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inside Arbor News

Arbor News To assist cities, nonprofit organizations, civic groups, and others in developing long-term tree care programs

Help every West Virginian understand the benefits of responsible tree management

Summer 2010 Edition

A time to celebrate

Arbor News is made

possible by

Jennifer Hammer, WVDOF

Urban & Community Forestry 1

Communities across West Virginia gathered throughout the month of April to celebrate Arbor Day, or shall I say “Arbor Month”. Thanks to a proclamation by Governor Manchin, communities and groups had the entire month of April to recognize the role that trees play in our lives. School groups, tree boards, civic groups and citizens alike came together to plant trees, volunteer and give back to the State’s great heritage of trees. Tree City USA communities also received their annual awards sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Several communities, including Bath and Petersburg, received Growth Awards or Five-Year recognition honors. Each Tree City community also received a flowering tree from the West Virginia Division of Forestry.

The Emerald Ash Borer

Pest Evaluation & Detection

2010 Poster Contest

Winners

Did you know- Baldcypress

2010 Chesapeake Bay

Community Grants

Mark Your Calendars

Students from Romney Elementary work alongside City maintenance staff to plant a cherry tree for Arbor Day. Also in attendance is Delegate Ruth Rowan and Mayor Dan Hileman.

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Urban & Community Forestry 2

A time to celebrate Continued from Page 1

The West Virginia Eastern Panhandle Chapter of Project CommuniTree also celebrated Arbor Day with three planting projects in Hardy and Hampshire counties. The Dorcas Ruritans sponsored a tree planting workshop at the Spring Run Fish Hatchery to enhance their wildlife viewing area and riparian zone. In addition, Hampshire County Parks and Recreation staff teamed up with local Girl Scouts to celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees at Central Hampshire Park. In addition, the Pre-K teachers and students at Augusta Elementary school worked with CommuniTree staff to plant a tree in the play area on behalf of Arbor Day. Even though many would consider West Virginia to be anything but an urban state, our communities have much to be proud of when it comes to their urban and community forestry programs. As a state we are fortunate to have a blend of small and large cities and towns. This diversity awards us the privilege of having a diverse heritage of urban trees, some having great historic value and others being grand representatives of a unique species. Despite differences in size, each WV community shares a similar passion for tree care and tree conservation. It is this common interest that unites the citizens of this state, rewarding every resident and visitor the opportunity to celebrate trees in many different ways.

Volunteers from the Dorcas Ruritans assisted Project CommuniTree staff in establishing a new buffer along Spring Run in Hardy County.

The Town of Petersburg was awarded a Tree City USA Five Year honor by the National Arbor Day Foundation.

WV Project CommuniTree staff team up with volunteers from Hardy County to celebrate spring time at Spring Run fish hatchery.

Smokey Bear visits local Girl Scouts at Central Hampshire Park in celebra-tion of Arbor Day.

Arbor News

Parkersburg plants a sugar maple tree to celebrate City’s Bicentennial.

Anne Buckelew Cumming, USDA Forest Service

New Tools: Pest Evaluation and Detection Control

Cities and communities are frequently the first site of introduction for exotic pests, where they remain undetected until populations are well established and have had harmful impacts on the health of host trees. Many communities routinely complete and update tree inventories, but often overlook pest infestations because pest detec-tion tools are not part of the inventory process. There are also no processes in place for aggregating pest inventory data into a stan-dardized form, which would allow communities to analyze pest trends that are otherwise difficult to detect across geographic or po-litical boundaries. The goal of I-PED—Inventory - Pest Evaluation & Detection—is to develop, disseminate, implement, and establish an accepted, mod-ern protocol for long-term national

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Urban & Community Forestry 3

For the past year many landowners have heard about an invasive insect that is threatening the existence of all Ash trees. Whether you heard about this threat in the news or through discussions with v a ri o us e n vi r on m e n t a l agencies, this insect is at our door step and posses a significant risk to our ash trees. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is a small insect that can cause a great deal of damage in a short span of time. It is estimated that over 25 million trees have been lost due to this invasive insect since its first finding in 2002. There are thirteen states where it has been found, there are currently several areas being surveyed to determine the current extent of the EAB population. The question for many of our clients is not if we will be affected but when will we be affected. The Emerald Ash Borer kills any variety of Ash that is in the Fraxinus genus, this includes white ash, black ash and green ash. It does not include mountain ash as this species is not a true Ash. The Borer kills the tree by feeding upon the

inside bark while in the Larva stage. Once the Borer becomes

an adult it will leave the tree and mate. The female then lays on average 90 eggs along the bole and branches of ash trees and the cycle begins once more. The feeding upon the inner bark is what causes the death of the Ash tree; this action prevents the movement of nutrients and water within the tree and the tree literally starves until it dies. Smaller sized trees can expect to live for approximately one to two years while larger trees may last for up to four years upon initial infestation. An infestation can be detected by the sudden dieback of the crown and the presence of “D” shaped holes along the bole of the tree. The bark will also begin to crack and serpentine galleries or larvae will be present. If you suspect an infestation on your lot contact the proper authorities immediately for positive identification. Many areas already infested have enacted quarantines on the movement of any Ash trees. Keep in mind this may have already happened within your area or it will in the near future. It is believed that the Borer has

Lori Brockelband, Arborist, FORECON Inc.

been able to spread to such a wide area due to the transportation of firewood while the borer is in either the larva stage or as an adult residing in the wood. Both Pennsylvania and New York have asked landowners not to transport firewood within their state or to bordering states. Although this is not monitored now, it may become more so in the future. Many State parks and private campgrounds are already requesting visitors to not bring in their own firewood but to buy the local firewood provided. We have a lot to learn from the experiences of Michigan and Ohio that have been impacted by the EAB. The greatest prevention begins with each individual land owner, know where your Ash trees are located on your lot and monitor them closely and do not transport firewood. If you would like more information on the EAB please call the nearest FORECON, Inc office and we will be able to assist you.

The Emerald Ash Borer

Image of EAB with galleries in background

2010 WV Poster Contest Winners

The West Virginia Division of Forestry announces this years winners of the Arbor Day Poster Contest. This years theme was “Trees are Terrific…and Energy Wise”. The state winner, Steven Hoover, will re-ceive a $100 US Savings bond, a framed certificate, a copy of his poster, an Arbor Day t-shirt and a tree will be planted in his honor at his school. In addition, Kingwood Elementary will receive a $200 check toward the purchase of art supplies. Prize money is made possible through a grant from the Oakland Foundation. The second place winner, Madison Pagan, will receive a framed certificate, a copy of her poster, an

Andy Sheetz, WVDOF

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Urban & Community Forestry 4

2010 Poster Contest Winners Continued from Page 3

On behalf of the WV

Urban and Community

Forestry Council and the

WV Division of Forestry,

we hope you enjoy this

new addition of Arbor

News. In order to reduce

costs and save trees, the

Arbor Newsletter will be

going electronic in 2011.

A few newsletters will

still be printed, but the

vast majority of readers

will receive the

newsletter via email. If

you or someone you

know would like to

subscribe to Arbor News,

please contact Andy

Sheetz by phone at

304-558-2788 or by

e m a i l a t

andy.i.sheetz@wv.gov.

He would be happy to

sign you up.

Future editions of Arbor

News will be released in

Fall/Winter and Spring/

Summer. Please stay

tuned for more

information and be sure

to register for the

newsletter today.

News Update

Daniel E. Brown,

Continued on Page 5

Arbor Day t-shirt and a tree will be planted in her honor at her school. In addition, Neale Elemen-tary will receive a $150 check to-ward the purchase of art supplies. Prize money is made possible through a grant from the Oakland Foundation. The third place winner, Erin “Kunti” Guy, will receive a framed certificate, a copy of her poster, an Arbor Day t-shirt and a tree will be planted in her honor at her school. In addition, Hilltop Elementary will receive a $150 check toward the purchase of art supplies. Prize money is made possible through a grant from the Oakland Foundation. After nineteen years the Na-tional Arbor Day Foundation has decided to end its sponsorship of the National Arbor Day poster contest. However, West Virginia will still continue to hold an Ar-bor Day poster contest.

Steven Hoover, Kingwood Elementary King Wood, WV | Preston County

Madison Pagan, Neale Elementary Vienna, WV | Wood County

Erin “Kunti” Guy, Hilltop Elementary Wheeling, WV | Marshall County

Did You Know? Baldcypress

Baldcypress is classified as part of the Taxodiaceae family. This family contains Redwood, and Giant Sequoia trees. Baldcy-press is not a true Cypress (Cupressaceae family).There are three (3) species of Baldcypress found in the northern hemi-sphere. There is Mexico’s Monte-zuma Baldcypress (Taxodium mucrenatum), Baldcypress, and Pondcypress (Taxodium ascen-dens). Pondcypress was first la-beled as a variety of Baldcypress, called Taxodium distichum var.

Arbor News

Urban & Community Forestry 5

nutans, because of its needles being shorter. Later it was determined to be its own species. Baldcy-press native range is from Delaware to Florida, west to So. Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisi-ana. It has a zone 4 planting range, and has been planted as far north as Minnesota, New York, and Canada. There are some older trees, over 100yrs. old in Syracuse, NY, that have withstood extreme cold periods (temperatures of -20F to -30F de-grees below 0F). It is classified as part of the Cy-press-Tupelo forest species. It has been planted in the northern counties of West Virginia. Even though it can handle any type of soil conditions (including city streetscapes), it likes moist to boggy soils (swamp lands and open bogs) and can enter areas in the South as a pioneer species, though in the North seeds do not germinate as well, so it will need to be planted (bareroot/seedlings) if you want it on a wet location. On this type of site, a mature tree may be 130ft.tall, with a rapidly tapering trunk, giving it a pyramidal shaped crown while young, but flattening off while becoming mature. In early Autumn, it stands out within the forest, by its leaves turning reddish-brown before becoming deciduous in Winter. DID YOU KNOW WHAT THE WOOD OF BALD-CYPRESS HAS BEEN USED FOR? Shingles, railroad ties; posts; planks; cabinets; as dugouts (canoes) and other boat construction; building construction; fence posts (durability in soil); coffins/caskets, greenhouses, flooring, inte-rior trim, garden boxes, and as mulch. Indian Tribes used the bole of the stem of bald-cypress, splitting the trunk, by setting fire to the heartwood and scraping the charcoal out, in cre-ating a “dugout” canoe. They also used baldcy-press bark to cover the dead during rainy peri-ods. 1985 - a discovery in Lake Phelps, NC, in a site where the water had receded, 30 dugout canoes, the oldest of which dated back close to 4,500 years. 1637- John Tradescant shipped Baldcypress to England, causing it to be one of the first New World species introduced to Europe. Pioneers used it as shingles. George Washing-ton’s Mount Vernon rooftop is shingled from

baldcypress that were harvested out of the Great Dismal Swamp along the VA/NC Stateline. DID YOU KNOW OTHER NAMES BALDCYPRESS IS KNOWN BY? Blank cypress; Buck Cypress; Cow Cypress; Gulf Cypress; Southern Cypress; Tidewater Cypress; Red Cypress; White Cypress; Yellow Cypress; Swamp Cypress DID YOU KNOW OR REMEMBER DENDROLOGI-CAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BALDCYPRESS? Leaves: deciduous; linear needles, 2 ranked, and spirally arranged on branchlets; feather-like tex-ture; 1/3 inch to ¾ inch long; yellow-green in Spring, turning reddish-brown in Autumn. Seeds: 1 to 20 on each cone scale; each seed with 2 narrow lateral wings; spread by water, and can stay viable up to 2 yrs. under water. Buds: alternate; globe shape, with axillary smaller buds; few scales. Twigs: pith small, brown, and spongy; terminal; slender; persistent. Branches: lateral branchlets (turn brown and drop in fall), lack buds which are deciduous; leaves a rounded branch scar on permanent twigs. Fruits/cones: rounded cone; 3/4 in. to 1 inch in diameter; surface wrinkled; disintegrate in 2 years; matures in 1 season; purple when young; numerous staminates; long, drooping panicles; 4-sided scales, each cone peltate scale contains 6 to 8 stamen, with 2 to 5 anther sacs on each. Fe-male cones cluster near tips of branches with club-shaped scales on rounded surface, having 2 ovules. Bark: Ash-gray to red-dish-brown; rough; fi-brous or scaly; trunk s w o l l e n ; t h i n ; Stem/trunk: straight; rapid tapered trunk; swollen; fluted; limbless boles reaching skyward; wind firm; measured up to 3ft. - 5ft. in diameter. Roots: wide spread;

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Baldcypress Tree www.uvm.edu

pnumatophores, a formation of woody ‘Knees’, that rise above the water surface. Knees can be a few inches to several feet above water surface. It is thought they develop them for air exchange, though yet to be proven as its functional use. Height: 50ft. to 70ft. average, though known to g r o w t o 1 3 0 f t . t a l l . Crown: Pyramidal to irregular shape with age; 2 0 f t . t o 3 0 f t . w i d e . Wood: Moderately heavy; durable; hard; strong; greasy feeling when rubbed; resistant to decay (heartwood); of varying color shades (that’s why the 3 different colored names for Baldcypress); contain a chemical call cypressene that gives it the decay resistance property; can warp during seasoning; tangential & radial shrinkage compa-rable to Ponderosa Pine and Sassafras species. Propagation: Bareroot, B&B, container, or seed.

DID YOU KNOW ANY OF THE HISTORY OF BALDCYPRESS IN WEST VIRGINIA? 1930: The CCC’s planted a stand of Baldcypress in a swamp in Monroe Co., near Pickaway, WV. 1963: In Weston, WV a tree was measured, over 60 inch DBH. Baldcypress is an interesting landscaping plant, acting like a deciduous hardwood in winter and a coniferous species in spring, summer, and fall. Leaf color changes from yellow-green to reddish brown, before dropping in the fall. It prunes eas-ily. Its durability in its adaptability to changing site conditions, floodwater resistance, decay re-sistance, and capable of surviving city street con-ditions, makes this a tree of more importance, and should be included more often in landscaping planting plans. Just remember this tree can get to be 45 ft. tall in 20 years, so plan accordingly for tree placement.

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Urban & Community Forestry 6

urban pest detection and monitoring. Communi-ties conduct tree inventories as part of ongoing efforts to better understand the structure, func-tion and management needs of their urban for-ests. Developed to meet these needs, i-Tree, a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service, was created to de-

velop, disseminate, support and refine urban for-est analysis tools. I-Tree will be utilized as a plat-form for I-PED, is in the public domain and avail-able by request through the i-Tree website (www.itreetools.org). The spring 2009 release of i-Tree v3.0 will include a beta version of the pest detection protocol as part of the i-Tree Streets application. The beta I-PED module in i-Tree Streets will provide a portable, accessible, and standardized method of observing a tree for possible insect or disease problems. Future I-PED developments will include a national database repository that will enable pest specialists to access regional pest data to query for pest detection anomalies and trends

at

multiple scales. In addition, extensive user support through online resources, integration with estab-lished pest identification and reporting networks, and training are planned enhancements. The use of I-PED will increase and broaden ef-forts to detect exotic pests and in turn, improve opportunities to control these pests while infesta-tions are still manageable and reduce costs for long-term community forest management. This standardized method for integrating pest detec-tion with urban forest management is a much needed tool that can be integrated with other in-novative, technologically advanced tree inventory and assessment tools. For more information about i-Tree and I-PED, please visit www.itreetools.org.

New Tools Continued from Page 2

Urban & Community Forestry 7

Arbor News

2010 Chesapeake Bay Community Grants

Our Urban and Community Forestry Program in partnership with our Logging Sediment Control Pro-gram and the USDA Forest Service Chesapeake Bay Program is offering Chesapeake Bay Community Grants to communities and organizations within the Bay drainage. These grants can fund a variety of projects that focus on protecting and enhancing the health of the Potomac Tributary Watershed. Com-munities, watershed associations and other entities with an emphasis on water quality and tree planting located in the following counties are eligible for funding: Berkley, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Mineral, Morgan, and Pendleton. The overall goal of these grants is to utilize urban forestry management practices to protect and en-hance the health of the Potomac Tributary Watershed. Any project that advances any of the following objectives will be considered for funding: 1. Increase in canopy cover within the watershed through the strategic planting of trees to optimize public

benefits.

2. Establish existing canopy cover and impervious surface area through assessments and sets targets for future canopy cover and impervious surface goals.

3. Identify and address potential planting areas consisting of greater than 15% impervious surface cover-age.

4. Link watershed health with community well-being through projects that enhance permeable surface

area, storm water retention and ground water recharge such as: river parkways, rail trail enhancement, storm water retention ponds and rain gardens.

5. Support Project CommuniTree efforts to increase tree planting within the Potomac Tributary

Watershed. Applications will be available on the Division of Forestry web site by late June and technical assistance will be available to applicants during the design phase of their projects. Pro-jects will involve a 50% - 50% (grant/local) match. The grant portion will be reimbursed upon completion. However, matching funds from your organization need not be a cash match. They may include in-kind expenses such as personnel services/fringe benefits, volunteer hours, equipment use, and donations of cash and supplies. Approved projects will begin this October and need to be completed by May 2011.

Interested groups are encouraged to contact Herb Peddi-cord, Chesapeake Bay Watershed Forester, at (304) 229-2665 or by email: Herb.F.Peddicord@wv.gov or Jennifer Hammer, Urban Forestry Technical Specialist, at (304) 822-4512 or by email: Jennifer.L.Hammer@wv.gov for technical assistance and project guidance. General questions involving the grant should be directed to: Bob Hannah, Urban Forestry Coordina-tor, at (304) 825-6983 or by email: Robert.L.Hannah@wv.gov, Map of Chesapeake Bay Watershed

www.pserie.psu.edu

Roberty Hannah, WVDOF

Urban & Community Forestry 8

Arbor News

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

August 17th, 2010 Tree Risk Assessment Workshop - WVDOF Elkins, WV August 27th, 2010 Cool Community Grant Applications Due

September 9, 2010 Annual Urban Tree Healthcare Workshop Waynesboro, VA October 3-5, 2010 2010 MAC-ISA Annual Meeting | Morgantown, WV

November 9-11, 2010 2010 Partners in Community Forestry National Conference | Chicago, IL MAC-ISA Arborist Certification Courses July 22nd and 29th | August 5th | Washington, DC December 7-9 | Charlottesville, VA