Increasingly, urban and community forests are facing threats such as insects, diseases, extreme weather events and other hazards. Additionally, the lack of investment in urban forest disaster mitigation is contributing to community disasters such as urban flooding and human heat deaths in our cities – disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations. [Read more…] about Funding Available for Urban Forestry
Forestry
Tree Buds In Winter
The bare branches of the trees outside my window seem lifeless in late winter. However, each twig holds many buds – small, wrapped packages of potential awaiting the spring. These buds formed last summer and are designed to withstand snow, ice, and subzero temperatures. By withdrawing water from them before winter, deciduous trees protect their buds from frost damage. [Read more…] about Tree Buds In Winter
The Time to Prune Trees is Now
Care and maintenance of trees ensures their health life and minimizes liability. Trees can be damaged by high winds, snow, ice, and other severe weather events. Some damage requires immediate attention, while other damage may be dealt with later. [Read more…] about The Time to Prune Trees is Now
Super Wood: Coming To Space Near You
As a card-carrying, registered tree hugger, I have long touted the benefits of trees such as carbon storage, energy savings and improved mental health. And beyond the familiar tree-related blessings such as maple syrup, lumber and firewood, I’ve written about some obscure things like birch-based candy that fights tooth decay, and health-promoting chaga tea derived from a birch fungus. Then there’s basswood bark for fiber, elm bark for baskets, and pine bark for lunch.
That stuff is all pretty straightforward. More highly processed wood products, though, are a mystery to me. [Read more…] about Super Wood: Coming To Space Near You
Elliot Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill
“Last week I acquired from my husband’s estate about two-thirds of the land which he owned here in Hyde Park. My son Elliott and I have gone into partnership and we are going to farm the land on a commercial basis,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her “My Day” column on August 19, 1947.
This would be the beginning of a joint venture with her third child Elliott to turn a profit from the estate lands of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. [Read more…] about Elliot Roosevelt’s Christmas Tree Sales At Val-Kill
$1.4 Million in Urban Forestry Grants Awarded Statewide
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced grant awards totaling $1.4 million for urban forestry projects across the state to help communities inventory, plant, and maintain public trees.
The grants are part of DEC’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, which works to increase public awareness of the importance of trees and helps communities develop and implement tree management plans. [Read more…] about $1.4 Million in Urban Forestry Grants Awarded Statewide
John Davenport Clarke: Farmer, Forester, and Congressman
In the latest episode of Kaatscast, a podcast delivering interviews, arts, culture, and history from the Catskills , Delaware County Historian Bill Birns talks about the legacy of “Hobart’s greatest” (albeit largely forgotten) son, John Davenport Clarke.
Clarke was born in Hobart. He graduated Lafayette College in 1898 and Brooklyn Law School in 1911. He was assistant to the secretary of mines of the U. S. Steel from 1901 until 1907. In 1920, he was elected to Congress as a Republican. He was again elected to Congress in 1926 and served until his death in a car crash near Delhi, NY inn 1933. [Read more…] about John Davenport Clarke: Farmer, Forester, and Congressman
Our Native Tamarack in November
Tamarack is a tree with a number of aliases – hackmatack, eastern larch, or if you’re from Northern Maine and feeling contrary, juniper. Whatever you call it, this scraggly tree, easy to overlook for most of the year, lights up the November forest. Weeks after leaf season has passed us by, the tamarack turns brilliant yellow and then orange, blazing like a torch amid the evergreens and fading, broad-leaf browns. [Read more…] about Our Native Tamarack in November
An Unnatural History of the Raquette River
The Raquette River flows from its source at Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, to the St. Lawrence River at Akewesasne.
East of Tupper Lake and just north of Simon Pond is a place called “The Cut.”
“The Cut” was channel dug to “straighten the river” so that logs could be floated (driven) straight into Simon Pond, thus avoiding a shallow and meandering section of the Raquette River known as Moody’s Flow. [Read more…] about An Unnatural History of the Raquette River
Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Found in Adirondack Park
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced that emerald ash borer (EAB) has been confirmed in Warren County.
While not unexpected given the EAB’s spread, this marks the first confirmed case of EAB within the Adirondack Park. The affected trees were identified by Department of Transportation personnel at the Warren County Canoe Launch on the Schroon River in the town of Chester. A sample has been sent to Cornell University Insect Diagnostic Lab for further review. [Read more…] about Invasive Emerald Ash Borer Found in Adirondack Park