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…

If you enjoy working in your woodlot and struggle with the undesirable trees that you may not have time and skill to safely fell, this study is designed to find a solution for you.

Many woodland owners have a large number of undesirable trees, or large trees, they would like to kill, yet they lack the skill or time to safely fell these trees. Felling also may not be desirable because of the risk of damage to nearby…

Plant a Tree or Rental It: Your Choice

Planting a tree isn’t rocket science, which is good thing. If it were that complex, I’d wager we’d have a lot fewer trees lining our streets. It may not take a scientist to plant a tree correctly, but a lot of money is spent each year to buy and plant trees which may as well be leased, because they will only live a fraction of their…

Porcelain Berry

A total lunar eclipse is likely more common than the swift removal of a novel invasive plant infestation, but fingers are crossed that such a thing happened in St. Lawrence County this summer. The plant eradication, I mean—we all know about the celestial event this past July, the first central lunar eclipse since June 2011. Thanks to the sharp eyes of Dr. Tony Beane, a Professor of Veterinary Science at SUNY Canton who is also an avid naturalist, an exotic vine capable…

Cornell's ForestConnect program is facilitating a network of forest vegetation practitioners to identify research needs and collectively build knowledge of safe and effective techniques. This network will focus on vegetation management in forest and woodlot environments using herbicide, mechanical or livestock methods. 

   You can help this network and identify needs…

The fall meeting of the NY Nut Growers Association will be held on Saturday, September 15th at the Albers Tree Farm, 6499 Wilbur Creek Road, Bath, NY and the Lisbin Tree Farm, 3361 Parker Road, Avoca, NY.  This will be a walking tour and discussion of new plantings of chestnut, hazelnut, hickory and walnut trees.  The meeting is open to the public.  For more information and to register please visit nynga.org.   

From the New York Growers Association website:  nynga.org, Professor Thomas Molnar, a hazelnut breeder at Rutgers University, would like to obtain seeds of the American hazelnut, Corylus americana for use in their breeding program. The goal is to select superior individuals for Eastern Filbert Blight resistance, for cold hardiness, and for boosting genetic diversity available in hybrid hazelnuts. The nuts will be grown out by a team of researchers, and the best will be propagated and…

Tom Molnar the hazelnut breeder at Rutgers University and Shawn Mehlenbacher the hazelnut breeder at Oregon State University would like to obtain native American hazelnut, Corylus americana seeds/plants from across NYS.  American hazelnut has good resistance to Eastern filbert blight and has good cold hardiness, unfortunately the nut quality isn't as good (size, shell thickness) as with the European hazelnut.  The breeders would like to increase the American hazelnut genetic material they…

Black locust is one of the most rot resistant woods native to North America.  Straight black locust posts and poles are in demand by grape and hop growers, and organic farmers who wish to fence in livestock or fence out deer.  The heartwood of locust trees is the most resistant to decay so larger diameter material will be the longest lasting. 

NYS-DEC considers black locust to be invasive and there are restrictions on planting black locust in certain areas of NYS.  Before considering…

Ticked Off

The downside of nice weather is that ticks like it too. Blackflies and mosquitoes can take the fun out of a day of hiking or gardening, but a single deer tick can ruin a whole summer if it transmits Lyme or other serious disease. Fortunately, there’s a relatively new tool in the battle against deer ticks: mice.

As recently as fifteen years ago in northern NY state it was rare to find a single black-legged tick, commonly known as a deer tick, on your person even after…

Theory of Language

I’m amazed how communication, more complex than a spider web and far more fragile, actually seems to work from time to time. Even among those who share a common tongue, each has an internal dictionary, none of which entirely agrees with the next person’s. My wife is francophone, which adds a layer of complexity to the challenge of sharing ideas in a relationship.

But an even bigger issue can arise when folks fail to notice they’re speaking different…

Nuts are good for your health; they are truly super foods.  Like anything else worthwhile they do require a bit of work to grow, harvest and make use of.  However, doing so can be rewarding and is a way to add some healthy, locally grown food to your diet.  The best adapted nut species for NYS are black walnuts, butternuts, chestnuts (depending on your hardiness zone,) hazelnuts, and shagbark hickories.

Hazelnuts are easy to grow and come into production in roughly 4 to 5 years…

Let Them Eat Wood

Nearly all historians agree Marie Antoinette probably never coined the phrase “Let them eat cake,” a saying already in popular culture before her time. The phrase was ascribed to her by opponents to bolster her reputation as callous and arrogant. She would have seemed far more benevolent if she had said “Let them eat wood.”

From remote villages to five-star urban restaurants, people around the world consume all manner of delectable dishes featuring second-hand…

(Note: This is by Joe Hovels, a longtime forester and proponent of good silviculture from Wisconsin. If you like this essay, consider signing up for his newsletter Wisconsin Partnerships in Forestry at logcabin@nnex.net)

Water:A Tragedy of Responsibility Joe Hovels, Wisconsin Partnerships in Forestry Environmental problems place great constraint on all societies. The response of the society, its leaders in particular, determines the…

Trap Trees

When I hear the phrase “trap tree,” an image of Charlie Brown’s kite-eating tree in the Peanuts comic strip comes immediately to mind. But trap trees, or sentinel trees, are meant to nab a much smaller airborne object, the emerald ash borer (EAB).

The idea is to make certain ash trees more attractive to EAB, to serve both as a monitoring tool and as a means of slowing the rate of ash death. Early in the growing season, a chosen ash tree is…

(Note: This is intended as a resource to pass along to general audiences as an introduction to the issue. Peter has loads of detailed information on beech thickets on his blog and elsewhere, so the only thing Forestconnect members will gain form reading this is possibly a smile.)

Beech Gone Wild

The sturdy, long-lived and stately American beech, Fagus grandifolia, has been slowly dying out since 1920, when a tiny European insect pest was accidentally released…