Scarred for Life

Paul Hetzler, ISA Certified Arborist

It makes sense that dying trees have terminal bud scars. Sounds like an awful condition – my condolences. But the healthiest trees have them, too (terminal scars, not condolences). It’s a good thing, since terminal bud (aka bud-scale) scars provide an excellent way to leaf through a tree’s health records going back 5 to 10 years.

After a woody plant has its full complement of leaves, and they have hardened off, that…

Treeconomics 101: Color-Coded Prosperity

Deciduous trees, lakeside ice-cream stands, and marinas all close down each autumn for the same reason: as daylight dwindles and cold creeps in, their outfits become less and less profitable. At a certain point it makes sense to batten the hatches until the following spring.



Some enterprising holdouts stay open longer; perhaps they have a cost advantage others do not, or have less competition. A few are the opposite, closing shop…

Beech Health Update

Paul Hetzler, ISA Certified Arborist

In the early 19^th century, a Prussian diplomat asserted that “when France sneezes, the whole of Europe catches a cold.” Things changed, obviously. For a long while it has been an American financial sneeze able to make the world ill. Though China’s economy is projected to soon zip past ours, other countries still put hankies to their faces when the USA coughs.

Canada has been covering up for some time…

Forest Health Forecast

If you’re tired of hearing about new invasive forest pests, I’m right there with you. Seems they arrive at an ever-increasing pace, and the harm potential ratchets up with each newcomer. At this rate maybe we’ll get a wood-boring beetle whose larvae explode, which would put things in perspective. As distasteful as it is to peer at the cast of ugly new characters, it’s better to know what we’re up against.

Novel pests put everyone on a steep learning…

Crabby Apples and Other Complaints

We waited a long time for summer to arrive this year, so it is unfair that some flowering crabapples are turning yellow and brown and shedding their leaves already. Mountain-ash, serviceberry, and hawthorn are also affected by the same disorder. Here and there a few maples and other species are also dropping random leaves, which are for the most part still green, often with patches of black or brown. The latter situation has a different origin, but…

Oak Wilt

It’s hard to be cheerful in a job where I am expected to keep up on each newly arrived or imminent threat from invasive insects, novel plant diseases, and worrisome trends in the environment. Although I typically deflate everyone’s happy-bubble when I give a talk, I’ve discovered we need not fret that the sky is going to fall.

The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) is a joint effort of research institutions, government agencies and nonprofit groups; their…

Fish Forestry

As many anglers know, trees and fish are closely related. Really; it goes way beyond basswood. The relationship is not in the sense of phylum or family, of course. And it's not like the way in which tomatoes and fish were briefly married in a 1996 experiment at Oakland, California-based DNA Plant Technology in an attempt to get a frost-tolerant tomato (or possibly a saucy fish). If it weren’t for tree cover, cold-water fish species would not survive in most of the…

Maple Motion Sickness

No one wants to be told they have a weathered complexion, but many trees this summer, especially maples, are looking a bit worse for the wear as a result of conditions earlier in the season. “Leaf tatter” is a term used to describe foliage which may be torn and bedraggled-looking, distorted, sometimes with blackened spots or zones. It can easily look like a disease or mysterious pest is ravaging the tree.

As tree buds open and young leaves begin to unfurl,…

(N)ice Meadows

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, we can appreciate ice a little more. Among other things, ice greatly improves summertime drinks, and an icy watermelon is hands-down better than a warm one. And in this part of the world, ice also provides us with unique wildflower meadows. Along stretches of riverbank in the southern Adirondacks, rare Arctic-type flowers are blooming now in the fragile slices of native grasslands that are meticulously groomed each year by the…

Most Things in Moderation

As a teenager, my son had a saying, whether original or borrowed I don’t know (the saying, that is), which went something like “All things in moderation. Especially moderation.” It would seem Mother Nature took that to heart, and dispensed with moderate rainfall and snow melt this spring. If not her, then maybe it was Creepy Uncle Climate Change. At any rate, the resultant flooding has been heartbreaking to observe.

While I am of course sensitive to…

Plant a Legacy on Arbor Day

Muskrat Week. Velcro Month. Arbor Day. You know it’s an obscure event when the greeting-card trade hasn’t bothered to capitalize on it. While not the best-known observance, Arbor Day has a respectable history, as well as a local connection.

Rooted in northern NY, Arbor Day is observed on the last Friday in April. J. Sterling Morton of Adams, NY germinated the concept in 1872 to highlight the need to conserve topsoil and increase timber in his adopted…

If anyone needs DEC pesticide Credits, this course was just approved for NYSDEC Pesticide Credits as follows:

5.50 in Categories 2, 3a, 9 and 10;

4.50 in Category 25;

3.00 in 6a;

1.00 in 1a.

ISA CEU Credit also pre-approved.

See sidebar under Upcoming Events for details.

Unnatural Selection

Paul Hetzler

After a winter fraught with temperature swings, ice and near-record cold such as this past one, being able to finally plant things outdoors is especially welcome. While flowers can be dug up and replanted around the yard much like arranging the lawn furniture, it is different with trees.

Consider that the act of planting a tree is in many ways a transcendent one. Sure, a new tree will give us shade, beauty, energy savings and increased…

Tree Pruning Workshop

Or:

Neglecting Young Trees Leads to Delinquency!

When: Wednesday, March 20, 2019 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Where: St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Learning Center, 40 West Main Street, Canton

Agenda:

9:30: Registration

10:00 to 10:45:Tree Wound Response & Compartmentalization

10:45 to 11:15: Trees and Threes—The Commandments of Pruning

11:15 to 12:00: Why We Prune, & Reality…

Love Trees

Generally speaking, I love trees, even those I must admire from a distance, such as the love-tree, a.k.a. the cacao, Theobroma cacao, from which chocolate is derived. Not only is chocolate associated with romance—most notably on Valentine’s Day—it can potentially help us feel more lovey-dovey thanks to some of the chemicals the tree produces.

Native to Central America, the cacao tree grows almost exclusively within about twenty degrees latitude either side of the…

Emerging Invasive Forest Pests: Identification, Prevention & Management

When: Wednesday, January 16, 2019 9:00 AM until 3:30 PM

Where: St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Center, Classroom A, 40 West Main Street, Canton NY

Cost: $10.00 Includes lunch and materials.

Pre-registration required; please call (315) 379-9192. For information, email…

Run, Dorothy—Emerald City is Falling

Watertown is poised to become an Emerald City, but that’s not good news. Jefferson and Lewis will soon be Emerald Counties, and St. Lawrence County began the process of change two years ago. Unfortunately, this kind of transformation does not involve happy…

Evolution, Just for Fun

Every time I make primordial soup, it tastes terrible, but maybe some element is missing.

Roughly four billion years ago in the original batch of soup—or possibly it was a stew or even a souffle; that detail is a bit hazy—single-celled organisms first made an…