Posts Tagged ‘Forestry’

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Woodlot Management: Losing Money By High-Grading

100_1149What do you call a dairy farmer who spends decades improving the genetics of a herd, then abruptly sells all the best animals to start a new herd from scraggly, unproven stock? Crazy, perhaps, or foolish at the very least.

Under normal circumstances, no livestock farmer culls their best animals to start over with random ones. Yet it’s common for woodlot owners to sell all the large, well-formed trees during a timber sale and leave nothing but small and defective trees to regenerate the next forest. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Climate Change is Altering Nature’s Clock

Salamander-Stager-600x383Scientist Curt Stager walks along the edge of the woods, his flashlight shining into the shallow water of a leafy, roadside pool on a dark night in Paul Smiths. It’s late April, and he’s out looking for spotted salamanders, wood frogs, and spring peepers that have migrated to shallow vernal pools to breed. After poking around for a minute, he lets out an excited shout: “There’s a salamander! There he is! He’s early!”

In the water is a dark, four-inch-long creature with bright yellow spots. In the same pool not far away, wood frogs float on the surface. In another week, pools like this will be a filled with breeding frogs and salamanders, which will leave behind egg sacks that hatch into larvae.

Spotted salamanders spend most of the year underground, so seeing them is rare except during these annual breeding migrations. Their journeys are triggered by the first rains of spring. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, July 9, 2015

Are American Elm Trees On The Rebound?

TOS_American_ElmOn a recent damp May morning I walked around Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, with arborist Brian Beaty. While he is responsible for all of the trees in the center of the campus, our visit focused on a small number of trees that require an inordinate amount of his attention. These were the college’s mature American elms – tall, elegant, and, most importantly, healthy.

Beaty wants to keep them that way, which is why he checks on the elms almost daily from early spring to late summer, and has his crew look them over every time they drive by one. “We don’t have a lot big elms left,” he explained. Of the hundreds of mature elms that once adorned the college, only twenty remain. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Trees: Understanding Roots And Root Care

PaulHetzlerTreeRootAngelaPerry4002.5April showers bring May flowers, the calls of spring peeper frogs, and of course, backhoes. Yes, it’s construction season, which for arborists and trees is also root-damage season.

As far as trees are concerned, root injury is the source of all evil. Well, most of it, anyway; chainsaws and forest fires aren’t so kind to trees, either. But regardless of the worrisome signs a tree may develop, whether early fall leaf color, tip dieback, slow growth, or even some diseases and insect infestations, the problem is below ground in the majority of cases. » Continue Reading.


Monday, May 18, 2015

Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week

EABadult4in72DavidCappaertMichiganStateUIt’s not Dorothy’s fault, or even that of the Wizard of Oz, but the emerald city isn’t what it used to be. By “emerald city” I mean Fort Wayne, Indiana. Naperville, Illinois. Dayton, Ohio or any number of Midwestern communities that are decidedly less green than before the emerald ash borer (EAB) arrived there. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Nature As Artist: How Tree Burls Grow

TOS_BurlI’ve had my eye on this maple in my woods for some time. Not because it’s a beautiful timber tree. It’s only about eight inches in diameter, after all. But, it has an interesting burl about 14 feet up the trunk.

As a woodturner, I love the twisted wood grain found in most burls. A burl is a surprise package on a tree. Yes, straight grained wood is beautiful. I love the open grain of red oak, the milky brightness of birch, the rich burnished glow of cherry. But they are predictable. A burl is anything but.

I’m not the only one who loves burls. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, May 6, 2015

North Elba: Tree City USA

National Arbor Day may have slipped by on April 24, but Lake Placid has held out for warmer weather to celebration this holiday focused on the conservation, stewardship and planting of trees.

Though some may feel the Adirondacks has an abundance of trees, those of the North Elba Tree Board felt a growing concern for trees lost to vandalism and development. According to Tree Board member Bob Hanna, nature does a fair job of replacing trees, but sometimes people need to help out a little bit.

“We have a special Arbor Day celebration on May 13,” says Hanna. “We also go to the elementary school and talk to the 3rd graders about the plants and trees located in the nursery behind the school. There is a poster contest and the children plant seedlings as well.” » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Arbor Day Has Northern New York Roots

SeedlingplantingUSDAForestServ3003.75Muskrat Day. Velcro Appreciation Month. Hair Follicle Hygiene Week. Arbor Day. You know it’s an obscure event when the greeting-card trade hasn’t bothered to capitalize on it. I like to think the industry knows Arbor Day is worthy of a Hallmark line, but that they’ve decided to honor its spirit by conserving paper. (C’mon, it’s possible.)

While it’s not the best-known observance, Arbor Day has a respectable history, as well as local roots. Begun in 1872 by Adams, NY (Jefferson County), native J. Sterling Morton, Arbor Day was intended to highlight the need to conserve topsoil and increase timber availability in his adopted state of Nebraska. Though it began as an American tradition, Arbor Day, which is observed on the last Friday in April, is now celebrated worldwide. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, April 16, 2015

Maple Syrup Isn’t Our Only Tree Sap Product

Tapped Birch TreesThe North Country is fortunate to have an abundance of maple as our local sweetener, but there are other syrups as well: try birch and black walnut.

One sure sign of spring is the bustling work of our maple producers: repairing lines, checking the taps, tuning up equipment, and, at last, boiling sap. Every year we look forward to this local food treasure: maple syrup and all of its products such as maple sugar, and maple cream.

New York is the world’s third largest producer of maple syrup and the maple industry in Northern New York is expanding. » Continue Reading.


Monday, April 6, 2015

Wood Pellet Boiler Project Expanded To Region

Adirondack Wood Boiler ProjectFinancial and technical assistance that has helped homeowners and businesses in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont switch to high-efficiency wood pellet heating is now available to Adirondack homeowners and businesses through the Adirondack Model Neighborhood Wood Heat Initiative. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, April 2, 2015

At Levi Lumber, Logging Runs In The Family

03242015_loggingnews1_w300Approaching the “landing” at the Levi Lumber job site in the Adirondack League Club is akin to landing on another planet. The drive down narrow, snow-covered roads makes one think they’ve gotten close to the end of the earth…until a large logging truck is coming from the other direction. But there are plowed turnarounds and pull-offs; safety is considered every step of the way.

After twists and turns that seem to lead to nowhere, there is a clearing full of very large machinery and equipment, and a red school bus. On the school bus are the Levi brothers; John, Jr., Dan and Jerry, eating lunch together as they have done every day for most of their lives. Their father, John, Sr., is on the top of a large truck securing logs. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Christmas Trees, Fruit Trees At Friday Farm Talk

Saratoga Apple1Warren County Soil & Water’s next“Farm Talk” will focus on growing Christmas trees and fruit trees. The first presentation of the night is “Christmas Tree Farming: We’ll get you in the Spirit” with Mark Brown of Brown’s Tree Farm. The second presentation of the night will be “Planning a Small Fruit Tree Farm: Where do you start?” with Nate Darrow of Saratoga Apple.

The talks will be held this Friday, March 27th, from 6 to 8 pm at the DEC’s Warrensburg Office, 232 Golf Course Road, in Warrensburg. » Continue Reading.


Friday, March 20, 2015

Forest Pest Surveying: The Next Generation

Tom and Lenny use binoculars to scan tree bark for invasive insect exit holes.  Emerald ash borer exit holes are shaped like a D while Asian longhorned beetle exit holes are round and the size of a dime.  Forests, the final frontier. These are the voyages of forest pest surveyors. They’re lifelong mission: to explore strange new woodlands, to seek out invasive insects and pests that harm trees, to boldly go where no pest surveyor has gone before.

Invasive insects are to conservationists like Romulans are to Vulcans. Emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, hemlock woolly adelgid, and balsam woolly adelgid threaten the economy with costly tree removal, environment with adverse impacts to forest health, and public safety with dead limbs that fall on cars and homes. They found their way from their Eurasian home range to the United States in nursery stock and wood packing materials. Without the natural checks and balances found on their home turf, they reproduce as fast as tribbles. Forest pest surveys are important because early detection leads to rapid response and better management options. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Maple Weekends in the Adirondacks

IMG_0874My family looks forward to this time of year, not only because of the change in season, but because that change brings maple time. Though we have just a few maple trees to tap, larger producers are already starting to make my family’s favorite sugary treat, maple syrup.

What started in the mid 1990s as a simple open house dubbed Maple Sunday has now grown across New York State into two Maple Weekends. The next two weekends, March 21-22 and March 28-29, the New York State Maple Producers Association are opening their properties and sugarhouses for tours, pancake breakfasts, activities and tastings. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, March 12, 2015

Nothing Rotten about Deadwood

TOS_WoodyDebrisA guy down the road has been working in his woods for the last couple of years. He’s cleaning them up. And I mean cleaning. He cuts the underbrush. Takes out the dead trees, the downed logs, the dead branches.

Okay, I confess. The neatnik in me is envious. Part of me would like my 70 acres of woods to look like a park. But that’s the problem. A park is not a forest and the forest is more than the trees. It’s an entire suite of complex systems, merging and interacting. An ecological orchestra in the woods.

Dead and dying wood, standing snags, rotting branches are more than Mother Nature’s litter. They’re an integral part of the forest symphony – what forestry types call “coarse woody debris,” or CWD for short. » Continue Reading.



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