Advice from A Year Round Tree Expert

Just a reminder, next month we will be celebrating our two most favorite holidays: Arbor Day (first Wed. in April for MD) and Earth Day (April 22nd)! This Earth Day will mark its 40th Anniversary!!

Now on to more tree news that has been growing right before our eyes… (please excuse a tree expert’s poor attempt at humor)!

Local: Researchers at the University of Maryland and Bowie State University have received $3.2 million in grant money from the National Science Foundation to create a poplar hybrid in the next four years that could be transformed into gasoline for cars. The trees are to be grown and harvested on plantations. Poplar trees are normally used to make paper and timber but hopefully will join the rank of corn as a new bio-fuel that we could use one day….

A 70-year-old cherry tree that famous gangster Al Capone gave to Baltimore’s Union Memorial Hospital suffered major damage during the snowstorms that occurred this winter.   The tree split in half under the stress of the storm and lost an important limb, the damage and health of the tree will be assessed, states the hospital.

National:  A 101-year-old man lost an old elm tree in Yarmouth, Main that he helped reach the age of 240 years. Frank Knight cared for the tree, named Herbie, by spraying, trimming and “coddling” it for over five decades, said his wife. Because of Frank, Herbie was able survive 14 bouts of deadly Dutch Elm disease, which is a fungus that has been destroying elms across the country for the past 70 years. Herbie died last month but has been cut up and distributed to woodworkers across New England to be fashioned into furniture and sold at auction, whose profits will go toward planting thousands of new trees… an ending that makes Frank smile.

Sources:

Picture courtesy of CBSnews.com

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Poplar-Trees–The-Next-Biofuel-.html

http://www.examiner.com/x-8386-Baltimore-Gardening-Examiner~y2010m2d10-Landmark-Baltimore-cherry-tree-damaged-by-storm

The weather is getting warmer and once the snow has all melted away, many homeowners are discovering they have damage to their plants and trees. A Year Round Tree Expert Company and the Professional Landcare Network would like to offer you some tips for dealing with the damage the snow may have caused:

- Prune broken limbs. If a limb of a shrub, bush, or tree is broken, prune it as soon as possible. Make a clean cut that will make it harder for insects and diseases to enter the stressed plant.

- Remove fallen debris. By removing fallen debris and limbs from around your plants, insects and diseases won’t be attracted to that area.

- Look for signs of salt damage. In the spring, look for signs of salt damage. Grass near the road may be stunted and yellow, and trees and shrubs might display yellow leaves with brown leaf margins. The only way to get rid of extra salt is to flush it out with plenty of water. You can also add organic materials to flowerbeds to counteract salt damage.

- Cut off dead limbs. Some plants may have partially survived. In the spring, assess your plants and prune dead limbs.

Sources:

http://www.landcarenetwork.org/cms/home.html

http://njtoday.net/2010/03/12/tips-for-dealing-with-snow-damaged-plants/

While we’ve been busy digging out from the snow all winter, scientists around the world have been elated with the new discovery that trees have been growing faster in response to global warming.

The study, published by the National Academy of Sciences,  reviewed growth of 55 forests in the eastern United States for over 20 years and part of it was conducted right here in Maryland, centering on mixed hardwood trees on the western edge of the Chesapeake Bay.

The trees are growing two to four times faster than normal because of  higher temperatures and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This translates to a  faster rate now than they have grown in the past 200 years!

Is this good news or bad? Trees are now known to play a vital role in fighting global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide, reports the New York Times. It appears that local forests are adapting to the rise in carbon dioxide by absorbing more of it but it is unclear as to whether trees can sustain this trend. Many scientists don’t think the increased carbon dioxide absorbtion can persist for too long because of other  factors such as water availability and soil nutrients.

Some worry that although trees have adjusted well to global warming’s higher temperatures and longer growing seasons, other species such as waterfowl, are in danger as wetland habitats dry up and disappear.

Our response: Wow! Science never ceases to amaze us…even the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that occured in Chile last month has effected our earth by slowing the speed of rotation by a microsecond.

Sources:

Picture courtesy of Live Science.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/earth/02trees.html

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/environment/global-warming/Global-warming-helping-trees-grow-faster/articleshow/5536203.cms

http://www.livescience.com/environment/trees-growing-faster-100202.html

http://www.urdunewsmagazine.com/news/2010/02/04/global-warming-good-for-trees-bad-for-ducks/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030201377.html