extremes, an earlier sap flow, shorter sugaring seasons and invasive insects. And some believe it may get too hot in parts of the northeastern U.S. for the sugar bushes, as the Abenaki call them, to remain where they’ve stood for centuries. When you add drought and disease, “you’re throwing multiple threats at these tree species, and they’re dropping out of the forest and weakening entire ecosystems,” said Andy Finton, landscape conservation director for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts…
Phys.org., May 12, 2022: What we’re still learning about how trees grow
What will happen to the world’s forests in a warming world? Will increased atmospheric carbon dioxide help trees grow? Or will extremes in temperature and precipitation hold growth back? That all depends on whether tree growth is more limited by the amount of photosynthesis or by the environmental conditions that affect tree cell growth—a fundamental question in tree biology, and one for which the answer wasn’t well understood, until now. A study led by University of Utah researchers, with an international team of collaborators, finds that tree growth does not seem to be generally limited by photosynthesis but rather by cell growth. This suggests that we need to rethink the way we forecast forest growth in a changing climate, and that forests in the future may not be able to absorb as much carbon from the atmosphere as we thought…
Arizona’s early start to the wildfire season is just the latest example of suffering the consequences of the 20th century strategy that suppressed blazes and let forests grow abnormally dense. Add historic drought, extreme heat and the results are predictable. Yet it’s not too late to make northern Arizona’s forests more resilient and resistant to fire. Doing so also brings the added benefit of increasing water supplies and battling climate change. Efforts are under way. A public-private partnership launched the Four Forest Restoration Initiative, or 4FRI, with a goal of restoring 2.4 million acres of national forest land. The program, for a variety of reasons, has never come close to reaching its annual goals. Work by The Nature Conservancy in partnership with industry and the U.S. Forest Service has identified a suite of business practices and innovative efficiencies that may allow the initiative to achieve its potential and make efficient use of new federal funding…
New Haven, Connecticut, Register, May 15, 2022: Opinion: State government must protect our trees
Gov. Ned Lamont is taking many good steps to lower Connecticut’s greenhouse gas emissions, making the state more environmentally resilient to climate change. Now it’s time for the governor to take action to protect our trees, our strongest natural allies in our efforts to maintain biodiversity and slow climate change. Perhaps you’ve noticed all the work removing trees along parts of the Wilbur Cross Parkway? We have, and we don’t understand it. Both the Wilbur Cross and the Merritt parkways were conceived as linear parks, beautiful places for drivers. In addition to beauty, the trees and shrubs along those roads — and many others in our state — provide essential benefits. Trees and shrubs help calm drivers, reducing road rage. Properly planted, they can provide protection for vehicles that leave the road. They can help with sun glare, reduce the road noise in nearby neighborhoods, and dramatically lower the air and surface temperature on the road…
Fremont, Ohio, News-Messenger, May 16, 2022: Today is: Love a Tree Day
Trees are important to the existence and diversity of life on Earth, and to maintaining the Earth’s ecology. Their root systems store carbon dioxide, move water, and produce oxygen. Trees hold stream and river banks, help with erosion control, conserve water, and prevent floods. The organic matter of soil is made from remnants of trees, which recycle nutrients such as nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen. On top of this, trees give us shade. With all these benefits, what’s not to love about them? Trees may be pteridophytes such as tree ferns, gymnosperms such as conifers, and angiosperms, which are flowering plants…
About 200 years ago, a palm tree was planted in downtown Los Angeles. The fan palm was originally from the Southern California desert, a newcomer to the city like so many who would arrive later. And like so many who settled here, this young migrant prospered while adapting to the changing times. It grew up as humble landscaping for a home on San Pedro Street in what’s now Little Tokyo, while Los Angeles transitioned from Spanish to Mexican to American rule. Its quick growth and ample top earned it fame as the dusty pueblo turned into a boomtown…
Minneapolis, Minnesota, WCCO-TV, May 13, 2022: Maple Grove Launches 20-Year Plan To Save Ash Trees
A Minnesota city is getting aggressive in saving its trees. In Maple Grove, a 20-year plan is now in place to fight a deadly invasive species. What once was a great ash tree is now a stump in front of Jim Erdmann’s home. “I was ecstatic because I get my yard back,” he said. Erdmann wanting it gone wasn’t why the city of Maple Grove cut it down last fall. “They confirmed that it was infested,” he said. Infested with emerald ash borer, a beetle species that kills ash trees. “The trees here don’t have any sort of natural resistance so it quickly builds up in numbers and frankly devastates trees in metro areas,” municipal consulting arborist Ryan Spencer. Spencer says almost one in five trees in the Twin Cities metro are ash trees, and thus susceptible to the deadly EAB…
Chicago, Illinois, Tribune, May 14, 2022: Use trunk flare to determine how deep to plant a new tree
Q: My neighbor told me my tree was planted too deeply. How do I determine the proper planting depth?
A: Trees are often planted too deep by homeowners and professionals, so it is a good idea to understand how to position a new tree at the proper depth. Recently planted trees that resemble telephone poles coming out of the ground are probably planted too deep. Generally, this will not cause problems in the early years, but it can be a major factor in the decline or even death of the tree in the future. Look at the base of the tree where it meets the ground to determine if your tree is at the proper depth. Mulch should be pulled a couple inches away from the base of the tree. The majority of the roots will develop in the top 12 to 18 inches of soil, though this varies depending on the type of tree and garden soil. The tree’s root system will develop at a shallower depth in heavy clay soils versus better-drained loamy or sandy soils…
Eurekalert, May 12, 2022: Climate change increases risks of tree death
Planting a tree seems like a generally good thing to do for the environment. Trees, after all, take in carbon dioxide, offsetting some of the emissions that contribute to climate change. But all of that carbon in trees and forests worldwide could be thrown back into the atmosphere again if the trees burn up in a forest fire. Trees also stop scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air if they die due to drought or insect damage. The likelihood of those threats impacting forests is increasing nationwide, according to new research in Ecology Letters, making relying on forests to soak up carbon emissions a much riskier prospect. “U.S. forests could look dramatically different by the end of the century,” says William Anderegg, study lead author and associate professor in the University of Utah School of Biological Sciences. “More severe and frequent fires and disturbances have huge impacts on our landscapes. We are likely to lose forests from some areas in the Western U.S. due to these disturbances, but much of this depends on how quickly we tackle climate change…”
If you’ve taken a drive through Hereford Township, Berks County recently, you may have noticed that “X” marks a lot of spots. “I had no idea what it was,” said resident John Yanan. “I had to find out. It looked like graffiti all over the roads.” The township marked trees that residents are to have taken down, on their dime. It’s part of township ordinance number 2021-01, on the county website, which states residents must “….cut and remove trees if the condition of trees unreasonably interferes with the health safety and welfare of the public…” “My neighbor’s driveway had three trees marked 80 feet up his driveway,” said Matt Ferdock. “I have trees sixty feet off the road that have been marked.” Residents aren’t pleased…
Bad news for Mainers: It’s likely to be another bad season for browntail moths. While Mainers have been enjoying picturesque, sunny spring weather in recent weeks, it’s not the type of weather that will help reduce browntail moth caterpillar populations ― and the tree defoliation and rashes they cause ― in coming months. Forest insect experts predict that this year’s browntail moth conditions will be as bad as last year ― the worst Maine has ever experienced ― unless more rain falls in the next month and a half to help bolster the spread of diseases that kill the caterpillars. Without wet weather, folks in areas that have had high populations of browntail moths in recent years ― especially along the coast and adjacent inland counties ― will likely not get a reprieve from these irritating caterpillars…
After years of on-again-off-again drought conditions and decades of precarity relying on imported water, Southern California has instituted major limitations on how residents can use water. Within weeks, residents will only be allowed to irrigate their yards once a week. Lush lawns and abundant flower gardens, your days may be numbered. This is likely just the start. Climate change is wreaking havoc on water systems around the world, and drought conditions are projected for the Western United States through 2030 at least. What’s happening now in Southern California could soon be seen in broader swathes of the West. Watering limitations could dramatically reshape the look of the outdoors. The new rules were put in place by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which delivers water to 19 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. In late April it declared a Water Shortage Emergency, barring residents from watering more than once per week starting June 1. Individual water agencies within the district that are found to be exceeding limits will face fines, which will likely trickle down to individual water users. If conditions get worse, the district could enforce even stricter limitations, including an all-out ban on any non-essential outdoor irrigation. With an estimated 30% of a family’s daily water use going to outdoor irrigation, cutting down watering can be an impactful way to save water…
Spokane, Washington KREM-TV, May 10, 2022: ‘Wildfire Ready Neighbors’ program kicks off second year
The Department of Natural resources kicked off a second year of the “Wildfire Ready Neighbors” program on Tuesday. It’s a free program that gives people the tools to protect themselves from wildfires. Bonnie Cobb has lived at her home in Nine Mile Falls since she was two years old. With roots that deep, she is determined to protect the home she loves so dearly. It wasn’t long ago when she watched the 1991 firestorm destroy part of her home. “We were home and had no idea what was happening,” Cobb said. “The fire actually came up out of the canyon and jumped over the top of us and took out all of our outbuildings. So basically, all of our fences are gone.” Cobb is now a Community Captain in the ‘Wildfire Ready Neighbor’s’ Program through the Washington Department of Natural Resources. The program gives homeowners, renters and small forest landowners the resources and tools to help protect themselves from wildfires…
Mansfield, Ohio, News Journal, May 9, 2022: A Stroll Through the Garden: Help for your dogwood tree
I received an email a few years ago asking about how to rejuvenate a dogwood tree. I do believe, if you have a tree in your yard that looks like it might be struggling, in most cases go with what you think might be common sense, and fertilize your tree. There could be other issues that may have a serious effect on the health of the tree. Dogwoods are amazing plants and I have designed many of these show-stopping plants into my designs. These beautiful trees can live many years. The world’s largest dogwood is in Clinton, North Carolina, with a height of 35 feet and a 48 feet diameter canopy and 114 inches in circumference. It is in a small cemetery that dates back to 1864, when the cemetery opened. The researchers feel this huge dogwood was a mature tree then. I’m not sure this record tree in North Carolina had much special care except it did not have to fight nearby trees…
Louisville, Kentucky, WAVE-TV, May 10, 2022: Crane falls on New Albany home while removing tree
Crews are working to clear the scene after a crane falls onto a home while removing a tree in New Albany. The incident happened on Tuesday afternoon after a tree removal service was hired to remove a tree in a homeowner’s backyard on Woodbourne Drive. New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey said the tree trimming boom truck had collapsed while positioned over the house. Heather Parsons-Phillips had been living in the home for almost four years and knew something was off, so she went outside to record what was happening. “They took one section (of the tree), no problem, and another section, so I came out here on the street,” Parsons-Phillips said. “You could see the front of the truck going up a little bit. I don’t know anything about tree removal, so I thought that was a normal thing. Then it started going up a little bit more.” She said as an employee got in the truck to give it more power, the tree’s weight had pulled the truck down onto her home’s roof…
Better Homes and Gardens, May 10, 2022: How to Grow a Meyer Lemon Tree Indoors or Outside
You get the best of all worlds with Meyer lemon trees. They grow pretty blossoms, add a splash of sunny color, and, of course, they produce delicious fruit. A hybrid of lemon and mandarin orange, they’re juicy and less tart than other varieties. They’re also on the sweeter side, which makes them a favorite for desserts and cocktails. They’re also not too high maintenance; however, they do require patience. To get all the benefits, here’s what you need to know about growing and caring for a Meyer lemon tree, whether you plant indoors in a container or outdoors, plus information on pruning, propagating, harvesting, and more. The first Meyer lemon tree (Citrus x meyeri) was introduced in China in 1908, and the variety we know today (which is less susceptible to viruses) came from the University of California in 1975. Grocery stores don’t usually sell the fruit, but you can find them at your local farmers market—or grow your own…
Sara Burke was afraid the lovingly tended and productive English garden at the Palm Avenue home she shares with husband, William, was in trouble. “This was a lifelong dream,” Burke said of the variety of plant growth that fills the yard in their Dean Park Historic District home. She grew up in the Adelaide area of south Australia in the 1980s and ’90s learning the ins and outs of traditional English gardening. A notice recently taped to their door notified the couple of a pending hearing in May before the Code Enforcement Board of Fort Myers brought about by an anonymous neighbor’s complaint and resultant code violations. The violations pointed to the content and makeup of raised growing beds on the property, items said to be blocking a sidewalk and wood in a backyard area…
When Ramsey County project managers first sat down with members of the St. Anthony Park Community Council to discuss road improvements along Cleveland Avenue, plans called for the removal of 55 trees from the public right-of-way. That was in 2018 and 2019, and the numbers of trees destined to come down have since tripled. In mid-May, the county will begin removing the first of 160 trees from a mile-long stretch of Cleveland to ready the street for reconstruction from Como Avenue to Larpenteur Avenue. “The road is falling apart. We all know this,” acknowledged Pat Thompson, co-chair of the St. Anthony Park Community Council’s transportation committee. But Thompson, who had participated in preliminary planning discussions three years ago, was as taken aback as anyone when she was alerted by neighborhood residents in late April that many more trees than initially expected had been marked with pink rings for removal…
After stripping the leaves off millions of trees in Upstate New York last summer, the ravenous spongy moth caterpillars are expected to wreak havoc again this year. “We do expect defoliation again this year,” said Rob Cole, a forester with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Cole said that an early survey of the egg masses the moths lay on trees and other hard surfaces indicate it’s going to be a bad year in Upstate New York. The worst-hit areas will likely be the eastern Adirondacks, Mohawk Valley and far Western New York, Cole said. A DEC statement said “significant defoliation” is likely in Clinton, Essex and Warren counties; Oswego County; the Mohawk Valley and Saratoga County. The Finger Lakes region, where this outbreak began in 2020, was hit hardest last year and will likely see less damage this summer, Cole said. Spongy moth populations peak every 10 to 15 years, and then boom for about two or three years, until they’re finally struck down by viruses and bacteria that infect the caterpillars, Cole said…
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 10, 2022: Can we grow and burn our way out of climate change?
To help fight climate change, the world needs to burn less coal, oil, and natural gas. The reasons are twofold: When burned, these fossil fuels emit large amounts of carbon dioxide. Also, the carbon they contain was originally formed by the decay of plants and animals that were alive before the age of the dinosaurs—hence the adjective “fossil.” During all the time that passed since they died, the carbon contained in those organisms was safely locked away deep underground—but now that it’s extracted and burned, that material becomes a fresh source of carbon in the atmosphere, one that had not been in play for millennia. Saying that the world has to stop using fossil fuels is simple, but implementing a new energy system built largely on renewable energy is difficult, as anyone knows who follows the news from Washington, D.C. One possible solution that has gained traction in the last decade involves replacing the burning of coal in electrical generating plants with the burning of wood—or any other kind of vegetation, including corn, sunflower stalks, grapevines, soybeans, and other forms of what is technically known as “biomass…”
As the head of conservation for the St. Lucie County Audubon Society, Diane Goldberg has over 80 species of native plants in her Volucia Drive yard, from coontie to cabbage palm to Florida privet. So when she heard Port St. Lucie was planning to give away Florida native trees to residents, she was encouraged by the idea and marked her calendar. “The city will give away an assorted variety of trees that are native to Florida,” reads the advertisement for the May 14 event, posted on the government’s website. There was one problem: Neither of the two tree species listed on the flier — avocado and royal poinciana — are native to Florida. “I was terribly disappointed,” Goldberg told TCPalm Monday, after she learned which tree species would be distributed. “Neither of these plants are a good idea. They should be giving out native (trees) so that when you put them in the right place, you don’t have to fertilize and you don’t have to use pesticides…”
No tree species has a more interesting history than the bois d’arc (pronounced bo-dark), and no tree is more intimately tied to both the pre-Columbian and historic eras of our Arkansas story. While it might be known by a score of names — hedge apples and Osage orange being two common examples — bois d’arc is French for “bow wood,” referring to its use by American Indians in making a superior hunting bow. That early use was later supplanted by more modern applications such as building hedges and windbreaks, manufacturing a yellow dye from the roots, and making paving blocks from the rot-resistant wood. And, as every small boy can testify, one of the hefty seed pods — as big as a softball and resembling a large green grapefruit — can destroy your little brother’s cardboard fort with one well-aimed pitch. The real appeal to me, however, is the bois d’arc’s link to an ancient time when mammoths and other megafauna roamed North America before the advent of humans. A member of the mulberry family, the bois d’arc was described and named by botanist Thomas Nuttall as Maclura aurantiaca in honor of his friend William Maclure. Osage orange is the most often used common name…
Indonesian officials announced on Friday that a Russian influencer and her husband will be deported from Bali after they staged a naked photoshoot on a sacred 700-year-old tree three years ago. Alina Fazleeva, who has over 18,000 followers on Instagram, staged a nude photoshoot in 2019 at a weeping paperbark tree inside Babakan temple grounds in the Tabanan Regency. She uploaded the photos, taken by her husband Andrey Fazleev, and in the caption described hearing “her ancestors’ voices” when she hugged the tree, saying that she had become a “part of an endless chain.” Fazleeva’s Instagram posts were recently discovered by and enraged local Hindu-Buddhist Balinese communities. Balinese entrepreneur Niluh Djelantik then reported the photos to local police, prompting an investigation into the incident. In Balinese Hindu culture, elements of nature, such as trees and mountains, are considered a sacred home for the gods. Before Fazleeva turned herself in, she and her husband revisited the sacred tree with a local man to “ask its forgiveness.” She then went to the police station where she cooperated with local authorities and also reached out to Djelantik to apologize…
Strolling down Pleasant Street toward downtown Woodstock, pedestrians can look up at an open canopy of ash branches. The village planted the stately trees after Dutch elm disease decimated the iconic American elm in the mid-20th century. Now, the replacement trees are facing an epidemic of their own as the emerald ash borer spreads in the northeast. The Woodstock Board of Village Trustees is prepared to spend nearly $10,000 a year on average to inoculate about 110 trees for years to come, a campaign that will start with $9,500 to inject 45 to 65 trees with pesticides this May. The trees will need to be inoculated every other year to stay protected. As the tree warden sees it, that’s getting off cheap. “Replacing the trees once they die (is) more expensive than saving them,” said Don Wheeler, the Woodstock tree warden, who estimates that replacing a single downtown tree would cost between $2,000 and $10,000, depending on its size…
For about the past 10 years, Heather Allen has been dealing with trees growing close to power lines near her house west of Redding, but the problem literally exploded Wednesday when a branch fell onto the electrical lines. The fire did not spread past the tree, but Allen said what happened when the branch hit the line was alarming and reminded her of the risk of wildfires from trees growing near power lines. “(We’re) definitely on edge, given the events in the past and whole towns being wiped out because of fires. And my parents, you know, we lost my family home in the (2018) Carr Fire,” Allen said. Allen said she called 911 Wednesday evening. Emergency dispatchers called out the fire in the 800 block of Equestrian Trail shortly before 6 p.m. “There was an explosion that I have never really heard. The sound that it made, it was like a supersonic kind of sound,” Allen said. The sound was accompanied by a frightening vibration she said she could feel. “My daughter was here, and she was outside. And so I just wanted to make sure that she was completely away from any of it. It was right in my front yard,” Allen said…
This was supposed to be a column all about the poetic and magical connection between mothers and their gardens — how starting way back in days of yore, when we were all bearskin-wearing hunter/gatherers, mothers stayed at home, raised the kids, and did much of the gathering while their cavegents ran around the countryside, slaying oversized quadrupeds and pounding on their own hairy chests. It was supposed to be a heartfelt nod to mothers across the ages and their kitchen plots and their victory gardens … gently sharing their love of the garden with their young children through the generations. It was supposed to be all that and so much more. Unfortunately, there’s one mother out there who quite frankly doesn’t care whose plans she spoils — the one who does her worst and best at the same time. If she was a major league pitcher, her omnipresent curve ball would make even the New York Mets’ current pitching staff look anemic. Indeed. Mother Nature can be quite the lady … but then sometimes she does have her moods. I often gauge the immediacy of a garden problem by counting the unsolicited emails and voicemails that greet me on Monday morning. And boy was this a Monday … and a Tuesday… and Wednesday. And all the calls started out with essentially the same story…
While it will still be another month or so before the ground thaws and we can begin our annual planting rituals, now is a good time to plan those projects — especially any involving perennial plants, shrubs and trees. Twenty years ago, planting Mayday and Canada Red trees seemed like a great idea, beautiful white spring flowers on the Maydays (Prunus padus) and brilliant purple leaves on the Canada Reds (Prunus virginiana). However, now both of these tree species are taking over! While their green leaves and white flowers might look beautiful spreading along our local trails and waterways, these species displace our native shrubs, disrupt wildlife habitat, and support fewer terrestrial insects than native plants, which reduces the abundance of insects that fall into streams as food for our growing salmon. Healthy trees can easily outlive whomever planted the tree, and even a well-thought-out tree could later be a problem. Take the time early on to decide what you do want or don’t want a tree to provide before making your selection… Some places are not appropriate for a tree — you wouldn’t want to plant a cottonwood tree over a septic system, or a spruce under the power line. The Plant a Tree guide available online provides more information on the right tree in the right place planted the right way. The more you decide the tree’s characteristics and function early in the process the less hassle selecting the right tree will be. No one wants to remove or heavily prune a favorite tree well before their lifespan ends because the tree stayed much the same but the site changed…
Scientists and researchers are sounding the alarm as a tree-killing disease spreads through the Greater Houston area. The disease commonly known as ‘Laurel Wilt’ is spread by the red bay ambrosia beetle. The disease is so destructive, experts say once infected, some of our favorite trees only have about a year to live. The first case in Harris County was reported in late 2021 at a home in Kingwood. Kate Henderson told KHOU 11 she began to worry about some of her red bay trees around Thanksgiving. Henderson said the trees had died by Christmas. She reported the trees to the Texas Forest Service, which contacted Texas A&M Plant Pathologist David Appel. “This was the first time I had seen it in neighborhood trees in Texas,” said Appel who confirmed the first case of Laurel Wilt in the state was in March 2015 in Hardin County, near Beaumont. “We really need to pay attention to this one. It spreads very, very easily,” said the Texas A&M Professor of the disease which originated in Asia and was first confirmed in the U.S. near Savannah, Georgia in 2002. While tree roots can also spread Laurel Wilt from tree to tree, the beetle, Appel said, is a super spreader. While the insert is barely visible on a tree’s bark, the strings of sawdust it leaves behind as it works its way into a tree are easily visible and a sign of infestation…
New Delhi, India, NDTV, May 5, 2022: Water Flows Out Of Mulberry Tree In Europe, Internet Baffled
The Internet is full of photos and videos of amazing trees and forests. But a recent post on Instagram showing water coming out of a Mulberry tree has amazed the internet. The video was shared on Instagram on April 3, by localnihodaci where water can be seen coming out of the trunk of a Mulberry tree without leaves. A man is even seen washing his face from the water oozing out. “Miraculous mulberry from Dinosa is working as a spring again,” according to the translation of the caption originally posted in Bosnian. Other users have also posted photos of the tree, which according to the BBC is 100 years old and situated in Montenegro, in Southern Europe. The BBC report further said that it’s a once-a-year occurrence that lasts only a few days. The phenomenon occurs because of underground springs, which overflow during heavy rains, creating a high pressure that causes water to gush out of the tree trunk…
Memphis, Tennessee, WREG-TV, May 3, 2022: Tree trimmer charged in Cash App scam against 81-year-old
A tree trimming service is accused of scamming an 81-year-old woman out of thousands of dollars by charging her twice for service. Police say the woman signed a contract with Cleveland Bobo, 35, with a company called Tree Tech2, to cut down two small trees at her Cordova home for $7,100 in November, 2021. The woman said she could only pay by credit card, and Bobo did not have the ability to accept credit cards. Police said Bobo had his longtime friend and business associate, Ricky Poindexter, charge the victim’s credit card using Poindexter’s business account, called We Do It All Trees. Bobo and Poindexter allegedly returned to the victim’s house a few days later and told her transaction didn’t go through. Poindexter had his sister walk the woman through how to set up a Pay Pal account. The woman then sent $5,500 to a Cash App account, and gave the men another $1,000, according to court documents…
A beloved tree was chopped down Monday in Westbury after a passionate woman had chained herself to it in hope of saving it. Denise Casares says the 80-year-old tree has been in her family for four generations and has been with her through some very dark times. Two weeks ago, Casares chained herself to the tree in protest to it being cut down as part of a paving project on Ellis Avenue. The Village of Westbury decided at 7 a.m. that the tree needed to come down to complete the necessary road project without further delay. The village says the tree and others nearby needed to be cut down because the roots were sticking out a few inches over the curb and they couldn’t do the repaving. Casares says she was going to serve the village Monday morning with a lawsuit and temporary restraining order to save the tree. However, the village contractor showed up and she was beside herself. Casares parked her car in front of the tree – where workers [for the] contractors threatened to have it towed. Then Casares tried to stand next to the tree and police told her she would be arrested if she did not move away…
To the folks who live in St. Paul’s St. Anthony Park, rebuilding Cleveland Avenue is long overdue. Roughened by years of patched potholes and with sections missing curb and gutter, neighbors agree the arterial road needs a major overhaul. But many are livid at Ramsey County’s plans to soon start clearing 160 healthy trees along the project — some of them a century old. In 2019, the county stated that 50 to 60 trees would likely have to go. “It’s kind of like death by a thousand cuts,” said Pat Thompson, chair of the St. Anthony Park Community Council’s Transportation Committee. “All in the name of progress.” Kathryn Murray, the council’s executive director who sent a letter asking the county to adjust its plans, said losing so many mature trees is especially galling as climate change’s impact is being increasingly felt. Neighbors hope some of the trees can be saved, she said. “We had really hoped to end up with a street that would set an example for the rest of St. Paul about what a climate-friendly project looked like,” Murray said. “I don’t think this is it.” County officials acknowledged they could have done a better job communicating changes to the plan. The pandemic prevented larger public meetings, they said. But property owners were not left in the dark. “We met with every property owner along Cleveland,” said Nick Fischer, project manager for Ramsey County…
Baptist minister John M. McGinnis left his family a 434-acre pine-tree farm when he died in 2006, writing in his will that his heirs could eventually sell it for a “hunk of cash.” In 2020, some McGinnis family members sold off three-fifths of the property for $310,000. By the end of 2021, the Oglethorpe County land had been sold again, this time to a business that raised $10.7 million from investors in a land-conservation deal. That transaction could yield its investors millions of dollars more in tax deductions—as well as scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. The deal was typical of the “syndicated conservation easements” booming in this sliver of northeastern Georgia, which is known for granite deposits used in tombstones and statuary. For some appraisers and deal makers, the prospect of granite mining can drive up a property’s hypothetical value—and also drive up the tax deduction associated with promising not to conduct mining…
When the annual Rare Fruit Tree Sale was held at the Manatee County Convention Center in Palmetto, a crowd of several hundred would line up well before the doors opened. There was always something of a stampede when the doors swung open as buyers rushed in, looking to snap up a coveted mango, guava or other fruit tree before someone else grabbed it. Two years ago, the sale was canceled because of the pandemic, and last year it returned at a new location: Premier Sports Campus, 5895 Post Blvd., Lakewood Ranch. When the sale again returns Saturday to Premier Sports Campus from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., it promises to be more popular than ever. Why is that? No. 1, there has been an influx of new residents who want to grow something tropical and tasty in their yards…
Some West Milford residents are outraged that the township sent a crew into a wooded area on Earth Day last month to chop down trees and block the trails that ATV riders have been carving out for generations. There is no public land anywhere in New Jersey where riding an ATV, quad, or dirt bike is legal. West Milford, with 87 square miles of mostly watershed, is cut with trails — and a favored spot for off-roading has long been a patch of municipally-owned forest off Macopin Road and behind the Camelot Estates. Residents of Camelot Estates say they’ve shared the trails with dirt bikers for generations. But that share-the-road relationship ended April 22, when, without warning, the township sent a crew with chainsaws into the forest to cut down the trees and lay them across the trails. “I came home from work, took a walk in the woods, and I wanted to throw up,” said Dave Mussina, who lives on King Arthur’s Court at the edge of the woods. Mussina’s wife works from home and she heard the whirr of the chainsaws as they ripped through the natural playground where the couple’s six boys all play…
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, May 2, 2022:
With the world facing multiple crises including, COVID-19, conflicts, climate crisis and biodiversity loss, our forests can help us recover from their impact, but only if we step up action to unlock their potential. In a key report launched today, the State of the World’s Forests Report 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) sets out three pathways for doing that: halting deforestation; restoring degraded land and expanding agroforestry and sustainably using forests and building green value chains. “The balanced, simultaneous pursuit of these pathways can help address the crises facing people and the planet while also generating sustainable economic benefits, especially in (often remote) rural communities,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu writes in the foreword to the report, subtitled “Forest Pathways for Green Recovery and Building Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Economies” and launched at the XV World Forestry Congress in Seoul. The pathways are put forward “on the understanding that solutions to interrelated planetary crises have immense economic, social and environmental implications that need to be addressed holistically,” Qu adds…
In a California forest torched by wildfires last summer, researcher Anne Nolin examines a handful of the season’s remaining snow, now darkened by black specks from the burned trees above. Spring heat waves had already melted much of the year’s limited snowfall across California and parts of the West when Nolin visited in early April. But she and her colleague are studying another factor that might have made the snow vanish faster in the central Sierra Nevada — the scorched trees, which no longer provide much shade and are shedding flecks of carbon. The darkened snow is “primed to absorb all that sunlight” and melt faster, said Nolin, who researches snow at the University of Nevada at Reno. As climate change fuels the spread of wildfires across the West, researchers want to know how the dual effect might disrupt water supplies. Communities often rely on melting snow in the spring to replenish reservoirs during dryer months. If snow melts earlier than normal, that would probably leave less water flowing in the summer when it’s most needed, Nolin said…
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Journal, May 1, 2022: Tree of heaven a remarkably resilient plant
Q. In my neighbor’s yard there is a stand of tree of heaven trees that are growing really well. My trouble is the trees are spreading into my yard. I imagine that since I water my trees and shrubs, the trees of heaven are attracted to my space because of the water. I don’t want them growing in my yard, so how can I get and be rid of them? – N.H., Albuquerque
A. You’re probably correct in thinking that since you water and maintain your yard, that is what is encouraging the trees of heaven to invade your space. The tree of heaven is a very aggressive interloper and will go where it darn well pleases. It spreads quickly by suckers, as well as self-sowing lots of wind-borne seeds soon after flowering, so the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is remarkably resilient. Since it is so very able to grow in remarkably adverse conditions, I think that is partially how it got its name. After all, when you have a plant that is able to grow easily to a height of 25 feet, offers shade and safe haven for nesting birds, can survive drought and wind, and can grow in most any soil condition, well, that makes the tree of heaven, to some, heavenly…
What can planting a tree do to save the world? A lot – and at the same time, not enough. That’s the landscape laid out by a host of experts as the United States reaches its 150th Arbor Day, in a world drastically changed from 1872, when Nebraska newspaper editor J. Sterling Morton first proposed the holiday observed on the last Friday of April. At a time when trees are more valuable than ever for their ability to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide contributing to a dangerously warming planet, Earth is currently losing its forests at an alarming rate. A new report from the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, analyzed satellite imagery in partnership with the University of Maryland to record global forest loss in 2021. Among its findings…
If the Arbor Day spirit moves you to plant a tree, plant it right to give it the best chance for a long life of spreading green branches and sheltering people and homes. “How you plant a tree makes a critical difference in whether it will survive and how healthy it will be for the long term,” said Julie Janoski, Plant Clinic manager at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “The most important things you can do for a tree are to choose it carefully so it’s the right kind of tree for your site and to avoid planting it too deep.” Here are some basics of proper tree planting: Find the base of the trunk. To make sure your hole is the right depth, locate the base of the trunk, where it flares out into the big, anchoring roots. That spot is often buried in soil when you buy a tree, whether it comes in a pot or wrapped in burlap. “Dig down to find the first big roots, and remove all the soil above that point,” Janoski said. “Don’t just assume that the soil level in the pot is correct…”
What can planting a tree do to save the world? A lot – and at the same time, not enough. That’s the landscape laid out by a host of experts as the United States reaches its 150th Arbor Day, in a world drastically changed from 1872, when Nebraska newspaper editor J. Sterling Morton first proposed the holiday observed on the last Friday of April. At a time when trees are more valuable than ever for their ability to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide contributing to a dangerously warming planet, Earth is currently losing its forests at an alarming rate. A new report from the World Resources Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, analyzed satellite imagery in partnership with the University of Maryland to record global forest loss in 2021. Among its findings: The tropics — a region covering Central Mexico to Argentina, as well as much of Africa and Southeast Asia — lost 27.5 million acres of tree cover, equal to about 14 football fields per minute. That released enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to match the emissions of India, the world’s third highest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the U.S…
Brainerd, Minnesota, Dispatch, April 28, 2022: Drought-stressed trees face a long-term problem
Like returning songbirds, early signs of spring include the first vibrantly green leaf buds, but long-term effects from last year’s drought may still be taking a toll on trees. Northern Minnesota trees were hit especially hard in 2021 when the area set records for high temperatures and below average rainfall as the entire state entered the drought warning phase in mid-July. And by July, the Brainerd lakes area found itself in the fourth driest year on record. Though lawns grew back relatively quickly, trees can take between 2 to 4 years to recover after the stress of a drought, said Rachael Dube, a forest health specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’s Division of Forestry. “Generally, drought-stress trees are less able to resist attack from insects and diseases that wouldn’t normally cause serious problems,” Dube said. From researcher to tree coroner, Dube grew up around the hills of Avon and always found herself in the woods as a child. Finding the forest to be a fascinating place, Dube pursued a degree in forest resources from the University of Minnesota…
The article includes an interactive map showing the percentage of tree cover in each state.
US News and World Report, April 29, 2022: States With the Most Tree Cover
When National Arbor Day comes around, as it does this year on April 29, it reminds people of all the joy and wonder that a verdant tree can inspire. Trees are, in a sense, the ultimate breath of fresh air: Their shade cools down overheated cities, their fragrances cool down overheated minds and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide cools down an overheated planet. Trees are so beloved, in fact, that people will even send them love letters and fan mail. If you too are the type to send love notes to a linden, then you’ll want to take note of which states in the U.S. are most abundant in forests. The Northeast – with its gorgeous fall foliage – tends to dominate, but Southern and Appalachian states have plenty of green vistas to show off as well. According to Department of Agriculture data analyzed by USAFacts, the states with the highest percentage of land covered in forests in 2017 – the latest year information for all states was available – were Maine (89%), New Hampshire (83%), West Virginia (79%), Vermont (76%) and Alabama (71%). Go out to the prairie states, however, and there will be nary a tree in sight. North Dakota has only 2% of its land covered in forests, followed by Nebraska (3%), South Dakota (4%), Kansas (5%) and Iowa (8%). Overall, there are 21 states that are at least half covered by forests…
Purewow, April 28, 2022: 12 Messy Trees You Should Avoid Planting in Your Yard
Trees are beautiful! That is, until they’re getting on your last nerve, dropping sticks constantly, crowding other plants or sneaking their roots into your sewage lines. No, we’re not haters: You just have to do a little homework before you plant a tree in your yard. “There’s no such thing as a ‘bad’ tree, just a tree that’s planted in the wrong place,” says Jim Barborinas, consulting arborist with Urban Forestry Services and Urban Forest Nursery in Mount Vernon, Washington. “The first step is investigating how big that tree is going to get. Believe me, if it’s happy in its new home, it always gets bigger than you think it will.” Trees may be a problem for a lot of reasons, including when they crowd utility lines, interfere with gutters and rooflines, or drop messy seeds and nuts, which can damage cars parked beneath them. “Before you buy, read the plant tag to learn size, growth rate and its water needs,” says Tom Smiley, senior arboricultural researcher with Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory, and vice president of the International Society of Arboriculture. “You may spend hundreds on a young tree, so you don’t want to create a maintenance nightmare and have to remove the tree later.” Also, make sure a tree is suited to your USDA Hardiness zone (find yours here) so you know it will survive winters in your area…
New York City, WNYW-TV, April 27, 2022: Long Island woman chains herself to tree to save it
Last Wednesday Denise Casares decided to chain herself to a tree outside her family’s Westbury home. “I was like a lunatic. I wasn’t rational on Wednesday,” Casares says. “I told my husband later in the day, ‘I’m going to chain myself to a tree.'” Her husband dutifully took the family to Home Depot to buy a lock and chain. “She’s my wife I have to support her,” Marcelo Casares says. That started a daily act of defiance. “And then Thursday morning, I got up and that’s when I started chaining myself to the tree,” Casares says. The impetus was village contractors wielding cones, ropes, and saws last week hoping to remove an at-least 70-year-old tree outside of the family home. The village wants to repave and level a sidewalk before paving Ellison Ave. In a Facebook post, Westbury Village’s mayor explained: “We’ve spent millions of taxpayer dollars paving roads and fixing drainage issues, and we have to make sure that it is done correctly. Removing trees is not done arbitrarily. It is not subjective or cavalierly decided. We do so on the advice of experts in road design and drainage.” “I stand here and I don’t go to the bathroom,” Casares says. “Until they tell me my tree gets to stay.” And she plans to continue standing there for nine hours a day with her waist chained to the tree that’s stood in front of her family home since before her grandparents built it in the 1950s. Or the police arrive with a set of bolt cutters and a pair of handcuffs to arrest her. Until then, she locks herself up, leans against the hardwood giant, and collects signatures on a petition…
London, UK, BBC, April 28, 2022: Record tree losses in northern regions in 2021
Tree cover losses in northern regions of the world were the highest on record in 2021, according to new analysis from Global Forest Watch. Figures for these boreal forests were up 30% on 2020, with wildfires causing massive losses in Russia. Elsewhere, around ten football pitches per minute of tropical primary forest were lost across the year. Brazil, once again, led the way with a significant uptick in tree loss associated with agricultural expansion. This new data records the losses of tree cover in 2021, and is not the overall net picture when new plantings are taken into account. Much of the focus for researchers is on the world’s tropical regions because this is where more than 96% of deforestation takes place. When it comes to tropical primary forests, Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo top the table as they have for many years now. But one of the big concerns in the new figures is the loss of boreal forests which are found in northern parts of Russia, Canada and Alaska. While the cutting or burning of trees in these regions rarely results in permanent deforestation, the number of trees destroyed in 2021 was up 30% on 2020, to the highest level yet recorded…
The city of Tampa is changing things up a bit for its fourth quinquennial tree canopy study by inviting residents to participate this time around. Tampa residents are being asked to participate in a confidential survey to find out how residents care for and experience trees in one of the world’s largest urban forests. “We are interested in what you think about the trees in your neighborhood and the city of Tampa’s plans to maintain trees across the area,” said Rebecca Zarger, a University of South Florida faculty member in the Department of Anthropology. “Participating in our tree survey means your experiences will inform future plans for our urban forest.” The resident component is a new addition to the study that analyzes Tampa’s massive tree canopy. The study, a joint venture with the University of South Florida, looks at “overall canopy coverage, reports any changes, provides a detailed description of the forest structure and composition, and estimates the economic and ecological values of the city of Tampa’s urban forest,” according to city staff. Tampa began analyzing its tree canopy in 2006. Follow-up studies were conducted in 2011 and 2016. According to the most recent study, coverage was 31.7% in 2006 and shot up to 34.4% in 2011, but then dropped to 32.3% in 2011. As of 2016, Tampa had 9.3 million trees over 27,000 acres…
If a tree sways in the woods, what could it tell us about how likely it is to fall? This is the question Amanda Bunce, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, is working to address with the Stormwise Program in the Eversource Energy Center. Stormwise is a collaboration between the Eversource Energy Center and researchers in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR). CAHNR researchers provide the Eversource team with vital information about roadside vegetation in the state to support informed decision-making to improve the resiliency of Connecticut’s power grid. Bunce studies biomechanics, or how trees move in the wind, in forests across Connecticut. These measurements help Bunce determine how likely the tree is to be damaged or fall in a storm. Recent destructive storm events in the Northeast have inspired utility companies like Eversource Energy, researchers, and other collaborators to work together on management approaches that will help adapt our forests to disturbances like increased storm activity, in an attempt to better prepare communities in the face of climate change…
Gainesville, Florida, Sun, April 22, 2022: Treat trees as infrastructure, not afterthoughts
Trees’ little brothers are shrubs and green groundcover, but their concrete cousins include streets, sidewalks and sewers. On Arbor Day (April 29), we pay homage to trees as work horses, not show horses. They cool urban heat islands, sequester carbon, shelter wildlife and filter stormwater. There’s even been research indicating they reduce car crashes. It’s important to treat trees as infrastructure, not afterthoughts. To plant trees strategically as we build, renovate and modernize, we need to do it with expertise. That comes from universities, where two of us lead teams of scientists, and from industry, where one of us is an accomplished nurseryman, business owner and association leader. This expertise should be employed from the moment we decide to build. That made a big difference in Tioga, outside Gainesville, where a nurseryman was an actual partner of a developer 25 years ago. Trees were integrated into the planning just as streets, underground utilities and sidewalks were. As a result, much damage has been avoided to those roads, underground utilities and sidewalks from tree roots. The trees’ shade has increased use of walking trails and playing fields. Their beauty has attracted visitors and their money to Tioga…
Two children from Indianapolis are dead after a weekend camping trip in Owen County. A 911 call made at 2 p.m. Saturday reported the children had been hurt at the private family-owned campground off U.S. 231, 12 miles north of Spencer. The children died at the scene from accidental blunt-force injuries, Owen County Coroner Angi Frank said Monday. Investigators said the siblings were riding as passengers in a golf cart with their parents when strong winds toppled a dead tree. Medics pronounced both children at the scene. The Owen County Coroner’s Office declined to release the names of the children citing the sensitive nature of the accident and the children being minors…
Friday is Arbor Day, a national celebration of tree planting that has been celebrated every April since 1872. This year, why not celebrate Arbor Day by planting a tree in your own yard or at another location in your community? Trees are an important economic, environmental and quality-of-life asset in an urban community, reducing the heat island effect, reducing air pollution, intercepting stormwater, and improving quality of life for residents. Trees also provide critical habitat and a food source for birds, pollinators and other insects and wildlife. The City of Columbus has identified a critical need to increase the tree canopy, as just 22% of all land in the city is shaded by trees. In addition to community benefits provided by the tree canopy, the presence of large trees in a home’s front yard can increase the property value of the home, and strategically placed trees can shade homes and other structures, reducing annual air conditioning costs by up to 56%, according to the U.S. Forest Service…
Gizmodo, April 23, 2022: New Biden Order to Find Old Trees Falls Short of Protecting Them
In a reversal of standard procedure, the federal government will now have to figure out how not to miss the trees for the forest. On Friday, as part of an apparent Earth Day push, President Biden signed an executive order directing the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture to survey and catalog the country’s oldest trees on federal land and to “strengthen” our forests against the threat of wildfire. The official announcement of the new order came late morning Pacific time from Seward Park in Seattle, during Biden’s first visit to the Pacific Northwest since being elected. “Today I’m signing an executive order to conserve our forests that do so much to protect us,” said the president in a speech. “We’re going to work with state and local and tribal governments to map and catalog and then conserve old-growth forests on public lands.” In a press statement and in Biden’s remarks, the administration framed the policy as being a climate change mitigation effort, pointing out the role of forests in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide. But there are limits to what trees can do, especially as U.S. emissions continue to rise. And though the order is a small step toward better forest protections, it certainly isn’t comprehensive…
Thousands of acres of redwood trees in California’s Santa Cruz mountains are showing signs of life again. It’s a sign of hope after the devastating 2020 CZU fire, which closed Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The fire raced across 97% of the 18,000 acres that make up the park. It killed Douglas firs, live oaks and madrones, and charred the stately old-growth redwoods. However, nearly two years later, nature is showing signs of resiliency. Even after losing most of their leaves, the redwoods are growing a new canopy overhead. And down by their roots, they’re sending out new growth. “They send out all of these new saplings along a trunk, so they stump sprout. Then these little guys will keep growing, competing with one another,” Laura McLendon said. “One or more may make it.” McLendon is director of Sempervirens Fund, a land trust that partners with California state parks. Inside Big Basin, they have planted thousands of redwood saplings in the hardest-hit zones…
A state appeals court has ruled that a woman who said she was injured when a large tree branch fell on her truck as she drove along Mt. Airy Forest can’t sue the city, despite an allegation that negligence by city employees caused it to happen. In an opinion released this month, the 1st District Court of Appeals said the City of Cincinnati was immune from being sued because Cileta Fry, who was 61 at the time, was not injured on park property. Fry’s U-Haul truck was, in fact, on Colerain Avenue, adjacent to the park when it was struck by the branch. The tree was in the park. Because she couldn’t do that, the court said the city was entitled to immunity. Fry, it said, “failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted against the city.” In a concurring opinion, Judge Pierre Bergeron cited “the injustice” of the state’s immunity statute. “Had (Fry) been maybe a couple of feet over at the time of the injury,” Bergeron said, “her case would move forward.” State law says the city is entitled to immunity under most circumstances. There are a few exceptions, but according to the appeals court’s opinion, Fry had to show that her injuries happened “within or on the grounds of” the park…
President Biden spent Earth Day in Seattle discussing his plan to help battle climate change as a couple hundred Seattleites advocated for him to do more. The president drove past various signs reading “stop salmon extinction,” “we demand fossil free future for all” and cutouts of Biden saying “climate change is the existential threat to humanity.” But, the majority of Biden’s speech at Seattle’s Seward Park consisted of ways to fix the world’s climate-change issue. “All you gotta do is look around: cities and states are acting, businesses are acting, I’m acting and we need congress to act as well,” Biden said. Along with his speech, the president signed an executive order that is intended to help restore national forests that have been affected by wildfires, drought and blight. The order will require National Park Services, Forest Services and the Bureau of Land Management to identify threats to older trees and develop policies to protect them. “I’m signing an executive order to strengthen our forests on federal lands and make them and the local economies they support more resilient in the face of wildfires,” Biden said…
As spring moves on, unfortunately we’re seeing that the damage to the ash trees is as severe as we were afraid it was. Personally, I think they would have done better than they are if it wasn’t for that really cold weather in the first week of February this year. Unlike last year’s extremely cold (meaning sub-zero) weather, this year’s cold weather in February wasn’t particularly abnormal, just badly timed for our poor ash trees, which were desperately trying to recover. This week, I want to spend a little time on something that is not a tree, or depending on how you look at it, not even tree related. Dog. I want to talk a little bit about dogs. First off, just to be clear, while I might be something of a expert on trees, I have no education regarding dogs. I just really like them. One of the things I seriously like about the work I do is meeting the people we do work for – and along with them, their dogs…
U.S. President Joe Biden marks Earth Day on Friday with a trip to lush but fire-prone Washington state and the signing of an executive order to protect old-growth forests. The order Biden signs will create the first-ever inventory of old-growth forests on federal lands and develop a plan to conserve them. It will also task diplomats with doing more to combat deforestation abroad, the White House said. The massive, sometimes ancient trees that dot the Western U.S. landscape absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, cutting the emissions that cause climate change and also make wildfires more likely. They’re at risk. A single fire in 2020 in California killed more than 10% of the world’s giant sequoia trees, National Park Service scientists concluded. “Wildfires and extreme weather events are growing in frequency and ferocity, engulfing communities in the West and across the country and costing lives, homes, and money,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the executive order. Biden’s visit to Washington state marks the latest in a series of trips aimed at touting the administration’s accomplishments ahead of November’s mid-term elections…
Stinky but handsome and widely popular landscape trees have spawned aggressive invaders, creating thickets that overwhelm native plants and sport nasty four-inch spikes. Bradford pears and 24 other ornamental trees were developed from Callery pears – a species brought to America a century ago to save ravaged pear orchards. Now, their invasive descendants have been reported in more than 30 states. “Worse than murder hornets!” was the tongue-in-cheek title of a U.S. Department of Agriculture webinar in 2020 about Callery pears including the two dozen thornless ornamental varieties sold since the 1960s. “They’re a real menace,” said Jerrod Carlisle, who discovered that four trees in his yard and one at a neighbor’s had spawned thousands on 50 acres he was turning from cropland to woods in Otwell, a community of about 400 in southern Indiana. Indiana is among 12 midwestern and western states that have reported invasions, though most are in the South and Northeast. Until 2015, Carlisle rented his field to a farmer. Then he enrolled it in a USDA crop reduction program that paid for planting 29,000 trees as wildlife habitat. Carlisle realized the spiky flowering pears were a problem in 2019. When he cut or mowed them, new sprouts popped up. Trees sprayed with herbicide regrew leaves. Cutting off bark in a circle around the trunk kills most trees. Not these. He and his 17-year-old son have cut down an estimated 1,400 Callery pears, applying herbicide to the stumps. But he figures there are about 1,000 more to go…
Sometimes, a seemingly gentle nudge can hit the rawest of nerves. And it seems that last week’s gentle diatribe on the constantly perplexing practice of volcano mulching was just that kind of nudge. The inbox has been overflowing all week — and not with love letters. So let’s hit the basics of mulching. This is a good and age-old question across the gardening world. Sometimes we think the only appropriate mulch is what’s available or what we’ve always used. Essentially, anything can make a good mulch as long as it stays put, allows adequate water infiltration does not appreciably restrict oxygen and CO2 exchange between the plant’s root zone and shoot zone, is not toxic to plants or other living things, and doesn’t otherwise create a less than favorable growing environment for your plants. Cypress mulch is great for paths because it doesn’t wash away in a thunderstorm as some others can. But cypress mulch is a horrible choice for planting beds because over time it forms a dense mat that is all but impenetrable to rain and irrigation water. Black mulch can lead to extreme heat gain in summer while white stone mulch can cause plant damage due to excessive reflection of the sun’s energy. And besides . . . what’s the deal with black and white mulch anyway? Unless you’re installing an art deco garden, I don’t really get the point…
Ecologist Jim Scheff steps off trail to hike into the upper reaches of Little Flat Creek inside Daniel Boone National Forest. It’s springtime, but the trees are still bare enough to see their limbs spreading into canopies. To Scheff, each tree tells a story: a trunk shimmying down an unstable slope over the decades, gnarled limbs broken by an ice storm and tree hollows hinting at centuries of growth. We’re here in Clay County to see what he believes to be the world’s largest Red Hickory tree. “The mountains of Eastern Kentucky historically had some big, big trees. There aren’t a lot of records, but there are some, and most of those areas were cleared,” he said. “There are very few of those types of sites left.” Scheff works with the forest protection nonprofit Kentucky Heartwood. Few people know this forest the way he does. He has a master’s degree in old growth ecology from Eastern Kentucky University, and he’s devoted his career to understanding the complexities of the Daniel Boone National Forest…
A large tree fell onto a home in Annapolis during Monday evening’s rainstorm, killing a man inside, according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. Fire department spokeswoman Lt. Jennifer Macallair said that around 10 p.m. Monday, officials responded to 911 calls from the 800 block of Holly Drive, located on the Broadneck Peninsula in the Amberley community. Four people had been inside the house at the time of the incident — two parents, their4-year-old child and a grandparent, Macallair said. The child’s father, who was in his mid-40s, was pronounced dead on the scene, Macallair said, and the child’s 45-year-old mother was taken to Shock Trauma in Baltimore with critical injuries. Fire department officials had no update on her condition as of Tuesday morning. The child and their grandparent sustained non-life-threatening injuries, Macallair said. The child was medically evaluated on the scene and released, she added. In a separate incident in Arnold during Monday evening’s storm, an adult woman was injured when a tree fell onto her home on the 900 Block of Blue Fox Way…
Last fall, thieves stole three trucks and tons of tools from Foriest Tree Care in Franklin. President of the company, Walt Ward, said he estimates it cost them about $300,000 in damages and stolen property. It happened in mid-October. Security cameras captured three people cutting through a fence and breaking into the main office. They stole keys and drove off with three trucks, trailers, chain saws and more. “We’re continuing to suffer a little bit from not having all the pieces of our equipment replaced yet just because it’s so hard to find equipment now and even just get parts to fix the trucks,” Ward said. Ward said over the last six months they’ve recovered all three trucks but none of the trailers or tools. With less trucks and tools, he said they’ve lost business and several customers. But Ward said the theft has hurt his employees the most. “I hope that they will see that what they do impacts hard working guys every day because the people that it hurt here were the guys that need a paycheck every day, that have a family, and have dependents that rely on them to be able to come to work,” Ward said…
When my husband and I bought this home and started gardening 40 years ago, the first thing we did was plant five apple trees. We had romantic visions of golden autumns, gathering perfect apples from our perfect trees. The simple life sure got complicated when we discovered that if you plant apples (or pears), codling moths will find them and continue their life cycles as larvae in your fruit. A neighbor, an ag chemical salesman, solved the problem by keeping us supplied with high-octane pesticides. We sprayed away, unabashedly grateful to be “living better chemically.” Times changed. We changed. Our neighbor moved to North Carolina. But one thing remained the same. If you try to grow apples without scrupulous vigilance and management, pests will find them, and you can bet on it. I wanted to cut the trees down and grow something else. Who needs to grow their own apples when you live in the “Apple Capital of the World”? But my husband refused to give up and switched to spraying with Spinosad, an organic pesticide based on metabolites of a soil bacterium. The codling moth goes through at least two generations, from egg-to larvae-to-pupae-to-moth each year. Sometimes, there may even be a third generation that fails to mature before winter, but can still ruin apples. You’ll find damage in unprotected fruit in late May to mid-June, or in mid-August through September. The worm leaves an unmistakable entrance hole, topped with a gob of excrement, and can burrow straight to the core and feed on the seeds…
To the editor — I want to praise the article crafted by longtime Master Gardener Carol Barany. Carol is absolutely correct that apple tree homeowners plant with good intention but often have very negative results. No-longer-cared-for apple trees exist in front/backyards, business borders and roadsides across the county. More than a third of our citizens are employed within this industry — keystone of our economy. Yakima County grows more apples than any county in the nation! If these “backyard” trees are not sprayed routinely, at the very right time, and multiple times every single year, they provide a very nice home for very bad bugs making babies and flying three miles to infect commercial orchards, causing dramatically more chemicals to be used in the environment…
Is old-fashioned photosynthesis up to the task of managing the enormous amount of carbon (roughly 36 billion tons per year) that we’re pumping into the atmosphere? A biotechnology startup in California doesn’t think so. That’s why researchers at Living Carbon have been hard at work manipulating arboreal DNA to make a new type of tree that more effectively captures atmospheric carbon and holds onto it for a very, very long time. And they’ve made a lot of progress. Yumin Tao, the company’s VP of biotechnology, leads the team that figured out how adding a few genes from pumpkins and green algae could supercharge photosynthesis, significantly increasing the amount of carbon an engineered tree can store in its tissues. IE sat down with Tao to discuss what his team has accomplished and how it might — might — help solve one of our planet’s biggest challenges. IE: What is the science team at Living Carbon trying to do? Yumin Tao: Our mission is really to use cutting-edge plant biotechnology to find a solution to climate change based on a form of nature. We use all kinds of tools to improve carbon drawdown from the atmosphere and to sequester, or fix, the carbon in the form of plants. We also expand the life of the fixed carbon so that it doesn’t get back to the atmosphere as early or as often as it normally does…
The Virginia Department of Forestry is offering a cost-share program to help aid the treatment of ash trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). The Emerald Ash Borer is considered to be one of the most destructive forest pests in North America. These bugs have already caused millions of dollars in damage and hundreds of ash trees have died according to the Department of Forestry. All North American ash species are likely to die within one to five years after being infested with EAB. These trees are commonly found in yards and along country roads. If affected trees are not treated or removed, they often fall or unexpectedly drop limbs. This spring, VDOF is offering a 50% cost-share program for landowners and organizations to offset the treatment of specimen ash trees via trunk injection. Organizations across the state are eligible to apply but landowners are only eligible for cost-share if they’re located in the VDOF eastern region. Eligible landowners and organizations with healthy ash trees that are 12 inches in diameter or larger, with 30% or less crown defoliation, are encouraged to apply…
Oilprice.com, April 18, 2022: Trees: An Overlooked Source of Renewable Power
One of the more controversial renewable energy resources is woody biomass, such as trees. It shouldn’t be, because biomass can be a highly sustainable resource if it is properly managed. I lived in Hawaii for five years, where I worked for a company that managed forests (among other things). I was sometimes asked to give talks at the local high school about energy and sustainability. During one talk, a student said “I heard you were going to cut down all the trees.” At that moment, I realized that her view of forestry was much the same as my own view of forestry while growing up in Weyerhaeuser country in Oklahoma. Back then I viewed foresters as people who cut down trees, and I associated them with clearcutting. My views have changed a lot since then, because I have a better understanding of what foresters do. Foresters manage forests. With a managed forest, sometimes that means you harvest the trees like you would harvest any other crop. But managing a forest also entails replacing what you cut down. When considering biomass as a source of energy, there are many potential pitfalls. Some forms of biomass are heavy users of nutrients, and as such the fertilization requirements can be high. This can imply high fossil fuel inputs to produce the fertilizer and a higher risk of soil depletion. Also, some crops are heavy users of water…
A Bradford pear tree can be a beautiful sight to behold. But that’s about where its usefulness ends. The Bradford pear, also known as the Callery pear, can create unpleasant smells and, more importantly, is invasive and destructive to other plants and animals. It multiplies quickly and crowds out Missouri native plants, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. “The Callery pear became a popular ornamental landscape tree in the 1960s because it was inexpensive, it grew fast, and provided those eye-catching blooms in the spring,” said MDC Forestry Program Supervisor Russell Hinnah. “But that’s where its benefits end. Different varieties of the tree were planted close to each other, which resulted in cross pollination and they took over natural areas.” The Bradford pear also has a poor branch structure. The trees don’t fare well in storms, often losing limbs or splitting apart…
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? In Connecticut, that may be a moot point. We are the third smallest state in the union, and the fourth-most densely populated. Of the 3.6 million people living in such a small place, about 88 percent live in the urban-suburban mix of Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford counties. But we also lead the nation in the percentage of urban communities that have tree cover — about 60 percent. (The state as a whole is about 60 percent forested as well.) So, if a tree falls, somebody is around to hear and see it and call City Hall about it. “If you look at the states that have the most trees in proximity to the most people, we have the most,” said Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. While there is a great, and needed effort to preserve big forest blocks that foster biodiversity, there’s increasing attention on caring for trees where the most people live. “I think people are more interested in this than they have been in the past,” said Dr. Gregory Kramer, superintendent of Parks and Trees and Tree Warden for the town of Greenwich. “It’s a good thing.” “People have been interested and they continue to be,” said Sharon Calitro, Danbury’s director of planning, about city residents’ desire to have something green and growing near their homes. “Both for environmental issues and aesthetic issues…”
Harold Schlechtwag has started calling Wichita “Stump City.” But he’s hoping it doesn’t stick. It came to Schlechtwag, one of the founders of a new local environmental group, when he counted the tree stumps in his neighborhood. “In a two-block area around my house, I discovered seven stumps, some of which are quite old trees,” Schlechtwag said. Some of the trees that had been chopped down were on city easements, between a curb and a sidewalk. Others had been on private land. “One of them was removed by the person who flipped a house, before he renovated that house to sell it,” he said. “And that’s another part of the problem here.” Since 2010, Wichita has removed nearly 44,000 more trees than it has planted on city-owned or controlled property, according to city data. That number doesn’t include the trees on private property, which satellite images show are also declining in number. Trees have been felled by the acre for a new water treatment plant, parks, parking lots and Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus, among other projects. Meanwhile, in an effort to save money during the Great Recession and the pandemic, Wichita has in recent decades planted fewer and fewer trees to replace the losses…
Columbus, Nebraska, Telegraph, April 16, 2022: Topping trees is a very poor practice
Topping a tree is one of the worst pruning practice that can be done. Topping is drastically shortening all of a tree’s branches without regard to where the pruning cut is made. Unfortunately, I saw another tree in Columbus that was recently topped. That means it’s time for another article on why trees should not be topped. Topped trees can become hazards, not to mention the aesthetics of the tree is destroyed. Once topped, these trees are no longer an asset to the property or the community. Topping is harmful because all of the cuts are stub cuts. The cut is made at a point on the branch where the tree cannot seal the wound with chemical defenses or wound wood and decay sets into the remaining branch stubs. The drastic removal of so much live tissue triggers the tree to produce many suckers or water sprouts. These are weakly attached to branches because they grow from latent buds that are just beneath the bark. Suckers can grow to become quite large and heavy…
Popular Science, A beginner’s guide to selecting, planting, and protecting a new tree (Apr 17)
So, you’ve done your homework and determined what you want in a tree and how you want it to contribute to your landscape. You’ve familiarized yourself with the nature of your growing region and assessed the specific conditions of your planting site. You’ve considered all the ways in which a tree can create a more comfortable environment, providing tangible environmental and economic benefits. You’ve learned about the different parts of a tree and how each of them function. Best of all, you’ve gotten a glimpse of the many beautiful types of trees that can enhance your landscape and transform it into a sanctuary that enriches life for everyone in your household and even your larger community. Now comes the really exciting part—selecting a healthy tree and planting it! Good tree care starts with choosing a healthy tree. Remember, your tree will be with you for years, maybe even generations, to come. Here’s what to look for when purchasing a tree to ensure that it gets off to a healthy start and can provide a lifetime of benefits. When shopping for trees at the nursery, choosing a tree with a strong central leader is especially important for shade trees. Avoid trees with multiple leaders. Low branches, while temporary, help promote growth and protect plants from sun scald—so be sure they look healthy as well. At the nursery, you’ll find plants have been categorized based on how they were produced, harvested, and prepared for retail. The various options, which include container-grown trees, ball-and-burlap specimens, and bare root plants, require different handling and planting techniques…
Over the past decade, Pooler has ramped up efforts to protect their trees amid a rapidly urbanizing landscape. The city is continued those efforts Saturday with its 3rd annual “Plant a Tree for Free” event where Pooler residents picked up a sapling free of charge to plant at home. The event was part of Pooler’s broader strategy of bringing back the greenery that has been lost to explosive urban growth from the past three decades. The city’s rapid development provides a cautionary tale on tree loss within Chatham County, a reputation the city has been working hard to reverse for the sake of improving residents’ quality of life. Pooler’s recent designation as a “tree city” by the Arbor Day Foundation is a recognition of those efforts. Since 2007, the city’s tree fund has collected money from developers who cannot meet the required tree cover on their building site. That money is then used for city landscaping projects or tree planting, such as “Plant a Tree for Free.” Last year, Pooler officials also hired a part-time arborist to consult on how the city can better preserve and grow its tree canopy. What ultimately governs the life and abundance of a municipality’s trees, however, is outlined in the city code, within the tree protection ordinance. In the last several years, Pooler has made changes to strengthen those guidelines, working with area non-profit the Savannah Tree Foundation, the city planner and part-time city arborist…
Environmental activists, even some Atlanta city council members, feel the current tree ordinance has no teeth. From its fee structure to its lack of incentive for developers to preserve trees, they say new legislation is long overdue. A new proposal is expected to be introduced in Monday’s city council meeting, confirmed Atlanta City Councilman Julian Bond. Adding, “we want to see new development, but we don’t want to see it happen at the sacrifice of our tree canopy.” Some know Atlanta as “a city in the forest” or “the city in the trees,” but either way, it’s known for its canopy. The coverage is rapidly declining says Greg Levine with Trees Atlanta. The organization plants, protects and educates people on the crucial need for our local greenery– leaves increase the air quality while roots minimize area flooding. However, Levine tells CBS46 that recent findings from a national group based out of D.C., American Forest Work, reveal the metro ranks in the top ten in the southeast for tree loss. “We’re losing it every day because our development is moving faster than our improvement on protecting trees,” he continued. Meanwhile, Bond says city data shows roughly 30,000 trees have been cut down since the 1990s. The tree ordinance was put in place more than 20 years ago…
Customers of a tree removal company are demanding answers. They told WAND News a local business took their money and never completed the work. But the business owner said it wasn’t a scam – just a case of bad luck. It all started with two trees Carol Sincebaugh wanted out of her front lawn. “So they came out, gave me a quote mid-December,” Michelle Royer, Sincebaugh’s daughter, told WAND News. She helped her mother hire Parrish Tree and Landscape to do the work.m”At that point, she told me they needed a deposit to hold the date, and needed to get a signed contract,” Royer explained. On Jan. 31., one of the owners came to Sincebaugh’s home to sign a contract, receive the check and set a Feb. 20 work date. “She told me the deposit that was requested and I just made it larger so I just had a third paid and just needed to pay the other two-thirds upon finishing,” Sincebaugh told WAND News. But the day of the scheduled job, the company asked to postpone because Oran Parrish had a COVID-19 infection. “I said, I hope everything is fine, please let us know when you’re ready to reschedule. We hadn’t heard anything by the middle of March, so we started contacting – my mom started calling the number provided,” Royer explained…
National Geographic, April 14, 2022: Help forests migrate to beat the heat
Golden needles dust the ground and collect in Greg O’Neill’s hair like bright blond highlights as he pushes his way through a grove of tall, elegant larch trees in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. “Such a beautiful tree,” he says. “A proud species. When it finds its happy place, it goes wild.” But the “happy place” for many trees, here and elsewhere, is changing as Earth’s climate warms. These thriving larches, in fact, didn’t sprout from tree parents in this valley, or even this country. They came from 284 miles south, in Idaho, where their ancestors adapted to conditions now common here: warmer summers, slightly shorter winters, different rainfall patterns. They are part of an experiment designed to answer an increasingly urgent question: How can we help forests keep up with human-caused climate change? In plots like this, from Northern California to the Yukon border, O’Neill, a forester for the British Columbian government, and his colleagues have planted seedlings from larch and other species collected from groves along the West Coast to test the concept of assisted migration. They want to see how far and how quickly foresters need to move tree populations north to keep pace with climate change…
San Antonio, Texas, KENS-TV, April 14, 2022: Here’s how you can cut your energy bills with trees
Hot summer days are for seeking some shade. Your home also benefits from being out of direct sunlight. “A shade tree can help reduce the temperature underneath by up to 10-15 degrees,” said Brandon Kirby with Rainbow Garden in San Antonio. “For example, if it’s 100 degrees outside, it might only feel like 95 degrees under a tree. If you’ve ever spent any time in 110-degree heat, it’s a big difference.” That difference in temperature means your air conditioner will not need to work as hard, lowering your power bill. CPS Energy is offering customers a $50 rebate for every tree they plant, up to five trees, for a total of $250. “We have over 30 species that qualify,” said Heath Bentley, CPS Energy’s environmental analyst. “They are mostly native or non-native species that are well adapted and non-invasive to this area…” The $50 credit you get for buying the tree will appear on your CPS Energy bill within 12 weeks, but the 25% savings you see from the shade tree is going to take a little longer. “Some of these larger shade trees can take some time for them to be large enough to shade your home,” Bentley said. It can be 10 to 15 years to see the benefits on your bill…
State biologists on Wednesday recommended against designating the western Joshua tree as threatened with extinction, saying claims in a petition filed by environmentalists about the effects climate change will have on the living symbols of the California desert are premature. A final decision by the Fish and Game Commission on the petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity is expected in June. If not listed, it will be up to local jurisdictions to set limits on development of commercial, residential and solar and wind projects across thousands of acres of southeastern California’s sunniest real estate. About 40% of the western Joshua tree’s range is on private land where a state endangered-species law would apply, according to the petition. The area includes the rapidly growing cities of Palmdale, Lancaster, Hesperia, Victorville and Yucca Valley. The western Joshua tree “is currently abundant and widespread,” wrote authors of a 158-page analysis made public Wednesday. This abundance “substantially lowers the threat of extinction within the foreseeable future,” the document said…
Do you have an oak tree? You could save its life by putting your chainsaw down and not pruning it right away, according to the Michigan DNR. Oak trees are at high risk for oak wilt infection between April 15 to July 15. Oak wilt is a fungal disease that can weaken white oaks and kill red oak trees within just a few weeks. During this time of year, flying beetles can carry spores of the fungus from tree to tree. The fungus enters the tree through wounds that are often caused by pruning or storms. “The guidelines against pruning oak trees during this time are designed to help prevent the spread of this tree-killing disease to new areas,” said James Wieferich, forest health specialist in the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Forest Resources Division. “Once oak wilt gets started, it is expensive to successfully manage and will kill all nearby red oaks over time, if untreated.” Have you already pruned the oak tree? Was it damaged some other way? There’s still time to help. If you have an oak tree that was damaged during the high-risk period you should cover all wounds with tree-wound paint or latex-based paint. Painting tree wounds is not recommended for other tree species because it can reduce the effectiveness of the healing process, according to the DNR…
Referred to as the Bradford Pear or the Cleveland Select, the Callery Pear tree is known for its ornamental appearance, white blooms and, notoriously, pungent smell. An invasive tree, it has been banned from being planted or sold in Ohio starting January 2023. Thirty-eight plants have been declared invasive in Ohio by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, and among them is the Callery Pear tree, which tends to aggressively spread and crowd out native plants. If there was a plant version of “Jekyll and Hyde,” it would be the Callery Pear tree, said Joe Boggs, assistant professor at Ohio University Extension Hamilton County, near Cincinnati. “One thing started becoming evident they were still Jekyll trees. We love them They’re tough trees,” Boggs said. “We plant them where other trees have a problem. Then along the way, they started noticing that Bradfords tended to break apart, so people started working with breeding different types. Then we started noticing something that wasn’t so good. We started noticing that little fruits were appearing on these streets.” The presence of the Callery Pear tree began with unintended consequences. Native to Asia, the species is named after French missionary Joseph Callery, who first collected the tree in 1858. And unlike many of its family members, the Callery Pear put up a good fight against bacterial fireblight, a disease that threatens the common fruiting pear tree…
For months, Keith Troung had become increasingly frustrated by speedy drivers who kept whizzing by his San Francisco business, Ambrosia Bakery, with no regard for the stop sign near his storefront. After realizing the traffic sign, at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Woodacre Drive, was camouflaged by excessive foliage from two trees in front of his shop, he started viewing them as a liability and decided to take measures into his own hands. “I had a lot of complaints from the customers who said it was a hazard to cross the street,” Troung told SFGATE. “I told the gardener to trim the trees to make sure the stop sign was visible.” Troung paid $550 out of pocket for the service, but the move would end up costing him more: He was fined $4,500 by San Francisco Public Works. Troung said that the unsupervised tree trimming occurred three months ago, but he didn’t realize it was unlawful at the time. He was shocked when he received a notice in the mail with no warning beforehand. The foliage had likewise obstructed his own business sign, but Troung said that his greatest motivation in cutting the trees was to protect neighborhood residents. Now, he’s concerned about the steep fee. ABC7 first reported the story. “The pandemic was difficult already,” Troung said. “That’s a lot for a business that was struggling. They must consider that. Rachel Gordon, the spokesperson for San Francisco Public Works, told SFGATE that the agency evaluated the trees last year but “determined that urgent pruning was not warranted.” San Francisco Public Works is responsible for caring for more than 125,000 street trees throughout the city. Pruning one illegally results in a fine of $2,230 per tree, and the cash from those fees is used toward future tree plantings. Gordon said the karo trees outside Troung’s shop were in such poor shape that all its major branches and leaves were destroyed. “Removing more than 25% of the canopy from a tree is extremely damaging,” Gordon said. “If trees are excessively pruned, the tree can run out of stored energy and die. If the trees do survive, they will require much more intensive pruning care going forward to ensure proper growth…”
Washington state makes a lot of money by leasing its public land for logging. It uses the funds for schools, libraries, hospitals, and more. Which sounds good, but then again, the state does hype its climate change awareness. And cutting down a lot of trees doesn’t help with our climate change goals. Washington’s Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz has a new approach. The state will lease public land to corporations, like a sponsorship. Through conserving this land, those corporations will get credit for offsetting their carbon emissions. A total of 10,000 acres of Washington’s forests have been set aside for this plan. The state could potentially end up making more money this way than it did from logging. Seattle Times Reporter Lynda Mapes recently told Seattle Now that preserving “legacy forests” (old, but not old growth forests) is a valuable tactic in combatting climate change. She noted that about 30% of fossil fuel emissions are taken in by trees. “They are using the CO2, the carbon in the air, as their food … and stash that carbon away through the magical zap of photosynthesis to convert it to leaves, roots, branches … That’s right where that carbon stays as long as that tree lives. And then even after it dies, it’s locked up in the decaying wood and then it stays in the soil … that is what we are accomplishing whenever we let a tree grow. That is why something like this carbon reserve can help us blunt the worst effects of climate change…”
A plane crash that turned into a search and rescue mission is seeing renewed calls for accountability. Over two years after the incident, the widows of the two men who were in the fatal 2020 crash are filing new lawsuits against airport authorities for not maintaining the height of trees near the runway. Among those listed in the suits are the Charleston County Airport district, the Charleston County Aviation Authority and the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission. The suits allege that on April 9, 2020, Glenn Lamb and Michael Gigliobianco were in the plane headed to the Mt. Pleasant Regional Airport, but before they could land, they hit trees near the runway, which the lawsuits allege were about 75 to 90 feet tall. The widows, Cynthia Lamb and Mary Gigliobianco, claim in the lawsuits that the trees being as high as they were “penetrated protected airspace.” The suits go on to claim, “Defendants had both actual and constructive notice that the erection or presence of obstacles within protected airspace posed a direct and foreseeable risk to the safety of members of the flight public…”
Indianapolis, Indiana, WXIN-TV, April 11, 2022: AES crews trimming trees to reduce power outages
Indy resident Peter Carroll said he was happy to see a utility truck on Monday morning parked in the alley behind his home just off E. 42nd St. About a month ago, Carroll received a letter from AES advising him that a tree-trimming crew contracted by the utility company would be working in his neighborhood near the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Members of the crew, the letter said, would be looking for tree branches that could potentially fall onto power lines in stormy weather, causing the lights to go out. “I know how that is,” Carroll said, pointing to a power line extended between his house and an AES pole in the nearby alley. “A limb falls on that wire out there, it’s going to take it down.” This is something that Carroll said happens to him and his wife two to three times a year. “Tree fell right there and took that wire out,” he recalled. “We were without light for probably a week and she was crying every day.” AES maintains about 700 miles of above-ground power lines that supply electricity to roughly 500,000 customers in the Indianapolis area. Many of those raised lines run between limbs and branches of old trees, especially in some of Indy’s older neighborhoods…
California utility PG&E Corp has reached settlement agreements with district attorneys representing Northern California counties to avoid prosecution over two major wildfires, with the company agreeing to pay $55 million. “As a result of these agreements, no criminal charges will be filed in the Dixie Fire (2021), and the criminal complaint regarding the Kincade Fire (2019) will be dismissed,” the company said in a statement on Monday. The financial commitments within the agreements total $55 million over five years, and PG&E will not seek recovery of these costs from customers, it added. PG&E did not admit wrongdoing in the settlements reached with prosecutors for the 2021 Dixie Fire and the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County. The Dixie fire, ranked as the second-largest California wildfire on record, scorched through Northern California communities and forests in August, forcing thousands to flee from their homes and prompted precautionary power shutdowns. PG&E had said the blaze may have started when a tree fell onto one of the utility’s power cables…
The passion for saving the live oaks along Warwick Boulevard runs through the branches of the Hubbard family tree. In 2005, the line of trees, planted by the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, was slated to get the ax to create space to widen the road. John Hubbard, the founder of Hubbard Brothers’ Tree Care, was part of a public outcry to save the trees. The push worked; most of the trees were saved — and Hubbard volunteered his services to maintain them. But as the years went by, and Hubbard could no longer work and became ill, the maintenance fell by the wayside and the trees started to grow fungus. Hubbard died last year, but in his memory, his family is doing what he did more than 15 years ago: Saving the trees. Again. “I drive by those trees almost every day, and it’s bothered me for a long time to see their decline,” Hubbard’s son, Brian Hubbard, said. “I just wanted a way to honor dad’s legacy.” Brian, now the vice president of the family business, and brother Joel Hubbard, who manages it, volunteered their services to the museum to prune dead limbs from the 15 remaining live oak trees and develop a treatment plan for the fungus. “We just thought we would do this first to help the Mariners’ Museum and community, and second, as kind of a tribute to my father to carry on what he started,” Brian Hubbard, 59, said…
A tree trimmer died while working 50 feet off the ground in Sherman Oaks on Saturday, the Los Angeles Fire Department said. A neighbor spotted the man dangling upside down and called authorities around noon. Nearly 40 firefighters responded. Using a truck with an aerial ladder and a rope and harness system, firefighters extricated the man and lowered him to the ground, where he was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. It was unclear how long the man had been hanging upside down. He was believed to be a private contractor and working alone, said Brian Humphrey, a fire department spokesman. There were live electrical wires near where the man was working, but it was unknown whether they played a role in his death, Humphrey said. No eyewitnesses were found, and Humphrey could not say what type of tree the man had been trimming. The death has been reported to Cal/OSHA, which will investigate along with the L.A. County coroner, Humphrey said…
Q: The city where I live now requires a root barrier if you plant a tree in a parking strip. Our strip is 4 feet long and 6 inches wide. Is there a type of small tree that we could guarantee would not threaten the sidewalk or the curb? For example, the city lists possible trees such as a ‘Fireburst’ paperbark maple, a kousa dogwood or a Japanese snowbell. It gives a list of 30 such species that it approves. The trouble is that it requires a root barrier that costs around $500 or more per tree. We have 6 trees to replace. The root barrier also ruins the current irrigation system. I’m hoping to get validation that certain trees would not be a threat and therefore do not need a root barrier. (The smallest tree on their list is 20-by-15 feet tall) – Yamhill County
A: Trees are a wonderful addition to the landscape until there is some sort of problem with them. Then they become a headache. I am assuming that you have existing trees the city is requiring you to remove and replace. The list of street trees the city provides are specifically trees that are deeply rooted and thus unlikely to cause the sidewalk to buckle. I am also assuming that the city has currently specified the root barrier and that it is not an old requirement that has since been superseded. Have they told you where you have to purchase the root barriers? Or of what materials it must be constructed? If not, a simple Google search revealed a much cheaper source from a forestry supply company. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee or certify that any particular tree cultivar would not cause sidewalk damage at some point in the future. Municipalities in general have very specific guidelines for a reason.
Here is a list of Street tree planting FAQs from the city of Portland, which explains how they came up with their list of approved trees for that city and why those particular trees. (Sometimes knowing the “why” makes stipulations easier to swallow.) Your best bet is to talk to city employees who are responsible for street tree governance to see how much leeway you have and if they have any ideas on mitigating the expense of root barriers and replacing irrigation systems. I’m sorry to not have better news for you. Since caring for new trees is in your future, this OSU Extension publication, Selecting, Planting, and Caring for a New Tree, contains information which you will find helpful for the success of the young trees…
Forbes, April 11, 2022: Why Trees Are An Ideal Source Of Renewable Power
One of the more controversial renewable energy resources is woody biomass, such as trees. It shouldn’t be, because biomass can be a highly sustainable resource, if it is properly managed. I lived in Hawaii for five years, where I worked for a company that managed forests (among other things). I was sometimes asked to give talks at the local high school about energy and sustainability. During one talk, a student said “I heard you were going to cut down all the trees.” At that moment, I realized that her view of forestry was much the same as my own view of forestry while growing up in Weyerhaeuser country in Oklahoma. Back then I viewed foresters as people who cut down trees, and I associated them with clearcutting. My views have changed a lot since then, because I have a better understanding of what foresters do. Foresters manage forests. With a managed forest, sometimes that means you harvest the trees like you would harvest any other crop. But managing a forest also entails replacing what you cut down…
When it fell into this rich soil and sprouted, Washington was not yet a state. The seedling sank its root deep, and grew taller and taller as its first century of life rolled right on into another, now within earshot of Interstate 90. Alan Mainwaring, wildlife biologist for the Washington Department of Natural Resources, ran a tape around the tree’s mighty trunk and measured nearly 54 inches. The tree talked back, its wood squeaking, as he drove a borer into the tree and withdrew a slender core, then counted its rings. At about 144 years old and 190 feet high, this Douglas fir sized up as prime timber on state lands that normally could be cut and sold for lumber. But under a new policy announced Wednesday by Hilary Franz, Washington Commissioner of Public Lands, this fir will instead be preserved, as part of the state’s new, 10,000 acre “carbon reserve.” The state intends to lease the trees as carbon credits to emitters of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. Money from the sales in these forests will compensate beneficiaries of state trust lands, including the state school construction fund, and money for hospital districts, library districts and more…
Set back a few dozen feet in a scrubby clover field at Joseph Avenue and Berlin Street, ringed by bollards and chain-link fencing, stands a tree covered in wishes. They’re written on thin banners of red, yellow, black and white, tied down on both ends to guard against the whipping wind. “I wish for Black heritage to take the forefront to inspire and inform.””My wish is to stop all violence and bad people.””I wish everyone could heal so they can find purpose.” The messages belong to members of Avenue BlackBox Theatre across the street. “There are many things we draw inspiration from,” the theater’s founder and director, Reenah Golden, said. “We want to start with nature first and foremost.” This tree, a towering box elder, is at the center of the vision. It is also one of the few significant trees on this stretch of Joseph Avenue, a corridor that is one of the city’s poorest and also one of the least tree-covered. The combination of those two factors is not a coincidence….
Medford, Wisconsin, Star News, April 6, 2022: Help protect oak tree wilt by holding off on pruning
As April brings a high risk for the often-fatal oak wilt disease across the state, the Wisconsin DNR recommends not pruning or cutting oak trees from April through July. Oak wilt is widespread in southern Wisconsin, but it is still a new and uncommon disease in much of northern Wisconsin. As spring draws people outdoors to start seasonal yard maintenance and cleanup projects, when it comes to the health of oaks trees, keeping those chainsaws and trimming tools a safe distance, will go a long way to ensure trees stay healthy for many more spring seasons to come. In spring and early summer, pruning and cutting oaks leaves them vulnerable to oak wilt, which rapidly kills trees in the red oak group and weakens those in the white oak group. Any damage during this time, including broken branches caused by storms, exposes living tree tissue beneath the bark and provides an opportunity for the oak wilt fungus to attack the tree. The DNR does not recommend using tree paint or wound dressing, on pruned or wounded surfaces. However, for damaged oaks, a light application of these products immediately, if possible within 15 minutes, could be the only defense against oak wilt infection from April through July. Wounds are not susceptible to oak wilt after 72 hours. Although overland infection can occur in mid-July, it is not common. To be very cautious, avoid wounding oaks from April through Oct. 1…
Tyler, Texas, KYTX-TV, April 6, 2022: Tree companies cut down large trees ahead of severe weather
Another round of severe weather is heading toward the East Texas region with conditions at an Enhanced level 3 risk. With the increased risk, conditions can range from heavy rains to strong winds causing moderate to severe damage. Tree companies, like Arbor Tex Tree Service, have been cutting down 20′ to 50′-tall trees across the area ahead of the severe weather. The Douglas family has had a 40′ tree standing in their yard for more than two decades. They finally decided it was time the chop it down. “It’s definitely a bit of a relief for sure, especially with the new line of storms coming through,” said Mona Douglas. “It does have branches extending over the power lines in the driveway and we always get concerned about losing electricity from branches falling.” With winds expected to reach 70MPH, the impact can cause large trees and tree branches to fall. This can result in large amounts of damage throughout residential properties. For the Douglas family, their main priority is keeping their home safe from stray tree limbs…
Seattle, Washington, KIRO-TV, April 5, 2022: Botched tree removal job destroys Bellevue home
A tree removal job went terribly wrong in Bellevue on Monday, sending a 140-foot Douglas fir tree crashing down into a home in the Newport Hills neighborhood. The neighbor who owned the tree told KIRO7 he was hoping to get the tree cut down for free in exchange for the wood. It ended with his neighbor’s home getting destroyed. Sarah Jacobsen said she and her husband both work from home, but she was running an errand when the incident happened Monday before lunchtime. “The tree sliced through the whole house,” Jacobsen said. “It was just shocking.” The tree smashed through the roof onto the furniture below in the living room. Jacobsen said that’s where she often works when she’s home, but it was her husband who heard the crash from another room. “It was really loud. And then just progressively as the tree settled, more and more was coming in. Then the rain and hail was coming through. It was really crazy,” Jacobsen said. The company called in to get the tree out, Turning Leaf Tree Service, said the tree was nearly 3 feet in diameter at its widest. The crew had to bring in a massive crane to get the tree removed from the house. The tree was on Jacobsen’s neighbor’s property. He didn’t want to speak on camera but told KIRO7 he needed the tree removed because it frequently shed branches onto his roof…
A large oak tree crashed into two homes in DeKalb County as heavy rain, thunder and lightning moved through metro Atlanta on Tuesday. Marie Jordan told CBS46 she has always been cautious about the tree in her neighbor’s backyard on Lloyd Road. Her anxiety turned into reality when she heard a loud boom as the 77-year-old sat in the basement of her home watching weather reports. “I park my car at the top of the driveway, saying if it come down, it won’t get my car, but it just took everything,” she said. “It scared me so bad.” Jordan said the tree destroyed her living room and part of a bedroom on the main level of her home. It also crashed into the corner of the home where it’s rooted. Brenda Blanchard’s parents live at the house. She believes lightning struck the tree. “All you heard was a boom,” said Blanchard, who was working from her parent’s home. “Basically, the whole house shook and threw us off and I heard my mama scream…”
The family of Kahlil Gay, a young physics researcher killed last year by a falling tree at his workplace in Burlingame has asked a judge to set a date for trial in a wrongful death lawsuit against the property owner and other parties that performed landscaping work on the property. On February 26, 2021, Gay was walking on the grounds of a COVID-19 testing lab where he worked when he was struck by the tree. Gay had just graduated from Cal State East Bay in December. The lawsuit alleges the lab’s property owner, a subsidiary of real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate (ARE), allowed the tree to remain in a hazardous condition on its property until it fell on and killed Gay. Gay’s family originally filed the lawsuit in March 2021 and attempts at an alternative dispute resolution involving a mediator were unsuccessful in reaching an agreement. The Gay family is now requesting the court set a trial date. According to the complaint, during a renovation of the interior and exterior spaces at the 863 Mitten Road facility, a contractor hired to perform landscaping and irrigation renovations cut the roots of the tree in question as well as other trees on the grounds. An arborist later retained by ARE determined all of the remaining trees in the front courtyard area of 863 Mitten Road were in a hazardous condition because the roots had been “severed…around a full, 360 degree circle at a distance of from two to three and a half…”
New York City, The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2022: The Secret to Bending Sturdy Wood
For half an hour last weekend, I felt as though I were watching a magician at work. It was a bright sunny day on the shore of Lake Windermere in the north of England, and the local science festival was in full swing. There had been talks about freshwater mussels and the capabilities of beavers, and a small army of children made and launched paper boats, but the bit that made my jaw drop was right at the end of the afternoon. A craftsman wearing thick gloves and hard-worn trousers was coiling sturdy strips of wood around a slender post almost as if they were putty. I think of wood as robust and tough, springy but definitely likely to snap if you bend it too far. And yet here were 2-yard-long strips of wood, a half-inch thick, being wrapped into a corkscrew shape. It was a vivid lesson in how clever the microstructure of wood is. Trees grow by adding new outer layers made of long, thin cells aligned with the trunk, which form pipes to transport both water and sugars up and down the tree. Apart from transport, a major function of the cells is to provide the structural strength to hold up the tree, resisting high winds and gravity in order to keep the leaves up in the air. This strength is provided by a clever matrix in each cell wall. About half of it is made of long strands of cellulose with good tensile strength called microfibrils; these are surrounded by a filler of the organic polymers hemicellulose and lignin, which resists compression. The matrix is tough, slightly flexible and very strong. But that doesn’t mean it can resist all change, and the effective agents of change are heat and water. The craftsman had a long insulated box filled with hot steamy air, a miniature steam room in which he had placed his straight wooden strips for a few hours at high temperature. This was the key to the transformation…
New York City, New York Times, March 28, 2022: In Wisconsin: Stowing Mowers, Pleasing Bees
As I drove last May through Appleton, Wis., the small city offered up a series of idyllic scenes: children playing on tree-lined streets, couples walking their dogs, and all the while, the wind carrying the sweetness of spring. But something was unusual here. The lawns of many of the homes were wild. Resembling miniature meadows, they sported long grass, bright yellow dandelions and carpets of purple creeping Charlie — a far cry from the traditional American lawn. These homes were not abandoned or neglected, and no stacks of newspapers festooned their porches. Rather, the city had asked residents to put away their lawn mowers for the month of May. This allowed plants typically identified as weeds — including violets, white clover and dandelions — to flower. Appleton’s No Mow May initiative had a clear purpose: to save the bees — and not just honeybees (which are European imports), but also native bees, such as bumble bees, mining bees and sweat bees…
Lompoc, California, Record, April 1, 2022: Got trees? Factor in costs
“Often homeowners and commercial property owners do not understand the importance of maintaining vegetation — primarily trees — and this is especially important if they have neighbors whose homes or offices could be damaged by falling branches or the trees themselves,” observes La Jolla attorney Evan Walker, whose law practice concentrates on property damage and personal injury. “Often, when buying a house, the last thing considered is the added cost of yard maintenance. With the price of homes off the charts, few real estate agents will tell buyers, ‘And don’t forget that you will need to maintain these trees and the yearly costs will be significant.’ And how significant is significant? “Depending upon the size of the property, number and types of trees, and proximity to adjoining homes or other structures, the yearly or bi-yearly expense of hiring tree trimmers can run into the thousands of dollars, but that’s often not the more critical problem,” Walker points out. “It is liability. Negligently failing to maintain your trees in a safe condition invites litigation when, as a direct result of this negligence or willful behavior, property damage, personal injury or death result,” he underscores. Most lawyers recall cases discussed in law school under the heading, “Owners and Occupiers of Land,” where jury awards have been through the roof when it was shown that the owners had actual notice of the danger their trees posed to neighbors but chose to ignore it…
Lacrosse, Wisconsin, Tribune, April 2, 2022: WisDNR: Help protect oak trees from oak wilt
As April brings a high risk for the often-fatal oak wilt disease across the state, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recommends not pruning or cutting oak trees from April through July. What you can’t see can kill a tree. Oak wilt is widespread in southern Wisconsin, but it is still a new and uncommon disease in much of northern Wisconsin. As spring draws people outdoors to start seasonal yard maintenance and cleanup projects, when it comes to the health of oaks trees, keeping those chainsaws and trimming tools a safe distance will go a long way to ensure that your trees stay healthy for many more spring seasons to come. In spring and early summer, pruning and cutting oaks leaves them vulnerable to oak wilt, which rapidly kills trees in the red oak group and weakens those in the white oak group. Any damage during this time, including broken branches caused by storms, exposes living tree tissue beneath the bark and provides an opportunity for the oak wilt fungus to attack the tree. The DNR does not recommend using tree paint or wound dressing on pruned or wounded surfaces. However, for damaged oaks, a light application of these products immediately, if possible within 15 minutes, could be the only defense against oak wilt infection from April through July. Wounds are not susceptible to oak wilt after 72 hours…
The recent report about the loss of tree canopy in Portland is yet another piece of grim news related to how the climate crisis is threatening the health of our environment and our community (“Portland tree canopy has stagnated or shrunk, harming city’s climate change aspirations,” March 22). The report indicates that Portland’s urban tree canopy has shrunk or plateaued for the first time in 50 years ¬– a warning that the city will not be able to meet its goal of having tree canopy encompass 33% of the city’s area by 2035. Unfortunately, the release of the report coincides with the end of Friends of Trees’ 14-year contract with the city to plant street and yard trees through community planting events. This nationally-replicated partnership between Friends of Trees and the city has added nearly 40,000 street and yard trees throughout Portland since 2008, while engaging thousands of community members as volunteers to plant and care for these trees. About 70% of those trees were planted in underserved, low-canopy neighborhoods to address inequities in the distribution of Portland’s trees. We truthfully do not know why this successful partnership is ending…
Beech trees from Ohio to Maine are dying from a pernicious disease linked to a microscopic parasite, and the push is on to control the pathogen and to find resistant trees that might be needed to one day repopulate the species. The fallout from what’s called “beech leaf disease” could be dramatic for Northeast Ohio, where maple-beech forests make up 25% of the woodland, said David Burke, vice president for science and conservation at Holden Arboretum, which has been at the forefront of research into the potentially devastating malady. The continued demise of beech trees will lead to empty patches across the forest canopy while depriving forest critters of a major food source; the beech nuts that everything from birds to bears have come to rely on. “So, if you lose the species it’s going to have a real impact on wildlife,” Burke said. Beech trees, which are native to Ohio and can live up to 300 years, also tend to hollow out over time, creating important nesting cavities for various critters. Unless, of course, those trees die before they get the chance to fully live. If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it is…
Trees that provide cooling shade in Columbia are falling to the axes of development as the city expands into new areas and remakes existing neighborhoods. Columbia, notorious for its sweltering summers, lost nearly 22% of its tree canopy from 2005 to 2019, exposing once shaded areas to hotter temperatures, researchers at the University of South Carolina say. The loss of mature trees is a concern as the city grapples with how to deal with climate change that is sending temperatures higher. Columbia could experience a nearly 600% increase in hot days by the end of the century if something isn’t done to slow the effects of climate change, according to a 2019 forecast made independent of the recent USC research. USC’s findings about the loss of trees, uncovered by PhD and graduate students, were presented Saturday at a conference that focused on improving Columbia’s response to climate change…
Confusion over a property line in Clovis led to a crew chopping down several large trees, leaving the property owners shocked and upset. Those trees were removed by a contractor working on a new Granville Homes project near Temperance and Nees. This fence is on the property of Debbie and Martin Britz, but their property extends a few feet from that fence. It’s between the fence and the line where those trees were. The Britzes have owned the 11 acres of land for nearly 40 years. There are many trees on the property, but in February, she was shocked to find some of them – mostly Italian Cypress – had been chopped down. “All 14 were down and one palm tree that was next to them too, all straight in a row,” she says. She says the Cypresses were about 35 years old. The trees were taken down by a crew getting a lot ready for new apartments by Granville Homes. Darius Assemi says his contractor did not know the property line was different from where the fence stands. “We made an honest mistake. We took trees down that we shouldn’t have,” he says. “We want to make it right. We’ll replant the trees, we’ll get mature Cypress trees on this side of the fence or we can put them on her side of the fence,” he adds…
A family says a tree has grown roots under the sidewalk in front of their Clason Point home. The Benitez family says the roots have broken the cement and pushed it up in areas, causing dangerous conditions for pedestrians. The family reported the broken sidewalk to the City Parks Department but say nothing has been done yet. News 12 reached out to the City Parks Department for comment. The Parks Department says, “We have inspected this site and determined that it is eligible for a repair through our trees and sidewalks program. Repairs through this program are made according to the sidewalk rating, and we repair the sidewalks with the highest ratings first. We will continue to evaluate based on capacity and funding to determine if this site can be added to our next available contract…”
We here at Ars do not typically indulge in the online prankery that comes with April Fool’s Day and are even less inclined to do so in the current climate. But it does provide an opportunity to revisit one of the most famous media hoaxes of the 20th century: the so-called “spaghetti-tree hoax,” the result of a two-and-a-half-minute prank segment broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama current-affairs program on April Fool’s Day in 1957. It’s a fun, albeit cautionary, tale of not believing everything you see on television (or read online). The man largely responsible for the hoax was Austrian-born Panorama cameraman Charles de Jaeger, who liked to play practical jokes. As a kid, one of his school teachers used to tell the class, “Boys, you’re so stupid, you’d believe me if I told you that spaghetti grows on trees.” De Jaeger had always wanted to turn this into an April Fool’s prank, and in 1957, he saw his chance. April Fool’s Day fell on a Monday, the same night Panorama aired. He argued that he could do the shoot cheaply while working on another assignment in Switzerland, and Panorama editor Michael Peacock approved a tiny budget of £100 for the project. The sequence was shot at a hotel in Castiglione on the shore of Lake Lugano. De Jaeger bought 20 pounds of uncooked homemade spaghetti and hung the strands from the branches of the laurel trees around the lake to make it seem like they were “spaghetti trees”…
Back in 2015, professional rock climber Chris Sharma scaled the trunk of a 250-foot-tall California redwood. He free climbed the tree methodically, gripping the deep vertical furrows in the bark like holds in a delicate rock face. “Growing up in Santa Cruz, even before I started rock climbing, I always played on trees,” Sharma says in a YouTube video of the ascent made by then-sponsor Red Bull. Although climbing has taken Sharma up some of the most difficult routes in the world, including Spain’s La Dura Dura (which means “the Hard, Hard”), he always returns to the redwood forest. “I started looking up and seeing more than just trees,” he says in the video, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times, “but actually seeing lines that would be amazing to climb on.” Every so often a big tree climb like this surfaces on TV or the Internet. Rock climbers take notice, and the tiny sport of tree climbing grows. But climbing trees can also damage them. Canopy ecologists have debated the merits and costs of recreational tree climbing for the better part of 50 years. On the one hand, enthusiasts rushing to climb old growth could damage habitat, and sport tree climbing is illegal in many state and national parks. But on the other, climbing into trees recreationally is already bringing awareness to forest conservation. And climbing techniques have matured from highly destructive practices, such as hammering permanent hardware into trees, to ascending via a dangling rope, and hardly touching the tree at all…
Kansas City, Missouri, KCTV, March 31, 2022: Cedar trees taking over Kansas grassland make wildfires harder to control
It’s becoming a serious problem in Kansas. Trees, especially cedars are taking over what was once grassland. That’s causing multiple issues, most dangerously, making wildfires harder to control. Eyewitness News discussed the cedar-tree problem with a specialist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA Rangeland Management Specialist Dusty Tacha with the department’s Natural Resources Conservation Service compared the situation to grandparents that don’t see their grandchildren as often as they’d like and when they do see them, they realize how much they’ve grown. He said that’s exactly what’s happening with the trees around Kansas. And that’s have an ecological effect. A map from the Natural Resources Conservation Service shows exponential growth of trees throughout the Great Plains. This is causing a lot of concern. “This has been a healthy 100 years in the making of fire suppression and introduction of seed and promotion of tree growth in an area where trees really shouldn’t be,” Tacha said. Tacha said the trees are not only affecting wildfires, but grassland, the animals that live in grassland, ground water quality and more. He said there won’t be a quick fix…
On the final day of March, snowflakes fell across the Wausau area Thursday morning, making it feel more like winter rather than the spring season. As the weather continues to be winter-like, tree and lawn care services are continuing to work where they can. Winter still is busy for tree services, like T&E Tree Surgery Inc in Wausau. They are still trimming branches, cutting trees and picking up debris. However, the late winter/early spring is not the easiest time of year to be working. “Springtime is usually kind of a rougher time of year because things are getting soft and muddy,” said Nick Stubbe, one of the owners of T&E. “Our trucks and equipment are pretty heavy so if we try to go into yards, we end up doing more damage than we’re doing good.” The conditions can be so tricky to get through, it limits where they can continue to work. “We got road limits to work around so it’s hard to get to a lot of places with our trucks being heavier than a pickup truck,” said Stubbe. “Obviously we can’t get into the townships too much. Mostly in the city of Wausau, we have to stay in.” Weather presents other challenges where they do end up working. For example, high winds can make working in the bucket difficult…
Sarasota, Florida, Herald Tribune, March 30, 2022: Developer pledges to save ‘Pink Floyd’ tree
Three weeks ago I wrote about “Pink Floyd,” the massive grand oak in Arlington Park that is named for the street on which it is situated – and for the pink ribbon around its trunk that marks it for potential removal due to impending development. Neighbors had joined forces to try to save the tree, which is more than 200 years old. They circulated a petition, held a vigil and attempted to convince the city or a philanthropist to purchase the portion of the land containing the tree and create a pocket park. Despite numerous attempts, I had been unable to reach Phuc “John” Pham, the developer who contracted last December to purchase the .61-acre property on which the tree sits for a below-market $825,000. He was told the property could be split into five buildable home sites – but that would require the removal of Pink Floyd, as well as three other oaks more centrally located on the site…
Environmentalists and residents are pleading with town officials to halt any work near a proposed Eversource tree-trimming site in Darien, as the utility company gears up to remove nearly 100 trees along its transmission lines. The issue of tree removal in the designated area on Littlebrook Road, which runs along a portion of the railroad tracks, has been of ongoing concern for residents since Eversource first proposed its vegetation management plan. The town is currently in ongoing mediation talks with the utility company, with another session scheduled next week, said First Selectman Monica McNally…
London, UK, BBC, March 30, 2022: Ash dieback: Exploding diseased trees risks lives – experts
Diseased ash trees which “effectively explode” while being cut down pose a serious risk to people’s safety, forestry organisations have warned. Tree surgeons have been badly injured – some fatally – by falling branches. They are being told not to go near the worst affected trees and use heavy machinery instead to bring them down. There are calls too for more consistent advice for the public – some of whom may have dying ash trees in their gardens. Ash dieback – a fungal infection – is now widespread 10 years after it was first detected in the UK, meaning millions of ash trees will ultimately be chopped down across the country. Wales has been particularly badly hit with cases confirmed across 80% of the country, according to a 2018 survey. Ash is a self-seeding tree, which has become one of the most common in the UK and is found along roadsides and railway lines as well as in woodland, parks and gardens. The trees die off over time, eventually becoming “very dangerous for anyone to go near or work on”, said Sean Reilly, who runs a business supplying forestry equipment in Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taf. He said: “Traditionally a lot of trees would have been dismantled by rope and climbing – but with ash dieback you cannot do that. “Effectively the trees will implode or explode because there’s no strength left.” Following a spate of incidents, the Forest Industry Safety Accord (Fisa) has been advocating for the use of mechanical equipment for felling diseased ash trees – such as large grapple saws, with the operator housed in a protective cab…
When we think of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States, virtually all of them have one characteristic in common: a wealth of lush, healthy trees in an array of shapes, sizes and varieties. And why not? Trees reduce air pollution, sequester carbon, exude oxygen, inspire calm (even during finals week) and provide the gift of shade, one of the most valued commodities in Bakersfield during the city’s long, punishing summers. On Saturday, a small army of organizers and volunteers planted 50 new trees on Bakersfield College’s main campus in the city’s northeast. Fifty more will follow. And 50 more again, all for the creation of the Bakersfield College Arboretum. “One of the concepts behind the Bakersfield College Arboretum is to create an outdoor living laboratory for the students of horticulture, forestry and plant science to have an eyes- and hands-on learning experience,” said Melissa Iger, a certified arborist who heads the Tree Foundation of Kern. “Each different species and variety of tree will be labeled with the botanical name, common name, family and country of origin for easy identification,” Iger said. “We will also create a weblink for more information on each tree…”
Somerset, UK, Somerset Live, March 29, 2022: Man nearly killed after sycamore tree falls on his car
A man who was nearly killed by a large tree which fell on his car has now shaped a career in carving them into sculptures. Former tree surgeon Gary Orange was driving to work in 2007 to start on a gas pipeline construction contract in Plymouth to cut down trees and bushes to clear the land, when a fully grown Sycamore tree fell on his car. Trapped inside his car on a country road in Crediton, and badly injured, he had to be cut out of his Land Rover by fire crews. The accident left Gary with a fractured skull, which required emergency surgery to have a metal plate inserted. He spent the next three months in hospital and ongoing appointments became the new normal as Gary had to learn to live with his injuries alongside PTSD and fatigue. It was then, as part of his rehabilitation, Gary went from tree surgeon to tree carver. “The tree had been a wake-up call and reset my trajectory,” he said. I started as a hobby really carving animals out of wood and then I got a job making benches for Glastonbury Festival. “From there people started to ask me to make stuff for them and it really took off. I found enjoyment and healing in tree carving…
A commercial tree trimmer fell to his death Tuesday in west Michigan, state police said. The Lansing-based worker had been at a home in Claybanks Township in Oceana County when he fell an estimated 60-70 feet around 12:34 p.m., investigators said in a statement on Twitter. Despite life-saving efforts, the 60-year-old Ovid man was pronounced dead at the scene, MSP said. “Foul play is not suspected and it appears that it is a tragic accident,” officials said. Troopers were helped by Grant Fire/Rescue, Life EMS, Oceana County Victim Services…
A contractor finished removing 70 ash trees from North Mankato boulevards and crews will soon begin removing ash in Mankato. “Our goal is about 200 for this year,” said Justin Lundborg, Mankato’s natural resources specialist. Both cities contracted with Carr’s Tree Service, which also will be doing stump grinding. Both cities have received Department of Natural Resources grants to help pay for removal and replanting on city property as the ash borer continues spreading across much of the metro and southern regions of Minnesota. Mankato got a $32,000 grant to remove about 50 trees this spring that are in poor condition and located along sidewalks near schools. They also got a $36,000 grant to plant 300 trees on boulevards and parks throughout Mankato. North Mankato Public Works Director Nate Host said they got a $50,000 grant and matched $20,000 to pay for the recent removal of trees. “We applied for two more grants for removing and replacing trees,” Host said…
Detroit police on Friday announced they have arrested a man accused of multiple illegal dumping incidents on the city’s west side. Mahmoud Saad was wanted for an outstanding littering warrant and has been spotted illegally dumping eight times, the police department said in a statement. Surveillance footage authorities reviewed showed him dumping tree and landscaping debris near Lindsay and Santa Maria around 11:50 p.m. Feb. 19, according to the release. It was not immediately clear if Saad had an attorney. Officers with the police department’s General Assignment unit and a crime analyst worked to identify Saad and his vehicles. On Wednesday, officers recovered one vehicle Saad was accused of using as well as the trailer. “Saad has paid over $10,000 in fines for previous dumping offenses, and likely faces another large fine,” police said…
Police have arrested a pair of protesters who locked themselves to a mulcher to prevent the removal of trees for an Ann Arbor luxury home development. Police responded to reports of a trespassing conflict at 7:20 a.m., Monday, March 28, in the area around 660 Earhart Road, said Ann Arbor Police Lt. Mike Scherba. The two protesters sat locked to a mulching machine for a few hours awaiting Ann Arbor firefighters to cut them loose prior to being arrested by police. This was a continuation of last Friday’s resistance to the removal of landmark trees at the upcoming Concord Pines development site. The individuals had fastened themselves to the mulching equipment early Monday morning, Sherba said, adding that police responded to the site after receiving a report that a worker had turned on the mulcher to try to force the protesters to leave. Upon arrival, officers set up a perimeter around the two protesters and moved three other protesters to the other side of the street, police said. Paramedics were on scene to ensure the protesters were warm enough in temperatures that were in the high teens…
Salem, Massachusetts, News, March 28, 2022: Golf course in hot water for cutting nearly 700 trees
City officials are considering significant fines, remediation orders and even the possibility of eliminating a property tax abatement after learning that Salem Country Club removed nearly 700 trees without telling anyone in the city. And while the club’s general manager and chief operating officer Peter Fischl said it “takes full responsibility” for the unauthorized work, members of the city’s Conservation Commission said they’ve heard it all before. “I’m sorry to say but you folks are habitual repeaters,” said commission vice-chairman Michael Rizzo during a contentious two-hour meeting Wednesday evening where the board voted to issue an enforcement order against the club. “You folks should be ashamed,” Rizzo continued, suggesting that he believes the commission should consider daily fines retroactive to January for the unauthorized work. Members of the commission will be at the golf course Monday afternoon for a site visit, where they can take a look at the areas of the golf course where the 683 trees were taken down over a two-week period in December and January. The city’s conservation agent had been told previously that about 20 dead trees would be removed…
At the March 21 Bellevue City Council meeting, the nonprofit Trees4Livability proposed recommendations on tree canopy preservation as part of the Development Department’s work plan for 2022-2023. Trees4Livability founder, Khaiersta English, was the first to speak from the organization, and she brought up the importance of protecting Bellevue’s tree canopy with ongoing development. She also presented a slideshow which showed the cities that Bellevue’s tree codes were compared against in the tree code study, including Lynnwood, Federal Way, Redmond, Sammamish, Kirkland, Renton, Seattle, and Mercer Island, among others. Thirty-one-year Lake Hills resident and Bellevue architect, Rick Chesmore, was next to speak to the council, and he expressed his views surrounding Bellevue’s tree canopy. “As architects, we consider the landscape including trees to be vital to the design. We should be able to develop and preserve at the same time,” said Chesmore. “As a longtime Bellevue homeowner and architect, I’m deeply concerned about the depletion of our important tree canopy. I have seen properties completely cleared of every tree, every bush, and every blade of grass—this type of development must be stopped immediately…”
You may know of marvelous tree-lined roads that lead into your favourite rural and regional towns. Sometimes they have an arched, church-like canopy, while others have narrow ribbons of remnant vegetation. But have you noticed they’ve changed over the past decade? Some have gone, some have thinned and others are now declining. This is because in general, roads are not safe places for plants and their ecosystems. There are the obvious dangers from collisions with cars. But there are also more subtle dangers from road construction and maintenance that increase the chances of plant (and animal) deaths, such as by altering the chemical and physical environment, which introduces weeds and segregates wildlife. This network of vegetation reserves and corridors along Australian roads must be properly valued and better protected. They stitch the landscapes and ecosystems of our nation together and, as they diminish and disappear, will become an unrecognised part of road toll. We will all be the poorer for it…
Houston, Texas, Chronicle, March 25, 2022: Fire destroys ancient redwood tree in California park
A small fire has destroyed an ancient coastal redwood trees at a Northern California park. The roughly 200-foot-tall (60 meters) redwood known as the Pioneer Tree fell after being engulfed in flames midday Thursday, California State Parks said in a statement. It was one of the few remaining old-growth coastal redwood tree at Samuel P. Taylor State Park, 23 miles (37 kilometers) north of San Francisco. The Marin County Fire Department contained the fire after it spread to a half-acre, the statement said. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation. The tree had been hollowed out by previous wildfires but its root system was held up by younger redwoods. “State Parks is devastated by the loss of this much beloved redwood tree,” said Armando Quintero, director of the state parks department. “I saw the collapsed tree in person and know how much it pains all of us who treasure these ancient giants who have lived thousands of years…”
Relics of the past, a single stand of rare cypress trees once grew atop a small slab of sandstone on a remote, rugged ridge along the San Mateo County coast. They were alone in the world. And then they burned up. Is the grove forever gone? On an early March morning, two years after 2020’s catastrophic CZU Lightning Complex fire, a team of San Mateo County Parks naturalists ventured miles into the wilderness to find out. A Bay Area News Group reporter and photographer tagged along. “We know they can regenerate after a fire,” said Hannah Ormshaw, assistant director of San Mateo County Parks, who led the expedition. Setting out after sunrise, the team hiked four miles and 2,000 feet up an old logging road in Pescadero Creek County Park, then dropped into deep woods, scrambling for a quarter mile down a steep hillside littered with burned stumps and ash. The faint smell of soot still lingered in the air. Their quest: to find survivors of the sole stand of Butano cypress, a variety of Hesperocyparis abramsiana, a small and contorted evergreen tree with cones, needle-like leaves and a bracing balsamic fragrance. If the grove perished, the team wondered, might seeds have somehow survived? Genetically unique, the grove grew on Butano Ridge, a 1,000-foot spine of ancient marine rocks in the Santa Cruz Mountains…
London, UK, BBC, March 26, 2022: 1,000-year-old oaks used to create ‘super forest’
“They’ve lived for so long; just think what they’ve seen.” Forester Nick Baimbridge is gazing fondly at a majestic oak that has stood for more than a thousand years. On this wintry afternoon, birds sing from lichen-covered branches and a deer runs through the undergrowth. There’s a sense of timelessness about this medieval forest, which contains the greatest collection of ancient oak trees anywhere in Europe. Blenheim Palace, a few miles away across the park, is a mere youngster at 300 years old, quips Baimbridge, the head forester of the Blenheim Estate. Standing under one of the oldest trees, he can only speculate on the turns of history witnessed by this “old girl”, whose genetic heritage is set to live on through acorns collected from the forest floor. The acorns, and the new generation of oaks they spawn, are crucial to the ambitions of an experimental “super forest” that is being planted where the rivers Dorn and Glyme wind their way through the Oxfordshire countryside. The Blenheim Estate has received a government grant of about £1m to plant 270,000 trees in the nine new woodlands covering 1sq km (0.4 miles) in an inaugural scheme paying landowners to create forests with public access…
Chicago, Illinois, Tribune, March 26, 2022: Trees losing vigor? They might be planted too deep
Q: “One of my shade trees appears to be losing vigor, and I am worried about its future. A neighbor thinks it is planted too deeply and may have girdling roots. Is there something I can do to help this tree?”
A: Trees are often planted too deep, which could be one of the issues affecting your tree’s vigor. You should be able to see the trunk flare of your tree. The trunk flare is the area at the base of a tree where the stem or trunk broadens to form roots. This zone is often also referred to as the root collar, root crown and root flare. Trees planted too deep look like a telephone pole coming out of the ground and are easy to identify in the landscape. They often develop girdling roots. Girdling roots are a common problem and can restrict the flow of water and nutrients over time, leading to a tree’s decline and, occasionally, death. Symptoms include a reduced growth rate, undersized leaves and sparse foliage, chlorotic leaves, early fall color and leaf drop, late leaf emergence in spring and branch dieback in the tree’s crown. Symptoms can take several years to appear, especially if mature trees are mulched too deeply or have had soil filled in around them. Decline caused by girdling roots can take 10 years or more to show up…
Washington, D.C., Post, March 23, 2022: Tiny wasps could help save trees under attack
Up close, the emerald ash borer is a strikingly beautiful insect. It’s also a dangerous pest.
The metallic green beetles entered the United States from northeast Asia in the 1990s, likely hitching a ride on wood-packing materials. By the time researchers identified them in 2002, the insects were widespread. They’ve destroyed millions of ash trees across North America. Ash borers damage trees by “essentially both dehydrating and starving the tree,” says Elizabeth Barnes, an exotic-forest pest educator in the Purdue University Department of Entomology. Adult ash borers lay eggs on ash trees. The larvae then tunnel under the bark to feed on the tissue that transports the trees’ nutrients. (Larvae are the juvenile form of an insect.) You’ll see zigzag patterns in the bark of affected trees, Barnes says. When the trees fall, “it looks like they’re exploding. They just absolutely shatter.” But there’s good news. As researchers studied the emerald ash borer, they noticed something interesting: Both China and the Russian Far East had abundant ash trees and ash borers, yet fewer trees were dying there…
The Sarasota City Commission has given initial approval to a new tree ordinance, which would give homeowners more flexibility when it comes to planting or removing trees in their yards. The ordinance would also give additional protections to several species of trees. In 2017, the City Commission created an ad hoc Tree Advisory Committee. The seven-member board met many times over the course of two years and developed a list of recommendations for how to improve Sarasota’s current tree ordinance. City of Sarasota staff developed a new ordinance incorporating these recommendations and the City Commission’s requests. The commission voted to adopt to this new ordinance, with a few changes, in a first public hearing on Monday. The ordinance will have to be approved at a second public hearing for it to go into effect…
A new reforestation project is underway at Stono River County Park on Johns Island after park officials found an infestation of a nonnative insect species there. Asian longhorned beetles were discovered in the park in the summer of 2020, according to Adam Ronan, the Land Resource Planner for Charleston County Parks. These insects target and kill hardwood trees and are very destructive to parks, he says. “It’s important our parks don’t have invasive species, which range from insects to plants, because it really destroys our native habitats,” Ronan says. “As the native habitat recedes or diminishes, it reduces habitat for wildlife and other native flora and fauna, so it’s important we keep the health of our forest and our woods intact.” Since the discovery of the insects, park officials and partnering organizations have removed about 50 mature hardwood trees infested by the beetles —mostly red maples and elms. Removing the trees, however, meant destroying habitat for wildlife and reducing the amount of shade there is for visitors, Ronan says…
Toledo, Ohio, WTOL-TV, March 22, 2022: Who is responsible for tree damage in storms?
Severe weather can cause many problems for homeowners, not the least of which may be damage from trees that fall during storms. But who is responsible if a tree falls and damages your property? The answer to that question depends on who owns the tree and what steps you have taken to prevent a tree from falling on your property. Sometimes the responsibility lies with your municipality. Trees owned by the city are typically found between the sidewalk and the curb. It is the responsibility of the city if damage happens here. Fortunately, cities usually maintain trees on city property, helping to make damage from falling trees less likely. The City of Toledo has a division of forestry with workers who maintain those trees if they are showing signs of deterioration or uprooting. Forestry division workers are trained and certified to take care of tree canopies. Sometimes, contacting the city to deal with tree damage is all that is necessary to fix a problem. Sometimes it is necessary to hire an attorney to help work out issues with tree damage. This also can be true if the tree is on your property and you are responsible for it. A homeowners insurance policy comes into play when the tree that has caused damage is on your property. If this happens, be sure to check your policy to review what is covered and what is not covered. Contact the company to make a claim as soon as you can…
Southington, Connecticut, Patch, March 22, 2022: Eversource Releases Tree Scorecard For Southington
Eversource Energy has released its tree scorecard for Southington. The scorecard is a snapshot designed to give local leaders a better understanding of the impact that trees have on their communities. Eversource officials said trees are the No. 1 cause of power outages across its system. Here’s how it works: The right column (in green) shows outages from January 2021 to now and the percentage that were caused by trees. The box at the top left indicates the total miles of lines that are slated for tree work this year and the total number of miles of lines in the community. The top right box shows the backbone miles that are part of the scheduled tree work. The backbones are the primary lines leading from a substation and delivering power in the community. To use a tree analogy, the substation is the roots and the backbone is the trunk of the tree, sending power to the branches or the individual circuits that deliver power to each Eversource customer…
Bullseye Glass and Precision Castparts both had to put out millions of settlement dollars after they were involved in class action lawsuits regarding their air pollution levels. Those who received settlement money from the companies have, in part, moss and local researchers to thank. In 2016, the U.S. Forest Service released a report of its raw findings on Portland moss and air quality. It showed that some moss samples collected around Portland had high concentrations of multiple toxic metals. Sarah Jovan was one of the lead researchers on the moss research that stemmed these two class action lawsuits. When KGW’s Pat Dooris spoke with her in 2016, on the heels of the Forest Service’s original report, she was coming around to being a moss “fangirl.” She discovered that the tree moss held onto heavy metals that lurked in the air. The Bullseye Glass settlement came in 2019 to the tune of $6.5 million. As for Precision Castparts, it settled earlier in March for $22.5 million, which includes millions that have already been spent at the plant for better emission controls. The lawsuit alleged that the factory emitted toxic metals that polluted nearby homes. Neighbors who live near Precision Castparts are eligible to file for some of the settlement money, but you must do that by April 9. Dooris caught up with Jovan recently and it turns out, she’s still collecting moss. What’s more, she is converting youngsters into moss fanatics, too. In spring 2020, she went to the Seattle area to train the Duwamish Valley Youth Corps in the art and science of moss collection…
Phoenix, Arizona, KPNX-TV, March 22, 2022: Which trees can survive Arizona’s megadrought?
One local expert thinks gardeners should consider growing more drought-tolerant plants as Arizona continues to adjust to a drier climate. New research suggests the megadrought in the West is now the driest we’ve seen in at least 1,200 years. The drought is beating records in a way no one wants it to, and scientists said it doesn’t look like it’s ending any time soon. A recent study from the journal Nature Climate Change found intense drying in 2021 in the West. The previous megadrought record-holder was back in the late 1500s. The study also found that 42% of the megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Arizonans are no stranger to finding climate-friendly plants to fill outdoor living spaces. They’re small ways everyone can make a big difference to save water. Rich Furnish, a garden advisor at Summerwinds Nursery, said there are several plants that thrive with little water in the desert. Furnish said incorporating drought-tolerant plants can lower watering amounts by up to two-thirds, once they’re established. Some of his top recommendations for plants are firestick plant, elephant’s food, and bougainvillea…
For many people across East Tennessee, blooming white petals on some trees in people’s front yards is a common sign of spring. They’re called “Bradford pear” trees and can be found across the region. However, an expert said they are an invasive species. They said the trees also have poor structures and tend to fall easily, which can cause issues with people’s homes. They also said the trees usually need lots of pruning to stay alive and can crowd out other plants. The limbs can start to fall off as the trees get old, causing damage to cars and houses. It was a popular tree in the late 1980s, according to experts. They were supposed to be sterile and not reproduce, but birds spread their seeds and helped them grow across East Tennessee. They said that if gardeners are thinking about planting as the weather warms up, they should avoid planting the trees. Instead, they should plant sturdier, native trees. “You’re doing our environment a favor if you got one that’s still hanging on, to go ahead and get rid of it and replace it with a better tree that’s going to be there long-term and has a lot more attributes for your landscapes and the environment,” said David Vandergriff, a horticulturalist…
Aided by unseasonably warm weather since mid-February, Washington’s famed cherry blossoms hit peak bloom on Monday. This year’s peak is 10 days ahead of the recent 30-year average of March 31. Records of the cherry blossoms’ peak bloom date at the Tidal Basin go back to 1921. This year’s March 21 peak bloom date marks the eighth-earliest peak bloom on record. The earliest peak bloom occurred on March 15, 1990, and the latest on April 18, 1958. Peak bloom is defined when 70 percent of the cherry trees’ buds are flowering. This year’s peak bloom coincides with the very beginning of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which runs from March 20 to April 17. The blossoms can remain at peak bloom for up to a week under favorable weather — namely, light winds and no precipitation. Petals fall off more quickly if there’s rain, snow, frost, unusually warm weather and/or strong winds. This week’s weather forecast promises picture-perfect blossom-gazing conditions through Tuesday with warm temperatures and light winds, but Wednesday will bring rain. While the rain may strip some petals off, viewing should still be good Thursday and Friday. Blossoms will probably pass their peak by the weekend amid breezy and cooler conditions…
Greenbiz, March 21, 2022: Why some corporate tree-planting initiatives are out on a limb
Today is International Day of Forests, a United Nations-proclaimed event that aims to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of forests of all types. It’s a relatively recent addition to the commemorative calendar: The U.N. General Assembly first proclaimed March 21 as the date in 2012. Regardless of whether you were aware of it (I wasn’t until recently), International Day of Forests seems a walk in the park. Who doesn’t love forests, trees and all the critters therein? Who isn’t aware that trees and forests are one of the major ways the planet absorbs carbon dioxide, making planting trees a go-to tactic for mitigating the climate crisis? To my knowledge, there’s no anti-tree-planting lobby. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, on International Day of Forests, “countries are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree-planting campaigns.” Not. So. Fast…
Besides providing shade, trees improve neighborhoods in many ways. Trees help reduce air pollutants and provide temperature moderation, keeping homes cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Tree roots also help with the flow of water, which aids in stormwater management and improves water quality. But studies have found the benefits of tree canopies are not evenly distributed throughout communities. The city of Bloomington, four years after celebrating its bicentennial, plans to spend $800,000 from the Bicentennial Tree Planting Project to plant trees along streets and public right-of-ways across the city. Four project areas, representing 22 neighborhoods within the city, have been identified as good ground for planting 304 trees. Bloomington’s tree canopy report, census data and other surveys were used to locate the vacant sites where a tree could be planted. Bloomington’s urban forester Erin Hatch said increasing the tree canopy in lower-income neighborhoods was a factor. Social metrics used included U.S. census data on race and income in an effort to approach the project through “an environmental justice lens,” Hatch said…
Abilene, Texas, Reporter-News, March 20, 2022: Bruce Kreitler: Take care with cuts to trees
As someone who goes to a lot of continuing education classes, especially regarding tree structure, one thing I’ve learned is that people with PhD’s who haven’t actually spent a lot of time splitting wood should stop talking about where people should hit wood to make it split. They especially should not be giving that kind of advice to a room full of people who have extensive experience in wood splitting. Theoretical knowledge is great, and some of these people have big wind machines to help them in their research into tree structure and weaknesses, and that’s useful information. But, there’s nothing like practical experience. I can tell you right now that how trees behave under wind and weather stress does not exactly line up with what happens when you start hitting cut-off logs with a maul or an axe. Frankly, I think it would be a real good idea for some of these people to do a little log splitting, as it might give them some insights into tree structure that they can’t get any other way. At least that’s what it’s done for me over the years. I would also like to be allowed to watch them split wood, and do a power point presentation for them while they are doing so…
Albuquerque, New Mexico: KOB-TV, March 20, 2022: Bark beetle threatens New Mexico’s piñon trees
New Mexico’s state tree could be in jeopardy. Forest experts say bark beetles are threatening millions of piñon trees, and the ongoing drought conditions are making it worse. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the beetles were behind catastrophic mass die-offs in 2013 and 2002. One report estimates the insects killed roughly 350-million trees in one of those years alone. Experts say when the trees don’t get enough water, they can’t produce resin that repels pests, and based on drought data, there’s less and less water to go around. “We’ve been in a multi-year drought, now, things have been dry for a decade. And so the soils are really dry, and the underlying groundwater storage is getting low,” said Andrew Mangham National Weather Service senior service hydrologist. A recent state report found beetles infested piñon trees on 67,000 acres of land last year, 13 times more than the year before. Experts say New Mexico would need multiple years of decent rain to bring the trees back to full health…
Legislation aimed at increasing tree canopies across Virginia passed both chambers of the General Assembly after legislators compromised on removing language around equity. A tree canopy is the layer of tree leaves, branches and stems that can be viewed from above, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Canopies can reduce air pollution; decrease heat by providing shade and provide wildlife habitats, among other benefits. Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, sponsored Senate Bill 537, which passed the Senate 23-17 and the House 77-18. The legislation this year was amended to strip out the language that referenced adding trees in previously redlined areas and urban heat islands, issues which have traditionally disproportionately impacted Black communities. The bill gives localities the option to require developers to replace or preserve existing trees in particular sites through minimum requirements. For example, a developer would have to make sure that 10% to 20% of a site is covered by tree canopy, depending on how the site is zoned and how many units there are per acre. Trees that are planted then have 20 years to grow into a canopy that exceeds 5 feet in height…
Invasive insects are a worldwide scourge. Now, they could be coming to a tree near you — and that could have profound implications for urban areas. An international group of researchers warns that by 2050, 1.4 million street trees will die because of the infestations, wiping out beloved species such as the ash. In research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the scientists drew on data from hundreds of U.S. communities to forecast invasive insects’ effects. Rather than focus on all urban trees, they homed in on the best-tracked trees: those planted alongside roads. These street trees shape cities. But the researchers project that some will be more affected than others, with less than a quarter of the nation experiencing 95 percent of the losses. Milwaukee, Chicago and New York will be the urban areas most affected, in part because of their populations and their abundant ash trees. That puts them in the path of the emerald ash borer, a beetle that originated in Asia and was first identified in the United States in Michigan in 2002. Their larvae take up residence beneath ash bark, sapping the trees of their nutrients and killing them. They spread with firewood and nursery trees, and they will make up 90 percent of the tree losses…
A handful of annoyed residents watched from a sidewalk on New Jersey Avenue as a beloved tree, described as the last landmark of the city’s old ballfields, was torn down, placed into a chipper and reduced to sawdust. “There’s a lot of memories about that tree,” said Bill Link, who watched as the top half of the tree came down about 11 a.m. Wednesday. He said he’s heard the tree may be over 100 years old. By Wednesday afternoon, the large tree had been reduced to small logs, a pile of dirt the only marker to indicate where it had been. The tree was demolished to make way for Phase 2 of a redevelopment plan for the open field. New plans were approved by the city’s Planning Board last week for White Horse Wine & Spirits to move east on the White Horse Pike to its own building, vacating its current location in a city shopping plaza, Marketplace of Absecon. White Horse’s proposed building would be 25,000 square feet, 1,380 of which would be designated a café-sitting area…
Spring begins on Sunday and for many California residents that means it is time to start gardening and planting flowers, bushes and trees. Pacific Gas & Electric is reminding residents that planting the right tree in the right location helps promote fire safety, natural gas safety, reduces power outages and ensures beauty for years to come. PG&E reminds to mind what’s overhead and underground when adding new trees or shrubs to an area in an effort to lower the risk of wildfires or damage to powerlines and gas lines, making our hometowns safer. PG&E has many online materials, including free downloadable guides, with easy tips, charts and photos that help explain how, what, and where to plant the safest trees for each area… “California Arbor Week reminds us that trees provide many health and environmental benefits to our hometowns but there are hazards to avoid above and below the ground. Trees that are small when planted may grow to heights that can reach overhead powerlines or create root systems that interfere with gas lines. We want your trees to be healthy and safe for our communities to enjoy for a long time,” said Peter Kenny, senior vice president, PG&E Vegetation Management and System Inspections. Following are some main safety reminders when it comes to planting a tree…
Labroots, March 16, 2022: How Do Some Trees Survive Damaging Winds?
Forests are vital ecosystems, and each individual tree plays an important role. Just take forests like the Amazon rainforest; in the past, it’s been considered a carbon sink, which has helped absorb excess carbon in the atmosphere. Forests can also be important economically. However, due to deforestation and other human-driven activity, forested areas are slowly diminishing. In addition to human-driven activity, severe weather can also have a substantial effect on trees. Strong winds, in particular, can cause significant damage to trees. Current understandings of trees suggest that winds exert force on a tree canopy which in turn causes the tree to move until stem or root failure occurs. In which case, the tree falls. However, researchers are not entirely clear on why some trees manage to survive damage storms while others do not. A new paper in Sciences Advances describes data that, while serendipitously captured, sheds new light on the mechanisms behind a sort of tree survival “strategy” that helps them ride out severe weather. In the study, researchers examined two different plots of trees: one that included an “unthinned” portion of forest where trees grew close to each other, and another “thinned” plot where there were large gaps between trees. Sensors had been previously applied to the trees to measure various metrics (such as strain on stems). Then a category 5 cyclone hit the area, enabling researchers to capture robust information about how the trees responded to the storm…
Mumbai, India, Timesnow, March 17, 2022: You’ve seen eucalyptus trees – but have you seen rainbow-hued ones? They’re real
Nature can surprise us in ways we can’t even imagine. Just when you start to think that you have seen everything, it leaves you awestruck with something stupendous. Trees come in all shapes, sizes, forms. If you start researching about them, you can spend years acquiring knowledge. But no matter how many trees you come across; some features can always take you by surprise. Photos of some ‘rainbow eucalyptus’ trees shared recently on Twitter by Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda may be hard to believe. You might even call it photoshop work. But they are very much real. The rainbow eucalyptus grows in lowland and lower montane rainforest from sea level to altitudes of up to 1,800 m (5,900 ft). It is native to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines, but has been widely planted in many other countries…
Phys.org, March 16, 2022: Increased tree cover in savannas provides limited benefit in climate fight
One proposed strategy in the fight against climate change is to increase tree cover in the world’s savannas, either through the planting of new trees or fire suppression, to increase the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, a new Yale-led study of African savannas suggests this approach is far less effective than previously estimated. “Increasing tree coverin savannas, whether via afforestation or fire suppression, is unlikely to yield the substantial gains in ecosystem carbon storage that have been advertised,” said Carla Staver, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, associate director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, and senior author of the new study. The study was published March 17 in the journal Nature. Savannas cover about a fifth of the Earth’s land surface. Because they have fewer trees than forests, they have been increasingly targeted for their potential to capture carbon. Some studies projected that afforesting the worlds savannas could capture 280 tons of carbon per hectare, a number that assumes that tropical savannas would store as much carbon as tropical forests…
The power company that serves most of Connecticut is distributing “scorecards” with town-by-town information on maintenance and removal of the state’s beloved, but often hazardous roadside trees. Announced Tuesday at the site of scheduled tree trimming in Bristol, Eversource’s tree scorecards are snapshots of scheduled maintenance, along with information on power outages and blocked roads caused by downed trees and branches. More frequent and intense storms in the past few years have highlighted the need to alert municipal leaders and residents about the importance of tree maintenance, utility officials say. Newington’s scorecard, for instance, shows maintenance this year is scheduled on 27 of 77 miles of roadway, including 11 “backbone” miles, following the primary lines from substations. The town’s scorecard shows downed trees and branches blocked 56 roads from 2016-21 and outages last year totaled 130, of which 23% were tree related, impacting 6,391 of 14,831 customers for 1,142,578 minutes. “We’ve found these new scorecards have opened up the dialogue with property owners and town leaders and added more context to our ongoing conversations about tree trimming,” Eversource’s head of vegetation management, Sean Redding, said…
A beloved stretch of wild land at the convergence of Edina, Minneapolis and St. Louis Park now contains a gaping patch of destruction after crews recently clear-cut 6 acres of woods, enraging area residents who have hiked, walked their dogs and mountain biked there for years. Workers removed the patch of urban forest along with 300 individual trees in the unofficial park known as Weber Woods, just off France Avenue South, to expand an existing storm-water pond and make other improvements to help prevent flooding in Edina’s nearby Morningside neighborhood. It’s the first step in a $12.5 million project they expect to complete next year. Edina city officials don’t know how many trees were razed in the clear-cut area, but those who frequent the park say they are stunned and saddened by the deforestation that they contend is more severe than the plan portrayed on paper. The place many described as a sanctuary of secluded trails has lost its allure, they said…
Smelling like spoiled meat, some with thorns large enough to pierce tires, the Bradford pear tree is in full bloom with about two years left before it’s banned from being sold. South Carolina is set to bar sales of the Bradford pear tree, along with other pear trees that grow on the Callery pear rootstock. The ban goes into effect Oct. 1, 2024, and extends to the Callery pear and three species of Eleagnus. “It all started with the Bradford pear, though,” said David Coyle, assistant professor of forestry and invasive species at Clemson University. “That species is self-incompatible, which means it cannot reproduce with itself.” Coyle worked alongside Steven Long of Clemson’s Department of Plant Industry to spearhead the efforts to get sales of these plants banned. The ban doesn’t stop people from owning these trees and shrubs, but it does halt the sale of them. The problem with the Bradford pear, Coyle said, is that while it can’t pollinate its own flowers, other trees in the Pyrus genus can pollinate those flowers…
Phys.org, March 15, 2022: Research shows big trees boost water in forests by protecting snowpack
Big trees play an outsized role in old-growth forests—from offering fire resistance to producing strong genetic offspring, big trees give forests multiple ecological advantages. New research gives managers yet another reason to honor the behemoths—big trees protect melting snowpacks in water-stressed environments. The research from Michaela Teich, Kendall Becker and Jim Lutz from the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University and colleague Mark Raleigh from Oregon State University, details the ecological puzzle for how big trees interact with forest snow. A good supply of water allows trees to endure hot summer temperatures, survive wildfire and fight off attacks from invasions of bark beetles. But during the hot summers in the West, precipitation tends to be scant. A good, thick snowpack is water-in-the-bank as far as forests are concerned; the longer the winter snowpack endures into spring and summer months, the longer water is released into the soil and available to thirsty trees. That melting snow is also part of the runoff that fills the West’s reservoirs and benefits communities. The goal of the research was to find ways for managers to help this essential source of water linger for longer into spring and summer months…
A tree planted for every T-shirt purchased. For every bottle of wine. For every swipe of a credit card. Trees planted by countries to meet global pledges and by companies to bolster their sustainability records. As the climate crisis deepens, businesses and consumers are joining nonprofit groups and governments in a global tree planting boom. Last year saw billions of trees planted in scores of countries around the world. These efforts can be a triple win, providing livelihoods, absorbing and locking away planet-warming carbon dioxide, and improving the health of ecosystems. But when done poorly, the projects can worsen the very problems they were meant to solve. Planting the wrong trees in the wrong place can actually reduce biodiversity, speeding extinctions and making ecosystems far less resilient. Addressing biodiversity loss, already a global crisis akin to climate change, is becoming more and more urgent. Extinction rates are surging. An estimated million species are at risk of disappearing, many within decades…
As the floodwaters recede, mountains of debris are left behind – sheets of plaster, loose clothes, mattresses and, of course, trees. Some debris I’ve seen in floods includes massive tree trunks weighing 5 tonnes of more, bobbing along like corks in the rapidly flowing waters. The trees that line our creeks, rivers and floodplains are on the front line when major flooding occurs, and bear the brunt of the flood’s mighty forces. But while they are often victims of floods, trees are also our greatest allies. From stabilising river banks with the strong grip of their roots to changing the course of floodwater, here’s how trees influence floods – and how floods can kill them. The large and fine roots of trees, such as river red gums, bind and consolidate soil, stabilising river banks and reducing erosion. This reduces the amount of sediment entering waterways, and prevents waters down-stream becoming muddied and clogged with silt…
UPI, March 14, 2022: Insects could kill 1.4 million trees in U.S. cities by 2050, study says
Invasive insects could kill 1.4 million trees by 2050 in cities across the United States, which could cost more than $900 million to replace, according to a new study. The study, published in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, used data from around 30,000 urban areas across the country to create the forecast and recommend that cities take steps to plant a variety of trees rather than trees from a single species. The study was conducted by researchers from McGill University and North Carolina State University with the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Research Station. “These results can hopefully provide a cautionary tale against planting a single species of tree throughout entire cities, as has been done with ash trees in North America,” Emma Hudgins, the study’s lead author, said in a press release. “Increasing urban tree diversity provides resilience against pest infestations. While we know this more intuitively for monocultures of crops, many cities continue to plant what are essentially monoculture urban forests…”
A recent change to a Folly Beach ordinance will make it tougher for property owners to remove trees from their lots. Changes to an existing ordinance approved by City Council last year would require residents to pay a fee or submit replacement plans for most trees that would be cut within city limits. The goal is to help with stormwater management in the city. In the past, property owners were required to pay a fee only if they wanted to remove protected trees from their lots, according to Katie Gerling, the city’s former environmental and land use planner. Ten species are considered protected, including maples, magnolias and oaks that are indigenous to Folly Beach. But the rules have changed now that the city is mostly built out and only a handful of completely wooded lots remain. Historically, wooded lots provided drainage capacity for stormwater, Gerling said in an interview before her recent departure from her position with Folly Beach. “With the development of our lots, people were going in and just clear-cutting pines and any non-protected trees,” Gerling said…
Evanston, Illinois, Evanston Now, March 11, 2022: Take a chainsaw to property rights, or trees?
Evanston’s Environmental Board voted Thursday night to have city staff draft an ordinance that would impose steep penalties for removing large trees from private property. “Make incredibly steep fines,” Ald. Clare Kelly (1st) said, addressing the board. “I want to do whatever is necessary to reduce the removal of these incredibly valuable trees from the community.” “Prohibit taking down any trees” above a certain size, Kelly added. But Kelly told the board the initial version of the ordinance should not cover single-family, owner-occupied homes. That exclusion, she said, would be needed to win quick approval of the ordinance from City Council, saving some trees immediately. “Then we can work on amending it in an appropriate way later to include owner-occupied single-family homes,” Kelly added. Emily Okallau, the public services coordinator in the Public Works Agency, said the original staff proposal included protection for trees on single family lots because without including them it would “not significantly protect the majority of trees on private property in Evanston. But Environment Board member Tom Klitzkie, a co-owner of Nature’s Perspective Landscaping, said the trees that had been removed on Jackson were “trashy trees” that were mostly junk and wouldn’t have deserved protection under an ordinance…”
A few months ago, Choucri Asmar decided he wasn’t ready to give up hope. So he led a group of residents in “a peaceful demonstration to protect the trees” of his Cairo neighborhood. Egyptian authorities were planning to clear out a large avenue of ficus, acacia and palm trees — part of sweeping urban redevelopment projects that are transforming much of historic Cairo. “It was like a war on green,” Asmar said. Asmar and other residents of Heliopolis — an old neighborhood that boasts some of the city’s most important early 20th-century buildings — numbered the trees lining Nehru Street, labeling each of them after famous Egyptian figures. Five days later, police took the signs down and Asmar got a warning from security officials. The trees have survived, for now, while many others nearby have not, their wood sawed into pieces and towed away in trucks. Part of the adjoining park was razed to erect a stone monument commemorating Cairo’s road and highways development, while a nearby public garden dating from the early 20th century was demolished to make way for a new street and state-owned gas station…
Lodi, California, News-Sentinel, March 12, 2022: City of Lodi shade tree program a cool success
A new program focused on providing shade for residents and helping them save on energy costs has been suspended until further notice due to its overwhelming popularity. Last year, Lodi Electric Utility partnered with Tree Lodi to create the Lodi Shade Tree Program to provide free trees and planting instructions to eligible customers in an effort to help keep their homes cooler during hot summers and reduce energy bills. Working with nine nurseries in the region, Tree Lodi was able to secure 500 trees that were all secured by Lodi Electric customers within weeks for the pilot program. “We’re very happy we had a huge response from prospective customers,” Tree Lodi president Steve Dutra said. “We’re hoping to continue the program next year, but there’s only so much money budgeted. We anticipate the city will be able to fund it in the next fiscal year.” Dutra said the first cycle of the program, which launched last fall, cost $71,500. There is some money left over from the first round of planting, and it has been earmarked for administrative costs and expenditures, he said…
When I’m talking to people about what kind of trees they want to plant, or even what kind of trees they already have, a conversation about species characteristics often comes up (naturally). One of the things that I’m pretty quick to point out that though they might be going to some pretty reputable sites such as the Texas Forest Service or A&M’s website for information is that there is something that must be kept in mind while researching. The thing to keep firmly in mind when you are getting data about tree growth rates, mature sizes, longevity, etc., is where the person or organization putting out that information is living and working. The reason that I say that is because very often, when you look up the specs of a tree species that you are thinking about planting in West Texas, that information will have been gathered in a very different growing area, which greatly changes how that particular plant grows/lives…
The “secret swing” that draws thrill-seeking visitors to La Jolla’s Coast Walk Trail may be in peril. Not from overuse but because of the tiny South American palm weevil. The swing, which was installed by trail-goers and is not sanctioned by the city of San Diego, is a makeshift rope and a tire or plank hanging from a tree overlooking the bluffs next to Coast Walk Trail. Trees that surround it in the small grove appear to have been infested by palm weevils — part of a larger infestation that has been going on in the San Diego area for more than a year. The infestation could cause the trees to die and collapse. “The weevil problem is all over the place, and there are at least two trees down there that are infested,” said Friends of Coast Walk Trail President Brenda Fake. “It’s only a matter of time until the tree with the swing gets it and falls.” She said she has observed the signature drooping brown fronds on surrounding trees and the trees turning yellow in the center. The South American palm weevil is a type of beetle native to parts of Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. San Diego has been working since last year with the UC Riverside Cooperative Extension to develop comprehensive management of the region’s date palms, which are affected by the insect. Fake said she has seen visitors to the trail use the swing and that she always recommends against it…
A year and a half after the province pledged to dramatically change how B.C.’s old-growth trees were logged, conservationists and First Nations say action on the issue is lagging and details about what is being done are obscure. “Premier John Horgan has set some nice intentions for old-growth forests, but done very little to actually limit logging of the most endangered stands,” said Torrance Coste, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee in a statement. On Thursday the Wilderness Committee, along with conservation groups Sierra Club B.C. and the Ancient Forest Alliance, released a third “report card” grading how the government has acted on promises that came out of a September 2020 review of old-growth logging in B.C. The groups want immediate deferrals of logging in all at-risk old-growth forests, increased funding to support deferrals such as lost revenue for First Nations, legislation to protect biodiversity across B.C., and more regular updates and transparency over action the province is taking. “Chainsaws continue to roar and threatened old-growth forests across B.C. remain without protection,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said in the statement…
Debbie Metro got a call from her neighbor telling her a tree had fallen in her yard. When she went outside, she told 19 News she couldn’t believe what she saw. “I started crying, I couldn’t believe the devastation,” said Metro. Metro said the tree is about 120 feet long. When it fell, it brought down several other trees and power lines as well. Metro said FirstEnergy came to see the damage and they restored the power lines but didn’t remove the trees. As of March 8, it’s been two weeks and the trees are still there, and the only thing holding them up is Metro’s garage that is starting to cave in. “I didn’t know where to begin, or where to start,” said Metro. Metro told 19 News everyone she spoke with told her it isn’t their problem. Tree removal companies told her they can’t do anything until the wires are down, and electrical companies told her they can’t do anything until the trees are out of the way. “I’m just concerned about the safety for the citizens of North Olmstead,” said Metro. The 19 News Troubleshooter team started to make calls. North Olmstead Director of Public Service Kevin Kearney sent 19 News the following statement: “The City has happily worked directly with the homeowner to connect them with their local public utility (CEI) to resolve the problem. This is not a city issue, but a matter involving a private homeowner and their insurance company.” FirstEnergy sent 19 News this statement: “Cleaning up tree debris left by emergency restoration work is typically the responsibility of property owners…”
A blooming Bradford pear tree is generally a sign that spring is on the way. In fact, you can usually smell the trees blooming through their signature unpleasant odor. A North Carolina State University forestry expert is placing a “bounty” on the tree, largely thought of as a nuisance by homeowners, landscapers and those who work in agriculture. Seen lining yards along numerous neighborhoods and downtown sidewalks throughout the south, the trees can thrive in a number of environments and have an alluring look. But ecologically, they’re another story. The program is allowing people to replace their Bradford pear trees with as many as five new native trees in exchange for cutting down the same number of Bradford pears in their yard. “We probably won’t eradicate Bradford pear from North Carolina,” said Kelly Oten, assistant professor of forestry and environmental resources at N.C. State. “But we do want to increase awareness about how this tree is harming the environment, reduce how many people plant them, and encourage people to replace their own trees with something else…”
Scientists have produced a map showing where the world’s major food crops should be grown to maximize yield and minimize environmental impact. This would capture large amounts of carbon, increase biodiversity, and cut agricultural use of freshwater to zero. The reimagined world map of agriculture includes large new farming areas for many major crops around the cornbelt in the mid-western US, and below the Sahara desert. Huge areas of farmland in Europe and India would be restored to natural habitat. The redesign—assuming high-input, mechanized farming—would cut the carbon impact of global croplands by 71%, by allowing land to revert to its natural, forested state. This is the equivalent of capturing twenty years’ worth of our current net CO2 emissions. Trees capture carbon as they grow, and also enable more carbon to be captured by the soil than when crops are grown in it. In this optimized scenario, the impact of crop production on the world’s biodiversity would be reduced by 87%. This would drastically reduce the extinction risk for many species, for which agriculture is a major threat. The researchers say that croplands would quickly revert back to their natural state, often recovering their original carbon stocks and biodiversity within a few decades…
A Douglasville man is accused of taking over $1,000 from an elderly woman for removing trees from her yard, but he never came back to finish the work, an arrest warrant said. Mickey Malone, 45, is facing charges of exploitation of a disabled or elderly person, theft by deception and theft by taking. Police say Malone took $1,200 total from an elderly woman in Douglasville during two visits to her house in October of last year. He was coming to remove three cedar trees from her yard, but never returned to actually do the work, according to the arrest warrant. Malone stopped answering the woman’s phone calls and never returned her messages as of Dec. 9, the warrant said…
For nearly the past year, a family in northeast Queens has been forced to use their neighbors’ and relatives’ bathrooms because the city won’t let them cut down a tree, according to a new lawsuit. Part of the sewer line that runs through the family’s house is clogged by tree roots, the suit contends. As a result, the family hasn’t had any operable plumbing — including toilets, showers, and laundry machines — in their Whitestone home since May of last year, the complaint states. One of the family members who is living in the house, and has had to rely on the goodwill of others in order to bathe and use the bathroom, is “severely disabled,” according to the suit. A contractor, who explored the pipe and the surrounding area, told the family that there’s no way to repair the sewage issue without removing the tree, but the Parks Department is refusing to let the family cut down the plant, the suit alleges…
Eugene, Oregon, Weekly, March 10, 2022: Finding the White Oaks
Walk outside. Chances are you won’t find Oregon’s native white oak in Eugene. Before colonization, white oaks lived all over the Willamette Valley. Today white oaks have only 3 percent of their native range. I am a Eugene native, an arboriculture major at Clackamas Community College and an oak nerd who has been specializing in the study of Oregon white oaks, Quercus garryana. I have been collecting information on the location of oaks in Salem, Eugene and Silverton for The Oak Salvage Project. Since the 1800s percent of oak habitat has been lost due to urban development and farming. I have only found a few places in Eugene: Fern Ridge, Lane County Fairgrounds, Alton Baker Park and the riverfront. The rest have been recently planted. If you go to the River Road, Santa Clara and Irving areas you’ll find the remainder of Eugene’s white oaks…
On the trail of the successful planting of nearly 150 new trees on Van Aken Boulevard through a Cuyahoga County grant program, the city will turn its attention to weather-ravaged hawthorns along Shaker Boulevard. Both swaths stretch along the median of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority train tracks. This space is not covered under the city’s tree assessment program, under which residents are now seeing their first rate increase in 20 years on their tax bills. With that in mind, City Council on Feb. 28 authorized a $55,200 application — with 10 percent proposed as a local match — to the Cuyahoga County Healthy Tree Canopy Grant Program. The grants were established to help combat the effects of climate change. Set about 20 feet apart along the Shaker Boulevard Green Line tracks and median, “many of the hawthorn trees were lost or damaged beyond repair during the heavy, wet snowfall on Dec. 1, 2020,” city Public Works Director Patti Speese noted in a memo to council. Some of the trees were removed shortly after that. If approved in full, this grant would provide for 97 new hawthorn trees to be put in by the city’s tree-planting contractor after Public Works crews remove the remaining 87 damaged trees and 11 stumps. All of these are located between Coventry and Lee roads. A future tree canopy grant would be needed to replace the remaining trees damaged from Lee Road east to the end of the Green Line. The city would also be responsible for installing deer protection for the new trees as part of the program requirements, Speese’s memo noted. Councilwoman Nancy Moore, who chairs the Tree Advisory Board, pointed to recent statistics showing that Shaker’s tree canopy remains down by about 21 percent. While the city’s forestry and public works departments have been working hard to catch up, new trees take up to 10 years to mature…
Barre, Vermont, Times Argus, March 8, 2022: Tree plan prompts pushback
Most trees growing in the right of way along East Montpelier’s 62 miles of town roads would be afforded special protection under a plan the Select Board wasn’t ready to approve Monday night. A “shade-tree preservation plan” — one, which as written would give the local tree warden broad authority over virtually any tree with a diameter of more than 4 inches growing in the town’s right of way. That is an awful lot of trees and would represent a significant change in the rules that have been in place for the past two years, and a subtle, but stark departure under the law that was in place before the 2020 change. Tree wardens have always had a say over which trees in the right of way should be removed for safety-related reasons, but under the old law the ability to regulate the removal of trees was limited to the “public shade trees” — one that were planted by a municipality, like the street trees in downtown Barre, or those in Hope Cemetery. There are some but not a lot of those in East Montpelier, but the new law potentially expands the tree warden’s jurisdiction to include trees that were planted by the town, as well as any other tree in right of way that is designated as a “shade tree” in an approved “shade tree preservation plan.” The plan that was the subject of a public hearing Monday night defines “shade tree” as “… all trees within the right of way of town highways if the diameter at breast height equals or exceeds (4) inches, with the exception of common buckthorn and glossy buckthorn. If the plan is adopted, removal of any of those trees would require advance permission of the tree warden — a decision that could be appealed…
In recent times, the young couples that are going to have a baby often host a gender reveal party. Now, Mary Alice and I had never heard of doing this until our granddaughter and her husband invited us to one. However, when choosing a name for their baby, it is done the age-old way. The couple selects a name for their newborn from either the Bible, flowers, favorite relatives, entertainment and sports world, people of importance or simply words. The Native Americans waited until their children developed personalities and talents before names were given. Then, descriptive names, such as “Swift of Foot”would be given to a child that was able to run fast; “Walks Softly” would be given to a child that was quiet. At first, people were given only first names. Later, as more and more people inhabited the earth, it was necessary to make a distinction between people. Descriptive words such as the place where a person lived; what they did for a living; or their parents’ names were added. For example, in the Bible, there are references to Jesus of Nazareth, John the Baptist and James, the son of Zebedee. Later, these rather long names were shortened to names, such as Jack the Cooper (barrel maker) became Jack Kuyper; Jake the Smithy (blacksmith) became Jake Smith and William the Wagon Maker was shortened to William Wagoner. Now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with nature. The answer is we just can’t simply say, “You know the bush I mean, the one with the red berries.”There are many bushes with red berries, and this could cause problems. It depends on where you live as to what this bush with the red berries is called…
Have you been seeing tree twigs around Greater Cincinnati that have had zipper cuts in them? The twigs with the zipper cuts are all over Cincinnati, according to officials with Cincinnati Parks. So what’s causing these cuts in the tree twigs? Cicadas are to blame, park officials say. Female periodical cicadas have cut into twigs all over Greater Cincinnati. They do this so they’re able to inject their eggs inside. The rows of eggs live in live twigs and they hatched last September. Park officials say some of the twigs died, but most are healing over. “The tiny babies fell to earth, where they are now sucking slowly on roots,” Cincinnati Parks wrote on Facebook…
One contributing factor to these fires is bark beetles — small beetles that burrow and reproduce under the bark of trees and eventually cause the tree to decay and die if heavily infested. Dead trees and forests killed by bark beetles are abundant in Western U.S. forests. According to BYU chemical engineering professor Andrew Fry, there are some forests where over 70% of the trees are dead and standing. These dead trees are the perfect fuel for wildfires and greatly increase the probability of extensive and severe fires. To help solve this problem, Fry and other researchers at BYU have worked to develop new ways to convert these dead, decaying trees into a fuel that can be used in coal power plants. As an additional result, the use of this type of fuel reduces net carbon emissions. “This project is really useful from two perspectives,” Fry said. “If we can reduce the wildland fire potential and offset some carbon emissions, it has more advantages.” However, the transition from using a coal-based fuel to one using dead and decaying trees has its issues. These trees are biomass, renewable organic material that comes from plants, but can cause problems for traditional power stations not equipped to deal with it. Biomass fuel cause jams and blockages in the power plants, and minerals released from burning the wood can also coat mechanisms with ash, which can be dangerous…
Here in central Oklahoma, the vast majority of our forest trees drop their leaves at year’s end. It can, at first glance, be a stark and somber sight. The “skeletonized” trees appear dead but, of course, they’re just deep into their winter slumber. I welcome the winter season. The missing foliage grants me the unique opportunity to throw my gaze for a far distance into the interior of the forest. I draw particular delight when I see the brilliant white color of the sycamore tree’s trunk and limbs. It flies in the face of the otherwise standard whereby almost all of the other forest trees are bedecked in “plain Jane” brown-colored hues. I don’t live in the forest, but raccoons, owls and wood ducks do. These cavity-dwelling creatures go in search of sycamore trees. For some odd and unexplained reason, sycamore trees are almost always hollow. This is what makes the sycamore tree such a snug place for those forest creatures that are seeking a safe place to rear their young or as an escape from the winter season’s snow, ice and cold…
International lumber prices are surging again and private sellers of wood in New Brunswick say that’s been helping them get better prices for their softwood logs. In Maine. Linda Bell, the general manager of the Carleton-Victoria Forest Products Marketing Board in Florenceville, N.B., said prices being paid for saw logs at mills across the border are up to 70 per cent higher than in New Brunswick. That makes the longer hauling distances and increased paperwork required to serve U.S. mills worthwhile, she said. “What we’re seeing in Maine is is an increased demand and increased pricing,” said Bell, who estimated a quarter of softwood cut by private sellers in her area is now leaving the province. “The price of lumber is up and their markets are really good…”
Distracted drivers and bicycle riders are an ever present danger in the redwoods. Everybody is looking up, up, up to neck-ache heights where trees taller than a football field top out in often fog-laden skies. A band of big trees stretches from the southern Oregon coast to almost San Francisco. Only a long day’s drive from Walla Walla, it’s a great spot to hike and bicycle. Experiencing the world’s tallest trees, as well as blooming rhododendrons, is awe inspiring. Banana slugs provide an added visual treat. After attending Blue Mountain Community College — “Harvard on the hill” — on a track scholarship and before attending the University of Oregon, I took a “gap quarter” to bicycle through the redwood corridor. Forty years later, I came back to see if my jaw would still drop. The answer: Most certainly. Bicycling partner Bill and I set up headquarters in the beachfront community of Crescent City, Calif., 7 feet above sea level. Stunted wind-blown pines play backstop to long beaches. A lighthouse sits on an island accessible at low tide. Fog horns blare…
If you are going to have somebody mow your yard and trim your hedges rather than doing it yourself, you need to make sure you have that arranged. Quite frankly, I seriously doubt that there are enough people currently in the local lawn maintenance business to do all the yard work that people are going to want done this year. Not only that, my crystal ball tells me that the problem is going to get worse. With the rising costs of everything, and the current labor market as it is (have you noticed all the help wanted signs?), I think yard maintenance is about to get much more expensive (and pretty quickly. too), along with harder to get. And if you do your own yard work and you need to get your equipment either serviced or repaired, you are out of procrastination time on that. I was in one of the larger repair shops for that kind of thing the other day, and they didn’t seem to be all that busy. In fact I walked right up to the counter without having to wait my turn…
A Michigan Court of Appeals panel has affirmed a Lenawee County judge’s rulings in a lawsuit between Hudson Township neighbors over felled trees. Both the plaintiffs and the defendants in the lawsuit appealed rulings by Lenawee County Circuit Judge Anna Marie Anzalone, who denied a motion from the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit then found in favor of the plaintiffs, but not for as much in damages as the plaintiffs had sought, according to an opinion issued last month by appeals Judges Mark T. Boonstra, Amy Ronayne Krause and Thomas C. Cameron. The lawsuit was filed in August 2018 by plaintiffs Kevin and Wendy Vanderpool against Chad Hart and Hart Brothers LLC. The Vanderpools sold a parcel of land to Hart Brothers in 2015. The parcel adjoined the Vanderpools’ property and had a row of trees along the property line. In 2016, Chad Hart cut down the trees, believing they were on Hart Brothers’ property, according to the appeals court’s opinion. The Vanderpools disagreed and hired an arborist to determine the value of the trees. The arborist determined it would cost $149,310.57 to replace the 20 large, healthy trees that were cut down…
Portuguese researchers are developing pine trees that are more resistant to drought, which need less than half the usual water to achieve the same productivity of wood and resin. “We managed to create more resilient pine trees with better genetic quality, through an approach at the genetic level and molecular biology,” Joao Nunes, the president of the BLC3 Technology and Innovation Campus, was quoted as saying by the Lusa News Agency on Sunday. According to him, the “supertrees” were created through induced and controlled drought situations, which make them “better prepared and resilient to climate change and phytosanitary risks.” After two years of experiments, three BLC3 scientists claim that the trees can save up to 60 percent of water compared to existing normal varieties. From now on, the 162 “supertrees” will be multiplied to “generate other plants with the same characteristics,” transmitting their genetics to other plants that will also be exposed to water stress to continue the lineage. The scientists say the objective is to avoid “significant loss of plants that are fundamental to the balance of the planet,” in addition to providing natural resin, which is of “great importance for the Portuguese economy…”
If you live in a place where a moth known by the scientific name Lymantria dispar did damage last summer, you probably can’t forget it. In the first significant outbreak in many years, the caterpillars munched their way through wide swaths of forest in Vermont and other northeastern states in 2021. Entire hillsides were stripped of foliage, looking like some post-apocalyptic summer stick season. Vermont officials documented more than 50,000 acres of defoliation using aerial surveillance. Jessica Ware, president of the Entomological Society of America, describes it this way: “They basically, like the Very Hungry Caterpillar, are just chewing their way through deciduous forests. It’s actually a very huge economic devastation that we’re talking about for Lymantria dispar.” Ware says the moth does hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage every year in the eastern United States. But the moth does other damage, too, with its common name. Since it was first released from a lab in Massachusetts in the 1800s, it’s been called the “gypsy moth.” Magda Matache, a Romani scholar and director of the Roma Program at Harvard University, says the moth’s name had dehumanizing effects on Romani people…
The government did not sufficiently consider whether targets for a tree-planting scheme were realistic, according to a public spending watchdog. It said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) looked set to miss its aim despite working quickly to set up schemes. The government has pledged to boost the number of trees planted in a bid to help the UK reach net zero emissions in the fight against the climate crisis. Defra has a target to plant at least 7,500 hectares every year in England by spring 2025. But the new report by the National Audit Office has cast doubt over how this goal was established. “Defra did not sufficiently consider whether its tree-planting target was achievable, particularly given the broad range of benefits it is trying to achieve,” the public spending watchdog said in its assessment on how the Nature for Climate Fund Treet Programme was set up…
BBC, March 2, 2022: A paradise with too many palm trees
If you stand on the northernmost tip of Bird Island, it can feel like you’re looking at eternity: there is ocean as far as the eye can see. The effect is similar when you snorkel off the same shore; not far out from the beach, the Earth plunges away into a dark oceanic abyss hundreds, then thousands, of metres deep. The feeling is akin to vertigo. Bird Island is the most northern isle of the Seychelles’ 115-island archipelago. It sits on the outer rim of the vast, undersea Mascarene Plateau, an extraordinary uplift of mid-ocean shallow water that covers an area larger than Portugal. The plateau begins at Bird Island and continues south for 2,000km, running almost the length of Madagascar. In the other direction, north of Bird, the Indian Ocean is deep, wide and uninterrupted by any landfall all the way to the Arabian Peninsula. Bird Island’s geography alone makes its story worth telling. But in the past half-century, Bird tells a parallel story of natural renewal, one almost without peer in the world of birds. And it all has to do with the ultimate contradiction: Bird was once a tropical island with too many palm trees…
A project launched by a couple of students who met studying forestry at Yale a dozen years ago has turned into a fast-growing start-up with the support of Salesforce leader Marc Benioff, who sits on its board. NCX co-founders Zack Parisa and Max Nova used satellite imagery and machine learning software to generate a high-resolution image of the forest inventory in the United States, which they first sold to federal agencies like the United States Forest Service and conservation groups like The Nature Conservancy. Now, they’re taking that expertise and using it to fight climate change by facilitating the market for carbon offsets — a sort of voucher representing a certain amount of carbon dioxide that is being absorbed, or not emitted into the atmosphere. A company can claim to be “net zero” even if it is still releasing greenhouse gas emissions, as long as it has paid for sufficient carbon offsets to balance out remaining emissions. Trees absorb carbon dioxide. If landowners vow to keep trees alive instead of chopping them down to sell for timber, they can sell the resulting carbon offsets to companies looking to make good on their net-zero goals. NCX’s software helps landowners map the trees on their property so they can account for how much carbon dioxide they are absorbing, giving companies more confidence that the carbon offsets they’re buying are legit…
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was cited after using a massive “heli-saw,” consisting of eight whirring blades suspended from a helicopter, to trim trees without warning in a San Mateo County park this winter. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection issued the utility giant a notice of violation dated Dec. 16, 2021, for carrying out the work without permission along a transmission line in Wunderlich Park. It’s one of 17 such violations Cal Fire’s San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit has issued to PG&E and its contractors since October 2020 for not complying with the state public resources code, said Richard Sampson, a Cal Fire forest practice inspector who is leading an investigation of the utility. During an inspection Dec. 15, Sampson observed “numerous” branches with 2- to 8-inch circumferences that were severed by the aerial saw and allowed to fall from 150 feet above, according to the violation notice…
New York City’s trees provide more than $100 million in benefits annually, delivering positive health impacts, heat reduction and flood absorption throughout the five boroughs. However, planting and caring for a tree, especially during construction, can be tedious. Here are some tips for homeowners and developers from the city Parks Department on how to responsibly get permits to work on or around street trees, outlined during a recent agency seminar: The city Parks Department tree planting and preservation program was established in 2008 when the city Planning Commission adopted an amendment to the city’s zoning resolution to create a requirement for street tree planting and preservation. Its goal was to mitigate the environmental effect of construction by planting new trees and preserving old ones, which provide significantly more tree canopy cover than saplings. Essentially, the shift required one street tree for every 25 feet of frontage on a new building or large alteration. That could be accomplished by planting a new tree or protecting an existing tree…
New York City, WNBC-TV, March 2, 2022: Fight Fire With Fire: Burns Lessen Fire Risk in NJ Forests
New Jersey environmental officials are fighting fire with fire, using so-called “controlled burns” to reduce the risk of future wildfires by burning pine needles, dead leaves and other dry underbrush. Removing potential fuel from the forest floor deprives future fires of material that would make them more serious and spread faster. It is a time-honored technique of forestry management and fire prevention used around the world, and is especially important in the Pinelands, an ecologically fragile 1.1-million acre nature reserve in the center of the most densely populated U.S. state. The small fires being set this week in various parts of the Pinelands come as the state has been experiencing a dry spell that could lead to more and bigger fires…
A 1% improvement in Louisville’s tree canopy over the course of a seven-year period may not seem like much. But from TreesLouisville executive director Cindi Sullivan’s perspective, the numbers included in last week’s progress report are beyond encouraging. “The most important thing about this new report is the comparison to the last report,” Sullivan said. “The last report looked at data from 2004 to 2012, and that report documented a decline in tree canopy and also predicted a very steep decline if we didn’t take action. This new report … does actually show that our efforts have not just stopped that steep decline, not just held us steady, but has increased our canopy by 1%.” The report released late last week found Louisville’s tree canopy, which measures how much of the city’s land is covered by the shade provided by trees, sat at 39% as of 2019, a slight improvement from the numbers in the 2012 report. More work remains and not every part of town has seen the same progress, Sullivan said, but Louisville’s tree canopy took key steps forward late in the last decade…
New Scientist, March 2, 2022: Virus outbreak in wild boars led to more oak trees in Polish forest
An outbreak of African swine fever led to the growth of more oak trees in a Polish forest. African swine fever is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease that affects domestic and wild pigs. It has been present in Poland since 2014, and reached Białowieża primeval forest in March 2015. Michał Bogdziewicz at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, and his colleagues analysed what effect the outbreak had on oak trees in the forest. Acorns, the nuts produced by oak trees, can form up to 70 per cent of a wild boar’s diet, says Bogdziewicz. The more acorns are eaten, the fewer are left to grow into trees. The researchers monitored the acorn production of 29 oak trees in the forest between 2009 and 2020. They also counted the number of acorns littered on the floor near the trees. Oak trees produce acorns during distinct periods every few years, a strategy called masting. In a mast year, all the trees in a community produce lots of the nuts at the same time. As a result, animals cannot eat them all. In the intervening years, when oak trees don’t produce acorns, there is less food for seed-eating animals and their populations decline. This strategy works well for oak trees when it comes to smaller rodents, but is less effective with boars. “Boars can move further to look for other sources of food and they also have wider diets that allow them to switch to other stuff in years of famine,” says Bogdziewicz. The 2015 outbreak of swine fever in the forest led to a 90 per cent drop in boar numbers in the following year. After the outbreak, twice the number of oak trees were successfully established compared with before 2015, the study found. “What the virus did today will have its mark on the forest for centuries to come,” says Bogdziewicz…
Madison, Wisconsin, WMTV, March 1, 2022: Man killed during tree trimming operation in Madison
Madison Police Department said a 38-year-old man was killed Tuesday afternoon during a tree trimming operation. The man was electrocuted around 12:20 p.m. near the intersection of W. Broadway St. and Hoboken Rd, according to an incident report. A company was trimming trees in the area when a branch got stuck on a power line, officers explained. An employee pulled the branch and it snapped a wire. MPD continued, saying the wire hit a company vehicle below, which the 38-year-old man was leaning on at the time. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to MPD…
Moving house is always an adventure. In 2003, Mark and his wife Mary built their dream home in the country — an adventure, indeed. When it was complete, they vowed never to build a house again. Until two years ago when, ready to move back to the ’burbs, they up and did it once more. They were inspired by a vision for a smaller home on a large, one-acre lot in Markham. It seemed like a splendid idea. Building a home during a pandemic was its own adventure. Pleading with trades to come to work and the escalating materials costs is a story for another time. Then there was the garden. Moving to a large lot made perfect sense to Mark, who saw the mostly treeless property as a blank canvas. He could plant trees of his own choice, create a pollinator garden, and attract beneficial wildlife like butterflies, native bees and hummingbirds. And a food garden with an apple orchard of 16 trees, raspberries, grapes, asparagus, rhubarb and all of the annual vegetables the new garden space could hold…
Sequim, Washington, Gazette, March 2, 2022: State needs inclusive healthy forest policy
Washington state’s Board of Natural Resources is considering banning timber harvesting on state lands. That is extremely unwise. Instead, the Board must insure its healthy forest policies incorporate all management tools including planting, thinning and logging. Established in 1957, the board sets policies to manage Washington state’s 5.6 million acres granted by Congress in 1889. More than 3 million acres were designated as trust lands to support various public institutions of which 2.1 million acres are forests. Banning timber harvesting robs critical funds from K-12 public schools, timber dependent communities, the universities of Washington and Washington State, the state capitol building, and public agencies such as law enforcement and social services. Rather than generating much needed timber sales revenues, fighting wildfires cost our state millions and drains our state’s emergency reserves. Those wildfires are fueled by the build-up of dead, downed and diseased trees and ground debris in unhealthy forests. Healthy forests are important in capturing CO2…
I love winter and have been hoping for a lot more snow, which we got last week, but only after an unseasonably (record-smashing) warm spell. Much as I love winter and want to stay in the moment, that warm spell has me looking forward to spring. I love the countdown of days marked by the varied signs of spring. A friend sent me pictures of crocuses coming up. Hopefully, they’ll survive the plunge back to cold and ice. Red-winged blackbirds hung out at my bird feeder the day of the snow storm. It was so incongruous to hear their burbling calls – one of my favorite signs of spring – on the eve of a blizzard. And my neighbors have started tapping their trees, a sure sign that the countdown to spring has officially begun. Last week empty metal buckets, poly buckets and milk jugs appeared on neighborhood maple trees, looking like vampires or tick-like parasites hanging off the tree trunks, draining their blood. If you think about it, the idea that you can just stick a tube into a tree and out comes sugary sap is quite remarkable. The blood-sucking parasite analogy is quite apt — when we stick a tube into a tree we are tapping into its vascular system, but instead of blood, this vascular system carries sap, water and nutrients throughout the tree…
The image of an uprooted oak tree lying on a crushed two-bay garage in old Wyomissing after a powerful thunderstorm in early September was fresh in the memories of borough residents as the November general election neared. The tree, easily 100 feet tall, fell and barely missed the back of the detached home at Cleveland and Wyoming avenues the evening of Sept. 8. Two vehicles parked in the garage were also destroyed, and part of the sidewalk and curb were damaged as the root ball, measuring about 4 feet by 6 feet, was pried from the saturated ground by the weight of the trunk. It wasn’t an isolated occurrence during the Sept. 8 storm that swept through the region, hitting the Wyomissing and West Lawn areas especially hard. At least a half-dozen trees or large branches came down on vehicles during the storm, officials said at the time. That was, however, no ordinary late-summer thunderstorm…
The decision to cut down a number of trees at Salford Quays has proved unpopular with local residents. Multiple trees have been felled near the Quayside MediaCityUK shopping centre, leaving behind unsightly stumps. Salford Council signed off on the works in 2019 but they had been delayed until this month, due to the pandemic. A number of people have taken to social media to voice their displeasure at the project. Sharing photos of the stumps to Twitter, Lee Bennett wrote: “Whoever is responsible for the butchering of all those beautiful trees along Salford Quays needs to seriously have word with themselves! “WHY on earth anyone would think this is a good idea is beyond me… and planting other trees elsewhere doesn’t make it acceptable either.” Replying to Lee’s tweet, Lance Tranter said: “So annoyed! Can’t believe they’ve cut so many down… A spokesman for the Peel-owned centre said that it had to be done as the trees ‘are too close together to thrive’ and confirmed that the residents’ associations for Imperial Point and Sovereign Point had been informed about the works. “Works to remove a number of trees from Quayside’s Southern Waterside Walkway were approved by Salford City Council in June 2019,” the spokesman said. “Whilst we understand how upsetting it may be to see trees felled, in their current position, the trees are too close together to thrive and remain healthy and a number of these trees are already diseased. In response to this, Salford Council will be planting new trees in an alternative and suitable location…
Everett, Washington, Herald, March 1, 2022: County Council should adopt urban tree policy
We’re at a crossroads in our county where growth can overwhelm our natural systems. The Snohomish County Council will discuss a proposed urban tree canopy policy March 1. The policy would create a framework for accessing resources to protect and enhance urban tree canopy to bring its tremendous benefits to our lives and environment. The language is taken from “A Guide to Community and Urban Forestry Programming” written by the state Department of Commerce that helps jurisdictions tap technical support from the state Department of Natural Resources to respond to climate justice with federal funding… The League of Women Voters sent a letter in support of this policy to the council that has been signed by 31 local and state groups including three city councils. Forterra, one of the signers, has been working in Snohomish County to assist with urban forestry plans in public places. They also published their Forterra-Tree Retention on Privately Owned Land in 2020 which says: “As the Puget Sound region grows, the question of how to retain trees while maximizing housing affordability and economic development is an increasingly important issue facing policymakers. The idea that dense development is not compatible with tree preservation is a paradigm ripe for revisiting…”
Tree tapping at Emerick’s Maple in Southampton Township on Saturday afternoon kicked off the official start of the maple season with a big crowd of maple producers, dignitaries, princesses and many other attendees. Pennsylvania Maple Queen LXXIV, Rebecca Wright, and 2021 Maple King Matt Emerick tapped a maple tree on the Emerick property along Ridge Road to officially begin the 2022 sugar season. And, while it started very slowly, the sap was dripping. Many producers have already started producing maple syrup and are hoping for a good season. The Somerset County Maple Producers Association sponsors this event the last Saturday of February every year. Mike Lynch, owner of Baer Brothers Maple near Somerset, served as this year’s emcee and welcomed the crowd to the ceremony. He explained that as a dealer for maple equipment who travels to several different states, he sees a unique and special maple producing community here in Somerset County because everyone is willing to help educate and support one another…
Q: Should I cut/prune a root from a Japanese maple that is beginning to lift a slab of my patio? The maple was just a 30-inch sapling when planted (1987) 35 years ago; now it is 16 feet tall, has a 10-inch diameter trunk, a 24-foot spread and is well pruned and relatively open. It gets early morning direct sun and then direct sun from about noon to about 6 p.m. in the summer. It is well watered in the summer and early fall by irrigation. The patio curves around about 1/4 of the circumference of the tree about 40 feet out from the trunk. I haven’t yet dug down to inspect the root/patio intersection. The patio was poured in 2007-2008. The slab I am concerned about has been pushed out about ½ inch and lifted on one corner about ½ inch. I noticed the lift beginning about two years ago and hoped the root would not like the solid pressure of the concrete and dive deeper, but it seems the maple has its own ideas about how it will grow. A: It is never a good idea to cut back tree roots. It becomes a source for insect and disease problems as well as causing instability for the tree itself. However, here are some guidelines you can consider. The success of cutting or pruning surface roots that rise up under pavers depends on the species of the tree, its age, size, and general health: Young trees survive root pruning better than mature trees. Trees exposed to high winds are less able to withstand having their roots cut. Pruning roots close to the trunk do more harm to a tree than cutting smaller, more distant roots…
Our personalities are made up of many traits. You don’t have to have a degree in psychology to crack that particular nugget, because that’s what a personality test is for. Just look around at the people in your life and you’re sure to be able to identify some of their strongest, dominant personality traits: Your mother is obsessed with control, your landlord is very detail-oriented, your best friend is super-creative but a little disconnected from reality. Once you get to know a person, identifying the personality traits that make them who they are isn’t as hard as you might think. What is difficult? Recognizing your own dominant personality traits. That’s because it is absolutely impossible to be objective about yourself. Sure, you can be critical of yourself, you can identify things you say and do and adjust them hoping for a positive result, but this is not an easy feat. Some people can go their entire lives without figuring out what their dominant personality traits are, and that is entirely their prerogative. However, if you choose to try and sort them out for yourself, you can get a much clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses. You can use this information to lead an even happier and more successful life. There is a quick and easy way to determine what your dominant personality traits are and all it involves is looking at one picture. It’s really that simple. Take a look at the picture above. You will see a drawing of six different trees. Study the trees and decide which one is the most appealing to you. Once you’ve done this, pay attention to number assigned to the tree…
A Brooklyn Park man is accused of stealing rare and expensive Bonsai trees from Hopkins and St. Paul in multiple incidents over the last year, authorities said Friday, Phong Yang, 36, is charged with felony counts of theft, damage to property, possessing a firearm, possession of burglary tools, and fifth-degree possession of marijuana. Another criminal complaint accuses him of catalytic converter theft. Investigators say Yang stole rare and unusual Bonsai trees worth tens of thousands of dollars. One of them was believed to be more than 250 years old and valued at $14,000. Bonsai is an ancient art form that’s been practiced in Japan since the 6th Century. It typically features trees or shrubs grown in small containers. Growers spend hours cutting, wiring, and fertilizing the plants to create a unique living display…
In the year since the 2021 winter storm, many utility companies focused their efforts on keeping tree limbs off distribution lines to prevent power outages. However, there’s a growing number of utilities using chemical solutions to manage branches, instead of pruning and trimming trees. Pedernales Electric Cooperative power lines run right over Tony Cassandra’s fence line, so he said he wasn’t surprised a crew came by to assess the surrounding trees. Cassandra told KXAN the crew left a door hanger explaining they would be applying a Tree Growth Regulator, or TGR, called Cambistat to the trees near the lines, in order to “reduce growth” and “increase health.” However, he became concerned when he read that the growth of surrounding grass, shrubs, flowers, and other vegetation could be slowed as well. “Even if I was OK with them stunting the growth of that one tree, am I OK with them stunting the growth of everything around it?” he said. “I don’t think so.” A spokesperson for Pedernales Electric Cooperative said the product increases safety for its crews, promotes tree health, saves money for their cooperative members and strengthens reliability against outages. “These products are regulated by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and always applied by a TDA-trained and licensed contractor,” he said…
A local videographer and music producer has been identified as the man killed by a falling tree branch on Sunday. According to the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office, Monias D. Hannah, 44, died in his driveway after the limb struck him. The ME’s report states Hannah hired a tree removal company to take down trees at a home he owned near North 67th Street and Dean Road in Brown Deer. As the crew began to work, the report states Hannah went outside and started filming. That’s when one of the workers cut a branch and it fell, hitting Hannah in the head. The crew later told investigators the branch, which was about 10 to 12 inches in diameter at its thickest, fell about 20 feet. One of the workers told investigators he was cutting the branch when Hannah was standing against the garage filming. Hannah then walked onto the driveway and the worker says he didn’t have enough time to yell out a warning before the branch struck and killed Hannah. Brown Deer Police said that they don’t expect any OSHA violations will be brought up with the tree removal service. However, they said, they are still investigating…
Working with the help of a federal grant from the USDA Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry has been gathering seeds from Oregon ash trees from throughout the state. The goal is to preserve its gene pool before a destructive pest arrives which may wipe out the tree. “This is a first-of-its-kind effort in the long saga of invasive pests and diseases attacking North American trees,” said ODF’s Invasive Species Specialist Wyatt Williams. “By the time scientists are funded and able to start looking for resistance, a large part of the gene pool of the species being attacked has already been lost.” Williams said Oregon is fortunate to be able to gather seeds representing the whole range of Oregon ash genes ahead of the arrival of emerald ash borer, which officials say will devastate ash trees here as it has done across the country. That insect, originally from Asia, was found in Michigan in 2002. It has since spread to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Everywhere it invades, the insect kills almost all ash trees. Females lay their eggs on ash trees. The larvae then eat tunnels under the bark through the cambium layer. The tunnels make it impossible for the tree to move water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves and back, eventually killing it…
Winter is always a challenging time for landscape trees in Michigan. One of the most significant and lasting impacts of winter on trees is ice and snow damage. Events such as this week’s ice storm in northern lower Michigan coated trees with up to half an inch of ice. This amount of ice can weigh down tree branches and cause significant breakage. Often the weight of ice results in high crown breakage, though trees can also split or lose major limbs. Once the weather warms up, homeowners can begin to venture outside and assess the damage from the storm. Michigan State University Extension notes that proper pruning and care of damaged trees is important for safety and for long-term health of the trees. If damaged trees are not properly pruned, several problems may ensue. Trees may experience severe dieback, resulting in dead limbs that could fall later. Some trees may also produce prolific sprouts or suckers along limbs that have been damaged. These newly formed limbs are often weak and poorly attached to the tree and may be prone to failure during future storms. Broken limbs that are hung up in trees are a hazard since they may fall later. Lastly, proper pruning and tree care can help to reduce the likelihood that broken limbs will become infected with disease pathogens that can further damage or kill the tree…
As the effects of climate change become more evident in Philadelphia, the city has seen an increase in the number of storms affecting the region. With spring right around the corner, here is what to do if you need help with fallen trees or a neighbor’s overhanging branches. If someone is hurt, or if a tree fell on top of a house, car, or other property, or if it’s blocking a road — call 911. Philadelphia Parks and Recreation will send a crew of arborists as soon as one is available. The crew will remove all or part of the tree if it poses an immediate risk to public safety, though it may leave tree trunks, stumps, and branches to be removed later. The city’s tree crews are on call around the clock for tree emergencies, so the wait shouldn’t be too long, but if a lot of trees are down, the crews may be handling a large number of requests. If a tree falls and it’s not an emergency, contact Philly311. This is the city’s line for non-emergency services, so this covers trees that have not fallen onto a person, house, or car, and aren’t blocking a path or touching electrical wires. They will figure out what city department can help you, and give you a case reference number. Although there are six ways to report a problem, you can only find out what’s happening with your case by calling 311, visiting the Philly311 website, or using the mobile app…
The city of Sarasota is considering changing its tree ordinance to give homeowners more flexibility when it comes to planting or removing trees in their yards. The city’s Tree Advisory Committee has developed a list of recommendations for how to improve Sarasota’s tree ordinance. For these recommendations to be adopted, the City Commission will have to amend the ordinance. “The TAC recommendations provide a great deal more flexibility,” said Assistant City Attorney Joe Mladinich at Tuesday’s commission meeting, where the board discussed the tree ordinance. When residents remove a tree from their yard, they generally need to plant one or more new trees to replace the one cut down, or pay the city a fee. The ordinance requires trees with a diameter of over 30 inches to be replaced with three trees that are at least 7 inches in diameter. When a 16- to 30-inch tree is cut down, it must be replaced with two trees that are least 5 inches in diameter. And when a 4- to 15-inch tree is removed, it must be replaced with a tree that’s at least 3 inches in diameter…
The City of San Antonio has decided to postpone the vote to remove several trees at Brackenridge Park. The decision follows public backlash and concerns from the Historic and Design Review Commission (HDRC) during a highly-contested, long-winded hearing on February 16. During the meeting, the city’s parks and recreation and public works departments sought approval to remove three heritage live oaks, two heritage pecans, one heritage Bald Cypress, and one heritage Crepe Myrtle located along the river banks in the Lambert Beach area in the local park. The seven trees presented were a part of the city’s master plan to remove 105 trees, with 10 being heritage trees. The city said it needs to cut down several trees to repair and restore some of the historical features at Brackenridge Park. Places needing repair include the Lambert Beach River Walls, the Brackenridge Pumphouse that dates to the 1870s, and the upper labor diversion dam and upper labor acequia that date back to the 1700s. However, HDRC didn’t deny or approve the request and motioned to call for a special meeting to give the city more time to present them with additional information regarding the project. Several commissioners shared their concerns on how they couldn’t approve the seven trees without seeing the entire details of the whole master plan for Brackenridge Park. Over 25 residents spoke at the meeting and voiced their disapproval of the trees removal and asked for more public input…
Q: Our neighbor’s tree hangs into our yard, and drops leaves and berries. Our dog eats the berries, which make him sick. I have told the neighbor this is not acceptable, to cut the tree back or take it out, but so far he is ignoring me. Can I engage in self-help and take down the tree? M.P., Gardena
A: You have given your neighbor notice of the problem, hopefully in writing. At this point, it may be advisable to have counsel involved, to write a letter and set a deadline by which the tree has to be taken out or, at minimum, cut back so it is not encroaching onto your property. One concern is trimming the tree may not fully protect your dog if the wind and/or other factors bring the tree’s berries into your yard. A prudent step would be to take those berries to a veterinarian and/or arborist to determine if, in fact, they are toxic to dogs. Self-help, however, could be quite risky. California law does not allow you to harm the tree (you may owe money if you do), as opposed to taking reasonable measures that are not injurious to it. It can be a crime to chop down a tree. Also, if you go onto your neighbor’s property to cut down or even just cut back the tree, you may well be engaged in trespassing. Bottom line, proceed in a common sense manner; make your record and if need be, file a court action to enforce your rights. Note that in your area, there might be an affordable group that mediates these kinds of circumstances — look online to see if such a neighborhood mediation facility is available to you…
The Nature Conservancy found that native trees are better for climate change than introduced and invasive trees. The study took place in the Palmyra Atoll about 1,000 miles south of the Hawaiian islands. The team found native trees, such as pisonia grandis and heliotropium foertherianum, are better at capturing carbon than the invasive coconut palms that dominate 40% of the atoll. Researchers think native trees have a more extensive root system. Therefore they can capture and put more carbon dioxide into the soil. Alex Weggman, a senior scientist with The Nature Conservancy, told HPR, “This absolutely could work in Hawaiʻi.” “I don’t think that coconut palms are invasive in Hawaiʻi the way that they were at Palmyra. However, I’m sure there are scenarios where, in Hawaiʻi, native trees or native forest systems will do a better job of capturing and sequestering carbon than the introduced plants that have replaced them,” said Weggman…
A man was chopping down a tree when it came down and fatally struck his head, police in New Jersey said. He was the homeowner of the Hillsborough property where the tree was cut, TAPintoHillsborough and other outlets reported. The 68-year-old was helping cut down the tree when it started to fall and, as he tried dodging it, the tree hit him, “causing a traumatic head injury” on Feb. 20, Hillsborough Township police said in a news release. Authorities were called, and they found the injured homeowner in his driveway before attempting “life saving measures,” according to the release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The department is investigating the incident. Hillsborough Township is located about 25 miles north of Trenton. The same day as the New Jersey man’s death, another man died in a similar incident several states west in Wisconsin, according to WISN-TV…
Charlottesville’s tree canopy is dwindling, according to a report from the city’s Tree Commission, with accelerating tree loss is higher in lower-income neighborhoods resulting in heat islands for some of the city’s most marginalized residents. The Tree Commission presented its annual State of the Forest report to City Council on Tuesday. According to the commission’s report, the city saw a tree canopy loss of 660 acres, or 10% of the total canopy, between 2004 and 2018 and projects a total loss of at least 990 acres between 2004 and 2022, about 15% of the city’s total tree cover. “This is becoming a citywide problem. We’re losing tree canopy at a rapidly accelerating rate. We’ve seen this before,” said Brian Menard of the Tree Commission. “The declining canopy has a lot of effects. It has effects on our livability in the city. It has effects on energy costs, but it especially has effects on our health. So this continues to be a concern. I believe it should be of concern for all of us.” All but two neighborhoods, Starr Hill and the University of Virginia, have experienced tree canopy loss. However, Starr Hill already had the city’s lowest tree canopy, at 14% while the 10th and Page neighborhood has the second lowest tree canopy, at 18%…
Scientists expect climate change will cause more droughts and wildfires. But there is a tree native to South Carolina that can withstand the climate pressures. However, it’s being threatened by development. The Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve is a 10,000-acre sanctuary with biodiversity that rivals a rainforest with rows of Longleaf pine trees, a native tree to South Carolina that can handle the forecasted increase in wildfires. “It’s more resilient to drought, it’s more resilient to fire, it’s more resilient to climate change,” Trapper Fowler, with the Coastal Conservation League said. Longleaf pines not only survive fires, but they can also slow the spread. The problem is the longleaf pine’s population dwindled due to logging. As more areas develop, there are fewer places to grow new trees because they need prescribed burns. “This place is under threat because of some proposed development around this preserve and one of them is a hospital,” Fowler said. Fowler said a hospital is one of the most spoke sensitive areas when it comes to prescribed burns…
The fruits and vegetables grown in the Central Valley account for a large share of what’s consumed across the U.S., but it’s our local citrus fields that depends on the community’s help to keep the crops growing. If not properly sprayed with pesticides something as simple as an orange tree can be harmful, not only to our residential areas but also our prized agricultural crops. “We’re trying to prevent it from coming over here due to Bakersfield being very big in agriculture and citrus. We don’t want that disease to come here,” said Blanca Lara, Program Coordinator for Kern County Citrus Pest Control. Huanglongbing, also known as HLB, a tree-killing bacteria that can be carried by a pest called Asian Citrus Psyllids and can spread rapidly within citrus trees. Blanca Lara says it’s the most devastating disease of citrus in the world. “In our fields, we’re not finding this bug but in our residential areas, we do find the bug due to them not spraying like the orchards.” While they haven’t detected HLB in Kern County, the Asian Citrus Psyllids have been detected…
Phys.org, February 21, 2022: Birch trees remove microplastics from the soil
With the help of trees, microplastic-polluted soils could be remediated. For the first time, researchers at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have shown that birch trees absorb microplastics through their roots during the growth phase. Good news, because soils are many times more polluted with microplastics than oceans are. So far, little is known about how microplastics interact with higher-order terrestrial plants. Recent studies have shown that microplastics are taken up in the roots of agricultural plants such as wheat. As part of a cutting edge interdisciplinary project by Berlin-based art studio, Studio Austen, the research team from the IGB and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) has now shown for the first time that longer-lived woody plants absorb and store microplastics in their tissue. Birch trees (Betula pendula Roth.) already been used to remediate contaminated land because they sequester and store industrial pollutants and heavy metals in their tissues, which subsequently allows the colonization of microbial communities that break down polyaromatic hydrocarbons. This tree species’ roots grow close to the soil surface, where microplastic pollution has been shown to be highest, making them a good choice for the study…
Detroit, Michigan, Metro Times, February 18, 2022: DNR kills some beavers on Detroit’s Belle Isle
Ron Olson, DNR’s chief of parks and recreation, confirms that the department killed four beavers on Belle Isle and the nearby Milliken State Park. Olson tells Metro Times the DNR isn’t trying to exterminate the aquatic mammals from the parks, but only trying to keep their population in check. Each pair of beavers has around four young, and around this time of year, they start moving out of their dens and establishing their own territories. “We’re not trying to eradicate beavers on Belle Isle,” Olson says. “Beavers move around the Detroit River quite prolifically, and we believe there are probably as many as eight beavers on Belle Isle, which is a lot.” The beavers have been causing a nuisance for the DNR since 2017, when they started felling willow trees along the park’s scenic Lake Okonka. At the time, DNR started installing wire fences around the existing willow trees, and discussed possibly relocating the animals. But Olson says the beaver population on Belle Isle is starting to cause other problems. Aside from eating the willow trees, the beavers are causing some flooding in the park’s wooded areas. At Milliken State Park, a wetland there is used as a naturalized stormwater management facility. In recent years, the Detroit area has seen an influx of flooding due to storms with increasing severity, which officials have said are likely caused by warming temperatures brought by human-led climate change. “We can’t have a beaver dam up that waterway,” Olson says. Olson notes DNR also removed some beavers on Belle Isle a few years ago…
Chicago, Illinois, Tribune, February 20, 2022: Before spring blooms, inspect trees for damage
It’s hard to believe on a gray winter day when trees are bare, but in just six or eight weeks the first of them will begin to open their leaves. Before spring arrives, take the time to examine your trees’ bark and branches for signs of damage, says Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “Problems are easier to spot right now than they will be when the tree is full of leaves,” she said. If you see an issue on a small tree, you may be able to deal with it yourself, often by pruning. “As long as you can do the work with your feet on the ground, you can probably handle it,” Yiesla said. For larger trees, call in a professional arborist who has been trained to diagnose problems and propose solutions. “If a problem calls for pruning a larger tree, leave that to the professionals,” Yiesla said. “It can be extremely dangerous.” Working above the ground on tree branches that may weigh hundreds of pounds requires special safety training and equipment. For advice on choosing an arborist, see mortonarb.org/choose-arborist. Here are some issues to look for when you examine your trees: Cracks. A major crack in a tree’s bark, whether on the trunk or branches, can weaken the wood, permit rot or allow diseases and pests to enter. On small trees with thin bark, cracks that run lengthwise up the trunk may be caused by quick fluctuations in temperature, such as a bitterly cold night followed by a sunny, warm day…
Greenbiz.com, February 18, 2022: Seizing the value of fallen trees
Imagine two trucks passing on a city street. One is a delivery truck carrying new wood flooring and furniture to stores and homes in the city. The other is carrying a fallen city tree damaged by a recent storm, taking it out of town to be mulched, burned or sent to a landfill. This scenario plays out every day in urban communities around the world and represents a huge, missed opportunity for cities, consumers and the climate. Trees offer various benefits for cities, yet 36 million trees come down in cities across the United States each year due to disease, development or old age. Much of this wood ends up burned, chipped into mulch or tossed into landfills, despite its potential to become a valuable product. The “reforestation hubs” model allows cities to create new value from fallen urban trees. Rather than continuing business-as-usual urban wood waste, cities can help recover and “upcycle” that waste into higher-value products such furniture, flooring and construction material. The revenue that is generated from the sale of those items and the reduced cost of wood waste disposal can then funnel back into urban forestry projects, such as planting new trees or maintaining existing trees…
Memphis, Tennessee, WREG-TV, February 18, 2022: Several tree trimming crews robbed since ice storm
Memphis police are looking for two thieves who robbed a tree trimming crew at gunpoint. It’s one of at least three incidents where tree trimmers were robbed since the ice storm. Police are looking for two thieves who robbed a tree trimming crew at gunpoint in East Memphis. Investigators say they stole $2,000 worth of equipment in a matter of seconds. The robbery happened Monday while that tree trimming crew was doing work on South Angela Road. Investigators said two men in a white Infiniti drove up and told the workers to run away. At that point, the men stole two chainsaws worth $1,000 each, then sped away. One business owner said one of his crews was also robbed at gunpoint in East Memphis on Monday and he believes the same men may be responsible. He said his workers were also hit by thieves in a white Infiniti. “I don’t believe they’re taking the equipment to the pawn shops because there’s a system there to put a stop to it,” he said. “They find them a buyer somewhere and steal a $1,000 chainsaw and take it somewhere, maybe out of state, and sell it for $500…”
London, UK, Daily Mail, February 18, 2022: Who is the sycamore saboteur? Mystery vandal cuts down two 20ft trees lining park… providing £1m luxury homeowners better views of Dorset harbour
A mystery chainsaw vandal has illegally chopped down two 20ft sycamores that were blocking the scenic views of Poole Harbour from a row of four £1m luxury homes in Dorset. Shocked locals discovered the ‘disgusting and horrendous’ attack on Wednesday morning at the upmarket Whitecliff Park.It is now the second time in less than six months that trees bordering the same green space have been targeted by an unknown vandal. Two oak trees on the northern edge of the park in September had poison poured inside their trunks in a bid to kill them. It is thought the trees had been blocking the sea views of the perpetrator – who was never caught. The latest vandalism on the eastern side of the park shows how the houses now have better sight of the sea and surrounding greenery. The owners of two of the £1million homes denied any knowledge of the vandalism. John Challinor, chairman of the Parkstone Bay Residents Association, said: ‘I just think it is horrendous and disgusting’It could have been done for a number of reasons but there are some properties that do seem to directly benefit from the trees no . longer being there. It isn’t subtle. They are cuts rather than breaks so it isn’t storm damage…
Monday is Valentine’s Day, and in days gone by, before there were Hallmark Greeting cards, candy, or long-stemmed red roses imported from South America, country folk would frequently avow their love by carving their initials and a heart in the smooth, gray bark of a beech tree (Fagus grandifolia). In today’s world, few dashing, young swains have ever seen a beech tree, nor would they be able to identify this stately denizen of our woodlands. However, a declaration of love emblazoned on a towering beech tree in a forest is indeed romantic. Ah, young swains and love may come and go, but if the woodsman spares a beech tree, it can grow 50 to 70 feet tall and live for centuries. A mature beech tree with its spreading canopy is truly beautiful. Beech trees are easily identified, even in the wintertime, by their smooth, gray bark and bronze leaves that tenaciously hang on and persist when all the other trees of the woods are stark and bare. In the morning light, the pale bark of this tree is luminous, and in the woods on a winter’s day, the gossamer-like leaves dance and rattle in the breeze. In the spring, beech trees produce delicate, ephemeral flowers, which are seldom seen, and after flowering, the beech trees produce prickly burrs. The leaves are uniformly green and saw-toothed. In the fall, the burrs mature into beechnuts, which are edible for humans, and are an important source of food for wildlife…
A Holbrook tree trimming company and its owner agreed to pay more than $193,000 to the U.S. Department of Labor after it reportedly did not pay overtime to employees. The money will also settle claims that the owner threatened a teenage employee for talking to investigators. Department of Labor lawyers filed two lawsuits against PS Tree Service and Ronan De Souza. The first, filed in 2021, was over threats De Souza allegedly made to a 17-year-old employee and his aunt for talking to federal investigators. The Department of Labor obtained a restraining order prohibiting De Souza from intimidating or threatening his former employee. The second lawsuit, filed at the end of January, was over claims of unpaid overtime. A federal magistrate judge signed off on a settlement agreement involving the Department of Labor, PS Tree Service and De Souza, who agreed to pay his employees double the overtime owed to them, a total of $164,245, and an additional $3,907 fine…
The National Park Service has started the process to remove an 80-foot elm tree from Lafayette Park that was estimated to be at least 140 years old. The tree was the oldest and largest tree at Lafayette Park. According to National Park Service Spokesperson Chelsea Sullivan, the tree was removed because of a high risk of root decay. A Park Service horticulturist and other experts inspected the tree both inside and out and recommended removing it from the park. The process of removing the tree started at 9 a.m. Wednesday and will take three to five days to complete. Sullivan said portions of the tree will be preserved by the park…
A Fresno County Superior Court judge has denied a request from construction and real estate groups to remove the western Joshua tree from candidate status under the California Endangered Species Act. Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan issued an order Wednesday denying the petition for writ of mandate from a variety of trade groups and the City of Hesperia. The trade groups include the High Desert Association of Realtors, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, the California Construction and Industrial Materials Association, and the California Business Properties Association. The California Fish and Game Commission voted to make western Joshua trees a candidate for listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act in September 2020, granting the species interim legal protections while the Department of Fish and Wildlife conducts a status review. That status review is expected in April, and the commission will later make a final decision about whether to permanently protect the trees…
More than 70 environmental groups today launched a campaign that calls on President Biden to protect mature trees and forests on federal lands from logging. While many policymakers look to shiny new technologies to solve the climate crisis, advocates say that safeguarding trees has long been a simple way to store carbon dioxide, preventing the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere and warming the planet. “We often call it the climate solution you don’t have to invent,” Ellen Montgomery, public lands campaign director for Environment America, told The Climate 202. “Trees are literally standing right there in front of us.” In addition to Environment America, the groups launching the campaign include the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Wild Heritage. Their specific demand is for the U.S. Forest Service to begin crafting a rule to protect all old-growth trees on federal lands from logging. In 2001, under President Bill Clinton, the Forest Service enacted a “roadless rule,” which prohibited road construction and timber harvesting on nearly 50 million acres in national forests. However, most trees on federal lands are located elsewhere, according to the groups. “Right now, there isn’t anything that protects older parts of our nation’s forests,” Kirin Kennedy, director of people and nature policy at the Sierra Club, told The Climate 202. “So we’re looking to put those protections in place…”
As The Bee recently reported, a new study, by Malcolm North and others (2022), promotes the idea of killing and removing 80% of the trees in the forests of the Sierra Nevada through commercial logging, ostensibly as a wildfire management strategy. The North study was authored by scientists funded by the U.S. Forest Service, an agency that financially benefits from commercial logging on our public lands, and the study neglected to mention some essential information and evidence. The North study reported that “current” tree densities are 83 to 171 trees per acre, and claimed that only 30 trees per acre existed a century ago. But the study used 2011 to represent the “current” condition of Sierra Nevada forests in the two areas that were analyzed, and failed to mention that nearly all of the forests in the two study areas have burned in wildfires since 2011, including the Rim fire of 2013 on the Stanislaus National Forest, and the Cedar fire of 2016 and French fire of 2021 on Sequoia National Forest. Why didn’t the North article mention that their two study areas have almost entirely burned since 2011? The North study also neglected to mention that more detailed investigations of the same historical forest surveys used by the North study have found that the Forest Service scientists omitted most of the historical tree density data. When the omitted tree data were included, it turns out that historical forests had about 200 trees per acre, on average, with some areas much denser, and some less dense. This is undisputed by the Forest Service in the scientific literature. Why didn’t the North study mention this…
T
he Environmental Criteria Manual, a book of rules used to help implement the city’s Land Development Code, hasn’t had a significant update in the past decade. But best practices for urban forestry have changed since then, and the manual is overdue to reflect those changes. The Community Tree Preservation Division of the Development Services Department is working to modernize the manual and make it a more helpful tool for users to comply with the city’s code. The group is bringing forward its third iteration of improvements to the manual in the past two years. “We are really trying to make a big focus on plain language, content that is meaningful, that commissioners, the average Austinite, the end user – be it a landscape architect or a home builder – can comprehend … so that staff can do their job and ultimately trees can be better protected,” city arborist Keith Mars said. Department staffers are proposing three types of changes to the manual, which they outlined to the Environmental Commission in a recent briefing. Some of the changes are • Deleting outdated and inaccurate material; • Removing the “significant tree criteria” from the manual. While this section of the manual was intended to assess the wellness of each tree, the section confused people, as it is never a best practice to rank trees in terms of being “significant” or not. The group feels manual users are better off without this section…
Salem has issued a fine of more than $138,000 for the removal of 100-plus trees in south Salem. According to the city, 48 of those trees were Oregon white oaks, which are protected, The Statesman Journal reported. The fine was issued to the property owners, property manager and a local tree service connected to the vacant property. The owners also will be required to plant new trees that are equal in value to the trees removed. City ordinances require city approval before removing some trees on private property, depending on the number, size and type of tree. Officials told the Statesman Journal in December a permit application for the tree removal was neither submitted nor approved by Salem’s planning department. Following public concern over the tree removal and questions from the Statesman Journal, staff in December began investigating. Marion County property records list three individuals as owners. They appear to have owned the land for decades through a trust and are based out of Washington state. It wasn’t clear if they plan to pay the fine or appeal…
Canton, Michigan, Patch, February 14, 2022: Canton Defends Tree Ordinance, Despite Legal Setbacks
Canton officials said they are working to preserve trees and green space after a federal judge upheld the township’s tree ordinance as unconstitutional. The township demands a permit to remove any tree more than six inches in diameter at breast height. The tree must then be replaced with a new one, and at a greater rate for landmark trees. Tree removers are also supposed to pay the township tree fund, which was established for forest preservation and the planting and maintenance of trees, according to the township’s ordinance. “While we are disappointed in the court’s decision, we will be working to amend the ordinance to comply with the court’s ruling while still protecting the vibrancy of our community,” Canton Township Supervisor Anne Marie Graham-Hudak said. In one such move to comply with the new ruling, Canton officials said that residential property owners with more than two acres of land and commercial property owners wishing to remove trees still need to submit a tree survey. The township will then conduct an individualized assessment of the impacts to property caused by the removal of trees…
Missoula is the Garden City, but it’s also a city with an urban forest. Norway Maples line the streets of the University district, Honeylocusts can be spotted downtown, and there are plenty more species to be found. “We have four certified arborists in the field that do, that take care of, you know, all of our 30,000-plus boulevard trees,” Marie Boggess, Missoula Urban Forestry Program Specialist, told MTN News. Maple trees take up about 30% of the tree population in the urban forest, but they are not meant to be tapped for syrup. “We’ve actually never issued a violation for tree tapping. We’ve only ever issued warnings,” Boggess explained. Although the good stuff you put on pancakes does come from the sap of maple trees, it is unsafe and illegal to tap the city-managed trees…
The Sierra Nevada is beloved for its endless miles of dense pine forests. Now imagine that for every swath of 10 trees, only the two biggest trees are left standing. The rest are cut down, the result of some extreme logging. That is the point of a new study by a group of University of California researchers. Rather than manage the state’s forests to limit wildfires, they say the real issue is to make trees more capable of withstanding the host of challenges they face: drought, pests, climate change, and yes, wildfire. To accomplish that, the researchers contend a whole lot of chopping needs to be done. Cutting down 80 percent of the forest seems like a radical idea. But the scientists turn the proposition around and say that, in reality, the way things are now is what is out of whack. “The lower-to-mid-elevation Sierra used to burn every 10 to 20 years,” said Malcolm North, one of the six scientists who co-authored the study, which appears in the research publication, Forest Ecology and Management. More than 100 years ago, the Sierra had 30 trees per acre, he explained. That is based on data from a 1911 timber survey of what are today the Sequoia and Stanislaus national forests. That same acre today has more than 300 trees…
Q: A huge walnut tree is growing in a wild backyard across the high fence from my property. Its canopy reaches into our yard creating dense shade. I have had bad luck getting my newly planted plants (mostly natives) to thrive there. Do you think the walnut tree is responsible for this problem? If so, what would be a solution to remedy this problem? I do not know these neighbors, nor have any contact with them. It’s just that our backyards abut at the 8-foot fence dividing them. They face the next street a block away from our house and let their walnut, wild clematis, and ivy go wild at the back of their lot. What to do? Do you have ideas for plants which might survive there. I’ve planted shade loving plants, with little success. – Clackamas County
A: The walnut species has a chemical that slows down (retards) germination of seeds and causes growth problems in many other species of plants. The chemical is juglone. I cannot tell you if this is the problem with your own plants, or whether something else is going on, with the information you provided. What I can do is give you a list of plants that are tolerant of, and sensitive to the juglone (many of which are natives) so you can use plants with more probability of success…
When Mayor Eric Adams named a commissioner last week to oversee New York’s parks department, he spoke of how important the city’s green spaces were for recreation and contemplation, especially during the pandemic. But he also acknowledged having no particular agenda or master plan for the more than 30,000 acres of parkland under his control. The city’s five borough presidents are now joining forces to give him an idea: On Monday, they will ask Mr. Adams to plant a million new trees by 2030, a revival of an ambitious and successful “million trees” initiative that started under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and was completed under his successor, Bill de Blasio. The borough presidents will also ask Mr. Adams to honor his campaign pledge to devote 1 percent of the city’s budget to the parks department, which they describe as chronically underfunded…
Dutch News, February 14, 2022: Dutch are planting the wrong kind of tree, say ecologists
The Dutch tree planting strategy aimed at compensating for carbon emissions is threatening biodiversity, ecologists have warned. The government plan to have 10% more trees by 2030 consists of the large scale planting of the wrong type of tree, ecologist Bert Maes told NU.nl. Species which are not native to certain areas are forcing out wild trees and shrubs, which now only make up only 2% to 3% of Dutch forests, he said. Maes based his conclusion on 30 years of fieldwork across the country. ‘The Dutch show an extraordinary lack of attention for the quality of their woods,’ he said. ‘There is no training to to learn how our woods work, which trees belong there and why. The planting strategy shows a similar lack of awareness and needs to be reviewed.’ A lack of genetic variation caused by planting propagated species is also a threat to the sustainability of the woods. The ash, an important tree on which mosses, birds and insects depend, is often not wild but planted and therefore more prone to disease. Wild ashes are better able to develop natural immunity because it is more genetically diverse…
Allston-Brighton residents are furious that a landmark tree that they adored was chopped down without their knowledge. “The cutters came in and attacked the most significant tree on this whole site. This is a huge lost for our neighborhood,” Boston city councilor Liz Breadon said. They are taking about a 200-year-old Beech Tree that stood tall and proud on Washington Street in Brighton. All that is left now is a giant stump. “I have not slept in three days. If I were here Monday, I probably would’ve been arrested,” Steve Achcraft said. Early Monday morning, the tree was chopped down to make way for new housing. Neighbor Annette Kaplan snapped photos as the tree came down. “By the time I came out, they had already taken out a huge section of the tree,” Kaplan said. Davos Construction, who owns the land and bought the private property off the Archdiocese of Boston, also cut down several other trees to make way for more housing…
Los Angeles, California Daily News, February 13, 2022: How to protect your trees from gusty winds
Q: The trees in Claremont were ravaged by the wind storm in January, which left large oaks and pines blown down. If trees did survive, many were stripped of leaves, especially on the north side where the winds came from. Citrus, which are not deciduous and therefore were in leaf, were buffeted; my grapefruit, lime and avocados now have many stems without leaves. How can we help these trees recover? What should we be doing for the rest of the garden after the winds? Should we do anything in anticipation of future windstorms?
A: The powerful windstorms that we experience in Southern California are rough on our trees. Hot, dry air will dry out everything it touches, and the occasional 70 mph gusts can topple even well-established trees. To protect young trees, it’s important to establish a strong root system. Water deeply and slowly, starting about two feet from the trunk. As the tree grows, move the irrigation further from the tree to encourage the roots to spread outward. For mature trees, place a soaker hose along the dripline (under the edge of the tree’s canopy). Avoid planting boxed trees because the roots will invariably be stunted. When a tree is grown in a container, the roots will grow outward until they reach the inside wall of the pot or box. Once this happens, they will begin to grow in a circular path and eventually take the shape of the container. Planting a tree from a 5-gallon pot is not as satisfying at first, but that tree is more likely to survive a windstorm…
State forestry officials and Clemson University are giving Grand Strand residents a chance to swap out their invasive Bradford pear trees for a more eco-friendly species. On March 5, property owners can turn in up to five Bradfords in exchange for young, healthy replacements at no cost as part of S.C.’s Bradford pear bounty. The program runs from 8 a.m. to noon at 200 Laurel St. in Conway. Known for their showy white blossoms aromatic only to fans of rotting fish — the smell most associated with them — Bradfords are unwelcomed for another reason. Their namesake, marble-sized fruits seed in dense thickets that outcompete native vegetation for sunlight and soil, hinder wildlife movement and create wildfire hazards due to their thorns. The plants pose such a threat that sale of Bradford pear trees will become illegal on Oct. 1, 2024, making South Carolina only the second state nationwide to bar them. Ohio has outlawed them starting in 2023…
Jefferson City, Missouri, News Tribune, February 11, 2022: Pear tree buyback planned again
Once again a group advocating for making early detection and control of invasive plants a statewide priority is planning to do a Callery pear tree buyback program. The Missouri Invasive Plant Council, which is a multi-agency, multi-industry networking and advocacy group, has not set a date yet for when the buyback will occur. But is planning to offer the program again. Forestry Manager Mark Halpin, of Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, one of the agencies involved with the council, said this species has been targeted because it has become a serious invasive pest in the state. Callery pear varieties (such as ‘Bradford’ and ‘Cleveland’ pears) are self-sterile. “That means they can’t fertilize their own flowers and thus can’t produce seed, but different varieties can fertilize each other and set seed,” Halpin said. “Their offspring reverts back to the wild, uncultivated pear form, which produces an abundance of viable seed and huge, sturdy thorns…”
Boston, Massachusetts, WHDH-TV, February 10, 2022: How to identify ‘zombie trees’
Through snow and summer storms, we’ve all seen the damage downed trees can cause. Experts say many of the trees that fall during storms are zombie trees — trees that are weak or nearly dead. “A zombie tree is a tree that has experienced some kind of disturbance that has caused the tree to become unstable or unsafe but still has the appearance of being a totally healthy tree,” arborist Steven Kendall explained. Part of Kendall’s job is to help homeowners find the troubling trees lurking in their yards. 7NEWS got the chance to see him in action as he patrolled Sally Meding’s Natick home. Meding said she knows how frightening falling trees can be. Her son needed stitches when a tree fell on him while he was riding his bike in Wellesley. “That was really, really scary for me,” she said. “Really scary.” Kendall said they are simple signs that homeowners can use to identify tree trouble themselves. He instructs them to look closely at the ground around the tree for mounds or cracks in the dirt. “It could be the root zone has been impacted either by a shifting due to high winds or some or some other kind of loading,” he explained…
Marketplace, February 10, 2022: Can credit card companies plant the trees they say they will?
Q: Listener Rainald Lohner from McLean, Virginia, asks: A lot of credit cards advertise that “for every __ dollars spent we will plant a tree.” How can these claims be verified? A simple hand calculation would indicate that, given the amount of purchases via credit cards, we should be planting billions of trees a year — which is not happening. What gives?
A: With a swipe of a card, you can help combat climate change. That’s according to a host of credit card lines now touting tree-planting efforts. One Mastercard program, pledging to plant one tree for every $2 donated, aims to restore 100 million trees by 2025. Mastercard’s wooden TreeCard charges merchants a small fee. “We take these fees and use them to plant trees on your behalf,” it says. Customers of the European bank Bunq are told that a tree will be planted for every €100 spent using its Easy Green plan, “launched to help make the world a greener place without any effort.” Meanwhile, a cashback bonus option offered by Discover gives the customers the option to donate $1, which will plant one tree. And the fintech company Aspiration, which says it is “100% committed to clean money,” launched debit and credit cards that give consumers the option to round up their purchase to the nearest whole dollar, the proceeds going to tree planting. =These goals aren’t limited to credit card companies — corporations like Amazon and Unilever have also partnered with initiatives to plant trees. Rainald Lohner is on to something: As we’ve previously reported, some environmental groups say there isn’t enough land and forest for all corporations to hit their ambitious tree-planting goals. One expert put it bluntly: “We’d need another planet…”
As MLGW works to restore power, there are still some concerns about downed trees. Forty-nine service requests were still open across the city Wednesday night. While the city says most of those trees in the road are cleared out, some of the current power outages are due to downed trees on power lines. The ice storm hit just months after MLGW announced an infrastructure improvement plan meant to cut down on trees damaging power lines. The goal was to trim branches away from 1,400 miles of line, but leadership said they only got less than half done. “We did have some challenges getting our tree trimming cycles done last year. 621 miles is what I believe we got, so that’s quite a bit short of the 1,400 miles we hoped to get done,” said MLGW Senior Vice President Alonzo Weaver in Wednesday’s press conference. MLGW President and CEO JT Young outlined COVID and retaining workers as some of the issues they’ve had with contractors over the last two years. Another possibility is these contractor crews were getting robbed…
Tucson, Arizona, KVOA-TV, February 9, 2022: UArizona researchers predict a decline in tree growth
Not only are forests beneficial as a way to escape the heat, but they are also capable of mitigating climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But researchers at the University of Arizona predict a staggering 56 to 91 percent decline in individual tree growth in the future. With temperatures continuing to get hotter, researchers have come to the realization that these temperatures cause tree growth to slow down, which could also mean smaller trees in the future and less carbon. “If you look at a stump, you can see the brass rings on the tree,” said Dr. Kelly Heilman, a postdoctoral research associate in the UArizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. “We’re using that data in a statistical model to estimate the effect of future climate on how well those forests will be growing in the future…”
Longtime neighbors Christina Bartnikowski and Jamie Gordon could hear the trees being cut down, one after another. “It was hard living here while the trees were hitting the ground,” Gordon said. “Listening to that was so depressing,” Bartnikowski said. Along with other residents of Cherry Hill’s Kressonshire neighborhood, the two women are still stunned that the heart of a densely wooded 14-acre tract along Kresson Road just east of I-295 has been cut down and carted away, creating a gap in what had long been a cherished landscape, even in winter. “Now it looks like a moonscape,” said Randy Acorcey, who lives nearby and documented the tree-cutting with photographs over six months in 2021. Locals are particularly perplexed that so many large, seemingly healthy trees were taken down despite the Cherry Hill planning board’s call — after considerable pressure from the community — for a more judicious culling of the woods as a condition for approving construction of 16 single-family houses on the site…
Most all landscapes in the Tri-State have trees. We value the shade and beauty they provide as well as the wildlife they attract. After an ice storm and a high-wind event, we often see limb breakage or other damage to these beloved trees. Sometimes, the damage is severe and requires tree removal, but more often than not, we see limb damage. Proper care after a damaging weather event is important to the health of the tree. Damage to trees from storms is similar to a cut or wound on a person. Our skin is our best protection from infections and when it is compromised, our risk of infection goes up. Bark is the skin of the tree and when it is damaged, the tree is much more susceptible to insect damage or fungal and bacterial infections. These infections will cause rot and decay. Wounded trees do not technically “heal” since they are not capable of repair or replacement of damaged tissues. Instead, trees close over their damaged tissues with a callus-like tissue. Trees also wall-off or compartmentalize injuries by producing chemical and physical barriers to pathogens. Healthy trees normally respond to injury more quickly than stressed trees…
Looking to craft the premier U.S. urban forestry model that will guide Cedar Rapids’ recovery from devastating tree loss, the city and nonprofit Trees Forever have unveiled their ambitious 10-year plan to replenish trees downed here by the 2020 derecho’s ferocious winds. The $37 million ReLeaf plan, which the Cedar Rapids City Council is slated to adopt Tuesday, envisions trees as a tool to remedy social inequities, advance climate adaptation goals, enhance city design and strengthen community bonds through immediate replanting efforts and long-term policy changes that would result in a tree canopy more vibrant than the pre-derecho days. It outlines the principles and rules governing reforestation in public parks and streets, includes guidance for landowners to replant their properties and addresses challenges officials must contend with to carry out the massive undertaking. Renowned city planner Jeff Speck and local landscape architecture firm Confluence worked with ReLeaf partners on the plan. Full of graphics, illustrations and text to lay out the replanting endeavor, the plan offers a ReLeaf Tree List of native species that thrive here as its core resource. The entire plan, tree recommendations, tips for how to help and interactive maps showing the placement and priority ranking of public trees will be available at CityofCR.com/ReLeaf….
Columbia, Missouri, KBIA Radio, February 8, 2022: Discover Nature: Maple Sugaring
As temperatures freeze and thaw in late winter, one of the sweetest harvests awaits in Missouri’s woods. This week on Discover Nature, tap a tree, and collect a treat. Freezing and thawing temperatures cause increased sap-flow in living trees. By drilling a small hole in the side of the tree, you can harvest its sap, and cook that down to make syrup. You can tap most any deciduous tree this time of year, but sap from sugar maples contains the highest sugar content. A tap, or “spile” works like a spigot for taking sap from the tree and directing it into a bucket – you can buy them, or make them yourself. With a bit that matches the size of your spile, drill a hole about 1.5 to 2 inches into the xylem, or water-carrying layer of wood on the tree. Hang your bucket on the end of your tap. When the bucket is full, bring home your harvest and heat the raw sap. As water evaporates, sugar remains, and at about 219-degrees Fahrenheit, you’ve made maple syrup…
Davis, California, Enterprise, February 8, 2022: Tuleyome Tales: A family pantry in the trees
I grew up believing that food is meant to be shared with family. To my great surprise, my family is not the only one who thinks so. Among oak woodlands and local parks is the charismatic acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus). A social, rowdy and extremely hard-working species of bird, it’s also known as the “clown bird” because of its striking facial color pattern, red crown, and yellowish forehead and throat. Its back is black and slightly bluish with pale white eyes. And like a true clown you can hear it clowning around, projecting big laughs and calls to its family. When they fly they seem to bounce, going up and down imaginary hills in the air until they reach their destination. It usually inhabits oak forests (Quercus spp.), mixed forests with pine (Pinus) and oak, in addition to spruce (Pseudotsuga) and redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests. The Acorn Woodpecker family is like a small colony, composed of a dozen or more birds. They may be monogamous, polyandrous or polygynous. When caring for young, their parenting style is cooperative — one for all and all for one! They take turns feeding and protecting the family’s young.In mid-fall, acorn-woodpecker families are in search of acorns. Acorns are the fruits of oak trees, with a hard shell that protects the seed and a cup-shaped dome on top. Like everything in nature, they are varied — some elongated, others round. Oak trees have irregular cycles. In some years they produce many acorns, where the floors of trails and parks are covered with these nuts. In a great year, an oak tree can produce up to 10,000 nuts! But curiously, in other years, there is no trace of any…
Metrolinx began clearing trees in Small Creek’s ravine on Monday to make room for a GO expansion. Metrolinx is preparing to expand their railway from three to four tracks along the Lakeshore East and Stouffville lines through East Toronto. Heavy equipment was also seen removing mature trees on Tuesday. A part of this expansion sees construction, like tracks and concrete retainer walls, through community ravines that residents are fighting to preserve, like Small’s Creek and Williamson Park ravines. Some local residents are hoping Metrolinx would reconsider its approach. According to its construction plans, Metrolinx will be chopping down around 260 trees in Small’s Creek. In a letter to community members, Phil Verster, Metrolinx president, stated they saved 60 trees by altering their construction strategies and their restoration plan will see 2,000 additional trees planted in the ravine. Mitch Robertson of Friends of Small’s Creek, a local community group in support of saving Small’s Creek, said Metrolinx doesn’t actually have a plan for environmental restoration. “Their restoration plan doesn’t exist. They have a construction plan. What we’ve been advocating for is having both plans made.” City Councillor Brad Bradford said that the community has been clear on wanting to be at the table with Metrolinx. “We moved a motion last week and council that made it very clear, a request that Metrolinx work together with the community with the city and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to develop a restoration plan for the entirety of Small’s Creek prior to any further work taking place,” said Bradford…
Detroit, Michigan, Model D, February 8, 2022: Why Detroit needs a plan for tree equity
Disease has wiped out many of the trees that once grew around Robert Turner’s house near 6 Mile and Schaefer highway. He says the trees first started coming down in the 1960s, many of them victims of Dutch elm disease. Then in 2002, the emerald ash borer, first discovered in Detroit, took out a few more. Those trees might’ve provided a bit of relief against the heat that baked Turner’s house this past August. Turner, 68, said he’s not sure if climate change caused August’s high temperatures, although he believes it is a problem. Either way, he’d like to see leaders do more to protect Detroiters from extreme heat. “Not everyone can afford even to buy fans,” he said. “So, you know, it gets kind of bad.” Trees play a crucial role in helping people stay cool in the hot summer months. They shade homes, streets, and other hard surfaces, radiate heat trapped during the day, and contribute to the urban “heat island effect.” These heat islands can become even more pronounced at night, preventing people from cooling down…
Anytime someone sees trees cut down, it automatically raises questions — if not concerns. There’s something about a graveyard of tree stumps and felled trees that just looks out of place. IndyStar has already reported that Indianapolis’ urban forests are dwindling. That’s especially true when the trees are removed from a park or forest that is open to the public. People immediately want to know what’s happened and who is responsible. That is exactly the case with a few dozen trees that have been cut down at the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, otherwise known as 100 Acres, located on the campus of the Newfields art museum. Multiple readers have reached out about this. They are not asking if trees have been cut down, that’s a quick yes or no answer. With stumps of trees visible across a swath of the park, it’s obvious that trees have been removed — between two to three dozen trees in total, according to an official with the Nature Park…
Calaveras Big Trees State Park, a 70-mile drive from San Joaquin County, encompasses 6,400 acres and preserves some of the largest and oldest trees in the world. But the recent wildfires in the state present a looming threat to Big Trees and the nonprofit organization that maintains the park is asking for help. “In this area, wildfire is not a question of if, but when,” said Dr. Vida Kenk, president of the Calaveras Big Trees Association. The CBTA is asking the State Parks Department to aggressively step-up fire management efforts. They are calling for the state to take immediate action to mobilize crews to clean up the forest, during the winter months, Marcie Powers, a CBTA board member said in an email. And to hire permanent fire management staff. The forest is in dire condition — choked with dry vegetation, dead standing trees and dense understory. If we don’t thin and clean up the park, now, we believe we will likely become the next Big Basin, she wrote…
Phys.org, February 7, 2022: Fungi: The missing link in tree planting schemes
To slow climate change and restore dwindling wildlife populations, the UK government aims to plant enough trees to expand the country’s woodland cover from 13% to 20% by 2050. Creating healthy woodlands on this scale is an enormous challenge, but forestry experts have developed guidance which, if followed, ought to give these new habitats the greatest chance of success. It is really important that the right trees are planted in the right places. Choosing trees that are well suited to the habitat means they will grow better, be less prone to disease, and provide plentiful food and habitats for other organisms, such as lichens and insects. It’s equally important to avoid planting trees in the wrong places. Preventing tree planting on grasslands and wetlands protects the unique species in them, and helps them hold onto the huge stores of carbon in their soils. Despite containing detailed plans for the creation of healthy woodlands for plants and animals, there is a glaring omission in much of the new tree planting policy. For example, in the UK government’s Tree Action Plan—arguably the most important document relating to the country’s new reforestation agenda—there is no mention of fungi at all…
Monroe, Michigan, The Monroe News, February 6, 2022: Monroe removing 101 trees; residents unhappy
An ongoing, large-scale tree removal project in the City of Monroe has drawn the ire of residents who feel the city is unnecessarily destroying the natural beauty of their neighborhoods. Work began in mid-January on the removal of 101 trees, including 86 silver maples, that the Forestry Division of the City of Monroe Public Services Department identified as being potentially hazardous due to factors such as trunk and/or branch damage, and peeling bark. Replacement trees of a variety of species are expected to be planted in the fall. Patrick Lewis, the city’s Director of Engineering and Public Services, said that this project is in response to the storm that occurred on August 11, 2021, which uprooted approximately 65 trees citywide and resulted in nearly 50 more sustaining fatal damage that required them to be removed due to safety reasons…
It’s time to get to the root of what to look for when buying trees and shrubs. Shoppers spend a lot of time searching for the right plant. They want to be sure the shrub or tree is the right variety for their yards or, if they are a bit more adventurous, if it will do the task they’ve set for it, no matter what the variety: Do they want it to block the view of the neighbor’s shed, for instance, provide food and habitat for insects and birds, or just look pretty? They’ll probably read the label to see how big it will get and whether it needs sun or shade. Then they will look at the plant carefully, to see if the leaves are healthy and the branches unbroken and growing in a satisfactory direction. Most buyers stop there. What they should do is check out the roots, Jeff O’Donal told an online gathering of horticulture-industry professionals co-sponsored by Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and the Maine Landscape and Nursery Association. Buyers should know how much of the plant’s original root system they are getting and how healthy those roots are…
Texans say they’re witnessing “exploding trees” as winter storm Landon continues to tear through the state. Residents told NBC affiliate KXAS-TV that they’ve been hearing popping and snapping noises outside. Cold weather can cause water in a tree’s sap to freeze and expand, weighing down a tree’s limb and forcing it to break off, creating an exploding noise in the process. “We listened to them all night,” Texas resident Lauren Reber told KXAS-TV. “Sounds like gunshots going off.” For days, Texans have been preparing for the onslaught of cold weather expected from Landon. Gov. Greg Abbott warned Texans earlier this week that the storm could cause power outages and other disruptions. On account of “widespread freezing rain, ice and snow,” Abbott issued a disaster declaration on Thursday…
Santa Fe, New Mexico, New Mexican, February 5, 2022: Rethinking your choice of trees
Tracy Neal is an arborist, landscaper and teacher who has lived in Santa Fe and worked with the trees here for 35 years. He has firsthand experience with how Santa Fe’s alkaline soils limit our choices for trees that will thrive here. And he has been studying the changes that are affecting those choices even further: hotter summers and winters, less precipitation, longer and more severe droughts, newer and sometimes deadly pests. “These changes require us to rethink our tree choices,” claimed Neal. “Some of the high-elevation trees we’ve relied on in the past, like aspen and blue spruce, will not work here in the future. Borers are now threatening other favorite trees, such as ash and honeylocust. While our winters are still too cold for most low-desert trees, some heat-tolerant trees once considered borderline hardy, such as desert willow, are now being planted with success.” Given all these unknowns, how do we as homeowners go about choosing trees? According to Neal, there are important criteria to consider when looking for new trees. The tree(s) should: be healthy at the time of purchase and be tolerant of alkaline soil; be hardy to at least Zone 6 (to minus 10 degrees); adapted to high heat and drought; and resistant to serious pests. It’s also important, he pointed out, to consider the spatial limitations of the site above and below ground. What size tree to purchase is also an important consideration…
Up a muddy road off Old Belfair Highway, a trail of deep-crusted footprints leads to a garage door-sized stump covered in fresh sawdust. A downed Douglas Fir tree stretches far into the brush, covered in mangled limbs and other trunks it struck on its earth-shaking descent. It was between 500 and 1,000 years old, arborists say. In the time since it fell Tuesday, a steady stream of local residents have come to visit, akin to a paying of respects for a grand tree regarded as a community landmark — a rare old-growth fir within the Puget Trough. “My mom always told me we lived next to a historical site,” said Jenny Loudin, who grew up down the road and visited it often. “It’s the oldest tree around.” Local resident Troy Ewald, too, remembers the tree since childhood, passing the property each day while riding the bus to school. “Everyone talks about this tree,” said Ewald, as he hauled firewood from the newly fallen fir Wednesday…
A well-supported ordinance passed in Titusville to protect the city’s tree canopies could see changes that could possibly ease certain requirements for developers. At the heart of the issue are tree surveys required for those developers, who must take stock of the native trees on their properties and clear any proposed cuts with city staff before projects can begin. Pressure from residents and local environmental groups resulted in two years of work to pass the ordinance last year, with the aim of protecting tree canopies in new housing developments. When the ordinance was originally passed in September, City Council heard public comment from community members on both sides of the issue—some who wanted to see stricter preservation of the city’s trees and developers who wanted as few regulations as possible…
Austin, Texas, KXAN-TV, February 3, 2022: Ice storm results in downed trees across Central Texas
One of the biggest problems Central Texans are facing during this storm is trees breaking under the pressure of all the ice. We spoke to several tree removal services, and many of them started getting calls early Thursday morning well through the evening because of downed trees. Experts with Good Morning Tree Service said broken branches are one of the most obvious signs of damage but said you should also look at your tree trunks for cracks or splits, which could indicate an even bigger problem. Just before 4 a.m. Thursday, Janna Dornak heard a bizarre noise in her backyard. “I did hear a sound, but I didn’t expect it to be like this,” Dornak said. She’s referring to a huge tree that toppled over, part of it landing in her neighbor’s lawn…
Several people on James Island in Charleston are expressing concerns over a request to remove several large trees from the island. Eric Schultz, a city planner with the city of Charleston, says he received more than two-dozen emails from people concerned about the request. The trees are designated as grand trees, which get certain protections from the city, WCSC-TV reported. A multi-building self-storage facility is being planned, which prompted the request to remove the trees. The trees are a part of the island’s infrastructure and should be protected, said James Island resident Franny Henty…
New Scientist, February 2, 2022: Can tree diversity help the climate?
… A bit of joy this week, thanks to research showing there are far more tree species on Earth than we thought. The new estimate says there are more than 73,000 species globally, with about 9200 of those yet to be discovered by scientists. As co-author Peter Reich at the University of Minnesota told me, on the one hand, this is a simple “celebration of life”. On the other, we can’t save what we don’t know about, he says. But with tree planting and halting deforestation both seen as crucial tools for putting the brakes on global warming, this new finding means it’s also worth asking what greater tree diversity means for tackling climate change. Will preserving more species help us lock up more carbon? First, it’s worth remembering that if drawing down carbon is your primary concern, the main thing is having more trees and ensuring that they last. One high-profile analysis found there is space left on the planet to accommodate enough trees to lock up more than 200 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, or about five years of humanity’s emissions (it’s worth noting that this research received a lot of criticism). But greater diversity could be part of the answer too, by making forests better at using resources and more resilient to threats. Differences between tree species cause them to utilise available resources more effectively, says Martin Sullivan at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Varied canopy structures mean some intercept light better, while differences in root architecture influence how they draw resources from the soil…
While the plants are treading winter, let’s catch up on some gardening news this week. Nature seems to be conspiring against that widely used landscape evergreen, the boxwood. Long plagued by several bugs and most recently by a deadly new boxwood blight disease, U.S. boxwoods now face the threat of another new bug that’s attacked boxwoods in Europe for years. The box tree moth is an East Asian native whose caterpillar stage zeroes in on boxwoods. The caterpillars first feed on boxwood leaves, and when they eat all of those, they chew the bark, which can lead to stem girdling and death. The bug made its way to the Toronto area of Canada in 2018, and last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that a nursery there shipped infested boxwoods to six U.S. states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina) and to a distribution center in Tennessee. USDA confirmed box tree moths in three states: Michigan, Connecticut, and South Carolina. Since then, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has alerted U.S. states to be on the lookout for this new pest and is working to contain and/or eradicate the early arrivals…
Norway, Maine, Advertiser-Democrat, February 3, 2022: Tree Talk: Browntail moth awareness month
The Browntail moth has been a problem along the Maine coast for a few years now, and it seems they are slowly moving inland. This is a pest that we may soon be dealing with, if not already, so I would like to share this article, that I received from the Maine Forest Service. To read it directly, and access its links, visit: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MEDACF/bulletins/3076330 February 2022 has been recognized as Browntail Moth Awareness Month in Maine to encourage people to take advantage of the dormant season of the insect and join together to reduce impacts from browntail moth (BTM). BTM populations in Maine have been in an outbreak phase since 2015 and the pest cannot be eradicated. Most areas of Maine, especially settled areas with significant host tree populations such as oak, apple, crabapple, pear, birch, cherry, or other hardwoods, are at risk of infestation by the caterpillars. While long-lasting tree defoliation and branch dieback are major concerns, BTM’s microscopic, toxic hairs can cause trouble breathing and skin irritation similar to poison ivy from a few hours to up to several weeks…
Richmond is looking to strengthen its tree bylaw to protect “significant trees” – those that are 36 inches or greater in diameter. These large trees contribute to neighbourhoods and provide “more to soil structure, sediment control and erosion prevention” and other benefits, according to a city staff report. Proposed changes to the city’s Tree Protection Bylaw include ensuring property owners plant replacement trees in the same spot of a tree that is removed without a permit. Any illegally damaged, cut or removed “significant trees” will have to be replaced at a ratio of 3:1 – the current ratio is 2:1 – with one tree being at least “significantly larger” with a minimum height of eight metres. The proposed stronger tree bylaw was “wonderful news” to Sharon MacGougan, president of the Garden City Conservation Society (GCCS). “Any efforts that the tree protection department at the City of Richmond is making, at the very least, ensures there is some mitigation of the ecological loss,” said MacGougan, adding it’s the “number one” priority right now for the society, which supports any efforts to conserve trees…
Phys.org, January 31, 2022: Ancient trees deemed vital to forest survival
New research suggests that ancient trees possess far more than an awe-inspiring presence and a suite of ecological services to forests—they also sustain the entire population of trees’ ability to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. In the February edition of Nature Plants, Chuck Cannon, Ph.D., director of The Morton Arboretum’s Center for Tree Science in Lisle, Ill., U.S., and collaborators at Tuscia University in Italy and the University of Barcelona in Spain, report that old and ancient trees (often more than 10 to 20 times older than the average individual in the forest) radically change the overall genetic diversity and composition fitness of their surrounding populations. The findings also indicate that these trees contribute evolutionary properties to forests that are vital to their long-term survival. “We examined the demographic patterns that emerge from old-growth forests over thousands of years, and a very small proportion of trees emerge as life-history ‘lottery winners’ that reach far higher ages that bridge environmental cycles that span centuries,” said Cannon. “In our models, these rare, ancient trees prove to be vital to a forest’s long-term adaptive capacity…”
The Atlantic, January 31, 2022: We Almost Forgot About the Moon Trees
The American moon missions, more than 50 years later, are each memorable in their own way. Apollo 11, of course, is known for being the very first time human beings set foot on the moon. Apollo 12, for being a little rowdier. Apollo 13, for nearly ending in disaster. Apollo 14—the third of six moon landings—is known, as I recently discovered, for its “moon trees.” Stuart Roosa, one of the Apollo 14 astronauts, took a small canvas bag of tree seeds with him on the journey. While his fellow astronauts walked on the lunar surface, Roosa and the seeds flew round and round the moon until the crew was ready to come back. A few years after the astronauts returned home, some of the seeds—sycamores, redwoods, pines, firs, and sweetgums—were planted across the United States, to see how they would grow, or simply to keep a piece of moon history close by. I learned about the existence of moon trees earlier this month while thinking about the anniversary of Apollo 14, which launched on this day in 1971. (My tired pandemic brain had thought this year was the mission’s 50th anniversary, but turns out we’re living in 2022!) I read online that one moon tree, a loblolly pine, had been planted by the White House, within walking distance of my apartment in Washington, D.C. What a great pandemic-appropriate outing for a space reporter, I thought. Then I noticed an asterisk next to the tree’s name, and scrolled down to discover: “An asterisk denotes a tree that is no longer alive…”
Atlanta, Georgia, WXIA-TV, January 31, 2022: Largest pecan tree in Georgia to be removed
One historic tree has reached the end of its life in Braselton and will be taken down as a safety precaution on Feb. 14, according to city leaders. The town of Braselton took to social media on Monday to announce that their beloved tree, once deemed the “largest pecan tree in the state” would be removed. Jennifer Scott, Braselton’s Town Manager informed 11Alive of the tree’s declining health in the past decade. Earlier this month the town determined that the tree was a safety hazard. “You know, every living thing finally comes to the end and unfortunately, the tree has come to the end of its life,” said Scott. According to the town manager, the tree’s location is what convinced city leaders to remove it. “Because it’s in a roundabout, it’s dangerous if it falls because it will actually land on a road and, you know, it would be awful if it landed on a car,” said Scott. The town of Braselton will be saving the wood from the tree and using it to create items that they can remember it by, according to Scott…
Christian Science Monitor, January 31, 2022: Why this Mexican town is choosing trees over avocados
Regular citizens have taken the fight against illegal logging into their own hands in the pine-covered mountains of western Mexico, where loggers clear entire hillsides for avocado plantations that drain local water supplies and draw drug cartels hungry for extortion money. In some places, like the Indigenous township of Cheran in Michoacan state, the fight against illegal logging and planting has been so successful it’s as if a line had been drawn across the mountains: avocados and cleared land on one side, pine forest on the other. But it has required a decade-long political revolt in which Cheran’s townspeople declared themselves autonomous and formed their own government. Other towns, bullied by growers and drug cartel gunmen, struggle on but are often cowed by violence. David Ramos Guerrero, a member of the self-governing farmers board, says farmers here have agreed on a total ban on commercial avocado orchards, which he contends only bring “violence, bloodshed…”
A new study involving more than 100 scientists from across the globe and the largest forest database yet assembled estimates that there are about 73,000 tree species on Earth, including about 9,200 species yet to be discovered. The global estimate is about 14% higher than the current number of known tree species. Most of the undiscovered species are likely to be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution, the study shows. That makes the undiscovered species especially vulnerable to human-caused disruptions such as deforestation and climate change, according to the study authors, who say the new findings will help prioritize forest conservation efforts. “These results highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes, particularly land use and climate, because the survival of rare taxa is disproportionately threatened by these pressures,” said University of Michigan forest ecologist Peter Reich, one of two senior authors of a paper scheduled for publication Jan. 31 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…
A Largo man upset by noise outside his residence shot at a tree trimmer in a cherry picker, police said. The incident occurred about 12:30 p.m. Sunday in the 200 block of 20th Street NW. Police said Warren Coburn, 67, was “angry over noise created by the tree trimmers and passing traffic,” an arrest report states. Coburn approached the landscaping company working next door “threatening to shoot and kill the crew,” reports state. Then about 30 minutes later, he fired at least two shots at a worker on a cherry picker, police said. No injuries were reported. Police arrested Coburn for first-degree attempted murder. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail, where he is being held without bond…
Enjoy, but from a distance. That’s the message from Dorris Ranch in Springfield, where 1,200 sapling hazelnut trees will be planted in February. It’s to make the working farm resistant to a fungus. George Dorris’s farm was Oregon’s first commercial filbert, or hazelnut, orchard. But the trees are infected with a blight that, if untreated, will kill them. Willamalane has a 20- to 25-year plan to replace most of the trees. Spokesman Kenny Weigandt said the park was closed in January when 19 acres of trees were removed. He told KLCC, “Once you start to see baby trees starting to pop up, we really are going to ask that people can respect the trees and be cautious of them. Once they’re in the ground, our orchardists and our staff have to really nurse those to make sure that they’re going to be fruitful trees.” He said the first wave of new trees, planted in 2016, now produces a bountiful crop, and changing the species of filberts also means they won’t need as much chemical treatment. At the request of its board in November, Weigandt said, Willamalane stopped using Class 1 and Class 2 pesticides in the park…
Macon, Georgia, WMGT-TV, January 31, 2022: Lane Southern Orchards needs “chill time” for peach trees
Lane Southern Orchards in Peach County says the cold weather during the winter helps their peach trees. Farmers call this period “chill time”. Peach trees need a certain amount of time in the cold so they bloom at the right time. “When you don’t get the chill hours the tree doesn’t know when it’s time to come out, it doesn’t come out uniformly, when I say come out I mean the blooms on the tree so it’s just important that the tree gets some for us to have a crop,” said farm manager Tyler Wainwright. Chill hours are measured when the temperature reaches anywhere below 45 degrees until February 15th…
More than 500 acres of California redwood forestland has been officially returned to a group of Native American tribes whose ancestors were expelled from it generations ago. The land, formerly known as Andersonia West, was purchased by San Francisco conservation group Save the Redwoods League and donated to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, the league announced Tuesday. The Sinkyone Council consists of 10 federally recognized Northern California tribal nations including the Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria, the Pinoleville Pomo Nation, and the Round Valley Indian Tribes. People Indigenous to the land, located in Northern California’s Mendocino County, were “forcibly removed” by European American colonists, according to the league. But today, the Sinkyone people have been empowered with the ability to reclaim — and rename — the land they believe rightfully belongs to them. “Renaming the property Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ lets people know that it’s a sacred place; it’s a place for our Native people,” Sinkyone Council board member and tribal citizen Crista Ray said in a statement. “It lets them know that there was a language and that there was a people who lived there long before now…”
Columbus, Indiana, The Republic, January 27, 2022: Updated tree care ordinance considered
City staff members and officials are updating Columbus’ policies and best practices for trees on or near public property. The Columbus City Council has passed the first reading of an ordinance amending the city’s code on street trees and shrubs. Ordinances must be passed on two readings in order to be fully approved. The council’s next meeting is set for Tuesday. The ordinance applies to trees on public property, including those in medians and the right-of-way. It also contains some regulations for trees on private property adjacent to public property and trees on the boundary lines between public and private land, according to Assistant Planning Director Melissa Begley. “The intent of the replacement ordinance is to better reflect the city’s current street tree care practices, property owner responsibility and standards for street tree care,” Begley wrote in a memo to the city council…
In northern Minnesota’s Chippewa National Forest, the expansive stands of majestic birch, aspen, maple, and pine trees look almost timeless. But looks can be deceiving. Today, much of the famed “Northwoods” are made up of trees that are less than a hundred years old. Much of the United States’ northern forests were clear-cut in the late 1800s and were only reforested decades later. But thanks to a surveying error, a rogue patch of old-growth forest was left untouched by loggers in Minnesota. Now known as the Chippewa National Forest’s “Lost 40,” it is home to trees that are up to 350 years old, offering travelers a snapshot of the forest that once dominated the northern part of the state. Twice the size of Rhode Island, Chippewa National Forest is a year-round destination for nature enthusiasts. Visitors can find almost endless opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, and snowshoeing. And while the forest is home to 700 lakes and 920 miles of rivers and streams, the trees themselves stop the show. With interpretive signs, easily accessible trails, and plenty of natural and historical sites nearby, visitors to the Lost 40 can get a dose of history with their wilderness excursion. In the 1800s, settlers’ early maps of northern Minnesota were labeled only “Abundant Pine.” After a series of contested and often unfulfilled treaties with Indigenous people in 1854 and 1855, much of the area was opened to logging by white colonizers. Indigenous people have lived in the area for over 10,000 years, but many colonizers saw the forests as mere timber fields, and trees as nothing more than future barns, homes, factories, wagons, and paper for burgeoning newspaper and printing industries…
Abilene, Texas, Reporter-News, January 30, 2022: Tree training meets high expectations
I recently had a pretty interesting experience. For a little background, the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) years ago realized that a lot of people were struggling to pass the test to become a certified arborist. The solution that they came up with was to offer a multi-day training class to go over the basics. One of the conditions of being allowed to take the test was – and still is – a minimum of three years experience doing tree work. I was relieved to see that the solution they came up with was more study, and not an easier test. Keep in mind that at that point, I still had yet to take the test. So clearly, my interest was in keeping the standards as high as possible. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I was in the original “Arboriculture 101” class, which was held in Midland, and as it was the original class – and the ISA, forest service, and Extension Service were feeling their way with it – they really did a very good job putting it together. I enjoyed it, learned a lot, and clearly the other people there also did as well…
The City Fix, January 28, 2022: How 3 Cities Can Turn Downed Trees Into Revenue
Imagine two trucks passing on a city street. One is a delivery truck carrying new wood flooring and furniture to stores and homes in the city. The other is carrying a fallen city tree damaged by a recent storm, taking it out of town to be mulched, burned or sent to a landfill. This scenario plays out every day in urban communities around the world and represents a huge, missed opportunity for cities, consumers and the climate. Trees offer various benefits for cities, yet 36 million trees come down in cities across the United States each year due to disease, development or old age. Much of this wood ends up burned, chipped into mulch or tossed into landfills, despite its potential to become a valuable product. The “reforestation hubs” model allows cities to create new value from fallen urban trees. Rather than continuing business-as-usual urban wood waste, cities can help recover and “upcycle” that waste into higher-value products such furniture, flooring and construction material. The revenue that is generated from the sale of those items and the reduced cost of wood waste disposal can then funnel back into urban forestry projects, such as planting new trees or maintaining existing trees…
Growing fruit trees in the Northwest can be a very rewarding venture. There is nothing quite like going out to the back yard and picking a handful of tree-ripened cherries, a juicy Asian pear or Japanese plum. It just doesn’t get any fresher than “straight off the tree.” That being said, when you’ve planted your trees and waited a couple of years for a crop and still nothing develops, disappointment is usually what you end up harvesting. If your trees are blooming and not setting fruit, the most likely culprit is poor pollination. Three things are usually the cause; lack of pollinators, improper varietal selection or late freezes. Let’s delve a little deeper into these three items. When we talk about pollinators, we are usually referring to honeybees. Unless you have been living in a cave, you are probably aware of the plight of honeybees in the world. All sorts of things, such as extreme weather, loss of habitat, colony collapse disorder, pesticides and now murder hornets, are contributing to this crisis. As gardeners we can help honeybees by avoiding pesticides, especially when plants are in bloom, and increasing the variety of flowering plants in our gardens…
As flurries started to descend on the forest floor, a team of researchers examined a stand of sickly quaking aspen trees off U.S. Highway 180, just north of Flagstaff. To an untrained eye, the trees might have looked normal. But up close, the picture was different: The usually matte white bark was covered with thousands of tiny dark notches, giving the trunks a dull appearance, darkened, almost black. Kristen Waring, a professor of silviculture and applied forest health at the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, knew what to look for. She and two graduate students, Connor Crouch and Kelsey Pemberton, quickly pinpointed problem areas. What looked like an inanimate object was actually a tiny, sap-sucking insect called oystershell scale. Its diminutive size belies the greater threat it poses to aspens and trees throughout Arizona. Colonies of the invasive creatures can encase mature trees, leading to fatal infestations. Eventually, oystershell scale populations can balloon to the point where they can kill entire stands of trees…
Since the 1990s, scientists have been predicting that North American tree species will disappear from portions of their ranges within the next 50 to 100 years because of projected changes in climate. A new study led by Penn State forest biologists found that when transplanted to warmer environments, ash trees can survive increased temperatures of 7 degrees Fahrenheit and sometimes even up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit, suggesting that these trees may be more resilient to climate warming than previously believed. “We know that species distribution models based only on climate are biologically imperfect,” said lead researcher Kim Steiner, professor emeritus of forest biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. “However, they are the best we have for predicting where species would be found in a climatically different future, and it is extremely difficult—especially with trees—to experimentally test and possibly refute such predictions…”
The Asian longhorned beetle quarantine in Clermont County has cost Tom Brown more than 450 trees and more than $400,000 in legal fees – not fighting the invasive pest but fighting the federal government. After nearly a decade of challenging how much power state and federal agriculture agents have over property owners in their quest to eradicate the invasive pest, a federal judge signed a settlement agreement on Jan. 20 that finally ends Brown’s dispute with the government. It puts limits on inspections and tree removal, and requires agents to fix some past damage that tree-cutting has caused to his 60-acre farm near Bethel. Brown remembered seeing the large black beetles with white spots for the first time – climbing on his home window screens a decade ago. He had no idea that those strange-looking bugs with long curling antennae would eventually cost him his retirement pension savings, his farmland, his cattle herd, and his wife’s health. “Water bugs,” Brown said. “That’s just what we thought it was.”
The family of a conservationist who spent his life battling deforestation are fighting for more than £200,000 in compensation after he was killed by a falling tree. David Hoyle, 48, had his skull smashed when a 65-foot cherry tree fell onto his silver Citroen Xsara Picasso as he was travelling on the A287 near Odiham, Hampshire, in June 2017. `Mr Hoyle, who had dedicated his life to forest preservation in tropical Africa, was driving at around 70mph when the tree was blown over in high winds and torrential rain, slamming onto the roof of his vehicle. He is survived by a wife, Marceline, and three children. His stricken family are now suing Hampshire County Council and a firm of tree inspectors who examined the ‘failed’ cherry tree, claiming it should have been trimmed back to stabilise it months before the fatal accident happened. The case is brought by Mr Hoyle’s father, Michael, on behalf of the family as administrator of his estate. He is suing Hampshire County Council, Simon P Holmes Ltd, trading as Tree Surveys, and tree surgeon Ed Power, all of whom deny they were to blame…
Eerie popping sounds are being heard in Ohio’s frozen wilderness and experts say it’s not being caused by humans, animals or insects. The source — as crazy as it sounds — is trees. “With temperatures getting ready to dip well below the freezing point, some of you may hear some rather alarming sounds out in the woods,” Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio wrote Dec. 20 on Facebook. “It may sound like gunfire, ricochet or even something other-worldly. …What you are hearing are the sounds of the trees enduring the most brutal winter weather.” Sap in the trees can literally explode out of the bark, as temperatures fall into the single digits and lower, experts say. (A low of 3 degrees was forecast Jan. 21 at the park in southeastern Ohio.) “Once the temps drop low enough, even the most resistant sap will freeze solid inside of the tree,” park officials said…
I lived in a tent for two and a half months last summer. Nothing fancy, one of those pop-up ones from Walmart that cost under $80. Night after night, I zipped up my sleeping bag — two if it was freezing — and set my alarm for 5:20 a.m. It was my rookie season as a tree planter in British Columbia. As reinventions go, my transformation from negroni-sipping Vancouverite to tree planter was as total as any I’d experienced. Like most of us, I’d daydreamed about leaving the comfort of home to go and live another life. My move from England to Canada in 2021 was supposed to scratch that itch. Instead, I found myself in a job I hated in a city I didn’t know. I quit after two weeks. That’s how I found myself camping in a gravel pit outside a small logging town in the northern interior of British Columbia. My days started with breakfast at 6 a.m., sitting in a truck by 6:30, an hour’s drive up a logging road, and then — come rain or snow or heat wave — the backbreaking monotony of planting. Before that summer, I’d never done so much as a multiday hike. The months of hard work got me in the best shape of my life, yes, but it’s the inner strength that’s lasted. Planting showed me that we are all tougher and freer than we think…
T&D World, January 25, 2022: USDA Announces New 10 Year Strategy to Confront the Wildfire Crisis
Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack and Forest Service chief Randy Moore launched a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis — “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests.” The strategy outlines the need to significantly increase fuels and forest health treatments to address the escalating crisis of wildfire danger that threatens millions of acres and numerous communities across the United States. The Forest Service will work with other federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, and with Tribes, states, local communities, private landowners, and other partners to focus fuels and forest health treatments more strategically and at the scale of the problem, based on the best available science. The strategy highlights new research on what Forest Service scientists identified as high risk “firesheds” — large, forested landscapes with a high likelihood that an ignition could expose homes, communities, infrastructure and natural resources to wildfire. Firesheds, typically about 250,000 acres in size, are mapped to match the scale of community exposure to wildfire…
Fremont, Ohio, News-Messenger, January 26, 2022: The plight of the American Chestnut tree
In this and my next two essays, I’d like to explore (A.) How, in the first half of the 20th century, Americans unintentionally made an absolute hash of the deciduous forests of Eastern North America; (B.) Whether it’s now our ethical responsibility to restore that ecosystem to something like its former grandeur; (C.) Why a variety of honest and compassionate groups of people question the motives, and strongly distrust the methods, of other honest and compassionate groups in their approach to item. In 1904, a biologist found an American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) in the Bronx Zoo that didn’t look so good. By 1940, virtually every mature chestnut within the species’ natural range — from southern Maine to Mississippi, and the Piedmont area by the Atlantic coast west across the Appalachians to the Ohio River Valley — had perished. Enormous efforts by foresters, scientists and private land owners to save the trees were fruitless. It’s estimated in the course of those 36 years, the eastern forests lost some 3.5 billion trees. Prior to this devastation, about one of every four hardwoods in this region of some 8.8 million acres had been a chestnut…
What could be the biggest and oldest hackberry tree in Wichita was getting chopped down without warning on Monday, sparking anger and frustration directed at City Hall, including by a new member of the City Council. While acknowledging that the tree — in the median on Museum Drive near the entrance to the Old Cowtown Museum — is “iconic,” city officials said it has significant weaknesses and has to come down to accommodate water pipe installations connecting the existing city water-treatment plant with the new plant under construction. Maggie Ballard, sworn in as a City Council member two weeks ago, said City Hall botched it by tearing down the tree without any input from or explanation to the neighborhood…
Malabar tried to stand up against Brevard County, which plans to saw down untold thousands of trees to make way for more threatened Florida scrub jays, gopher tortoises and other endangered wildlife that voters decided twice to protect. In the end, the town of just over 3,000 residents failed. On Tuesday, Brevard County Commissioners decided to block off the Malabar Scrub Sanctuary’s entrances until the town renews an expired permit for the county to remove the trees that block sunlight and hide raptors that feed on the threatened jays. The commission also decided to bill the town the cost of installing and removing those barriers. Brevard also will look into the legalities of whether a clearing permit from the town is even required given that the sanctuary is on state conservation land. Brevard wants the sanctuary’s tall pines and oaks thinned out by March, when scrub jays begin scouring the land for twigs and palmetto fibers to build their nests in smaller trees and shrubs…
A utility subcontractor’s negligence damaged an oak tree along Frederica Road near Atlantic Drive, but the intrusion was a clear breach of the St. Simons Island tree ordinance, county officials said. As a result, the developer of The Oaks commercial plaza had to return to the Islands Planning Commission last week to seek an amendment to its original tree plan. And now the developer has a tree in a state of intensive care, for which it has hired an arborist to nurse it back to health. “As part of their tree amendment plan, they submitted a tree preservation plan for that damaged tree,” said Pamela Thompson, the county’s director of community development. “They have an arborist who feels he can make that tree strong and healthy again.” Island planning commissioners approved the amended tree plan Jan. 18, though some did so grudgingly. The tree in question grows along Frederica Road, its trunk 60 inches in diameter. It fronts an unremarkable tract that includes a parking lot and empty office space, which will soon be the site of The Oaks’ 7,400 square feet of commercial space and a new parking lot. The tree represents a test of sorts for the county’s tree ordinance for the island, which was adopted in 2018 to protect the St. Simons canopy. The ordinance requires developers to make all efforts to preserve at least 50 percent of a site’s existing canopy…
In Charlotte we love our trees. We’re the City of Trees, with majestic oaks, shady yards and tree-lined streets. So it was easy to see why the city in 2011 set a goal: By 2050, 50% of its land would have a tree canopy. Canopy measures then showed trees covering 49% of land. We were nationally recognized for our tree cover. Maybe 50% didn’t seem a tough stretch. Yet by 2018, the latest measure, the canopy was down to 45%. It’s still shrinking. Was “50 by 50” an “aspirational’ goal — you hope to lose 30 pounds but only lose 20? Or just a feel-good PR move? Even then, though I hoped I was wrong, to me it seemed delusional. Given Charlotte’s growth boom, it would require tougher policies and ordinances — in a city in love with its own growth. As Gavin Off’s excellent package in the Observer last week reported, city officials now concede the 50% goal can’t be reached. I’m amazed it took them this long…
A new study co-authored by Jonathan Myers, associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, provides key insights into how and why tree populations migrate in response to climate change at the continental scale. Suitable habitats for forest trees may be shifting fast with recent climate change. Across North America, most tree species in the northern part of the continent already show evidence for northward migrations due to warming temperatures. But the actual mechanics of how trees move into new areas appears to be different depending on whether the trees are found in the West or the East. In this study led by Duke University, researchers separated out the effects of seed production—the sheer number of seeds that certain tree species create—and the establishment of juvenile trees to identify larger patterns. The results, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide the first continental-scale evidence for migration and geographic shifts in the processes that control migration…
With Arkansas running a huge budget surplus, a few dollars to plant trees would be easy to come up with. That is why I intend to push the Legislature to enact a statewide grant program to plant 100,000 trees in our towns and cities. I hope to have numerous sponsors of the bill by the time the Legislature meets. I have been active in planting downtown trees in El Dorado for at least 25 years. Starting with almost nothing, our downtown has a decent tree canopy. Many other downtowns in the state have only a smattering of trees, but even just a few can make a difference. Downtowns with trees have a much better ambiance than yesterday’s bare downtowns. Over several years I have followed press releases from cities around the country which have instigated tree-planting programs. Among these initiatives is a one million tree-planting program joined by cities around the world including Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, New York City, London, and Shanghai. One of the most successful of those programs is Chicago, which joined early. Over the years Vertis and I have visited Chicago on vacations; our last visit was just before the virus hit. We couldn’t believe the difference from previous trips. Chicago’s downtown ls amazing. It has reached its goal by planting one million trees. The program was so successful and so well received that if a resident wants a tree in a front yard facing the street, the city will come and plant it at no cost…
Close to 200 trees — including some 200-year-old oaks — on the banks of the Housatonic River and other areas of Housatonic Meadows State Park were recently removed by the state, upsetting residents and area elected officials, who are now asking for changes to state procedures. State Sen. Craig Miner, R-Litchfield, and state Rep. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, recently questioned the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s hazard tree removal project at the park and its accompanying campground. Both say that in spite of objections to removing oak and pine trees along the park’s access road without any advance notice, the agency had no intention of stopping or reconsidering the trees marked for cutting. The DEEP began the tree project in November, after marking more than 170 trees for removal, according to Miner. When residents and state leaders objected, the DEEP stopped the project temporarily and organized a public hearing for Jan. 6 to discuss the work with residents. Between November and the hearing two weeks ago, close to 500 people signed an online petition objecting to the tree removal, with testimony from local arborist Michael Nadeau, who questioned the DEEP’s practices. “Large oak (Quercus spp) trees as well as other species have been removed along a steep riverbank,” Nadeau wrote. “The root systems from these trees is what was preventing the riverbank from eroding away. This seems particularly short-sighted, especially in light of recent storm activity and scientific studies that show the species Quercus (Oak) is the single most valuable species for insect and bird habitat quality…”
Down the street, right after Christmas, a developer knocked down a perfectly good house, along with nearly every tree on the deeply treed lot. It’s an old story here, and the pure waste of it is always appalling. But this yard also happens to be on the neighborhood bobcat’s route between a school campus lush with trees and a wet creek bordered by dense greenery, and that’s what brought me to tears. Preserving those trees would have meant protecting an unassuming but crucial wildlife corridor in an area where development is putting increasing pressure on already stressed wildlife populations. So I was primed to be incensed when I read about the Ohio siblings who cut down a 250-year-old black walnut tree in a suburb of Cleveland. Todd Jones and his sister, Laurel Hoffman, believed that the tree stood on family land, and the family’s finances were in dire trouble, so they sold the massive black walnut to a logging company for $2,000. But according to deeds and survey images, the irreplaceable tree actually stood 7.5 feet outside their property line, in an area owned by Cleveland Metroparks, a system of local nature preserves. Now the Cuyahoga County prosecutor has charged Mr. Jones and Ms. Hoffman with grand theft and falsification, felony crimes. If convicted, they face up to 18 months in prison…
Associated Press, January 23, 2022: Despite safety concerns, PG&E’s criminal probation to end
Pacific Gas & Electric is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation, despite worries that nation’s largest utility remains too dangerous to trust after years of devastation from wildfires ignited by its outdated equipment and neglectful management. The probation, set to expire at midnight Tuesday, was supposed to rehabilitate PG&E after its 2016 conviction for six felony crimes from a 2010 explosion triggered by its natural gas lines that blew up a San Bruno neighborhood and killed eight people. Instead, PG&E became an even more destructive force. Since 2017 the utility has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people. “In these five years, PG&E has gone on a crime spree and will emerge from probation as a continuing menace to California,” U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote in a report reviewing his oversight of the utility. While on probation, PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for a 2018 wildfire that wiped out the town of Paradise, about 170 miles (275 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. Now PG&E faces more criminal charges in two separate cases, for a Sonoma County wildfire in 2019 and a Shasta County fire in 2020. PG&E has denied any criminal wrongdoing in those fires…
Counterpunch, January 24, 2022: PG&E’s War Against Trees
PG&E’s war against trees isn’t confined to Humboldt County. I’ve received letters from outraged landowners in Shasta and Mendocino Counties, and read about infuriating encounters with PG&E’s frontline troops in the media. People described threats, other harassments. They complained of being watched until they had to go out for something or other,at which point tree-cutters swiftly pounced on their beloved trees. In Santa Cruz, the complaints were so vociferous that the Board of Supervisors filed a lawsuit with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) charging PG&E with the illegal removal of trees, disruption of sensitive habitat, violating the rights of private property owners, dangerously increasing erosion and landslide risk, compromising the water supply, and hundreds of violations of the Public Resources Code. Government leaders in San Jose and San Francisco have called for PG&E to be taken out of investor control, and to be run by the government or its customers. PG&E often refuses to respond, an increasingly frequent reaction to government authorities among the nation’s giant corporations and monied interests. It claims it needs no permits since vegetation management is mandated by state law. Of course the State does not dictate HOW the vegetation should be managed, and in our current perilous fire situation, PG&E could justify removing every tree in California. Indeed, trees have been known to be hurled for miles by mighty fire-generated winds…
For a week in December, California Conservation Corps Inland Empire Center members methodically dug 1,782 holes on exposed lakebed bordering the Salton Sea, and then filled them with native mesquite and palo verde trees. The project, a partnership between the CCC, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the California Natural Resources Agency and the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy, was an experiment of sorts: what plants will be able to grow and proliferate in the tough clay where California’s largest lake has receded? “This is like a test project, so the tribe is testing on this site and they’re going to see how the plants grow throughout their lifetime,” CCC corps member Matthew Stuart said in a news release. As part of that test, some of the plants were pre-treated with saline solutions to match existing conditions of the land…
A Chinese proverb tells us that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the next best time is now. It takes an optimist to plant a tree, and I hope you fall into that category and are planning to take advantage of our cool winter weather to plant one or more trees on your property. Jan. 21 is Arbor Day in Florida, designed to align with the cooler weather. Planting a tree can be a minor to major financial investment depending on the size and species of tree you select. You may purchase small bare root trees inexpensively during winter months or trees in pots or balled in burlap any time of the year, including behemoths in crates that require a crane to move. But regardless of the type or size, following the correct procedures to assure the survival and vigor of the tree’s roots is vital to its future. No other one factor influences the success or failure of tree’s growth more than the way in which it was planted. Assuming that you’ve chosen a healthy tree of good quality, first make sure you handle it correctly as you bring it home from the nursery and haul it to its future planting location. Always lift and carry the tree by its pot or root ball, rather than by the trunk. Especially during the spring, bark easily “slips,” and removal of the bark from the trunk will doom your young tree…
Most of us are captivated by the thought of a“living fossil”, which is any organism that appeared millions of years ago in the fossil record and survives today, relatively unchanged. The maidenhair tree, Ginkgo biloba, ticks all the boxes of this definition. The genus Ginkgo is well known in China and Japan where it has special significance in Buddhism and Confucianism, and first became known to European botanists in the late 1600s . Today, ancient ginkgo fossils can be found all over the world, some of which are almost 300 million years old – a time when dinosaurs roamed the planet. Let’s delve further into what makes this species so remarkable: from its ability to survive nuclear bombs, to its vomit-smelling seeds, to it’s beautiful autumn display. The ancestral ginkgo evolved so long ago it spread across the super continent Pangaea and was present in both the northern component (Laurasia) and the southern part (Gondwana, which included Australia) when the continents fragmented. As a result there are fossils, Ginkgo australis, from the cretaceous period about 65-140 million years ago in the Koonwarra Fish Fossil beds near Leongatha, Victoria. There are also much more recent (about 20 million years old) fossils from Tasmania…
You really don’t have to be an expert to prune fruit trees. All it takes is a little common sense and a few helpful hints. As a rule of thumb, I place fruit trees in three different pruning categories: The open centre, the central leader and the espalier form.Apples, pears and plums should have their centres opened up to allow more sun and air to flow through. This technique is called open-vase pruning, and it allows fruit to develop on the inside of the tree, on the tips and on the outward-growing branches. For this type of pruning, simply choose to retain three to five dominate branches radiating out from the main stem. These branches should be five or six feet off the ground, allowing you to comfortably walk or work under the tree without hitting your head. Once you have determined which branches you are going to keep, cut out any other branches left in the centre, as well as any inward-growing ones. Next, cut out many of the upward-growing branches (so-called sucker growth), leaving the tree looking like a ‘Y’. The remaining branches should be pruned back each year at two-foot intervals, keeping this ‘Y’ formation intact…
Florida is on pace to produce the smallest crop of oranges in more than 75 years, according to a forecast released this month. The Sunshine State is on pace to produce 44.5 million 90-pound boxes of oranges during the current season, according to a forecast released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That is a 1.5 million box reduction from the previous forecast in December. If the current forecast holds true through the rest of the citrus growing season, it will be the smallest orange crop since the 1944-1945 season when the state produced 42.3 million boxes of oranges. The citrus growing season in Florida lasts from fall into late spring…
Cedar, fir and hemlock trees as old as 800 years have ¬temporary protection after an agreement was reached between four ¬Vancouver Island First Nations and a forestry company. The deal between four nations in the Nanwakolas Council and Western Forest Products Inc. announced Wednesday will allow for a two-year deferral of logging for 25 square kilometres of rare, ancient and priority old-growth trees. In November, the government said it would defer the logging of B.C.’s most rare old-growth trees and gave 200 First Nations a deadline to decide if they supported the deferrals or if they thought further discussion was required. Nanwakolas Council president Dallas Smith said the nations took the first step because the area holds cultural and environmental importance. “Cedar is the tree of life in our culture,” he said in an interview…
Eugene, Oregon, Weekly, January 20, 2022: Woodman, Spare Those Trees
Thousands of majestic old trees in the mountains east of Eugene will soon be headed for lumber mills. On the heels of the 2020 post-fire salvage logging of millions of trees, the Forest Service is selling yet more timber. The Quartzville-Middle Santiam timber sale, planned for the Willamette National Forest between Sweet Home and Santiam Canyon, covers almost 90,000 acres, borders on wilderness, and will decimate some of the most scenic places in the western Cascades. Dense stands of previously logged younger trees might benefit from thinning, but the vast scale of the planned project is troubling. Most alarming are plans to clearcut mature and old growth trees. Older forests throughout the Pacific Northwest are becoming increasingly rare, with only 10 percent of Oregon’s original old growth forests still standing. Without a shift in our business as usual priorities, we are in danger of losing these heritage trees forever. That’s not the only danger we face when we clearcut older forests. These forests play a critical role in protecting all of us from the ravages of climate change. Recent research has documented that older forests in the Cascade Mountains provide some of the highest carbon sequestration on the planet. Climate scientists say that decreasing logging on national forests in the Pacific Northwest is one of the most effective land-use strategies to mitigate climate change. In fact, older trees are able to store carbon for 800 years or more…
Farm Progress, January 19, 2022: Kill defoliators’ eggs now
As a young child, I remember my grandmother telling me it was time to gather the eggs. Obviously, she was talking about chicken eggs. But as it turns out, winter is a good time to remove insect eggs before they hatch in spring. And gathering those eggs now will help reduce defoliation of your trees. Four common leaf-feeding forest insects that overwinter as eggs include the gypsy moth, forest tent caterpillar, eastern tent caterpillar and bagworm. 1. Gypsy moth. They lay egg masses in mid- to late summer, which hatch the following spring. The larvae prefer oaks but will also feed on a wide variety of other forest tree species. Since the female moth cannot fly, she must crawl and lay egg masses near where she “grew up” during the summer. The eggs masses can be anywhere on the trunk or main branches. They will be about the size of a quarter to half-dollar and have a tan to light brown appearance. There may be hundreds of eggs in one mass…
After a year that included one of the largest wildfires in California history and ended with an unseasonably late blaze that became the most destructive ever seen in Colorado, the Biden administration on Tuesday announced a 10-year, multibillion-dollar plan to reduce the fire risk on up to 50 million acres that border vulnerable communities. The federal Agriculture Department said in a statement that it would take measures to reduce the danger of catastrophic fires in dozens of spots in 11 Western states by thinning overgrown trees and using controlled burns to get rid of dead vegetation. The plan, detailed in a report, would quadruple the government’s land treatment efforts. “It’s the time to act,” Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, said at a news briefing on Tuesday, adding that the government needed to “change the trajectory of our wildfires.” The goal, he said, is to make forests more resilient and “fire-adaptive…”
Upon arriving at the Keystone Ancient Forest near Sand Springs, keep in mind the old phrase “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” But what is truly fascinating is when you take the time to look at the trees, you are literally looking at some of the oldest living inhabitants in Oklahoma. For example, one of the oldest trees found there is well over 500 years old. Where else can you go to see something that was perhaps a seedling or a sapling that was alive the day that Washington Irving passed underneath on horseback? Sitting along the shoreline of Keystone Lake sits this beautiful 1,360-acre preserve just west of Sand Springs known as Keystone Ancient Forest. When you look at the trees, they are not giant redwoods, but instead are sturdy post oaks and cedars, hanging on for life on the rocky hillsides. They are the remnants of the Cross Timbers, a wooded belt that straddled Oklahoma from Texas to Kansas for centuries. But a good portion of the Cross Timbers has been lost to farming or development over the years…
A notable Norway maple behind the Ridgefield Guild of Artists could soon be recognized as one of the largest trees in the nation. John Kelly, of Pound Ridge, N.Y., is nominating the mammoth maple for American Forests’ National Champion Trees program with the hopes of adding it to its national registry. The nonprofit launched the campaign in 1940 to locate the country’s largest living trees. Kelly first encountered the tree last summer when he was invited to view some artwork at the guild. At first he thought it couldn’t be a Norway maple, since they’re typically long and slender. “This (one) was fat, stubby and perfectly round, which is very unusual,” he said in an earlier interview. Kelly has an “uncommon interest” in trees since his property was once home to the second largest tulip tree in the nation, as designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For him, nominating the tree for national recognition is “a means to an end,” he said…
Between a small coral-colored house and a proposed multi-story apartment building in NoDa, stands a roughly 65-foot-tall willow oak tree. The tree, which turns a light orange each fall and towers over nearby cottages and telephone poles, is a microcosm of Charlotte’s fight to save its canopy. On one side of the tree are homeowners who hope to preserve it. On the other side is a proposed 200-plus unit apartment complex that could threaten its existence. And in the middle are city officials who say they do not have the authority to protect the tree. “It’s in a gray zone,” said Jason Newton, who, along with his wife, Krysten Reilly, own a house just feet from the willow oak. Citywide, Charlotte is experiencing similar tree-saving struggles. City leaders have all but abandoned the goal of having a 50% canopy coverage by the year 2050. Charlotte, they say, simply has too much development. Environmentalists say the city’s tree-saving rules are too weak to preserve, let alone grow, its canopy — the tree cover that shaded 45% of the city’s area in 2018, the last year it was measured. Experts expect it’s lower today. “In cities, we lose trees one house at a time,” said Newton, 35. “With a city growing as fast as Charlotte, one tree at a time multiplied by all the development that’s happening is how we lose tree cover…”
Sixteen years after their legal battle began, about 18,000 homeowners in central Florida will be paid more than $42 million collectively by the state of Florida for destroying their citrus trees during an effort to eradicate a harmful citrus disease. The homeowners in Orange County will receive about $700 per healthy tree destroyed as part of an order issued in state court in Orlando last month. A judgment from a 2014 trial assessed the value of each healthy tree as $344, but fees and interests over the years doubled the per-tree payment. More than 60,000 healthy, uninfected trees were destroyed in Orange County between 2002 and 2006 as part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ efforts to eradicate citrus canker, according to the lawsuit. While unharmful to humans, citrus canker can cause the leaves and fruit of citrus trees to drop prematurely and create unappealing lesions on the fruit…
Jacksonville, Florida, Times-Union, January 15, 2022: Garden Help: Anatomy of a tree branch failure
Last week a large limb broke away from a very mature live oak in Riverside Park during some high winds from the passage of a cold front. Unfortunately, it damaged the tree significantly. However, it has also provided a great opportunity to investigate why some branches fail and perhaps prevent it from happening in our own landscapes. An inspection of where the branch split apart revealed a condition called included bark. Included bark is where the bark is included or embedded in the union of a branch with the trunk or another branch. The included bark acts as a barrier that gets trapped in between the two branches and does not allow a strong branch union to form. In the case of this very old tree, the included bark started forming perhaps more than a century ago and was not revealed until the branch union could no longer support the weight of the branch…
Want to remove a tree in Charlotte because you are afraid of it falling on your house? How about if you’re building a granny flat for your aging parents or putting up a new house on a lot and need to remove some trees? It’s actions like those that have long gone unregulated in the city. And it’s been in areas zoned for single family, not industrial and multifamily, where Charlotte has seen its greatest losses of tree canopy coverage in the past decade, according to city leaders. Now, that could change. The first draft of the 608-page Unified Development Ordinance, the regulatory tools behind Charlotte’s development and growth, proposes new language to more strictly protect the city’s trees. Among other steps, the UDO requires anyone who wants to remove a heritage tree measuring at least 30 inches in diameter to get a permit to do so. Heritage trees are defined in the UDO as any tree native to North Carolina, per a U.S. Department of Agriculture database. Trees that are diseased, damaged, like from a storm, or pose a risk to the public, wouldn’t require a permit to be removed, said Tim Porter, Charlotte’s chief urban forester…
People tend to have a love-hate relationship with their fruit trees. The fruit they love; the work they hate. The regimen of spraying turns off home gardeners, said Steve Renquist, recently retired horticulturist with Oregon State University’s Extension Service. But times have changed. Research has resulted in easier methods of dealing with pests and diseases, from resistant trees to low-toxicity products. For years, OSU’s Extension horticulturists, including Renquist, have been advocating for integrated pest management or IPM, an approach using the most effective, least-toxic methods first. “You don’t need to coach people nearly as vigorously as in the past,” Renquist said. “Everyone wants to minimize spraying. Low input means it’s better for the people eating the fruit, better for the environment in the backyard, better for the safety of the pets and family running around out there. It’s a pretty easy sell.” When Renquist teaches classes in what he calls low-input gardening, he starts by recommending that home gardeners choose the most disease- and pest-resistant varieties. Extension Master Gardeners can recommend relevant trees, as can nurseries with expertise in fruit trees. “If you start from that point, you’ve got a much better chance of having a low-input orchard,” he said. “You don’t have to be constantly spraying for something…”
In the three years since he was diagnosed with cancer, Burhan Chowdhury has had a difficult time maintaining his yard and keeping his property in suburban Detroit in good shape. At a recent Michigan state court appearance over Zoom, the 72-year-old man struggled to breathe as he explained to a judge that he was “very weak” and unable to clean up the grass that had overtaken the property over the summer. But 31st District Judge Alexis G. Krot had no sympathy for Chowdhury. Instead, she shamed the cancer patient for the neighborhood blight in Hamtramck, Mich. — and told him the punishment she wished she could have given him. “You should be ashamed of yourself!” Krot said on Monday. “If I could give you jail time on this, I would.” After issuing Chowdhury a $100 fine for failing to keep up with home maintenance, Krot called the amount of grass on his walkways “totally inappropriate.” When Chowdhury reiterated that he was “very sick,” Krot said his inability to keep up with his property was inexcusable…
If you enjoy more cool fall-like conditions than bitter cold, you were not disappointed with the weather patterns of December 2021. According to the National Weather Service, last December in Kansas City was the third warmest on record, at 10 degrees warmer than usual. Not only was it warm but it was also dry. With only a half-inch of precipitation, it was the 23rd driest month on record. December also goes down in the record books as only the second time to record no snowfall in the past 134 years. These weather patterns have local gardeners worried. How these patterns affect plants has been a common question at the Johnson County K-State Extension office. Warm weather resulted in people noticing spring bulbs poking out of the soil and buds on some trees and shrubs. In addition, some buds are plumper than normal as they start their spring expansion. For the most part, the warm December had little negative effect on plants. They are smarter than we give them credit for…
Asheville is asking for public input on a sidewalk improvement project set to remove characteristic trees from a popular West Asheville street. According to a release Jan. 13, the city hopes to hear from the public on which of three options folks favor to address about 1,200 feet of sidewalk on Vermont Avenue in West Asheville between Haywood Road and just south of Olney Road. The project, balancing the pressing needs for infrastructure improvements and protecting the city’s urban tree canopy and character of a beloved neighborhood, went before the city’s Urban Forestry Commission in November. Alongside replacing the sidewalk with an Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant concrete sidewalk, the city says the project includes curb rehabilitation, driveway apron reconstruction, ramps and crosswalks, work that will require the removal of at least 12 large maple trees. In November, city officials reported that the project is on track with its $927,000 budget, with plans for the design phase to wrap up at the end of March and construction by the end of September. The city often seeks input on neighborhood projects like the Vermont Avenue sidewalk work, said city spokesperson Polly McDaniel…
Nearly 60 trees along Atherton Street — about 90% of the street trees along a 1.2-mile stretch — could be removed as part of an upcoming roadwork project by PennDOT, a move that State College Borough’s tree commission has flagged as antithetical to the community’s values. State College — which has boasted a “Tree City, USA” designation for 37 years — could see the trees removed as part of the state’s $17 million South Atherton Street Project, which includes roadway improvements and the relocation of several utility lines. That work starts in the spring, between Curtin Road and Westerly Parkway. The tree commission also worries those 56 trees could be just the beginning. The second phase of the roadwork plan, beyond Westerly, could see even more trees removed along a different stretch, they said. “We looked at where those 60 trees would be taken from,” tree commission vice chair Elaine Schuckers said during a council meeting last month. “Please take a drive or take a walk, and think about 60 trees vanishing from that area. … A quick estimate of the value of those trees is $200,000…”
A new California law for tree trimming companies doubles their workers’ compensation insurance rates for those using the state fund. It will impact thousands of companies in the industry across the Golden State and their options. Max Echols is on the hunt for a new insurance policy for his tree care business after workers’ compensation rates went up 100%. “It’s just going to be ridiculous,” he said. “It could put businesses under.” Echols used to pay the state fund $25 for every $100 he pays his employees. As of 2022, that rate jumps to more than $50. “As a small business, I can’t afford something like that,” Echols said. “I’m not going to name any names, but I know a number of companies that have people off the books because they have to.” The state workers’ compensation fund is the insurer of last resort. Echols has been in business long enough that other companies will provide coverage. “I think they probably took a look at how much claim dollars they were spending versus how much premium they were intaking, and there was a mismatch,” he said. Anderson says doubling premiums for tree care companies was a cut the other ten industries the state fund covers…
January will be an important month for the future of Reno trees. Local leaders are hoping to reduce the environmental impact of our area’s rapid growth. “Reno, Nevada, one of the fastest-warming cities in America, sometimes at the very top,” said councilwoman Naomi Duerr. “We want to change that whole dynamic.” This month is your chance to weigh in on the proposed changes. The city is working on updates to tree protection standards after efforts to do so were stalled due to the pandemic in 2020. “Our tree canopy sits at around five percent, most high-desert cities like us, maybe like Boise or Salt Lake, most of those kinds of cities have 10 to 15 percent tree canopy,” said Duerr. Duerr, who is also a liaison for the Urban Forestry Commission says preserving the city’s urban forest has social, environmental and economic benefits for the community. “Trees provide a unique benefit to help us with that cooling effort and also when homes have trees, they’re generally perceived as having greater value,” said Duerr…
Greenbiz.com, January 13, 2022: Sorry, folks, but there’s no such thing as an ‘ancient’ forest
Branding the world’s primary forests as ancient is probably one of the slickest con jobs in recent environmental history. Because ancient forests (in the normal sense of the word) are few and far between, if they exist at all. Back in 2006, Greenpeace proclaimed the boreal forest of Canada “one of the largest tracts of ancient forest in the world” (emphasis added). But Greenpeace did not define ancient forests in terms of how old the trees were. “Ancient forests are forests that are shaped largely by natural events with little impact from human activities,” it declared. So basically, in its view, forest minus humans equals ancient. In subsequent years, a Vancouver-based conservation group called Canopy has taken the “ancient” campaign to another level, promoting the Ancient and Endangered Forests brand and boosting an Ancient Forest Friendly logo scheme that corporations can buy into and then brag about their environmental credentials. The media has got into the act as well, with journalists and bloggers slipping in the word ancient to describe forests or trees, with little or no consideration as to whether its use is appropriate or accurate. Let me be very clear here. The cause of conserving and protecting the world’s remaining primary forests is commendable. And many of these forests are certainly endangered. I don’t have a problem with the cause. My objection here is to the hijacking of the meaning of the word ancient for emotional and commercial purposes, and to the media’s continued and inaccurate use of the word…
At its meeting Tuesday, the Decatur Planning Commission voted against recommending approval of updates to the city’s tree ordinance, citing discomfort with provisions they felt would disproportionately harm individual homeowners in the city. “It’s just too much,” Planning Commission Co-Chair Michael Travis said during discussion of the proposed measure. “It’s like throwing the kitchen sink and the pantry into this ordinance when we could take the existing ordinance and make a realistic attainable goal.” A key sticking point was the proposed elimination of the ability of property owners to remove up to three healthy trees on their property within an 18-month period without requiring city approval beyond a tree information permit, as is allowed under Decatur’s current tree conservation ordinance. The proposed new ordinance would require city approval for removal of any tree with greater than six-inch diameter, as well as require the owner to plant replacement trees or pay into the tree bank if the city agrees. For example, a homeowner who wanted to have a healthy tree removed would be required to ensure that they replanted another tree or trees to keep the tree canopy on their individual property at 60 percent of the land area. Smaller replacement trees would be credited at only a percentage of their potential canopy when mature, not as a one-to-one replacement…
A brother and sister are accused of working together to chop down a century-old Black Walnut tree in Cleveland Metropark’s Mill Stream Run Reservation that was one of the largest in the state and worth an estimated $28,000, according to police and park officials. Todd Jones, 56, of Bay Village, and Laurel Hoffman, 54, of Elyria, are charged with grand theft and falsification, both fourth-degree felonies. Their arraignments are set for Jan. 20 in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Jones and Hoffman, in separate phone interviews with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer, said they believe the tree belonged to them. Jones owns property adjacent to the park and said his family for years believed the tree was inside their property lines. Jones and Hoffman both said they should not face any criminal charges. “This is so ridiculous that they’re doing this,” Jones said. “This is insane. There was no ill intent.” Black Walnut trees are highly sought after because of the high-quality lumber they produce. The lumber is often used to make furniture, musical instruments and veneer, among other items. Black Walnuts also serve as homes for several animals, and between 23 to 100 kinds of caterpillars, Metroparks Director of Natural Resources Jennifer Grieser said. The tree cut down in Strongsville is massive by most standards and is one of the largest in the state, Grieser said…
Cities around the world are on the front line of climate change, and calls are growing for more urban cooling. Many governments are spending big on new trees in public places—but which species are most likely to thrive in a warmer world? Numerical targets such as “one million trees” dominate tree-planting programs in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai, Melbourne and Sydney. But whacking a million trees into the ground won’t necessarily mean greener suburbs in decades to come. Often, not enough attention is paid to selecting the right trees or providing enough water so they survive a hotter, drier climate in future. In our recent research, we assessed the effects of extreme heat and drought on urban tree species. Some much-loved tree species, widely planted across our cities, did not handle the conditions well. It shows how important decisions must be made today for urban greening programs to succeed in a warmer world…
The American Conservative, January 11, 2022: Burning The Forest For The Trees
The FTSE 100 British energy giant Drax was recently booted from the S&P Global Clean Energy Index on the determination it wasn’t actually producing “clean” energy, that is, carbon neutral. It was a huge blow to the Drax Group (not to be confused with Drax the Destroyer from Marvel Comics), which has vowed to become the world’s first “carbon-negative” energy company by the end of the decade. Most importantly, it’s not because Drax was doing something wrong per se, it’s because its product—energy from burning wood pellets—was rightly deemed to be a net carbon dioxide producer. Earlier, the index dropped French biomass generator Albioma which, like Drax, has used wood chips to replace coal in its power plants. That’s bad news for woody biomass producers everywhere. Woody biomass has become progressively more popular in Europe, although not so here in the U.S. At least not yet. Here, total biomass consumption accounts for only about 5 percent of all energy produced, including transportation. But much of that isn’t woody, rather other sources, especially ethanol (which I’ve been writing against since a 1987 National Review cover article, so I’ll give it a break here and focus on woody). Biomass generally benefits from confusion over two vastly different terms that often are used interchangeably: “renewable” (or sustainable) and “carbon free.” Both appeal to the touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy set, but they are not necessarily the same. If you accept the anthropogenic global climate change thesis, your concern is (or should be) carbon neutrality. That is, reducing emissions of so-called “greenhouse gases.” “Carbon-free” sources such as wind and solar are both, but not everything that is one is the other…
A road project that calls for removing trees along one of Minnesota’s most picturesque byways has landowners and conservationists concerned and calling for a different approach. The Minnesota Department of Transportation plans to thin the trees along the roadway and will hold a virtual public meeting about it this week to seek input. The project, estimated at $9 million, will resurface Highway 34 in an area between Detroit Lakes and Park Rapids in the summer of 2023. The stretch is part of what’s known as the Lake Country Scenic Byway, one of 22 designated roadways in the state. Matt Davis, co-president of the Prairie Woods Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, a longstanding conservation organization, said the scenic byway shouldn’t be treated like any other road. “Once you cut those trees, there’s no going back,” Davis said. Specifically, the road work would involve a 21-mile stretch from Becker County Road 29 to old Minnesota Highway 225, just west of Osage…
A sign hanging above the door of a giant open-top glass chamber in a remote part of Minnesota’s Marcell Experimental Forest explains why so many scientists from around the world have worked hard to get a piece of this boreal woodland. “Welcome to the Future” the sign reads, and that is literally what researchers get when they come to do research at Marcell. The experiment — a collaboration between the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory — features 10 open-top glass chambers. Each is 30 feet high, 40 feet in diameter, and designed — by controlling temperature and CO2 levels — to mimic what will happen to boreal peatlands under various global warming scenarios. They range from no change to a very realistic increase of 4 degrees F, to 7 degrees F, and even to a frightening 12 degrees F and higher. The Marcell Experimental Forest was established in 1962 to investigate the ecology and hydrology of the boreal forest, which in North America extends from the Lake Superior area of the northern United States to northern Canada and Alaska. Boreal woodlands — the world’s largest forest system, holding vast carbon-rich peatlands — also cover Scandinavia and much of Russia…
Heat dome, atmospheric river events, heavy and continuous snow – the salty stuff often pushed up against their trunks – and then the ice storm. How are Sea to Sky trees coping with all that has been thrown at them? The Squamish Chief caught up with local tree service owner Paddy Vero of Vertigo Trees to find out what he has seen in the corridor. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: How did last week’s ice storm impact local trees?
A: It’s just so much weight, right? Because our trees haven’t been subjected to it since they were young, they aren’t adapted to it. So they fail. It definitely affects certain species worse than others. It’s just a case of our climate not being the norm.
Q: Is it mostly branches coming down or whole trees?
A: If I go purely off the calls I have received, it’s mostly pieces of tree or branches. But there are trees down. I would say branch damage predominantly. That’s certainly one thing that readers should be aware of, is to look up and see — are there loads of hanging branches that are stuck in there? There might even be some stuck in the snow. Just because they didn’t come down yet, doesn’t mean they’re not going to come down. Those things can come falling out of the tree at any point. It’s not a bad idea to either have a look yourself or call a tree service. Get them to look. If there are hazards, we can get up and clear them…
Cities across the world are on the front line of climate change, and calls are growing for more urban cooling. Many governments are spending big on new trees in public places – but which species are most likely to thrive in a warmer world? Numerical targets such as “one million trees” dominate tree-planting programs in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai, Melbourne and Sydney. But whacking a million trees into the ground won’t necessarily mean greener suburbs in decades to come. Often, not enough attention is paid to selecting the right trees or providing enough water so they survive a hotter, drier climate in future. In our recent research, we assessed the effects of extreme heat and drought on urban tree species. Some much-loved tree species, widely planted across our cities, did not handle the conditions well. It shows how important decisions must be made today for urban greening programs to succeed in a warmer world…
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is encouraging residents to report sightings of the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). The DEC said this tiny insect is a big problem for forests and water resources in the northeast. HWA threatens the eastern hemlock, which makes up large portions of the canopy in many New York forests and maintains water quality in streams by providing shade. The DEC said HWA lives, reproduces and feeds on hemlock trees, killing trees within four to 10 years. Residents can see where this invasive species has been reported on the NY iMapInvasives website. The website shows HWA has been reported in the Capital Region. You can help by checking your trees for HWA and reporting your findings to iMapInvasives.Keep an eye out for small white “fuzz balls” on the undersides of hemlock twigs – the DEC said those are HWA egg masses…
New Jersey in 2022 is trying to get ahead of population outbreaks of the gypsy moth caterpillar, following a few quiet years for the tree-killing pest. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture has proposed treating approximately 5,000 acres of residential and county-owned properties this year. The NJDA held an informational session in Ewing on Wednesday to outline its 2022 Aerial Gypsy Moth Suppression program, the product of egg mass surveys that were conducted from August to December of 2021. “The treatment program has proved very effective during the last several years and has significantly decreased the gypsy moth caterpillar populations across the state,” said New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher. “By treating these areas now, we can prevent this insect’s spread and keep the populations at a minimal levels for the years to come.” Less than 200 acres were recommended for treatment last year, and no areas of the state were recommended for treatment in 2019 and 2020. Approximately 4,000 acres of properties in Burlington, Morris, Passaic, and Warren counties were flagged as problem areas in 2018, a reduction of about 80% compared to 2017…
Feral hogs and the vagaries of Central Texas weather have taken their toll on trees that volunteers planted years ago at the Lake Waco Wetlands. Now City of Waco officials are giving it another shot. City utilities workers started just before Christmas to plant 400 tree saplings in a field near Eichelberger Crossing Road. The wetlands were originally built as part of an environmental mitigation project started in 2001 to make up for the habitat destroyed when the city raised Lake Waco by 7 feet. The new saplings, grown by the Texas A&M Forest Service, are mostly buttonbush trees, smaller oaks and Eastern redbuds. Lake Waco Wetlands Coordinator Nora Schell said in a year or so, another 4,000 trees grown by the state agency will be planted on 1,000 acres in 14 designated areas around Lake Waco. She said weather conditions and improper planting by volunteers might have contributed to the loss of those original trees over time, but mostly she blames the hogs…
As officials continue cleaning up after Monday’s snowstorm, a Maryland Arborist is helping residents prepare their trees for the next weather event. According to a local arborist, part of the clean-up after a snowstorm is fallen trees, limbs, and branches. Which we’re told happens because of heavy snow, ice, and wind that can cause damage to trees, and at times become a hazard for houses, cars, and even people. That’s why they say it’s important to be practice caring for your trees such as fertilizing, watering, and pruning. So when the next storm hits, the trees will be in a healthier condition to bear the effects of a winter storm. “The tree will heal faster and it will heal more appropriately which again goes back to proactive work which allows for less access for those diseases and pathogens,” says Lou Meyer, a Maryland arborist. He adds, “Caring for them either professionally like we do or emotionally life homeowners do is an important thing to ensure that our environment is a success…”
Recent work shows that the plant microbiome-;the microorganisms in a plant and its immediate environment-;influences plant health, survival, and fitness. The initial assembly of the microbiome is particularly important. Assembly refers to the processes that produce the types and numbers of species within the microbiome. This research characterized the initial assembly of the microbiome in several types of poplar trees. The study found that the composition of the microbiome changed dramatically over time. For archaea and bacteria in the microbiome, the passage of time caused the amount of variation to decrease. However, variation among fungi in the microbiome was shaped by several processes. The poplar trees’ genetic makeup proved to be less of a factor than researchers had expected. The initial assembly of a plant microbiome may help set the microbiome’s future. This can determine the overall future health of the plant. However, while scientists know much about the initial microbiome assembly of grasses and agricultural crops, they know less about the initial microbiome of long-lived trees, such as poplar. Poplar trees may be excellent candidates for biofuels and other applications. If scientists gain a better understanding of the plant’s microbiome, they can make greater use of these trees. For example, the findings of this new research could help scientists use microbes to improve the health and growth of popular trees…
It’s not unusual for wet snow to fall at elevations of 4,000 feet and below in the Sierra. It’s also not unusual for that heavy, cement-like snow to bring down a few tree branches and cause some scattered outages. But the damage following last week’s snow that many are still cleaning up from IS unusual. Snowfall totals between Dec. 26 and Dec. 28 were a bit higher than a typical snow event for places like Grass Valley, Placerville and Georgetown but they weren’t exceptional when compared with a storm like what came through in 2009. The extensive damage without an absurd amount of snow got the KCRA 3 weather team thinking “something had to be different this time.” The hypothesis: recent extreme drought conditions had weakened trees and branches making them more likely to topple under heavy snow and gusty winds. Frank Telewski, a woody plant physiologist and Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University says that in a case of extreme drought “the tree may begin to shut down less important branches” in order to conserve water and energy and “then you’ll actually see some dieback in the canopy…”
Houston…we have a solution. A recent study from Rice University, the Houston Health Department’s environmental division and Houston Wilderness discovered the numerous benefits of planting “super trees” – native trees that benefit the environment in a particular area the most – and now, researchers are sharing their findings so other urban areas can benefit. Like all urban areas, Houston has a high amount of pollution and carbon dioxide in the air. It currently ranks 11th in U.S. cities with high ozone days by the American Lung Association. The high level of pollution has led to preventable asthma attacks in school-age children and caused an increase in cardiac arrest. Not to mention, Houston has been greatly impacted by other effects of climate change, like extreme heat and flooding. To mitigate the high pollution levels, planting trees seems like a natural and long-lasting solution. Planting trees and maintaining groves is a crucial part of combating climate change and preserving public health, but determining how, where and what kind is key – and that is exactly what researchers set out to learn…
Power lines down, branches crashing onto parked cars. … I’m always amazed by what that little bit of ice can do to disrupt our 21st century way of life. So the obvious question is: Why so much damage from what amounts to just an overly healthy dose of Jack Frost? Why do some tree species come through with shining colors while others are turned unceremoniously into large piles of future wood chips? The answer is both wood strength and tree architecture. Wood strength is pretty straightforward. The faster they grow, the faster they come crashing down. Fast-growing species produce wood that is significantly less dense. The torque produced by wind, snow and ice loads on a branch generates a tremendous strain, and when that strain exceeds the strength of the wood, we all know what happens. Fast-growing and soft-wooded species include our friends the pines (Pinus species) and many other conifers (which is why we sometimes refer to the group as “softwoods”), the silver maples (Acer saccharinum), the Callery pears (Pyrus calleryana, including “Bradford”) and the dreaded Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila.) We saw plenty of their branches on the ground after the ice storm…
While the rain might be causing flooding, landslides and road closures across Oregon and Washington, an Oregon State University forestry expert said it’s a welcome arrival for vegetation in the region. Chris Still is a professor at the college of forestry at Oregon State University. He said after two years of severe drought, the rain is badly needed for trees and other plants in Northwest Oregon. He also said the snow last week was a good sign. The trouble for trees comes when the snow is very heavy, or most concerning, when there’s an ice storm. “Those are the ones you see where they will take out you know treetops and lots of branches fall and lots of trees die and those tend to be the more damaging events,” Still said. KOIN 6 News contacted Still to ask if vegetation in the region would be more susceptible to cold temperatures during the winter after the stress of the record-breaking temperatures during the heat dome and the ongoing drought. He said he suspects it will be more susceptible to damage during the winter, but scientists are still waiting to see. He said the heat dome and drought could have weakened trees and plants going into the winter…
Several inches of snowfall with the consistency of mashed potatoes have damaged lots of trees. A D.C.-based consumers’ group with tips for hiring a tree service expects scammers will be coming out of the woodwork. “They’re going to be coming to your door saying things like, ‘Oh, I’m doing work just right around the corner. And if you gave me a certain amount of money, a couple of hundred bucks, I can get started dealing with your problem,” Kevin Brasler, executive editor with Consumers’ Checkbook, warned. “You definitely want to not use these companies. You don’t want to use companies that are going door-to-door; that’s not a proper way to solicit business,” he said. Unlike Maryland, Virginia and D.C. do not require tree care services to be licensed. Brasler said anyone hired to work on your property anywhere should be able to show certificates of current policies for liability and workers’ compensation insurance. “That protects you from a big risk. Tree care work is very dangerous,” he said. Workers’ compensation covers the company’s employees. “So, if someone’s injured on the job, you don’t have to pay for the medical bills, the company’s insurance policy does,” Brasler explained…
New Scientist, January 5, 2022: Newly identified tree species named in honour of Leonardo DiCaprio
A tropical, evergreen tree from Cameroon, the first plant species to be named as new to science in 2022, has officially been labelled Uvariopsis dicaprio today in honour of the actor Leonardi DiCaprio. It adds to the list of the strange and spectacular plants that scientists have named in the past 12 months. Martin Cheek at the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and his colleagues – including researchers at the National Herbarium of Cameroon and the University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon – analysed photos and specimens of the tree, which is found in Cameroon’s tropical Ebo forest. They determined it was previously unknown to science, and also appears to be unknown among local communities. The team named the species after actor and environmental activist DiCaprio to commemorate his campaigning efforts to protect Ebo forest from logging. Standing at around 4 metres tall, U. dicaprio can be identified by the distinctive and vibrant glossy yellow-green flowers that grow on its trunk. It is closely related to the ylang-ylang tree (Cananga odorata) which is native to India, South-East Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia…
Residents in parts of Foresthill community of Placer County are still working to clear driveways and move debris while they wait for the power to be restored. On Cedar View Court, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) trucks and other crews worked Wednesday to bring power lines back online. On the same street, trees marked or tied with bright highlighter colors tell crews those are trees that should be removed. But, the trees weren’t marked after the latest storm, and instead, were marked for removal in 2020. The removal was part of the 2020 Enhanced Vegetation Management Plan through PG&E. That safety work narrows in on areas that are deemed a high-fire threat area. The plan was created to address vegetation that may pose a higher potential for wildfire. In a statement to CBS13, a PG&E spokesperson outlined some of the work that falls under that Enhanced Vegetation Management Plan. It includes standards that exceed what the state outlines for minimum clearances around power lines, including pruning overhanging limbs and branches above power lines; additional inspections, beyond the routine patrols, to remove dead or diseased trees that are hazardous; tree evaluation on conditions, especially if the trees are within striking-range of power lines or equipment…
Mankato, Minnesota, January 5, 2022: Mankato to remove 50 ash trees around schools
With the ash-tree-killing emerald ash borer nearing Mankato, city officials and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are working together to remove 50 trees along sidewalks leading to local schools. The preemptive removal is being done in the expectation the trees will die in coming years. Removing the trees before they succumb to the ash borer, which makes ash trees brittle and susceptible to dropping large branches, is a safety measure, said Justin Lundborg, a natural resources specialist for the city. Replacing the ash trees with other species now also means getting a jump on providing new shade trees for the routes. “The project is to increase the safety of our highest-use public sidewalks,” Lundborg said. The $48,000 project will boost the city’s planned ash removal in 2022 by 25% — a total of 250 trees. A DNR grant will cover $32,500 of the cost with the city providing the rest. The 50 trees to be removed, which must be within three blocks of a school, are currently being identified with removal scheduled for this winter and spring. High-quality ash trees will be spared and will be considered for chemical treatments that can ward off the invasive species. It’s just trees that are already declining, have poor structure, poor health, things like that,” he said of the removals…
California investigators have concluded that PG&E Corp. power lines ignited a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada foothills last summer that exploded to become the second-largest in state history. Officials with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said in a statement late Tuesday that the fire started after a tree came into contact with the company’s electrical distribution lines in the forested Feather River Canyon. Cal Fire officials said they forwarded their investigative report to the district attorney’s office in Butte County, where the fire started. The Dixie Fire, which ignited on July 13, grew to consume nearly a million acres across five counties and blackened swaths of scenic forest including much of Lassen Volcanic National Park. It destroyed more than 1,300 structures, including the small town of Greenville, and left one person dead…
Taylor Larson got the idea to start tapping bigleaf maple trees at his family’s Willamette Valley farm in 2015. That first winter, he collected enough sap in aluminum buckets from two trees to make a few pints of maple syrup. It wasn’t fancy, but it allowed him to see the potential of adding another specialty crop to the farm’s repertoire. “We’re always looking to add more things to what we do,” said Larson, who runs My Brothers’ Farm in Creswell, Ore., south of Eugene with his brothers, Austin and Ben. Together, they produce organic hazelnuts, apples, pork and bison on about 320 acres along the Coast Fork Willamette River. A chunk of the land is also managed as riparian forest for fish and wildlife habitat. That allows bigleaf maples — native to the Pacific Northwest — to thrive on the property. While syrup production remains more of a hobby at My Brothers’ Farm, researchers at Oregon State University are studying what it would take to create a larger commercial industry akin to maple sugaring in the Northeastern U.S…
National Geographic, January 4, 2022: An imported tree fuels Patagonia’s terrifying summer fires
In Patagonia, that ultimate wild frontier at the end of the world, the arrival of summer used to come as a blessing. Snow receded. Lakes filled with fresh, clear snowmelt. The landscape came alive with color. Recently, though, summer has become a cause for fear. A series of fires last March nearly devoured La Comarca Andina, a fairy-tale forest in the Patagonia Mountains of Argentina. Along the 42nd parallel, the fires burned through more than 54,000 acres in just a few days. Three people died. Three hundred houses burned. Jesus Olmos remembers awakening to a horrific noise and the smell of smoke. He walked outside to find the surrounding forest an inferno. Gas tanks at nearby homes exploded like bombs, and a tongue of flame, whipped by the wind, was racing toward his home. “I ran as if from the roar of a dragon,” he says. His only chance to get out alive was to flee immediately. He opened the gates for his animals and ran through clouds of smoke that caused fits of coughing. With welts of burned flesh forming on his hands, face, and neck, left his previous life behind…
Phys.org, January 4, 2022: Risk vs. reward: How towns care for trees varies
When a hurricane or other violent storm blows through a community, one of the first pictures you’re likely to see is a fallen tree. But downed trees and limbs aren’t just a byproduct of storms—they are an everyday occurrence that can often be avoided with the right efforts. According to a new study by researchers at the University of Georgia, the perceptions residents have about these risks can greatly influence a community’s response. As a result, there’s often a gap between perception and reality that puts large parts of communities at risk. Published in the journal Land, the study looks at the intersection of urban forest risk management and how residents view the risks posed by community trees. By revealing a patchwork of responses that don’t always correspond with a community’s resources or staffing, it shows the gap between how residents identify risk and what’s needed to avoid it in the first place. “Some of our findings showed almost a disconnect between what municipalities are doing and what residents were doing. And that’s important because a huge amount of a city is going to be privately owned land,” said Abbie Judice, a recent graduate of the UGA Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources who is now an arborist with New Urban Forestry. “So, a lot of risk mitigation is happening on a municipal level, but community members weren’t aware of it. It was really like, person by person, if they were proactive about their own property’s risk management…”
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is encouraging folks across the country to remove their Christmas trees after the holiday season due to fire safety concerns. According to the NFPA, nearly 30% of U.S. home fires involving Christmas trees occur during the month of January. With this in mind, the association encourages citizens to remove their Christmas trees as soon as possible. “As much as we all enjoy the look and feel of Christmas trees in our homes, they’re large combustible items that have the potential to result in serious fires,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of Outreach and Advocacy. Carli adds that fresh Christmas trees, which continue to dry out and become much more flammable over time, are involved in a much larger share of reported Christmas tree-related fires compared to artificial trees. According to the latest data from NFPA, 160 home fires began with Christmas trees, resulting in two civilian deaths, 12 injuries and $10 million in direct property damage on average each year between 2015 and 2019…
Community members are up bright and early on Nov. 20 at All Five, a preschool in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood. And they’re hard at work. Students are digging holes with shovels taller than they are. Parents are wicking away dirt from tree roots. Marty Deggeller, who’s been planting for 25 years in the area, stabilizes the young tree with a metal pipe so it will grow straight. By the end of the event, they’ll have planted 17 trees on the school grounds with Canopy, a tree planting nonprofit. Belle Haven residents Maria Cruz and her son Jeff Caceres dig holes together by the playhouse. For Cruz, the event is a special moment for her family and the community at large. “I want my son to come back in 10, 15 years and see how it’s doing,” Cruz says. “Trees are very important for us. Everyone should have them.” But in reality, not all communities do. There’s a severe shortage of tree canopy coverage in low-income neighborhoods. As average temperatures rise in the Bay Area, this means more extreme heat days for vulnerable communities. Palo Alto, a city with a median annual income of $158,000, has tree canopy coverage as high as 25% in some neighborhoods, according to the Healthy Places Index. Trees occupy a fourth of the land within the city…
Zanesville, Ohio, Times-Recorder, January 3, 2022: Plentiful oak trees now endangered in Ohio
Forestry is an often overlooked part of Ohio’s agricultural industry, although there are more than 8 million acres of forest lands in Ohio. That’s more acres than corn and soybeans combined. It has been said when Ohio was settled, the trees were so thick a squirrel could climb up a tree at Marietta and travel all the way to Lake Erie without ever touching the ground. Unfortunately, the feat was never documented and it is probable that no squirrel in their right mind would be tempted to try it. We do know, however, that early Ohio was covered with forests of oak, walnut, beach, elm, maple, ash, hickory and other species. The trees were so thick they could be a detriment to settlers trying to establish their farms. Early settlers found the trees essential for providing wood for their homes, barns and fences. They needed the wood to heat and light their homes. But the trees were so thick they kept sunlight from reaching cropland and had to be cut down or, in most cases, burned so crops could grow. Trees were considered a never-ending problem…
Phys.org, January 3, 2022: Accidental tree wound reveals novel symbiotic behavior by ants
One afternoon, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Panama, a bored teenager with a slingshot and a clay ball accidentally shot entry and exit holes in a Cecropia tree trunk. These are “ant-plant” trees, which famously cooperate with fierce Azteca ants; the trees provide shelter and food to the ants, and in exchange the ants defend their leaves against herbivores. The next morning, to the student’s surprise, the Azteca alfari ants living within the Cecropia trunk had patched up the wound. This unexpected occurrence drove five curious high school students, with time on their hands, to participate in the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s (STRI) volunteer program, and they enlisted STRI scientist William T. Wcislo’s help in devising their experiment. Despite significant movement restrictions during the first wave of the pandemic, they roamed their neighborhood drilling holes into Cecropia trees and documenting the ants’ responses to the damage. They found that as soon as the plants had holes drilled into them, the ants ran to the wound area and began patching it up. Within 2.5 hours, the size of the hole had been significantly reduced and it was often completely repaired within 24 hours. Although some Azteca ants are known to defend their Cecropia host plants against herbivores, these new results, published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, reveal that not only do the ants behave in ways to minimize damage to their hosts, but when damage does occur, they actively work to fix it, particularly when their brood is directly threatened…
White oak trees that play a key role in the ecosystem and economy of Kentucky will see a significant decline soon without action to help the species regenerate. That’s the takeaway from a recent report from an organization called the White Oak Initiative, which is aimed at bringing attention to the challenges facing the tree and recommending ways to counter the looming decline. White oaks are a cornerstone species in forests of the eastern U.S., providing habitat and food for birds and animals and wood for wide range of products such as flooring and cabinets. In Kentucky, that includes barrels for the signature bourbon industry. Bourbon has to be aged in new charred oak containers, which give it color and flavor. All told, white oaks play a role in billions of dollars of economic activity in Kentucky annually. The problem is that they are not regenerating at a sustainable level, according to the report. Researchers estimated that 60 percent of the mature white oaks acres surveyed had no seedlings present, and 87 percent had no saplings. There are still plenty of high-quality white oaks in Kentucky and elsewhere, but there are relatively few younger trees coming on, raising a concern about a drop in the white oak population without changes in forest management, according to the initiative…
A local tree company talked about the importance of tree maintenance to possibly prevent tree damage on and around your home before bad weather. Cleaning up debris and nailing down items that can be blown away in your yard are just a few things homeowners should do before severe weather. Most Middle Tennessee will brace for severe storms over the next 24 hours. Music City Tree said they’d been bombarded with tree removal since the onset of the last storm a few weeks ago. “If you have a tree that’s concerning a couple of days before you know, get an arborist out there that can come out on an emergency response, take care of it before it is a problem,” Music City Tree Company Owner Orlando Stricklen said. Stricklen said maintenance is vital in the days, weeks, and even months ahead of severe weather. “A lot of people don’t understand that trees need maintenance. They need to be inspected like anything else, especially if you have large trees that are near your home,” Stricklen said. “You want to have those inspected at least once or twice a year to make sure that they’re healthy and to make sure they can withstand a storm…”
Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources has ordered residents to refrain from burning their Christmas trees on a popular Oahu sandbar. In years past, people have gathered at the sandbar nestled between the open Pacific Ocean and Kaneohe Bay to burn their Christmas trees in a bonfire. However, the state’s land agency has warned it is causing environmental damage. “People haul their trees to Ahu O Laka by boat and burning them is detrimental to the sandbar and the surrounding marine ecosystem,” Hawaii’s environmental law enforcement chief, Jason Redulla, said in a press release. This sentiment was echoed by the president of the Ko’olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, who highlighted the environmental impact as well as the land’s sacred meaning to Native Hawaiians…
Portland, Oregon, Oregonian, January 1, 2022: ‘Round over’ method of pruning trees often causes more harm than good: Ask an expert
Q: The trees on my property have long branches that have grown out during spring and summer. Do I have to cut them back? I’m afraid that cutting them will just cause more to be created and thus I’ll be in a mode of always having to prune them back. The trees are 20 years old. They are watered with sprinkler three days a week. No fertilizer. I think they are maples. – Yamhill County
A: Oh, my. It looks like a tree trimmer has repeatedly visited your neighborhood to “prune” the trees, not just your trees, but also those of your neighbors. The method that was used is a variation of topping, sometime referred to as a “round over.” Unfortunately, that sort of pruning is rarely, if ever, recommended by well-trained arborists. (See “Don’t Top Trees!”) The outcome of cutting off the top of a tree or, in your case, across a relatively large branch, is shown in the illustration in “Tree Pruning” on Page 3, at the lower left. The new shoots that arise near the cut are loosely connected. Thus, once they become large enough, they will break loose and drop without warning…
Tree and Neighbor Law For Homeowners and Professionals