I’ve been fortunate to help care for some very special trees. When I worked for Maryland DNR, I helped care for the Wye Oak in Wye Mills, MD, which stood for decades as the National Champion white oak (the largest known white oak in the US). I was also around when that grand tree came…
I drive, walk, or run by this tree just about every day. It has no bark most of the way around the base, and the wood beneath is significantly decayed. It looks like it could fall down any minute – right? I took the picture of the tree from the roadway. It is a divided…
Last fall, we talked about a paper we collaborated on with Michael Battaglia of Michigan Tech Research Institute, Geoff Buckley of Ohio University, and Morgan Grove of U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station Baltimore Urban Field Station. The paper considered two East Baltimore neighborhoods that have potential for enhanced tree canopy but have social barriers…
The Reception and Annual Meeting of the Sustainable Urban Forests Coaliton were great successes. Wednesday night we had our reception at the U.S. Botanic Garden on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. SUFC Chair Don Winsett addresses attendees at the Reception We are grateful to our host, the U.S. Botanic Garden and to our Sponsor, Congressman…
Last week we had a great time at TreeBaltimore’s winter gathering at Cylburn Arboretum’s Vollmer Center. A packed house broke bread and heard about what’s been happening and what’s on the horizon for TreeBaltimore. The effort provides technical and resource assistance in a variety of ways, from free trees to how to plant a tree…
The Los Angeles River is about to undergo a major change. A huge investment is being made to transform the river to enhance water quality, provide green infrastructure, and improve access and environmental equity by way of the Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration project. Rendering from the USACE LA River Study It is a massive,…
Climate change effects are not expected to be equally distributed. Changes in precipitation, temperature, and sea-level will be “spotty” – some places will see decreases, some will see increases, and increases will be higher in some places than in others. US EPA has developed a Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) to relate anticipated…
In a previous post, we talked about green infrastructure social networks. Social scientists with the USDA Forest Service’s Northern Research Station have developed a tool to assess these networks – it’s called Stew-MAP. The Stewardship Mapping & Assessment project (Stew-MAP) seeks to answer the questions: Who, what, where, why and how are environmental stewardship groups…
The American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA) is the industry’s premier professional association focusing solely on arboricultural consulting. This week the Association is having its 2014 Annual Conference. Hundreds of consulting arborists from across North America are here to improve their practice as arboricultural consultants. An advanced technical program included discussions of legal issues consultants face…
The Clean Water Act passed in 1972. Great progress has been made. In many large cities, rivers and harbors that served as sewers behind industrial lands now serve as amenities facing residential and commercial lands, bringing economic development, water access, and jobs. But a lot of work remains. While many of these waterways are no…
