Garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, is an invasive species affecting forested lands and their ecotones throughout the northeast. Agencies of Western New York state, including The Buffalo Audubon Society, Western New York Land Conservancy, Friends of Reinstein Woods and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have joined forces to improve habitats of three natural areas…
Details
Researchers at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at the University of Western Sidney have recently discovered that trees do more than just move water up and down, water can be moved laterally and even be stored within tree tissues. While traditionally we assumed that trees maintained two distinct systems, xylem and phloem, for the…
Details
Agriculture plays an essential role in every person’s life each day, yet many of us do not know or appreciate how our food is produced. As part of a nationwide effort to educate people about the immense effort which goes into growing food and the importance of agriculture in our daily lives, The American Council…
Details
March 21, 2015 has officially been declared the International Day of Forests, by the United Nations General Assembly. As the most biologically diverse, terrestrial ecosystems forests provide habitat and food for wildlife, act as a sink for carbon, help improve and protect water quality and provide jobs and shelter for communities around the world. Forests…
Details
Dogwood trees, of the genus Cornus, can make beautiful and mostly hardy additions to a landscape. Their small to medium size and shrub or tree habits allow for various applications around the landscape. Beautiful blooms of yellow to creamy white or pink and vibrant fall foliage colors along with exfoliating bark or horizontal branching add…
Details
Spring is just around the corner, although it may not feel that way, and with it will come yard work such as raking, trimming, mowing, weeding, fertilizing, pest and disease control and more. Just remember when you are out and about cleaning up after this harsh winter and preparing your beds and gardens, do not…
Details
While the previously known dangers of deforestation are already severe and somewhat grim; less carbon absorption, loss of habitat, biodiversity decreases etc. a new study indicates that it could also be exposing more people to deadly, infectious diseases like the Bubonic plague. While societies of the western world have largely forgotten about the “Black Death”,…
Details
2015 has been named the “International Year of Soil” (IYS) and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) has developed activities to support educational outreach, assigning a theme for each month of the year. March’s theme is “Soils Support Agriculture”. Soil is the source of the nutrients that human bodies require; we acquire these nutrients…
Details
Black vine weevils, Otiorhynchus sulcatus, are primarily pests of species in the genera Taxus and Rhododendron. The weevils also target azaleas, mountain laurel and Euonymous. Adult black vine weevils feed on the leaf and needle margins, leaving distinct half-circular notches. Larvae appear similar to grubs you would find in your lawn except they are less “C” shaped…
Details
An English oak, Quercus robur, living on a football (soccer) field in Estonia has won the European Tree of the Year award with nearly 60,000 votes! The Estonian tree earned 59, 836 votes, approximately one third of the total 185,000 votes cast in this year’s contest. This 150 year old specimen stands in a soccer…
Details
