Tree Tenders offer classes in Delaware County - Life - Delco News Network
How big should I dig the hole? How often should I water? Do I need to fertilize the tree? Planting a tree isn’t rocket science, but there are some basic steps a gardener needs to know if the tree is going to thrive.
Delaware County residents can get tips on planting and caring for new trees by enrolling in a Tree Tender course offered April 6, 13 and 20 in Rutledge Borough Hall and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS.) The fee for the nine-hour evening course is $25.
Residents 16 and older may register online at phsonline.org or by calling 215-988-8845 or 215-988-8793. Rutledge Borough Hall is located at 212 Unity Terrace in Rutledge.
“We get all questions having to do with proper planting and care,” says Barley Van Clief, Tree Tenders project manager. “One of the things we want everybody to learn is what they should and can handle themselves and when they should call a professional arborist.
“We don’t want them to be climbing tall trees with a pruning saw!”
Another basic lesson is how to properly mulch a tree. Van Clief bemoans the fact that so many landscapers are piling mulch high against the trunk of a tree, forming what she calls a “mulch volcano,” that “the public interprets that it’s the correct and best way to mulch. But … mulch volcanoes are very detrimental.”
Perhaps the most critical part of planting a tree, she says, is planting it at the correct depth. “Too many times trees are planted too deeply, which smothers the root system.”
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Miami Beach will replace Alton Road oaks removed for bike trail - Miami Beach, FL
Miami Beach will replace Alton Road oaks - Miami Beach - MiamiHerald.com
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2138718/miami-beach-will-replace-alton.html#ixzz1I5HNlvZH
As part of an improvement project that will widen the road, improve drainage and add bike lanes, the City of Miami Beach cut down 20 oak trees on Alton Road.
Oak trees on Alton Road were removed as the South Point Improvement Project, which will widen the road, improve underground infrastructure such as storm drainage and add new curbs, sidewalks and bike lanes.
BY LAURA EDWINS
LEDWINS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Last week Miami Beach’s tree canopy got a trim.
About 20 oak trees were removed on Alton Road, south of Fifth Street, as part of the ciyt’s South Pointe Improvement Project which will widen the road, improve storm drainage and add new curbs, sidewalks and bike lanes.
According to Nannette Rodriguez , a spokeswoman for the City of Miami Beach, the South Pointe Improvement Project is near completion.
However, the sight of the “beheaded” oaks has some worried about the city’s plans for the area.
“Every time we loose trees it’s very painful,” said Laura Mullaney, a South Miami resident and regular visitor to Miami Beach. Mullaney, who is also a member of the Coral Gables Historical Society, worries about the overall canopy coverage in Miami-Dade County.
“We need to increase the tree canopy. Miami-Dade County does not have a very dense tree canopy, and it’s such an environmentally correct thing to do,” she said.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/28/2138718/miami-beach-will-replace-alton.html#ixzz1I5HNlvZH
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
MillionTreesNYC Symposium Content Available Online
MillionTreesNYC Symposium Content Available Online -- Environmental Protection
The Cities and the Environment website provides information on the latest research in urban ecology science.
On-line access to the latest urban ecology science is available in a special issue of Cities and the Environment (CATE).
The issue features peer-reviewed articles and poster abstracts resulting from last year’s MillionTreesNYC, Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecology Symposium, and includes topics ranging from urban pollinator communities to civic engagement in urban forestry.
CATE is published in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service with support from Loyola Marymount University and Boston College. The journal publishes peer-reviewed scholarship on urban ecology research and urban ecology education.
“As the United States population becomes increasingly urban, it is important to understand the benefits provided by urban ecosystems and also the challenges faced by environmental managers in maintaining these resources,” said Erika Svendsen, a research social scientist with the Forest Service's Northern Research Station. “On-line access to MillionTreesNYC Research Symposium results is a tremendous tool that will enhance our understanding of the urban environment.”
Funeral home owner, others at odds over large elm with roots pushing up sidewalk - Fall River, MA
Funeral home owner, others at odds over large elm with roots pushing up sidewalk - Fall River, MA - The Herald News
Read more: http://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x1608498771/Funeral-home-owner-others-at-odds-over-large-elm-with-roots-pushing-up-sidewalk#ixzz1HzOuqobo
FALL RIVER —
Overtures to cut down the regal American elm at Broadway and Osborn over the past decade never flew, and there’s no expectation that the tree, pulling at the sidewalk, is going anywhere.
About 75 feet tall — twice the height of the three-story Boule Funeral Home at its side — the thick trunk of the famous elm variety nears the 4-foot diameter they have been known to reach.
The American elm became the most dominant shade tree east of the Rockies a half-century ago. The large numbers of them led to Elm Street being regarded as the most common street name in the country.
Mary Ann Wordell, president of the Fall River Street Planting Program, said she’s heard of another such elm in a resident’s yard on Hood Street, but she has never seen it. And there could be a few other elms of this stature in the city.
But, like New Haven, Conn., and Portland, Maine — both dubbed “City of Elms," nicknames no longer applicable — Fall River bid adieu to these upright canopies when the infamous Dutch elm disease blanketed the eastern half of the country. The deadly fungus covered a swath from southern Maine to Florida, North Dakota to Texas, and a ribbon along the Canadian border.
The city’s desire to protect the trees, foster new ones and grow their green canopies has become clear in recent months, as proposals for a tree ordinance have been debated publicly and will continue.
Last week, Wordell and her group joined Community Maintenance Director Kenneth Pacheco in refining proposal requests they plan to distribute to hire a qualified tree warden with a $30,000 matching state grant.
The two of them, along with Boule Funeral co-owner Thomas Wilkinson, offered comments about Wilkinson’s bid years ago to remove the American elm because of its safety infringement upon his business.
The American elm became the most dominant shade tree east of the Rockies a half-century ago. The large numbers of them led to Elm Street being regarded as the most common street name in the country.
Mary Ann Wordell, president of the Fall River Street Planting Program, said she’s heard of another such elm in a resident’s yard on Hood Street, but she has never seen it. And there could be a few other elms of this stature in the city.
But, like New Haven, Conn., and Portland, Maine — both dubbed “City of Elms," nicknames no longer applicable — Fall River bid adieu to these upright canopies when the infamous Dutch elm disease blanketed the eastern half of the country. The deadly fungus covered a swath from southern Maine to Florida, North Dakota to Texas, and a ribbon along the Canadian border.
The city’s desire to protect the trees, foster new ones and grow their green canopies has become clear in recent months, as proposals for a tree ordinance have been debated publicly and will continue.
Last week, Wordell and her group joined Community Maintenance Director Kenneth Pacheco in refining proposal requests they plan to distribute to hire a qualified tree warden with a $30,000 matching state grant.
The two of them, along with Boule Funeral co-owner Thomas Wilkinson, offered comments about Wilkinson’s bid years ago to remove the American elm because of its safety infringement upon his business.
Read more: http://www.heraldnews.com/archive/x1608498771/Funeral-home-owner-others-at-odds-over-large-elm-with-roots-pushing-up-sidewalk#ixzz1HzOuqobo
Report: Tree canopy declining in Seattle's parks and forests - Seattle, WA
Report: Tree canopy declining in Seattle's parks and forests
By LARRY LANGE
SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM
By LARRY LANGE
SPECIAL TO SEATTLEPI.COM
Seattle is losing trees in its parks and urban forests, the last places you might think that would happen.
The trend, picked up by a recent study of the city's tree canopy, results from an aging public forest that's dying, being slowly choked by invasive plants or killed by disease.The finding about parks deviates from the study conclusion that, city-wide, Seattle's tree canopy -- the percentage of in-city ground covered by trees and their leafy branches -- had grown slightly over five years.
Statistics showing the decline in the parks and natural areas appear in a report summarizing results of a 2009 study that analyzed the amount of tree cover above Seattle's landscape.
The report said the canopy in developed parks and boulevards declined from 25.3 per cent in 2002 to 24.6 percent in 2007. Tree cover at city-owned natural areas like greenbelts declined from 82.7 percent in 2002 to 80.8 percent in 2007.
The study said that meant there were 60 fewer acres of parks and natural that were shaded or protected by trees in 2007. That's a reduction equal to an area three times the size of the Safeco Field site.
The estimate was contained in a 2009 study done for the city Parks & Recreation Department by a Colorado consultant, using satellite imaging and geographic information system data.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Watchdog: 'Leave the trees alone' - homeowners seek relief from BGE line clearance - Annapolis, MD
Watchdog: 'Leave the trees alone' • Columnists (www.HometownAnnapolis.com - The Capital)
Couple questions BGE's 'one size fits all' policy
By ALLISON BOURG, The Capital
Published 03/28/2011
Paul Goszkowski is no tree hugger.
But that doesn't mean he wants anyone messing with the two 100-year-old Norway spruce trees on his Bay Ridge Road property, where he has lived since 1987. The 50-foot trees form a teepee over the house, shrouding it from the buzz of traffic outside.
"One of the reasons we bought this house was because it was heavily screened from the road," said his wife, Lucy. "We already lost 13 trees to the county when they put the bike path in 1997."
Now, the Goszkowskis are afraid they're going to lose their spruces - or at least a big portion of them - once tree trimmers contracted by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. start cutting their branches.
The problem, they complained to the Watchdog, is a BGE policy that prohibits trees from coming within 10 feet of utility lines. Paul Goszkowski said he's been told that the spruces sway too close to the wires, even though the trees are planted far enough away from the power lines.
Couple questions BGE's 'one size fits all' policy
By ALLISON BOURG, The Capital
Published 03/28/2011
Paul Goszkowski is no tree hugger.
But that doesn't mean he wants anyone messing with the two 100-year-old Norway spruce trees on his Bay Ridge Road property, where he has lived since 1987. The 50-foot trees form a teepee over the house, shrouding it from the buzz of traffic outside.
"One of the reasons we bought this house was because it was heavily screened from the road," said his wife, Lucy. "We already lost 13 trees to the county when they put the bike path in 1997."
Now, the Goszkowskis are afraid they're going to lose their spruces - or at least a big portion of them - once tree trimmers contracted by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. start cutting their branches.
The problem, they complained to the Watchdog, is a BGE policy that prohibits trees from coming within 10 feet of utility lines. Paul Goszkowski said he's been told that the spruces sway too close to the wires, even though the trees are planted far enough away from the power lines.
Pittsburgh's ash, oak trees expected to die off - Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh's ash, oak trees expected to die off
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11086/1135083-455.stm#ixzz1Huz4jJXN
Borer 'unstoppable,' 165,000 ash in peril
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Woodpeckers are already very busy, digging emerald ash borer larvae out of the city's ash trees and loving it.
But folks who like to stroll down tree-shaded neighborhood streets, relax in sylvan backyards or hike through the city's forested parks will have a more negative and potentially more dangerous view of the imminent, massive and costly die off of ash and, to a lesser extent, oak, in Pittsburgh's urban forest.
Over the next three to eight years, as the rat-a-tat-tat of the opportunistic woodpeckers echoes through the city's parks and neighborhoods, more than 165,000 ash trees will likely be killed by emerald ash borer infestation, according to city forester David Jahn. Oak wilt fungus will also claim some of the 45,000 oaks in the city.
But folks who like to stroll down tree-shaded neighborhood streets, relax in sylvan backyards or hike through the city's forested parks will have a more negative and potentially more dangerous view of the imminent, massive and costly die off of ash and, to a lesser extent, oak, in Pittsburgh's urban forest.
Over the next three to eight years, as the rat-a-tat-tat of the opportunistic woodpeckers echoes through the city's parks and neighborhoods, more than 165,000 ash trees will likely be killed by emerald ash borer infestation, according to city forester David Jahn. Oak wilt fungus will also claim some of the 45,000 oaks in the city.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11086/1135083-455.stm#ixzz1Huz4jJXN
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