Pretentious Snobby Bastard Fly Fishing!

Fly Fishing BS => The Gravel Bar => Topic started by: Onslow on February 23, 2019, 14:00:50 PM

Title: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 23, 2019, 14:00:50 PM
http://www.dnr.sc.gov/education/pdf/quailhabitat.pdf

Some very informative nuggets in this article. 

While a young teen Franklin County NC, quail were present in and around the fallow that were surrounded by thickets of prunus americana.  When my old man turned the fields over to be leased, and the thickets were removed, the quail disappeared also.

I'm getting increasingly concerned as time goes on due to the seemingly persistent effort of nearly all farmers to keep farms clean and efficient.  This has resulted in the near elimination of plants/trees such as sumac and prunus americana, wild blackberry, black locust, and in some cases persimmon trees....shit that just gets in the way.

Last year, a lady in Wytheville asked me about keeping bees.  I explained to her that a nectar plant/tree inventory should be done before investing in hives.  A cursory look around revealed there was a lack of diversity in nectar producing plants and trees.

She had the following:

Dandelion...kinda scant (April bloom)
Tulip poplar (May bloom)
Dutch Clover (Spring-Summer)
Some goldenrod along the road (September bloom)
Some Fall aster. (October bloom)

There were not enough introduced species to make up for what should have been on the land within a mile radius of her property. This is a piss poor list.

Ironweed, Sumac, Persimmon, American plum, wild blackberry, sourwood should all be protected if possible. May I suggest we all invest in the future of the prunus americana.  These can be introduced in urban settings, large lots, or whatever. 

The most devastating loss imo is the American Chestnut.  This tree would have yielded lumber of the gods, protein for woodland critters, and tons of nectar in a time slot that is now a late Spring dearth period for the non native honey bees.  What is good for honey bees is good for all bees...just saying.



Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 23, 2019, 14:14:42 PM
f you move south through the US Appalachian region, between New York and Georgia, you get a feel for what Bill Bryson described in A Walk In The Woods as “mile after endless mile of dark, deep, silent woods”. Chestnut country once occupied some of the most spectacular wooded landscapes in the world, from the Shenandoah valley and the Catskills to Tennessee’s Smoky mountains. It is deep-gorge and clear-river country, where an understory of vibrant dogwood gives way to an imposing hemlock, a tulip tree or an exhilarating view. But something is amiss. When I visited last autumn, these woods would have been littered with fallen nuts from the magnificent American chestnut (Castanea dentata) â€" but for the blight that erased 4 billion trees from the landscape.

Just under a century ago, the American chestnut disappeared from the vast eastern forests of the US. A broadleaf of immense size and distribution, the chestnut suffered catastrophic decimation by the inadvertent introduction of an Asian blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. The blight arrived in 1904, on ornamental Japanese chestnut trees imported to furnish New York’s expanding Bronx zoo. Infection swept north and south, and by the 1950s the great “redwood of the east” â€" whose fruit was relied upon by herbivores such as the wild turkey, bluejay and red squirrel â€" all but vanished, a tragedy considered one of the greatest ecological disasters to hit the world’s forests. Thankfully, however, the story did not end there: following a monumental conservational effort, the chestnut now stands on the brink of return.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/09/blight-fight-the-story-of-americas-chestnuts-offers-hope-for-british-trees
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: driver on February 23, 2019, 14:20:53 PM
Round-Up is likely one of the main causes for all of the above. You could just spray everything and not worry about if for a year. I believe the genetically resistant crops came out in the 80's and it was game over then. Everything got sprayed then.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 23, 2019, 14:21:05 PM
https://youtu.be/zwvlY8Hll3c
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 23, 2019, 14:36:48 PM
https://youtu.be/Z-YNE09366c
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on February 23, 2019, 20:07:03 PM
http://www.accf-online.org/index.html

 = only 100% American Chestnut genetic effort that I know of.   Other American Chestnut organizations are relying on hybrids. 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 23, 2019, 20:44:18 PM
QuoteIn 1990, SUNY ESF tree geneticists William Powell and Charles Maynard (now retired) decided to try to create resistant chestnuts with the then-new technology of genetic engineering. Eventually, they inserted into the tree's genome a wheat gene that codes for an enzyme called oxalate oxidase, or OxO. It breaks down the oxalic acid the pathogen releases, which is what kills the trees. "We're basically taking the weapon away from the fungus," Powell says.


Researchers seal off the flowers of a chestnut carrying a wheat gene that neutralizes a fungal toxin. ANDREW NEWHOUSE
It didn't work at first. Then, the scientists changed the wheat gene's promoter sequence to cause OxO to be expressed at high levels. In 2014, they reported that a GM tree named Darling 58 both resisted blight infection and transmitted resistance to its offspring. Subsequent tests showed that it produces nuts indistinguishable from those of native trees, Newhouse says. And its pollen, flowers, and decaying leaves don't harm bees, beneficial soil fungi, or tadpoles that hatch in pools on the forest floor.

But the request to release it is likely to face a lengthy regulatory road. The United States, China, and Brazil have approved some transgenic trees for use in fruit orchards, biofuel plantations, and afforestation projects. But like GM crops and animals, GM trees are controversial, and ethical and ecological concerns are heightened because the chestnut trees would grow wild. Regulators from three federal agencies are likely to take a close look at those concerns. USDA officials, for instance, will seek to determine whether the tree could become a weed or otherwise threaten existing plants. The Food and Drug Administration will study whether the tree's fruit is safe to eat, and the Environmental Protection Agency will consider whether the trees' blight-blocking enzyme should be regulated as a fungicide.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/08/save-iconic-american-chestnut-researchers-plan-introduction-genetically-engineered-tree
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on February 23, 2019, 21:29:35 PM
Fucking humans.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 24, 2019, 07:41:01 AM
I wish more attention was paid to sumac and black locust.  These could be extinct in our lifetime, imo.

Sumac is a very important plant for nectar foraging bees.  It fills in the nectar gap between the mid June-early July sourwood, and the square stemmed goldenrod.  Back in the early 80s, there was enough of this around to where the many beekeepers would have a second harvest of honey consisting of sourwood & sumac.  However, now every farmer has at least one skid steer.

Even the invasive introduced hedge privet is loosing ground against the skid steer and brush killing herbicide. This pesky species benefits birds and bees.  Hedge privet blooms right on behind the tulip poplar, and helps bridge the gap between the poplar, and the rather spotty persimmon.

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on February 24, 2019, 09:36:51 AM
I don’t believe all farmers/landowners are denuding the native vegetation.  Some are allowing wild veg to grow between open expanses, providing native bees/other insects what they need to do their thing.  We have a local couple that purchased property upstream on Little Back Creek.  They are wonderful stewards of their little chunk of Shangri-La, allowing native flora and fauna to flourish.  I don’t believe this sort of guardianship is that much of an anomaly in certain areas.

Different tastes of honey, produced by the Europeans, are certainly a joy, but I’ve always had mixed feelings about the “White Man´s Fly”.  After all, native insects and wild bees handled the task of pollination very well before we entered the picture.   
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 24, 2019, 10:22:51 AM
The white man is the blame for everything wrong in world, including this :laugh:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/confronting-the-approach-demographic-explosion-in-africa-a-1253189.html

Back on topic, Bath county VA has a neutral-declining population of just over 4K humans.  The "rural" county where I reside is home to 73K humans.  While the population in Surry is stable, the ag sector is expanding.  Bath county is not a suitable example for what is the prevailing trend in farming.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on February 24, 2019, 10:58:05 AM
“Research shows many women farmers and landowners have a strong conservation and stewardship ethic.”

https://www.farmland.org/press-releases/american-farmland-trust-reveals-positive-conservation-results-of-women-only-learning-circles-need-for-continued-work

Perhaps Surry County NC should let the women run the farming business.  Or at least let them have a say, equivalent control with their hubbies.  Let them have the key to that skid steer!     
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Beetle on February 24, 2019, 12:34:31 PM
The Bryant family is trying hard with the Chestnuts in Nelson County.  Doug, do you know them?  I’m considering taking the class on June 8th.   Check it out

https://virginiachestnuts.com/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 24, 2019, 12:36:06 PM
Heard about this film while listening to the dirtbag diaries

https://youtu.be/YCEaYInJbos
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on February 24, 2019, 16:45:47 PM
Quote from: Beetle on February 24, 2019, 12:34:31 PMThe Bryant family is trying hard with the Chestnuts in Nelson County.  Doug, do you know them?  I’m considering taking the class on June 8th.   Check it out

https://virginiachestnuts.com/

Don't know them.
$450? Wowsers.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: JMiller on February 24, 2019, 20:26:16 PM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on February 24, 2019, 09:36:51 AMI don’t believe all farmers/landowners are denuding the native vegetation.  Some are allowing wild veg to grow between open expanses, providing native bees/other insects what they need to do their thing.  We have a local couple that purchased property upstream on Little Back Creek.  They are wonderful stewards of their little chunk of Shangri-La, allowing native flora and fauna to flourish.  I don’t believe this sort of guardianship is that much of an anomaly in certain areas.

Different tastes of honey, produced by the Europeans, are certainly a joy, but I’ve always had mixed feelings about the “White Man´s Fly”.  After all, native insects and wild bees handled the task of pollination very well before we entered the picture.   


Indeed.
Honey bees compete with and negatively affect our native pollinators. Yes, they're a necessary component of industrial scale agriculture, and they have some historical/yeoman farmer heritage that should recognized, but ultimately they don't help our native plant communities or wildlife. Honeybees and their issues are an agricultural consideration, not a matter of natural resources.

Also, lots of people think "allowing native veg to flourish" is enough. Not getting at you here, but the post caught my eye. Allowing old fields and cutovers to grow up into mature forest isn't actually good for much where it comes to diversity.
Diverse landscapes need disturbance. Fires. Floods. Grazing. A mosaic of successional communities.

Invasive plants need to be controlled. 

Quail?
IMO, and this is truly just an opinion, quail numbers were artificially inflated historically, as a result of large scale logging, soil loss that led to bare ground, farmer attitudes toward birds of prey and wildlife which resulted in killing off high numbers of predators. The "good old days" of quail hunting were a confluence of poor land management practices that actually led to increased quail numbers.
As the land, wildlife have been treated better, quail have suffered. Doesn't matter what your hedgerows look like if the pasture is in fescue and every span of phone line has a red-tail sitting on it .

Same for grouse in the South IMO. Numbers were artificially high due to large scale logging in the highlands. That scrubby stuff for thousands of acres doesn't exist anymore. Like the quail, there'll always be a few that hang around in the laurel, but unless people start clearing the land in a massive way, we'll never see grouse as we did in the past.

Just think about the landscape in Maine or Northern Wisconsin where they hunt grouse. Bares almost no resemblance to mature mountain forests of the south. Just wrist-sized aspen and maples for acres and acres.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 24, 2019, 21:35:45 PM


QuoteHoneybees and their issues are an agricultural consideration, not a matter of natural resources.

No creature exists in isolation, and not all honeybee an components of ag.  Honeybees can be the canary in the coal mine. While diseases pertaining to honey bees only concern honey bees; pesticide issues, erratic weather, nectar and plant elimination, affect all native pollinators.

QuoteIMO, and this is truly just an opinion, quail numbers were artificially inflated historically, as a result of large scale logging, soil loss that led to bare ground, farmer attitudes toward birds of prey and wildlife which resulted in killing off high numbers of predators. The "good old days" of quail hunting were a confluence of poor land management practices that actually led to increased quail numbers.
As the land, wildlife have been treated better, quail have suffered. Doesn't matter what your hedgerows look like if the pasture is in fescue and every span of phone line has a red-tail sitting on it .

I cannot speak for quail issues in other areas, but the land I spent most of my youth was no used for bird hunting, nor were any red tail hawks shot for any reason.  The quail disappearance was abrupt, and coincided with land use changes described earlier.  Causation or correlation?  who in the hell knows.  I just know that prunus americana and sumac are good for most everything that lives in the wild, but are being eradicated in many areas.  The adverse consequences of said eradications are real, but maybe not readily apparent to those who are not paying attention.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: JMiller on February 24, 2019, 22:05:37 PM
Quote from: Onslow on February 24, 2019, 21:35:45 PMNo creature exists in isolation, and not all honeybee an components of ag.  Honeybees can be the canary in the coal mine. While diseases pertaining to honey bees only concern honey bees; pesticide issues, erratic weather, nectar and plant elimination, affect all native pollinators.


Honey bees aren’t native pollinators. I’m sure you’re well aware of this, but I feel I need to make this point clear for others reading this thread as they are often presented as such.

Yes environmental factors that kill honeybees probably also kill most native bees.





QuoteI cannot speak for quail issues in other areas, but the land I spent most of my youth was no used for bird hunting, nor were any red tail hawks shot for any reason.  The quail disappearance was abrupt, and coincided with land use changes described earlier.  Causation or correlation?  who in the hell knows.  I just know that prunus americana and sumac are good for most everything that lives in the wild, but are being eradicated in many areas.  The adverse consequences of said eradications are real, but maybe not readily apparent to those who are not paying attention.

Both species are common here. No quail though. Typical of any roadside or old field.

I’ve heard it postulated that decline of quail roughly coincides with raptor population explosion following the DDT ban. That’s not to say it’s the only factor, just one you can’t actually do anything about via habitat manipulation.

Also, fescue thatch is no good. The birds need bare ground between bunch grasses. Cattle pasture is no good even if the hedges are right.

All the other ag is roundup ready at this point. Which gives you some bare earth, but no overgrown fence rows.

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 25, 2019, 00:38:27 AM
My dad brought an American Chestnut sapling from Maine back to NC. I planted it in our yard and it grew for about 7 years. On that year it bloomed and bore a total of about 1/2 dozens chestnuts, which I roasted and ate. Then insects bored all around the trunk and it died the following year. It was over twenty feet tall.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on February 25, 2019, 21:28:39 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on February 25, 2019, 00:38:27 AMMy dad brought an American Chestnut sapling from Maine back to NC. I planted it in our yard and it grew for about 7 years. On that year it bloomed and bore a total of about 1/2 dozens chestnuts, which I roasted and ate. Then insects bored all around the trunk and it died the following year. It was over twenty feet tall.

Based on your observations and experience, it seems there many more issues to overcome before any viable AC comeback will take place.  Insect infestation, no bueno.

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on February 26, 2019, 12:44:17 PM
Chestnut Blight.
Dutch Elm Disease.
Just two huge examples in the native plant world where mankind can fuck something up really quick and really cheap.
And attempt to fix it over generations at great cost. And get nowhere fast.
As I said, humans suck.
Hey, we're not as fucked up as India (or pick another country). Yay!

Planning a trip to catch some Goldens before they, and I, are gone.
I'll take a huge, pollution spewing plane to get there.
Carry on.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 26, 2019, 13:57:45 PM
when I was young, 3-5 years old there was a huge elm tree in my grandfather's backyard. I remember when he had to have it cut down because of the Dutch Elm Disease. He was quite upset about losing the tree, not to mention the cost of having it removed. The was on Staten Island, NY.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Beetle on February 26, 2019, 15:49:55 PM
Best Elm in Winston is right below the waterfall at Reynolda Gardens

elm11.png


elm22.png


there was something is the exif data that caused the file rotation.... I fixed 'em for ya!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Big J on February 26, 2019, 16:42:12 PM
Quote from: Dougfish on February 26, 2019, 12:44:17 PMPlanning a trip to catch some Goldens before they, and I, are gone.

Carry on.


I feel sorry for the loser that has to drag you around the sierras.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on February 26, 2019, 20:06:53 PM
Quote from: Big J on February 26, 2019, 16:42:12 PM
Quote from: Dougfish on February 26, 2019, 12:44:17 PMPlanning a trip to catch some Goldens before they, and I, are gone.

Carry on.


I feel sorry for the loser that has to drag you around the sierras.

Me too.  :laugh:   :banana072:  n!n
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 08, 2019, 14:21:20 PM
Up from the ashes

Seed from rare ash trees collected, banked
https://www.simcoereformer.ca/news/local-news/up-from-the-ashes/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Yallerhammer on March 09, 2019, 09:14:27 AM
The quail disappeared here at the same time the government effectively shut down small tract burley tobacco farming. Almost every little farm had a 1/2 acre tobacco patch, which often grew up in ragweeds late in the summer, and some broomsedge and blackberry fields. When the regulations doomed small farm tobacco, the farmers turned to cattle as the opnly alternative for making money on a small farm; which involved spraying brushkiller on the briars, liming the broomsedge, and sowing everything in frigging fescue. The quail went from abundant to non-existent in a decade.

Black locust is my favorite honey.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 12, 2019, 21:36:07 PM
Today, if any chestnuts are found in Eastern forests, they don’t grow more than a few feet tall + rarely flower. Chestnut trees have reached a “genetic dead-end” in the U.S. because of their inability to reproduce. According to The American Chestnut Foundation “the American chestnut tree survived all adversaries for 40 million years, then disappeared within 40.”

In hopes of bringing back the species, researchers have developed a back-cross hybrid with a Chinese blight-resistant chestnut and the native American chestnut. In 2009, 1,000 potentially blight-resistant chestnut trees were planted in the Nantahala National Forest, and two additional plantings took place in Tennessee + Virginia. Since then, more than 80 percent of the saplings across the three national forests have survived. As the trees grow + mature their blight resistance will be tested. With ongoing refinement + research, widespread restoration of the American chestnut may become a reality in the next hundred years.


https://avltoday.6amcity.com/chestnut-tree-wnc/

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 16, 2019, 12:42:04 PM
QuoteThere are a couple of ways to study forests. Scientists can work on the ground, in nature, detailing the size and shape of trees. As of late, they can also outsource their research to space, using a laser imaging system that is 250 miles above the Earth and traveling more than 17,000 miles per hour to calculate the size and shape of individual trees. The latter method provides highly refined measurements and â€" best of all for the scientists â€" there are no mosquitoes.

The field work can be grueling. “The first summer was a heat wave in northern Ontario, and the mosquitoes were atrocious,” said Laura Duncanson, assistant professor of geographical sciences at the University of Maryland, laughing as she recalled her early days in the field as an undergraduate. “We were measuring the stem diameters of tons of spiky little spruce trees, and I was covered in insect bites, sweat, and scratches.”

Today, she and Ralph Dubayah, a professor of geographical sciences at the university, along with scientists at NASA, are using sophisticated new technology mounted on the International Space Station that will help researchers make the first three-dimensional map of the world’s temperate and tropical forests. The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, or GEDI (pronounced “Jedi”), will provide 3D images of forests.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/science/nasa-is-using-space-lasers-to-measure-trees-on-earth/ar-BBUQR05?ocid=spartandhp
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 29, 2019, 12:56:42 PM
The folks breeding a disease-resistant chestnut tree are fighting over GMO’s

QuoteThe disagreement over genetically-modified organisms has shown up in an unexpected place: Efforts to resurrect the American chestnut tree, which was wiped out by blight last century.

The American Chestnut Foundation has spent years cross-breeding a few surviving American chestnut trees with blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees, a smaller less elegant relative. The idea is to create a tree that looks like the American chestnut but has most or all of the Chinese vigor. I’ve written about their efforts in New Hampshire many times, such as when six of the trees were planted in Concord.

Last year researchers at the New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, which is attached to Syracuse University, said they were developing a genetically modified chestnut that could shrug of the blight. They’re looking for permission to test them in the wild. Here’s a Science magazine article about it.

https://granitegeek.concordmonitor.com/2019/03/28/the-folks-breeding-a-disease-resistant-chestnut-tree-are-righting-over-gmos/


Chestnut champions quit to protest genetic engineering

QuoteSPENCER â€" The president and a board member of the local chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation announced they are resigning to protest the organization’s support for genetically modified American chestnut trees.

Board President Lois Breault-Melican and her husband, Denis M. Melican of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Chapter of the foundation, made the announcement Thursday after working for 16 years to help bring back the American chestnut species through backcross breeding.
They said they simply do not believe in genetic engineering and they are skeptical about what impact the process could have on the environment and people’s health.

“We are unwilling to lift a finger, donate a nickel or spend one minute of our time assisting the development of genetically engineered trees or using the American chestnut to promote biotechnology in forests as any kind of benefit to the environment. The GE American chestnut is draining the idealism and integrity from TACF,” the Melicans said.

“There is just no reason for taking the risks involved with genetically engineering the American chestnut. The local TACF chapters have been working for years and having great success developing blight-resistant American chestnut trees using backcross breeding.”


https://www.telegram.com/news/20190328/chestnut-champions-quit-to-protest-genetic-engineering
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 04, 2019, 10:54:04 AM
Give this a listen..

https://www.vpr.org/post/genetic-engineering-way-restore-american-chestnut-tree#stream/0
 

QuoteThe once-ubiquitous American chestnut tree is now functionally extinct, nearly erased from the landscape by a blight that killed roughly 3 billion trees over 50 years. Now a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring the tree is seeking federal approval to release a genetically engineered blight-resistant chestnut into the wild. But is a genetically engineered tree the right way to restore a virtually extinct species?

The blight, an Asian fungus that girdles chestnut trees and eventually kills them, came to North America in around the 1900s. Years of federal and local forestry efforts failed to revive the species. The nonprofit American Chestnut Foundation was formed in the 1980s to continue that work and restore the trees to the wild.

The ACF has bred hybrid trees resistant to the blight, but it's also pursuing a genetically-modified tree that combines genes from wheat and cauliflower into a tree resistant to the fungus. Much of that research is being done at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

Fitzsimmons will also discuss the March resignation by two members of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island ACF in protest to the foundation's plans to plant geneticially modified trees and opposition to agrochemical and biotech companies Monsanto and ArborGen being involved in the project.
Broadcast live on Wednesday, April 3, 2019 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Sara Fitzsimmons, ACF director of restoration and a researcher at Penn State University, joins Vermont Edition to explain chestnut restoration efforts and how the foundation is working toward federal approval to plant its genetically modified chestnut trees in the wild to restore the species.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 17, 2019, 09:09:05 AM
100 Million Trees planted by 2022

https://www.arborday.org/media/pressreleases/pressrelease.cfm?id=452

To give you a sense for the wide variety of trees we're planting through Time for Trees, here's a snapshot of species we plan to use in 2019:
Longleaf pine, Jack pine, loblolly pine, red pine, Jeffrey pine, white pine, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, white oak, bur oak, red oak, American chestnut, Douglas fir, sweetgum, hickory, bald cypress, western larch, and incense cedar

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/04/16/100-million-tree-planting-initiative-launched-by-arbor-day-foundation/

if you have a Microsoft / bing rewards account you can donate points and microsoft will match!

I just donated 10,000 20,000 points! That's 20 Trees!

https://account.microsoft.com/rewards/

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Beetle on April 17, 2019, 11:06:31 AM
I just acquired 4 chestnuts from the Bryants in Nelson County.    They are available at Lovingston Farm Supply right there on 29.

https://virginiachestnuts.com/

Chestnuts.jpeg

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 18, 2019, 10:23:32 AM
Honor Society students plant trees at RSMS

QuoteBryan Lightner, a member of the Cecil County Watershed Stewards, led the planting project again this year. He said the American Chestnut Foundation is collecting data on the four species planted: Sugarloaf, WMREC, Carver, and Scrivener.

https://www.cecildaily.com/news/local_news/honor-society-students-plant-trees-at-rsms/article_bda39d29-294b-5c3a-95ab-f06536fc236d.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 24, 2019, 09:59:26 AM
Will American chestnut trees stage a comeback near Bethlehem's reservoirs?


QuoteThe Bethlehem Authority commemorated Earth Day on Monday by planting hundreds of seedlings aimed at bringing back the mighty chestnut trees that once dominated the canopy of that Carbon County forest surrounding the city's water supply.
The planting includes 400 chestnut seedlings and 600 red and white oak on a 2.5-acre patch near Wild Creek Reservoir. The mixed planting aims to mimic the native forest composition that once grew there before a blight decimated chestnut trees a century ago. Over the next several years, the authority will be tracking the seedlings for survival and using the oak species as a control group to learn what the soil will support.


https://www.mcall.com/news/local/bethlehem/mc-nws-bethlehem-chestnut-tree-planting-20190422-a5p73giblfgwfa4qkslphav6uy-story.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 27, 2019, 09:35:39 AM
Volunteers plant future forest at Flight 93 National Memorial

https://triblive.com/local/regional/volunteers-plant-future-forest-at-flight-93-national-memorial/

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 30, 2019, 09:28:09 AM
What it Takes to Bring Back the Near Mythical American Chestnut Trees | USDA

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/04/29/what-it-takes-bring-back-near-mythical-american-chestnut-trees
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on April 30, 2019, 19:33:04 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on April 30, 2019, 09:28:09 AMWhat it Takes to Bring Back the Near Mythical American Chestnut Trees | USDA

https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/04/29/what-it-takes-bring-back-near-mythical-american-chestnut-trees


Whenever I see that pic, I get watery-eyed.  The civil war and the Chestnut blight are two of the great American tragedies.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on May 01, 2019, 07:22:21 AM
Hybridization, I'm not sure how I feel about the effort when it comes to the American Chestnut.  On the surface I see it as a fractional fix – perhaps a quicker perceived solution than other remedies like intercrossing of 100% American Chestnuts.   There are all-American blight resistant trees out there, of substantial size and bearing fruit.   So, is hybridization with Asian stock truly saving/restoring the American Chestnut?
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on June 11, 2019, 10:50:25 AM
QuotePublic lands biologist Josh Kelly warned last Wednesday that conservation efforts must start now to save North America's ash trees before they face a fate similar to the American Chestnut tree and disappear from forest landscapes.
Kelly, with local environmental group MountainTrue, gave his presentation, "Save Pisgah's Ashes," in the library's Rogow Room. The presentation was organized by the library in partnership with MountainTrue and the Pisgah Conservancy.
Specifically, the presentation highlighted the dangers infestations of emerald ash borer beetles (EAB) present to woodlands. Kelly emphasized there is still time to save native populations of white, green and Biltmore ash, and that while treatment can be expensive, especially with big trees, removal is even more so.
https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2019/06/10/outdoors/working-to-save-pisgahs-ash-trees/41035.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on June 26, 2019, 11:28:48 AM
A legendary Ozark chestnut tree, thought extinct, is rediscover

The chinquapin was supposed to have been wiped out by blight. Now one determined Missouri naturalist is hand-pollinating trees in secret groves to bring it back.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/saving-chestnut-trees-ozarks/

https://youtu.be/94bdMSCdw20
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: DRIFTS on June 26, 2019, 13:36:27 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on June 26, 2019, 11:28:48 AMA legendary Ozark chestnut tree, thought extinct, is rediscover

The chinquapin was supposed to have been wiped out by blight. Now one determined Missouri naturalist is hand-pollinating trees in secret groves to bring it back.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/saving-chestnut-trees-ozarks/

https://youtu.be/94bdMSCdw20
I remember steeping on their husk when I was young and running wild in the woods...Ouch!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 01, 2019, 11:56:46 AM
Emerald ash borer not alone in putting tree species at risk

Threatening remnant woodlands these days are invasives that attack specific species. Almost all of the threats originate from movement of people and commodities from regions where nature has developed nemeses for potentially devastating pests to lands where no defenses exist.
The consequences have all but eliminated the American chestnut and devastated the American elm, important forest species felled by imported fungi. Ash trees currently are succumbing by the millions to the emerald ash borer, whose presence has been traced to crates from Asia delivered to Detroit.
There are more, not-so-heralded invaders, including:

• The Asian longhorn beetle
• Beech leaf disease
• The hemlock woolly adelgid
• Thousand cankers disease

https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20190629/outdoors--emerald-ash-borer-not-alone-in-putting-tree-species-at-risk
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 04, 2019, 14:41:28 PM
Calculation Shows We Could Add a U.S.-Sized Forest to the Planet to Fight Climate Change

https://apple.news/AgcqGGVDsRbep2QOqJw8n-Q
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on July 04, 2019, 16:10:33 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on July 04, 2019, 14:41:28 PMCalculation Shows We Could Add a U.S.-Sized Forest to the Planet to Fight Climate Change

https://apple.news/AgcqGGVDsRbep2QOqJw8n-Q


I think this is "leftist political propaganda bullshit", but I like it!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 12, 2019, 11:33:24 AM
https://triblive.com/lifestyles/home-garden/longtime-rock-musician-also-a-steward-of-the-environment/

Longtime rock musician also a steward of the environment

As Mick Jagger performed a powerful version of "Angie" last week on stage in Canada, the beautiful, melodic piano lines weaving through the song were deftly being played by The Rolling Stones' musical director and keyboard player Chuck Leavell.

He's been with the band 37 years and has also played with musical legends Eric Clapton, George Harrison, the Allman Brothers, John Mayer and countless others.

Leavell's passion for music is accompanied by a life spent as a steward of the environmen
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on July 12, 2019, 12:14:13 PM
His side gig in the late '70's: Sea Level.

https://youtu.be/yzTA4NWCheE
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 13, 2019, 17:40:12 PM
Https://www.courier-journal.com/story/life/home-garden/2019/07/12/kentucky-trees-sudden-oak-death-coming/1613549001/


sudden oak death is the latest nemesis of Illinois and Indiana trees. Is Kentucky next?
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 23, 2019, 16:54:09 PM
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-plant-66-million-trees-12-hours-environment-campaign-madhya-pradesh-global-warming-climate-a7820416.html?fbclid=IwAR16W5kXilb3d_RhLlAjKAHo7J-e9zqS9YRGUB-OojDilEdy3j42ipjZVss
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on July 24, 2019, 08:12:58 AM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on July 23, 2019, 16:54:09 PMhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-plant-66-million-trees-12-hours-environment-campaign-madhya-pradesh-global-warming-climate-a7820416.html?fbclid=IwAR16W5kXilb3d_RhLlAjKAHo7J-e9zqS9YRGUB-OojDilEdy3j42ipjZVss


Go India!!!

Planting trees is a hoot, I think.  I really enjoy starting various oaks and planting them.  My Bur Oaks from the famous VT tree are doing great – planted in 2012 from 2011 nuts, they are now over 10 feet.  The huge White Oak acorns I collected in western KY did not fare so well.  Most of the ~ two dozen acorns sprouted over the winter and I was ecstatic, but I planted them in individual pots, leaving them on the deck of an outbuilding, and the resident chipmunk got all but 2.  Those 2 are doing fine.

Go plant a tree!!!!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on July 29, 2019, 07:05:20 AM
Ditch your fucking lawn!

https://youtu.be/oz9I2YwmV8M
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on July 29, 2019, 07:16:10 AM
This guy is my new hero.

https://youtu.be/piWZe4t0BR8
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: itieuglyflies on July 29, 2019, 08:52:27 AM
This guy is awesome......imagine him teaching Botany 101!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 05, 2019, 20:15:49 PM
Emerald ash borers are destroying ash trees in the Triad

http://via.wghp.com/kpOef

48EE8D52-7CBE-4F23-9C27-B1A4295F28DF.png
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Yallerhammer on August 06, 2019, 10:35:15 AM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on August 05, 2019, 20:15:49 PMEmerald ash borers are destroying ash trees in the Triad

http://via.wghp.com/kpOef

48EE8D52-7CBE-4F23-9C27-B1A4295F28DF.png

They're up here in the mountains now, too. We just discovered them last year in the area I work in.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on August 06, 2019, 16:54:47 PM
Roanoke city started treating their Ash street trees a few years ago.
They should have saved their money to buy a new chipper. All are dead or dying.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 06, 2019, 14:42:49 PM
https://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/forest-forensics/?amp

Interesting read!

09608EDE-5CD8-4DC3-AC96-DEF2CA1C82B5.png
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on September 06, 2019, 17:57:44 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on September 06, 2019, 14:42:49 PMhttps://www.blueridgeoutdoors.com/go-outside/forest-forensics/?amp

Interesting read!

09608EDE-5CD8-4DC3-AC96-DEF2CA1C82B5.png

Indeed it is.  I wish I could find a link to an 800+ page document produced by the USGS in the late 1800s near the turn of the century regarding the environmental conditions in NC. It has been 7 years since reading the document, but in its pages, stories of out of control raging forest fires stemming from wild weather, and poor land management were unforgettable.  Between the fires, deforestation, erosion, nasty hurricanes, general despair, some thought the world was coming to an end.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 25, 2019, 10:46:01 AM
QuoteROXBURY — Jack Swatt, president of the 35-year-old CT Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, was joined by five people as excited as he was, to unveil the pollination results of a newly discovered American Chestnut tree on a dirt road in rural Roxbury. The group included Marilyn Keurajian of Durham, who is an avid supporter of the mission to bring back the American Chestnut.
Richard Wilhelm, who lives just up the road, recognized the significance of the tree he discovered and immediately contacted the foundation. According to Wikipedia "The American chestnut is a large deciduous tree of the beech family that is native to eastern North America." The species became nearly extinct when a blight dating back to 1904 destroyed an estimated 4 billion American chestnut trees in its historical range, which includes Connecticut. The chestnut tree was lighter than oak, rot-resistant, and straight-growing so it was perfect for telephone poles, split railing, and construction.

On June 28, 30 bags were placed over the branches of the Roxbury tree in groups of three. Each group had been pollinated with a different American chestnut. Arborist Scott Hall used a bucket lift to reach the high branches, and on Sept. 20, he rose in the lift again to bring the bags back down. Wilhelm had approached Roxbury First Selectman Barbara Henry, who approved the pollination project to be carried out on town land.

http://www.countytimes.com/news/in-roxbury-chestnut-tree-could-be-key-to-bringing-back/article_55c14222-2b30-556c-8a4a-5500fd1353da.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 04, 2019, 12:23:38 PM
''

Team Trees: YouTube star MrBeast launches campaign to plant 20 million trees, Tobi Lutke, Susan Wojcicki, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey donate


https://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/team-trees-youtube-star-mrbeast-launches-campaign-to-plant-20-million-trees-tobi-lutke-susan-wojcicki-elon-musk-jack-dorsey-donate/

Quote from: undefinedTeam Trees is a tree-planting initiative to combat climate change started by the YouTube star MrBeast. YouTuber MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, launched the tree-planting campaign on October 25 to celebrate reaching 20 million subscribers on YouTube.

The idea initially came from one of his fans, who suggested he could celebrate reaching 20 million subscribers by planting 20 million trees.

MrBeast and YouTuber Mark Rober partnered with Arbor Day Foundation to raise the money and get the trees planted. And since MrBeast announced the goal of planting 20 million trees, the YouTube community mobilized to support him.
All the money raised by the Team Trees campaign will go to the Arbor Day Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that focuses on planting trees to combat climate change.


donate here https://teamtrees.org/ 

teamtrees.jpg

speaking of trees, do any of y'all click on The Rainforest Site (https://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/clicktogive/trs/home?gg_source=logonav&gg_medium=sitenav&gg_campaign=TRS)
each click supposedly saves 21.78 square feet of rainforest!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 06, 2019, 12:16:15 PM
group seeks USDA approval of geneticLLY altered American Chestnut Trees.

http://www.startribune.com/high-tech-chestnuts-us-to-consider-genetically-altered-tree/564545092/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on November 06, 2019, 19:59:18 PM
Plant the damn trees! 

Common sense most prevail when selecting sites for plantings.  Reclaimed mining land in WV would be a good place start planting.  None of this is complicated.

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: troutrus on November 07, 2019, 07:03:10 AM
Current "leadership" will likely only consider one question. Will it be good for the stock market?
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 20, 2019, 15:33:28 PM
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/tennessee-trying-to-bring-back-the-nearly-extinct-american-chestnut-tree/51-30408ae1-205d-4ffb-9a04-4cb5165a6ddf
 
MORRISTOWN, Tenn. — The Tennessee Environmental Council planted hybrid American Chestnut trees at Panther Creek State Park Tuesday. It's part of an effort to bring back the once thriving tree in a new way.
The trees once dominated our region, but a foreign disease and blight wiped them out in the early 1900s.
Now, every hole shoveled and every sapling planted is a step in the right direction for the American Chestnut tree.

"It was one of the main sources of hardwood and actually food," Boling explained. "Native Americans, when the American chestnuts started dying, they actually thought the world was gonna end."
Although the volunteers on Tuesday have never seen a live and native American Chestnut, they're hoping the hybrids will live for generations to come.

"That's the main reason I do this is to watch the growth," Boling added.
The group plans to plant trees in five parks across the state. The public is encouraged to stop at the groves, to water the trees and learn more about them.
The organization will plant more trees in Crossville Wednesday.
This initiative and research is through the American Chestnut Foundation. Tennessee State Parks and the Bonnaroo Works Fund are also contributors.


Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: JMiller on November 25, 2019, 06:08:21 AM
Most of what I do for a living is rare plant community preservation/restoration work.
Here's a video I made of my crew at work the other day.

https://youtu.be/H73eYfs0s-k
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 16, 2019, 15:21:42 PM
3 "supertrees" of the world!

https://www.vox.com/a/supertrees
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 19, 2019, 14:38:51 PM
Some interesting photos from the GSMNP included in this article


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/two-plans-to-bring-back-the-american-chestnut--one-by-hybridization-one-by-genetic-engineering/2019/12/17/8fc28ff4-16c7-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: 22midge on December 19, 2019, 15:50:14 PM
I would love to have seen the chestnut back in the day . I sawed chestnut logs that come from Tenn (park ) back in the early 70's that we had to take an ax and cut edges from each side so they would travel down a 48" belt to an edger. There was rot on the outside for about 3" then it was solid grade lumber. All the lumber went to Lenoir for Broyhill Furniture .
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 10, 2020, 12:35:47 PM
Chestnut dreams: In Nelson County, growers bring back a local delicacy

QuoteThe couple stumbled on the notion of chestnut farming as they researched many potential crops. Luckily for them, and for everyone who enjoys eating chestnuts, there are now hybrid varieties available that are bred to resist blight. The Bryants chose the variety Dunstan: 95 percent American chestnut, with 5 percent Chinese chestnut genes offering protection from disease.

https://www.c-ville.com/chestnut-dreams-in-nelson-county-growers-bring-back-a-local-delicacy/

https://chestnuthilltreefarm.com/shop/dunstan-chestnut/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 13, 2020, 17:41:06 PM
What Happened To The American Chestnut Tree?

https://www.npr.org/player/embed/789819025/790033790


Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 16, 2020, 19:21:50 PM

Why Bring Nature Home?

Quoten his book "Bring Nature Home," Douglass Tallamy explains why native plants are so important to the food web to which we are all connected. His research centered around butterflies, moths and the plants that were critical as food (flowers) and as host plants for reproduction. All told there are often hundreds of species that rely on native plants.
The symbiotic relationship between butterfly and native plant is also true for many other native insects, birds, and animals. They do not thrive without the native plants with which they evolved. Furthermore, the food web all species rely on, including us, is weakened without native plants.

The challenge is that in today's world of global commerce, modern horticulture trade, and promotion of pesticides, many of the native plants are outcompeted by invasive species and the beneficial native bugs are killed by pesticides.

https://www.theintelligencer.net/life/columns/2020/01/why-bring-nature-home/




Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Rhody on January 20, 2020, 12:33:59 PM
https://entomologytoday.org/2019/10/03/invasive-spotted-lanternfly-large-potential-range-united-states-beyond/

https://nysipm.cornell.edu/sites/nysipm.cornell.edu/files/shared/images/SLF-Known-Distbn.jpg?fbclid=IwAR32kS21XDi5AZQjPjMIpu48xcCjbPLMOTm0qV8DEodeQTnu5eGqQvHowSg

SLF-Known-Distbn.jpg


More not so good news.........
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 20, 2020, 15:27:10 PM
a rather attractive pest

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Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on January 20, 2020, 15:35:44 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on January 20, 2020, 15:27:10 PMa rather attractive pest

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Good eats for guinea fowl.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 22, 2020, 10:24:38 AM
Sheltering in Place in Manhattan—With 18 American Chestnut Saplings

Disease and logging nearly wiped out the towering trees in the early 20th century. Now the pandemic endangers a one-man operation trying to help the species endure.


>>>The survivors were crammed into the back of a gray Subaru that pulled up to an illegal parking spot a block down from my home just east of Ground Zero. Their savior, a Lorax-resembling retiree named Bart Chezar, had spirited them across the East River from Park Slope, Brooklyn. As he handed them over, he slipped me a bag of bagels as payment for the service I was to render. Then, looking tenderly at the fragile bunch, he whispered some parting advice: "The best way to kill them is to water them too much. The second-best way to kill them is to not water them enough."

https://www.audubon.org/news/sheltering-place-manhattan-18-american-chestnut-saplings
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 24, 2020, 10:34:25 AM
The endurance and beauty of American Chestnut can be seen in this colonial home

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/Buying-Here/2020/05/22/Buying-Here-1790s-stone-house-Stahlstown-Mrs-Soffel/stories/202005220027
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 16, 2020, 12:36:38 PM
>>> Klak's lab has partnered with State University of New York, the American Chestnut Foundation, and others to speed breed blight-tolerant American Chestnut seedlings in his lab and greenhouse, helping them produce pollen much faster than it would take if they grew naturally. For the first time this summer, this blight-tolerant pollen will fertilize some wild American chestnuts in Maine.


https://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20200715/partnering-to-restore-keystone-species
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 02, 2020, 06:45:40 AM
To save the hemlock, scientists turn to genetics and natural predators

>>> The eastern hemlock is not one of those ubiquitous, celebrity trees such as the white oak or the white pine. Throughout much of its range — from northern Alabama up to New Brunswick, Canada, and Minnesota — the hemlock has lurked mainly in dark mountain valleys, where the cool, moist climate favored it over competitors. In northern states and Canada, it mixed with sugar maple, beech and other cold-hardy forest dwellers. Still, the tree has inspired naturalists and writers from Henry David Thoreau to Robert Frost, who took solace from snow falling from a hemlock.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/to-save-the-hemlock-scientists-turn-to-genetics-and-natural-predators/2020/07/31/dc520050-b7b4-11ea-a510-55bf26485c93_story.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 06, 2020, 10:55:54 AM
Infighting Over Genetic Engineering Splinters Efforts to Save the American Chestnut


>>>SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — What would you do to save something you love? How far would you go?

The passion that pushes the legions of volunteers in their mission to save the American chestnut borders on fanatical obsession. Since 1983, members of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) have dutifully cared for, bred, and attempted to restore a tree that was once the pride of U.S. woodlands before blight decimated the species.

In the nearly four decades since the Asheville, N.C.-based organization was founded, another quest for the tree's redemption has been running concurrently to TACF's backcross breeding program. It has the same aim, but employs different means.

It has various names: transgenic tree, OxO tree, genetically engineered tree. But the premise is the same: Play God, and then pray to God it works.

read://https_www.ecori.org/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecori.org%2Fnatural-resources%2F2020%2F7%2F28%2Fchestnut-wars-splinter-recovery-efforts
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 21, 2020, 07:37:19 AM
USDA invites public comment on petition to approve GMO chestnut tree

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is inviting public comment on a petition from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) seeking deregulation of an American chestnut variety developed using genetic engineering for fungal resistance to chestnut blight. The petition will be available for public review and comment for 60 days.

https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2020/08/20/usda-invites-public-comment-on-petition-to-approve-gmo-chestnut-tree/

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/brs/aphisdocs/19-309-01p.pdf
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 24, 2020, 11:04:35 AM


>>>SHELTON — American chestnut trees, which once dotted the landscape, have been a rare find for decades — which is why the city has become an arborist's dream.

Shelton is home to an American chestnut tree, which sits beside the Rec Path close to Wesley Drive. Now a sign educating passersby of the history of the American chestnut sits beside the majestic tree.

Through the help of experts and United illuminating, the tree was pollinated over the summer. On Thursday, its seeds will be harvested to help keep the species from extinction

American chestnuts were once the predominant tree of eastern United States forests and important for their economic impact, Shelton Trails Committee member Val Gosset said.

Gosset said fellow Shelton Trail Committee member Mark Vollaro is active in The American Chestnut Foundation, so he collected some leaves and sent them to the national group for confirmation that the tree was a pure American chestnut, not a Chinese chestnut tree or mixture of the two. Chinese chestnuts are relatively blight resistant and have partially replaced their American cousins in the ecosystem.

Once confirmation was received, Gosset said the next step was pollination.

"Since chestnuts don't self-pollinate and there were no other flowering American chestnut trees in the vicinity, the flowers of the Shelton tree needed to be hand-pollinated to produce viable seeds," Gosset said.

The American Chestnut Foundation recently pollinated the tree, with the help of United Illuminating and a Lewis Tree Service bucket truck. Now the project moves to the next step — harvesting the chestnut seeds which will happen on Thursday.

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"The flowers of these majestic trees are far out of reach," Gosset said. "Representatives from TACF brought pollen from other Connecticut flowering American chestnuts and applied it to the female flowers of the Shelton chestnut tree. The flowers were then covered with corn bags to protect them from any possible stray pollen."

https://www.sheltonherald.com/news/article/Shelton-home-to-rare-American-chestnut-tree-15590629.php#photo-20002407
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 26, 2020, 09:05:47 AM
Efforts To Genetically Engineer American Chestnut Trees Draw Controversy

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 11, 2020, 08:51:57 AM
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 28, 2021, 09:51:04 AM
Into the Wild: GMOs head for the forest

>>>Genetic engineering is set to leave the farm for the forest. After over twenty years of growing genetically engineered (GE or genetically modified) crop plants in North America, researchers are now proposing to plant GE trees in the forests of eastern US and Canada. This is a precedent-setting request that asks us to accept, even embrace, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the wild.

The first genetically engineered forest tree is now being considered for release into the wild. The US Department of Agriculture is now assessing a proposal from university researchers to plant a GE American chestnut tree in forests. The researchers have genetically engineered the tree to tolerate the blight Cryphonectria parasitica that decimated American chestnut populations in Canada and the US in the 1900's.

This GE tree is engineered with a gene from wheat, key to creating the blight-tolerant trait, as well as genetic material from four other species: a plant related to mustard, two different bacteria, and a plant virus. Together, the use of this new genetic material has resulted in the "Darling 58" GE American chestnut tree.

https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/into-the-wild-gmos-head-for-the-forest/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 07, 2021, 11:09:58 AM
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 25, 2021, 09:24:54 AM
Redbay ambrosia beetle attack continues

>>>Many species of ambrosia beetles are known to infest fruit and nut trees and woody ornamentals causing significant damage in nurseries, orchards and home landscapes. However, in 2002, when the redbay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) was first detected in coastal Georgia, it was not considered to be a threat to healthy trees. The beetle was most likely introduced in a shipment of goods packed on untreated wooden pallets and in untreated wooden crates from Southeast Asia. However, fast forward to 2021. Statistics now show just how great the threat is – more than 300 million redbays have died as have other members of the laurel family attacked by the beetles, including avocado, sassafras, California bay laurel and spicebush.

Why should we care? Redbay (Persia borbonia) is an important native plant species of the southeast coastal plain. It is a small tree or large shrub of the maritime forest with three- to six-inch long evergreen lance-shaped leaves arranged alternately along the stem. The leaves have a distinct spicy odor when crushed. Redbay has long been used in boatbuilding, cabinet making and veneer work. Many species of birds feed on the small black fruit. Deer and bear feed on both fruit and foliage. The larva of the Palamedes swallowtail butterfly feed primarily on redbay leaves. As redbays continue to decline, threats to the lives of the animals that rely on them will increase. If you take a look at the surrounding coastal maritime forest and see a number of small trees with completely brown leaves hanging on, most likely you are looking at an infested dying redbay. The dead leaves stand out against the many other healthy evergreen leaves of other plant species found growing with the redbay.

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https://www.coastalillustrated.com/ch/column_gardening/article_dea7e966-546a-56f1-9255-132e7057c0cc.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 18, 2021, 11:51:35 AM
Sierra Club Inches Toward Accepting Genetically Modified Chestnut Trees
Let's restore this giant to America's forests.

>>>Now the venerable Sierra Club is inching toward embracing the TACF's blight-resistant chestnut. The group's response to the TACF's petition gingerly concludes that introducing the blight-resistant chestnut to eastern forests likely presents "no threat to ecosystems" and "provides an environmental benefit." An article in the Sierra Club's magazine shows a similar openness to the idea.

"One of the great ecological tragedies of the last century was the destruction of tens of millions of American chestnut trees through an invasive fungal disease," I noted in my own public comments to the Department of Agriculture. "The development and wide-scale deployment of a new fungus-resistant variety of American chestnut by means of modern biotechnology would go a long way toward reversing this tragedy and restoring the ecological balance of east coast forests."

https://reason.com/2021/03/11/sierra-club-inches-toward-accepting-genetically-modified-chestnut-trees/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 22, 2021, 12:35:41 PM
How the Climate Crisis and Pests Are Impacting Four Tree Species in Vermont's Woods

>>>American Chestnut

The largest American chestnut in Vermont is dying.

For years, it and two other chestnut trees near a road in rural Berlin were holdouts, the remnants of a species that once blanketed the eastern U.S. Today, only two of those 80-year-old trees are left. They stand in a patch of forest on ground so thick with leaves that it's soft and spongy underfoot.

The state record holder is tall and sprawling, but the bark has sloughed off its upper branches, now stark like scaffolding against the sky. Inside the deep-set rivulet patterns on its bark are hints of orange, a telltale sign. The tree is a victim of a fungus called chestnut blight, which eats away at the layer of cells just under the bark where new growth begins. Eventually it girdles the tree, cutting off nutrient flow and killing it,

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/how-the-climate-crisis-and-pests-are-impacting-four-tree-species-in-vermonts-woods/Content?oid=32812632
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 29, 2021, 10:10:27 AM
Part 1

The USDA Forest Service, The University of Tennessee, and other partners showcase their research on the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), a species that was extirpated by a non-native pathogen (Cryphonectria parasitica) that causes chestnut blight disease. Over 4,000 hybrid chestnuts that were bred for blight-resistance were planted on three national forests since 2009, and research is still ongoing.

https://youtu.be/6IQyqrlgg3k

Part 2

The USDA Forest Service, The University of Tennessee, and other partners showcase their research on the American chestnut (Castanea dentata), a species that was extirpated by a non-native pathogen (Cryphonectria parasitica) that causes chestnut blight disease. Over 4,000 hybrid chestnuts that were bred for blight-resistance were planted on three national forests since 2009, and research is still ongoing.

https://youtu.be/HnYvUHW04QU

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: jwgnc on April 29, 2021, 11:59:14 AM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on March 18, 2021, 11:51:35 AMSierra Club Inches Toward Accepting Genetically Modified Chestnut Trees
Let's restore this giant to America's forests.

Speaking of the Sierra Club ... 

We live way out in the woods and don't go in to town to pick up the mail unless we see something interesting in the the daily email from USPS Informed Delivery.  This came today.USPS Informed Delivery.png
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 06, 2021, 09:04:50 AM
>>>BUNCOMBE COUNTY, N.C. (WLOS) — Katie McKeever is used to fighting big odds. The plant pathologist is busy leading a group of 15 volunteers in planting 6,000 American chestnut tree seedlings at the U.S. Forest Service's Bent Creek Experimental Station. Only 600, or 10 percent, of the trees are expected to survive.

https://wlos.com/news/local/local-scientists-volunteers-work-to-restore-the-american-chestnut

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 13, 2021, 08:35:30 AM
Cherokee enter partnership to save the chestnut tree

>>>In a mountaintop signing ceremony on Wednesday, April 21, The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and The American Chestnut Foundation entered into a partnership to establish a demonstration orchard for restoration of the American chestnut tree.

The effort will use local genetics and collaboration on management requirements for sustaining repopulation of the American chestnut. The partnership began through a friendship between EBCI elder Jimbo Sneed and the late father of TACF's director emeritus Rex Mann, who grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina.


https://smokymountainnews.com/outdoors/item/31352-cherokee-enter-partnership-to-save-the-chestnut-tree

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: jwgnc on May 17, 2021, 11:29:51 AM
Tree Farts?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9587763/Tree-farts-ghost-forest-North-Carolina-adding-greenhouse-gases.html (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9587763/Tree-farts-ghost-forest-North-Carolina-adding-greenhouse-gases.html)
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 01, 2021, 08:28:27 AM
>>>PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - American Chestnut trees once flourished in the Northeast but has now nearly vanished, but one grower is working to bring them back.

There aren't chestnuts roasting on an open fire, rather growing in a local greenhouse. Randy Martin, Director of the Central Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District, says there was once an abundance of chestnut trees, but not anymore.

"Back in the 1900′s there were 4 billion chestnut trees up and down the eastern seaboard down as far as Alabama. Some gentleman brought some seedlings from China of chestnut. They were carrying blight, and in just a few years it wiped out 4 billion chestnut trees."

Through a partnership with the Maine Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, Martin and a local forester are working to restore native American Chestnut trees to the State's Forest ecosystem.

https://www.wagmtv.com/2021/06/25/project-revive-american-chestnut-trees-aroostook-county/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 15, 2021, 08:24:01 AM
Why islanders are seeking a mate for the lonely Davies Orchard Chestnut tree

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>>>The Homesteaders Act of 1872 offered a sweet deal for British citizens: if you promised to build a permanent structure and get food to market within three years, you could claim up to 160 acres as your own for a mere $10. This was what brought William Davies, his wife Florence and their thirteen children to Snug cove in 1887. The land was already cleared and only a few trees were left standing: a Douglas Fir, a Cherry Tree, and a Chestnut.

The Chestnut, who we know to be at least 149 years old stands today at a height of 21 metres. Her trunk is wide enough to require the arms of three (or more) adults in order to receive a proper hug, and is covered in large, curvaceous knobs.



https://www.bowenislandundercurrent.com/in-the-community/why-some-islanders-are-seeking-a-mate-for-the-lonely-davies-orchard-chestnut-tree-3950070
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 22, 2021, 15:42:45 PM
Staying alive: MountainTrue protects A.T. ash trees as research progresses against invasive threat

For millions of years, ash trees have grown tall and strong across the landscape today known as the United States — but for now, keeping them alive requires regular treatment with expensive chemicals and $2,000 worth of specialized equipment.

"We've been using a stem injection technique that requires you to actually drill holes into the stem of the tree," said Josh Kelly, public lands biologist for MountainTrue.

Just last week, MountainTrue's crew was treating trees along the Appalachian Trail near Max Patch, inserting small plastic plugs into the tree trunks. They then filled the plugs — which contain a gasket to keep liquid inside — with $500-per-liter insecticide using a $2,000 injector equipped with an air hose and pressurized air tank.

MountainTrue first treated ash trees in 2017 using an insecticide guaranteed to protect the trees for one year, but in 2018 switched to a more expensive chemical that offers three years of protection. Now they're revisiting all the trees they treated in 2018.

https://smokymountainnews.com/outdoors/item/31822-staying-alive-mountaintrue-protects-a-t-ash-trees-as-research-progresses-against-invasive-threat
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 29, 2021, 08:25:25 AM
Revisiting a very beautiful, 114-foot-tall American chestnut tree that grows in Hebron
It's considered the biggest in Maine and one of the biggest in the country.


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>>>Located on Ann Siekman and Roger Crockett's property on Back Street, the tree, which has been in full glorious bloom, has often turned heads not only because it is "very beautiful," Siekman said, but because of its size. It's considered to be the biggest in Maine and one of the biggest in the country.

"The Hebron American chestnut was originally measured in 2012 and found to be the tallest in Maine at 95 feet tall," Michele Windsor, the district and project manager at the Oxford County Soil & Water Conservation District, said. "It was most recently remeasured in 2020 and was found to have grown to 114 feet tall."

As of 2020, the tree has grown 19 feet taller, 6 inches fatter, and an additional 3.5 inches in crown spread since its last measurement. Its circumference was 84 inches (with a diameter of 2.2 feet) and its crown spread is 60 feet.



https://www.centralmaine.com/2021/07/24/revisiting-a-very-beautiful-114-foot-tall-american-chestnut-tree-that-grows-in-hebron/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 17, 2021, 08:48:42 AM
Is your trout fishing in trouble? Saving the state tree may be the answer


>>>There is a direct correlation between hemlock and native trout, a species highly sensitive to water pollutants, stream erosion and warming temperatures.

The situation is particularly crucial in Pennsylvania, which has more miles of stream than any state in the lower 48. It also has at least 15,000 miles of wild trout streams and nearly 5,000 miles of stocked trout streams.


https://www.ydr.com/story/sports/outdoors/2021/08/17/pennsylvanias-troubled-hemlock-trees-key-saving-native-trout/5380022001/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on October 21, 2021, 08:09:26 AM
WNY Land Conservancy sets virtual event to 'Save Allegany Wildlands'

>>>Six critically endangered American chestnut trees more than 40 feet tall still survive at the Allegany Wildlands, some of which are producing seeds, Semmel said. Large oaks, a threatened lily called a white clintonia, and rare orchids also grow there. Underneath the forest canopy, black bears and bobcats roam the ridges and ravines.

https://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/wny-land-conservancy-sets-virtual-event-to-save-allegany-wildlands/article_221d711a-2367-59df-accd-2dbfe92503b8.html

Conservancy tries to save Allegheny wilderness 
FUNDRAISING: Online event coming up on Oct. 27.


The Western New York Land Conservancy and the Friends of the Allegany Wildlands are working to save the Allegany Wildlands in 2021. The 200-acre forest, located only a few hundred feet from the Allegheny Reservoir near Allegany State Park, is home to a great diversity of plants and animals.

The group has until the end of this year to reach its fundraising goal of $879,000 and is more than halfway there with $330,000 needed. Thanks to three generous challenge gifts, the next $120,000 in donations will be matched 1:1. Once the goal is met, the Land Conservancy will purchase the land and keep it open as a publicly accessible nature preserve forever.

To kick off the final fundraising push of the campaign, the Land Conservancy will host a free virtual event on Wednesday, Oct. 27 featuring Ed Marx of the Wildlands Network. Attendees will also hear from Jajean Rose-Burney, deputy executive director of the Land Conservancy, about how they can save the Allegany Wildlands.


https://www.niagara-gazette.com/news/local_news/conservancy-tries-to-save-allegheny-wilderness/article_1b80316e-0e05-5958-928b-2d2b9b8c468c.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 04, 2021, 10:51:39 AM
Grown Here at Home: Virginia Department of Forestry selling trees

CRIMORA, Va. (WDBJ) - At the Augusta Forestry Center, they're putting walnuts in the walnut hauler to take the husk off.

"The outer husk on the walnut will actually grow maggots and that's what attracts birds to the field. When birds come to the field they'll dig up all the walnuts. If I can get rid of the birds coming into the fields, maybe this nursery can end up growing more walnuts," explained Joshua McLaughlin, Assistant Forestry Manager for the Virginia Department of Forestry Augusta Nursery Center.

The nursery takes acorns you donate, along with ones they buy to grow trees that will be planted all over our region to protect and develop the various tree populations found in the Commonwealth.

"We actually grow a bunch of different pines. White pine is a good one because White Pine is one of the number one Christmas trees in the area. A lot of the efforts of DOF goes in conjunction with the American Chestnut Foundation. We help with American Chestnut research and the restoration in that," McLaughlin said.


https://www.wdbj7.com/2021/11/01/grown-here-home-virginia-department-forestry-selling-trees/


direct link to purchase...

https://www.buyvatrees.com/shop/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 18, 2021, 13:46:46 PM
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 18, 2021, 13:48:50 PM
https://youtu.be/FKgdX2WvnKY
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 02, 2021, 11:48:08 AM
Rooted in conservation
Boy Scout, volunteers to plant 300 trees in Morganton

>>>WEDDINGTON – A Boy Scout in Union County will travel to Morganton Saturday to leave a lasting legacy.

Aaron Grossman, an 11th-grade student at Metrolina Christian Academy in Indian Trail and member of Boy Scout Troop No. 46 in Matthews, plans to achieve his Eagle Scout rank by planting trees on a property off River Road in Morganton.

The tree planting event Saturday is a result of a partnership with Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina. Grossman has worked for months to bring the project to fruition.

"My Eagle Scout project is to restore a parcel of land," Grossman said. "I chose the property by speaking with the conservancy on my ideas of reforestation. They pointed me to an opportunity at the River Road property. After being owned by a farmer, the conservancy now owns the land and has called it the Possum Rock Property. For the past 15-plus years, it has been used as an agricultural field. However, with the help of the Foothills Conservancy, I have cleared the field and will plant 300 trees to restore the local forest on the property."

https://morganton.com/news/local/boy-scout-volunteers-to-plant-300-trees-in-morganton/article_3d614632-52d5-11ec-8c8e-afa82ef23de7.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 14, 2022, 09:09:22 AM
A 250-year-old walnut tree was chopped down in Ohio. A brother and sister were hit with felony charges.



>>>For over 250 years, a black walnut tree lived in what is now a nature preserve in northeast Ohio, growing alongside wildflowers and ferns and the snaking east branch of the Rocky River. Its trunk grew unusually wide — 5½ feet — making it a rare specimen in the Cleveland suburbs.

Yet in just two days in September, that tree was cut down with chain saws, turned into logs and hauled away, according to witnesses interviewed by police. The lumber ultimately sold for just over $10,000.

Now, two suspects — a brother and sister, Todd Jones, 56, and Laurel Hoffman, 54 — have been indicted in the felling of the tree that prosecutors say sat on Cleveland Metroparks property, just feet away from Jones's land in Strongsville, about 20 miles south of Cleveland. The siblings face charges of grand theft and falsification — both felonies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-250-year-old-walnut-tree-was-chopped-down-in-ohio-a-brother-and-sister-were-hit-with-felony-charges/ar-AASMjad?ocid=msedgntp
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 10, 2022, 17:43:54 PM
https://wr.al/1Mfn4

RALEIGH, N.C. — A blooming Bradford pear tree is generally a sign that spring is on the way. In fact, you can usually smell the trees blooming through their signature unpleasant odor.

An North Carolina State University forestry expert is placing a "bounty" on the tree, largely thought of as a nuisance by homeowners, landscapers and those who work in agriculture. Seen lining yards along numerous neighborhoods and downtown sidewalks throughout the south, the trees can thrive in a number of environments and have an alluring look. But ecologically, they're another story.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Trout Maharishi on March 10, 2022, 17:59:05 PM
They are growing wild everywhere now. They are presently in full bloom. I've cut several down for my neighbors. Imagine me with a chainsaw. :o
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Dougfish on March 10, 2022, 18:00:24 PM
A shit tree, for sure.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Yallerhammer on March 10, 2022, 18:14:16 PM
Fuck a bradford pear. I kill seedlings on my land in SC every year. Except for the ones I graft into edible pears to feed deers. 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 16, 2022, 08:37:32 AM
US Forest Service buying 2,000 acres in Pownal, Stamford to expand Green Mountain National Forest

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A towering American chestnut tree is among the new additions to the Green Mountain National Forest.


>>>The Green Mountain National Forest is expected to grow by 2,100 acres in Bennington County within the next year.

A conservation group is facilitating the U.S. Forest Service's purchase of three privately owned parcels of land in Pownal and Stamford, with the help of $2.1 million in congressional funding. 

The properties encompass forest lands that abut the Green Mountain National Forest — 688 acres in northeastern Pownal, 1,251 acres in central Stamford and 165 acres in eastern Stamford.

The Pownal land hosts a small crop of American chestnuts, of which there are very few mature specimens left. The Green Mountain integration could be useful in restoring the tree. And the parcels also have previously unmapped wetlands, which help absorb rainfall and promote flood protection.

https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/10/u-s-forest-service-buying-2000-acres-in-pownal-stamford-to-expand-green-mountain-national-forest/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 30, 2022, 20:07:13 PM
Bradford pear trees to be officially banned in SC by 2024

>>>Plant nursery owners are working to clear out their stock of Bradford pear trees before 2024 when they are officially banned in South Carolina. Experts are also encouraging homeowners to replace Bradford pear trees on their property with native trees if possible.

"They're a nuisance tree, very difficult to get rid of completely," said Davis Sanders, who works with the South Pleasantburg Nursery. "The pollen is highly allergenic and it has a very foul smell. There's really nothing good about that tree."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/bradford-pear-trees-to-be-officially-banned-in-sc-by-2024/ar-AAWKIMI?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=a76f3541fc984c0fa10a0bb5ba077754
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on May 01, 2022, 06:23:02 AM
That article doesn't address the matter sufficiently.  When Bradfords are planted between sidewalks and roads, or along sidewalks, they are a health hazard to all that walk by.  Old Bradfords tend to loose limbs whenever a front goes by. The wet wood and any breeze does the trick. I'm very surprised an infant has not been impaled or crushed on the street I live.  I eliminated the Bradfords at my street sidewalk in 2009.  Not only is there a limb hazard, but the trees will buckle sidewalks, destroy infrastructure.

What is even more retarded is the Willow oak trend that started about 30 years ago.  These damn behemoths are being planted as ornamentals in parking lots at Lowe's and other developments. Only a truly myopic, low knowledge person with misguided exuberance would make such a poor choice.  Some bozo planted some along a sidewalk on a nearby street, and the road and sidewalk are near destroyed. I hate an effing Willow oak. The leaves are the worst for clogging gutters.

Dogwood trees anybody?
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on May 01, 2022, 06:54:56 AM
Screw periwinkle, English ivy, and crepe myrtles as well.  Once established, good luck getting rid of these.

 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: jwgnc on May 01, 2022, 11:02:02 AM
Our invaders are multi-flora rose (M-F) and oriental bittersweet, which we call son of M-F.  They are the only plant species on our property that we treat with chemicals.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 07, 2022, 08:00:24 AM
Division of Forestry participating in American chestnut tree plantings

>>>OLUMBUS — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) will plant 1,250 American chestnut trees this spring at Hocking State Forest and other ODNR-managed properties as part of a reforestation project to re-establish native American chestnut trees in partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF).

"The Ohio Division of Forestry is proud to partner with the American Chestnut Foundation as we attempt to restore the species across its native range," said Dan Balser, chief of the Ohio Division of Forestry. "We look forward to working together on this important field research project."

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>>>Donated by TACF, 425 of the year-old seedlings will be planted at Hocking State Forest, with the remaining 825 divided among other ODNR properties. These seedlings are known as potentially blight resistant (PBR) chestnuts since they have been bred with the Chinese chestnut tree, which is highly resistant to the blight. These hybrid seedlings are fifteen-sixteenths American chestnut, bred to provide blight resistance while retaining the favorable properties of the native American species.

https://www.crescent-news.com/news/local_news/division-of-forestry-participating-in-american-chestnut-tree-plantings/article_e5796bdc-c57c-11ec-8ba1-3f653d2e2133.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 08, 2022, 19:34:51 PM
'Plant out of hell' invading south Alabama, feds weigh using Asian insects to fight back

>>>In the battle against an invasive tree that's taking over the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, federal authorities are considering a new weapon: invasive insects.

State and federal wildlife agencies have tried blasting the invasive Chinese tallow tree with herbicide dropped from the air, in addition to using controlled burns, U.S. Marines with machetes, and brigades of volunteers to fight back the invasion.

But the proposal has drawn waves of opposition from a somewhat unlikely source: beekeepers.

More than 900 public comments were filed in response to the proposal in the U.S. Federal Register, including comments in opposition from the American Beekeepers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, state and local beekeepers groups and hundreds of individual beekeepers who value the tallow tree because it is attractive to bees.

None of those controls seem to be working, and they're all very expensive, so the U.S. Department of Agriculture is currently evaluating a proposal to release two insects from Asia – a moth and a beetle -- that are natural predators for the tallow tree.

https://www.al.com/news/2022/05/plant-out-of-hell-invading-south-alabama-feds-weigh-using-asian-insects-to-fight-back.html


Tallow tree, or popcorn tree, Triadica sebifera, has been in our country since its inception, with none other than Ben
Franklin touting the virtues of this invasive tree. Like many invasive plants, it is often sold in nurseries and planted as an
ornamental for its bright red autumn foliage and striking spikes of small yellow flowers. Although many beekeepers esteem
the tallow tree as a wonderful honey plant, there are many native alternatives that you can plant instead to support bees.
Tallow tree can survive low-light conditions, establishing in healthy forests with little trouble. The fallen foliage of tallow
tree produces allelopathic chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants. With its rapid growth, tremendous output of
seed and chemical warfare with other plants, tallow tree turns healthy forests into monocultures

https://www.state.sc.us/forest/tallowtree.pdF



Chinese Tallow Tree
Also known as the Popcorn Tree, the Chinese Tallow Tree is one of the top 10 most invasive plants in Mississippi. Popcorn trees spread like wildfire, overtaking native vegetation, damaging wildlife habitats, and destroy nature's balance. Popcorn trees have distinct, heart-shaped leaves, dangling yellow flowers, and fruit that looks like popcorn.

https://www.mfc.ms.gov/forest-health/invasive-plants/chinese-tallow-tree/?msclkid=7442a499cf2e11ec8d52774986ffd824
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on May 09, 2022, 05:58:38 AM
I can see why beekeepers would be very reluctant to support the removal of the Tallow tree. It is both simple, and complicated. Timing of food availability is everything when it comes to sustaining native pollinators such as a bumble bee, and possibly even the carpenter bee.  So many nectar sources have been nearly eliminated such as Sumac. One species of flower, or one bloom such as Tulip Poplar, Dutch clover can sustain our insect population for entire year.  Native pollinators are probably much more susceptible to dearth than honey bees since honey bees store food. The Tallow tree blooms at a time that is hugely beneficial not just to beekeepers, but to native pollinators.  If farmers, landowners are not willing to replace Tallow trees with the native Sumac, then the Tallow trees should be left alone.  The only other trees that bloom in June are Mimosa (non native), and the Sourwood.  I doubt the low country in Alabama has sourwood.  I doubt Dutch clover yields much in June in that part of the word.

Fact > Honeybees cannot pollinate blueberries without the help of carpenter and bumble bees.

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on May 09, 2022, 07:12:34 AM
Quote from: Onslow on May 09, 2022, 05:58:38 AMFact > Honeybees cannot pollinate blueberries without the help of carpenter and bumble bees.




Fact?

Something to ponder

https://entomologytoday.org/2018/12/07/no-buzz-no-problem-study-shows-how-honey-bees-pollinate-blueberries/?msclkid=a2d3265ecf8e11ec81fdb32e303a3983


https://manukahoneyusa.com/honeybees-discover-new-ways-to-pollinate-blueberries/#:~:text=For%20blueberry%20plants%20specifically%2C%20honeybees%20can%E2%80%99t%20release%20pollen,release%20pollen%2C%20which%20honeybees%20cannot%20do%20while%20planted.?msclkid=a2d2f4b0cf8e11eca11cedfdb217a5fa


Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on May 09, 2022, 07:36:11 AM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on May 09, 2022, 07:12:34 AM
Quote from: Onslow on May 09, 2022, 05:58:38 AMFact > Honeybees cannot pollinate blueberries without the help of carpenter and bumble bees.




Fact?

Something to ponder

https://entomologytoday.org/2018/12/07/no-buzz-no-problem-study-shows-how-honey-bees-pollinate-blueberries/?msclkid=a2d3265ecf8e11ec81fdb32e303a3983


https://manukahoneyusa.com/honeybees-discover-new-ways-to-pollinate-blueberries/#:~:text=For%20blueberry%20plants%20specifically%2C%20honeybees%20can%E2%80%99t%20release%20pollen,release%20pollen%2C%20which%20honeybees%20cannot%20do%20while%20planted.?msclkid=a2d2f4b0cf8e11eca11cedfdb217a5fa




Oregon has bumble bees and 2 species of Carpenter bees.  The state of Oregon rates bumble bees as the most important pollinator in the state.

 One of the articles fails to mention honeybees CANNOT reach the nectar in a blueberry flower UNLESS a carpenter bee, or a bumble bee, slices and drills a hole in the side of the flower FIRST.  This is due to the length of the proboscis being too short.

Yes, oversaturating a space with bees may enhance results, but like with most news today, half the facts are omitted.  This is pure bee industry propaganda.

The bumble bee absolutely adore the my native blueberry plants,  and they rarely receive visits from the honeybee.   I can assure you my blueberry plants are fully pollinated.



Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 09, 2022, 08:31:07 AM
Quote from: Onslow on May 09, 2022, 07:36:11 AMength of the proboscis being too shor


That's what she said!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 12, 2022, 09:07:44 AM
At Allen Farm, a Chestnut Forest Could Save Waterways


>>>Sometimes it is good to remember that when you live on an Island, intimacy with the water doesn't end when you step off the ferry.

Last week on Arbor Day, Mitchell Posin of the Allen Farm in Chilmark described his newest project: converting pasture to forest. The effort demonstrates how people working the land on the Island can make waterways healthier for their bivalve residents and all the species of ocean fish that venture inside them to breed.

"It's called silvopasture," Mr. Posin said. "It's thousands of years old."

This spring Mr. Posin is planting more than 100 chestnut trees on his property. He plans to turn sections of the Allen Farm's rolling oceanfront pastures into a forest underneath on which his animals can graze.

https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2022/05/05/allen-farm-chestnut-forest-could-save-waterways
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 12, 2022, 09:09:18 AM

Trying to save the state tree also helps Pennsylvania trout

>>>Pennsylvania fishermen like Russ Collins are worried about trees.

He lives in Palmyra, Lebanon County, and is the vice president of Trout Unlimited's southcentral chapter. He wonders whether a struggling tree species could ultimately endanger one of the top fishing grounds in the country, if not the world.

Collins sees first-hand how the iconic Eastern hemlock — Pennsylvania's state tree — is dying off. A stand of hemlocks in his backyard is all but gone despite efforts to combat a bug that slowly sucks the life from them.

He also points to a two-mile stretch of water in Dauphin County where hemlocks are dying off every 40 feet or so. It's gotten so bad that the fallen giants have jammed up a section of Clarks Creek.

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/outdoors/2022/05/11/invasive-woolly-adelgid-pennsylvania-trout-fishing-dunbar-creek-fayette-county/stories/202205130005
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 26, 2022, 08:15:09 AM
The American Chestnut Tree Foundation and Chestnut Mountain Ranch partner up to plant trees

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - The American Chestnut Tree Foundation partnered with the Chestnut Mountain Ranch to plant trees.

The boys planted 24 trees on the mountain.

A short presentation was also presented to the boys about the trees and how they are trying to get them back growing in west Virginia.

President of the American Chestnut Foundation, Mark Double says the boys will learn a lot from planting the trees.

https://www.wdtv.com/2022/05/21/american-chestnut-tree-foundation-chestnut-mountain-ranch-partner-up-plant-trees/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on July 28, 2022, 08:37:11 AM
Native Tree Expert Shares His Wisdom of the Woods

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>>>Mention Lennilea Farm Nursery to a fan of native flora in this neck of the woods, and chances are their eyes will light up as a knowing smile creases their face.

The 180-acre farm in the Village of Huffs Church in southeast Berks County is tucked behind the historical house of worship that gives the town its name.

Robert and Cindy Seip, who named the farm for the Lenni Lenape indigenous to this place, have made a living in cooperation with that land, in some way, shape or form, since they were married in 1960.

It is Robert's boyhood home. He moved there in 1938 when he was 9 years old after his mother took up residence with Floyd Kemp, who purchased the farm and was a lineman by trade. The couple had a daughter together, Robert's half-sister, Anna (Kemp) Moyer.

Born in 1929 and raised for a time by a single mother during the Depression era — his father left when Robert was 2, and his parents later divorced — Robert lived through lean times.

https://www.lancasterfarming.com/native-tree-expert-shares-his-wisdom-of-the-woods/article_36d545ec-091f-11ed-9619-63114c3ecc6d.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: The Dude on August 06, 2022, 15:25:59 PM
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 01, 2022, 19:08:29 PM
Why an American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists

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After the species was devastated by an Asian blight in the early 20th century, a single American chestnut tree in Centreville has been deemed a "precious resource" by the Delaware Nature Society.

Jim White, a senior fellow at the Delaware Nature Society, said the tree discovered at Coverdale Farm Preserve is the largest and oldest he's seen in his 50-year career.

"For people who are interested in trees, that's kind of a holy grail-type thing, to see a big American chestnut," he said. "I've never seen anything that size anywhere, and very few people have."

The tree is estimated to be about 50 years old and 70 feet tall, with a circumference of at least 35 inches, White said.

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2022/08/26/american-chestnut-tree-discovery-in-delaware-wows-conservationists/65414649007/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 01, 2022, 19:11:47 PM
Gene editing could revive a nearly lost tree. Not everyone is on board.
Saving the American chestnut could restore a piece of history, resurrect a lost ecosystem and combat climate change. But critics say it would come at a cost.

>>>Kyra LoPiccolo crouched in front of a small, white foam box under the hot summer sun. She opened the cooler and from the ice plucked a tiny vial of pollen — a potential salve for an entire species.

Clasping a branch of a two-story American chestnut, LoPiccolo pulled out a delicate, yellow-dusted glass slide and rubbed the thawed pollen onto some of the tree's flowers. A few feet away and armed with another set of vials, a pair of colleagues at this field research station were aloft in a crane working on higher limbs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/08/30/american-chestnut-blight-gene-editing/


Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: jwgnc on September 10, 2022, 15:12:36 PM
Eagle-eyed Delaware hunter chances upon 'holy grail' of tree lovers — full-grown American chestnut

https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-american-chestnut-tree/ (https://whyy.org/articles/delaware-american-chestnut-tree/)
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on October 06, 2022, 11:32:55 AM

It's Chestnut Season In Michigan, Where Some of The Most Hardy Trees Thrive

Read More: It's U-Pick Chestnuts Time in Michigan, Where Hardy Trees Thrive | https://wkfr.com/michigan-chestnuts-upick-farm-blight/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral


However, for some outstanding reason Michigan's chestnut crop is resistant to the blight. Dennis Fulbright, a professor at Michigan State and a plant pathologist, has said that miraculously Michigan is home to the only chestnut trees with a naturally occurring biological control. For some reason, chestnut trees just seem to thrive in Michigan. It's a modern medical marvel!

Read More: It's U-Pick Chestnuts Time in Michigan, Where Hardy Trees Thrive | https://wkfr.com/michigan-chestnuts-upick-farm-blight/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 10, 2022, 09:49:50 AM
The uncertain future of old-growth forests in North Carolina, part one

The recent decision to harvest 26 acres that encompass an old-growth patch of forest on a 3,500-foot mountaintop – the Southside Project – underscores what some say is the widening incongruity between the U.S. Forest Service's mission, climate change crisis and the public's will.

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CPP is launching a four-part series focusing on the Southside Project, a recent initiative by the U.S. Forest Service, to make the national forest more resilient and sustainable. In part one, Jack Igelman provides the context and background for the Southside Project, Brushy Mountain and the new Forest Service plan.


On a cloudy morning in August, Buzz Williams is standing at the trunk of a venerable black gum tree over a century old on Brushy Mountain in Nantahala National Forest. The forest lies in the mountains and valleys of southwestern North Carolina and is the largest of North Carolina's four national forests.

Williams is tall and slim with a thick white beard. When he's moving, he bounds through the forest, talking the entire way, occasionally stopping to examine some of the forest's bounty, including a poisonous mushroom and an American chestnut sapling before stopping at the trunk of the black gum.

"Bark is one of the best ways to age a forest," said Williams. Working out a forest's age isn't just visual, he says; "you can feel it." Hexagonal patches of gnarly bark outlined by deep fissures create a honeycomb pattern ascending toward its canopy.

https://youtu.be/pGsxK6DF2Z0


https://carolinapublicpress.org/57909/the-uncertain-future-of-old-growth-forests-in-north-carolina-part-one/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 08, 2023, 11:46:14 AM
Sellwood community working to rescue historic fallen tree

As recent windstorms have toppled countless trees across the region, one community in Sellwood is working together to salvage a century-old American chestnut tree that recently fell.

According to the City of Portland's records, it was recognized as a Heritage Tree for its more than 100-foot size and significance.

There are nearly 400 Heritage Trees throughout Portland, with new trees added each year. Once designated, Heritage Trees are protected by City Code and cannot be removed without the consent of the Urban Forestry Commission and Portland City Council.

When a beautiful tree comes down in a neighborhood, it doesn't go unnoticed.

Erich Perkins, from Rescued Oregon Timber, works with a couple of other woodworkers to rescue Oregon timber in urban neighborhoods because when big trees like this fall, Perkins said they usually go to the dump.

https://www.koin.com/news/portland/sellwood-community-working-to-rescue-historic-fallen-tree/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on February 20, 2023, 12:48:10 PM
For the First Time, Genetically Modified Trees Have Been Planted in a U.S. Forest
Living Carbon, a biotechnology company, hopes its seedlings can help manage climate change. But wider use of its trees may be elusive.

On Monday, in a low-lying tract of southern Georgia's pine belt, a half-dozen workers planted row upon row of twig-like poplar trees.

These weren't just any trees, though: Some of the seedlings being nestled into the soggy soil had been genetically engineered to grow wood at turbocharged rates while slurping up carbon dioxide from the air.

The poplars may be the first genetically modified trees planted in the United States outside of a research trial or a commercial fruit orchard. Just as the introduction of the Flavr Savr tomato in 1994 introduced a new industry of genetically modified food crops, the tree planters on Monday hope to transform forestry.

Living Carbon, a San Francisco-based biotechnology company that produced the poplars, intends for its trees to be a large-scale solution to climate change.


Read the rest of the NYT article. (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/science/genetically-modified-trees-living-carbon.html?unlocked_article_code=ny62mo4stfD9JuXFg91MwVP2s-5MzRQ_efIgUQPlxiQ8X3ozZdXKwy5Z40W7nk2RLwdpEA5isVvIozyUdRmkNF7Y083k4PgOInNzj4c1L8vdcKyu6X2QJ16EujJkMPUX-HqXeKXvQWD82wGwZE085xFytn7D6y7RP49kOct-sJ8XXbnXOnvtLjLJQuQVxnZE4traSAsnHl_POANJ2fFpt_fxWZYKL4lRCYmLMKYrDZKXTNLbXrPTFxQmmta9LBF7EtuZRTNgNL7qHTyzSFRa7KNqBA1DOj6nDpBlxwc0j2n2rFyc65D96EbPQlemRpITKZEKwvf-D3NiiukUvwQzrft6B8VUlUx4H3WN8tHMNqbpP08&smid=url-share)
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on March 16, 2023, 08:24:12 AM
Here's a rare glimpse into the emerald ash borer's damage at Peru State Forest

In a rare glimpse of an active state logging site, five people concerned about logging policy joined state foresters for a slog through slush and mud to see the effort to control the emerald ash borer on 93 acres in Peru State Forest.

Ash forests have been decimated by the tiny emerald green insect, which literally gets under the skin of trees to lay its eggs, depriving the trees of water and nutrients. The emerald ash borer has been found in 36 states.

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/southern_berkshires/rare-winter-logging-tour-allows-a-glimpse-into-emerald-ash-borer-damage-at-peru-state-forest/article_9b96c604-bdec-11ed-89f5-63253819d6c8.html
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 13, 2023, 08:23:55 AM
How conservationists are turning an old Kentucky strip mine into a native forest

Armed with bucketfuls of trees, volunteers scampered along a Leslie County mountaintop that looked more like the moon than a mountain. Rocks the size of fists went tumbling as shovels struck earth to make way for the nearly 8,000 native tree seedlings that about 100 volunteers hoped to plant on this old strip mining site over the course of a two-day tree planting event which began March 28. Those who return to the site this fall should find native wildflowers among the rocks. In five years, the young trees will start to make their presence obvious. "Then at about year 15, you'll have a closed, intact canopy. It'll be shading the floor, they're dropping leaves onto everything and a lot of the trees will be 15, 20 feet tall at that point," said Michael French, the director of Green Forest Works, a University of Kentucky nonprofit that reforests former mine sites across Appalachia.



Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article273557645.html#storylink=cpy
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 20, 2023, 10:41:03 AM
Genetically engineered trees in a Georgia forest mark a first in the nation
A Tattnall County forester works with California-based Living Carbon to grow trees designed to store more carbon

Vince Stanley has a saying, which he holds as true in a commercial forest as on a row crop farm: Every acre has a plan.

GPB
This story also appeared in Georgia Public Broadcasting
In a wetland he owns in Tattnall County, about 70 miles west of Savannah, downhill from an orderly grove of predictably profitable loblolly pines, he is trying out something new.

"Now, look at this guy right here," Stanley said, pointing out what looked more like a stick in the mud compared to the tupelos growing a few yards away in the deeper water. 

This stick, surrounded by pin flags and planted about six feet away from its sister, had signs of new life: dark green leaves.

"That's impressive," Stanley said.

And the germ of the new plan for these acres, is something that, until now, Stanley said he didn't really have.

"We're just leaving this up to Mother Nature," he said. "So now with Living Carbon, we've gone to Option B."

This nascent tree and 10,499 others are at the heart of Option B, what might be the first effort of its kind in the nation: genetically engineered trees planted in a forest.

What's more, these trees are for sale.

https://thecurrentga.org/2023/04/13/genetically-engineered-trees-in-a-georgia-forest-mark-a-first-in-the-nation/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on April 23, 2023, 08:14:47 AM


Carnivorous Plants Use a Smelly Trick to Catch Their Prey
A study suggests that pitcher plants tailor the smells they produce to  woo particular kinds of insects.

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Pitcher plants supplement their diets with this one strange trick: eating flesh. Usually found growing in relatively poor soil, the plants sprout pitcher-shaped cups with pretty, frilly tops that obscure their true purpose: trapping hapless insects. Look inside the pitchers and you'll find the half-digested bodies of the plants' victims.

How do insects wind up in this unenviable situation? Do they just, as at least one group of researchers has theorized, fall in by accident? While studies suggest that the plants' colors and its nectar may attract prey, some scientists think pitchers' scent may play a role as well.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, a research team identified odor molecules emanating from four types of pitcher plants and found that the scents seemed to be correlated with the kinds of insects that wound up in the pitchers. While the study is small and more work is needed to confirm the link, the findings suggest that when insects meet their deaths at the bottom of a pitcher, it may be an aroma they're following.

Humans tend to describe a pitcher plants' scent as floral or herbal, said Laurence Gaume, a scientist the French National Centre for Scientific Research and an author of the new paper. Insects may find the scent more striking. Researchers have found in the past that pitchers emitting more volatile compounds tended to attract more flies, but rigorous examinations of what exactly pitchers release and whether it's connected to the insects they attract have been missing.



Continue reading NY Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/science/pitcher-plants-insects-sents.html?unlocked_article_code=9wUu4kup5Ckya0eJ3uxcPRHpGzriXgZrOBt7YPrS-0BX4comCAI86EggBsO1PUw4uFykrzRUy1UUvh9JO5FmZyCgwdr-8FoaWzYcPEgf-E3HCOiX3ufwNHM2K-j-JKupYz5syaGHHMNawA00N2SkLREQQcSNyHBFMiZU0nraKC9O-OcZjkps2JPj_IZNLePASQQRj-0Q2X_C_TV2rlSZzOXecbWVYJNomJdOfzE8GYxy3LzWFTt9MF9QB-Wcy1l2pDjXXYofpcAB0vMQoHdjcuc39gA4D7Q34ll2CU2qIKZs7o0X3aRMyrWC5aozZ_qOSVx6qF5buPjkPGBpE4HHfthwNRh5bc0&giftCopy=2_Explore&smid=url-share)
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 04, 2023, 08:42:03 AM
To save chestnut trees, we may have to 'play God'
Four billion American chestnut trees were killed by a deadly fungus. In the quest for its revival, can scientists learn to build a better tree?


By the time Rex Mann was old enough to work in the forests of Appalachia, they were full of the dead.

"We called them gray ghosts," the now 77-year-old retired forester says of the American chestnut tree scattered throughout his former North Carolina home and still towering over the forest floors.

They were skeletal remains of majestic trees that once grew to be as much as 100 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Over the course of the 20th century, an estimated four billion of them, one-fourth of the hardwood trees growing in Appalachia, were killed by an Asian fungus accidentally imported in the late 19th century. It's considered one of the worst environmental disasters to strike North America—and also a preview.

Emerald ash borer, sudden oak death, Dutch elm disease, oak wilt disease, walnut canker, hemlock woolly adelgid—in a globalizing world, many trees are facing pandemics of their own. And now climate change, with its catastrophic droughts, floods, and heat waves, is making it especially difficult to fight off attackers. Even Joshua trees, icons of the southwestern desert, are finding that the world is too warm.

All this has led some scientists to ask: Can we build better trees, ones that are more able to cope? And here again the American chestnut may soon set a precedent—this time on the path to resurrection. By tweaking its DNA, scientists say, they've created a blight-resistant tree that's ready for a second act. If it works for the American chestnut, perhaps it can work for other similarly afflicted trees.

"Some people say, 'You're playing God,' " says Allen Nichols, president of the New York chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. "What I say is: We've been playing the devil for ages, so we need to start playing God, or we're going to start losing a whole mess of stuff."


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/genetically-modified-american-chestnut-trees-conservation
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on May 11, 2023, 08:56:00 AM
The D.C. Region's Ash Trees Are Dying Off.
This Project Is Documenting The Few Groves Still Living

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Aerial view of ash forest devastation at Mattawoman Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River.

The clock is ticking for the few healthy ash tree groves still in existence around D.C.

Twenty years ago an invasive pest arrived in the area, hidden away inside a shipment of ash trees headed for a nursery in Maryland. Since then, most of the ash forests in the area have been decimated by the pest, known as the emerald ash borer.

The loss of these trees is having a devastating impact on wetland ecosystems in the region.

"They're really important ecologically," says Gabe Popkin, a science writer based in Mount Rainier, Md. "As they die, there's only a tiny handful of trees that can potentially take their place."

For more than three years, Popkin and photographer Leslie Brice have been visiting local ash forests in the D.C. region to document the decline of the trees.

It started with a canoe trip in the summer of 2019. Popkin and Brice were paddling Mattawoman Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, when they came around a bend and were confronted by a forested wetland filled with dead trees.

"I didn't know what it was," recalls Brice. At first she wondered if it could be saltwater intrusion — rising sea level killing trees unaccustomed to salty ocean water. But they were too far inland.

https://wamu.org/story/23/05/08/dc-area-ash-forests-dying/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on June 08, 2023, 09:52:00 AM
America's Iconic Beech Trees Are Under Attack
The number of states with trees battling beech leaf disease tripled from 2019 to 2022. It is especially common in trees around Lake Erie, where the disease turned up in half of the beeches studied.

Lovers often carve their initials in the smooth gray bark of beech trees. Now those beloved trees—which can reach nearly 40 meters tall, live up to 400 years and are among the most abundant forest trees in the Northeast and Midwestern U.S.—are increasingly threatened by beech leaf disease.

In 2012, a Greater Cleveland naturalist noticed odd, dark, leathery stripes between some veins of a few beech leaves. Since then, beech leaf disease has spread faster and faster around the lower Great Lakes and the Northeast, ravaging one of the region's most vital trees.

In 2019, the disease was found in four states and Ontario. And by 2022, as both the disease and its detection rose, it spread to 12 states, plus Ontario and the District of Columbia.

"'22 was the wakeup call for any dismissiveness," Robert Marra of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station said.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062023/beech-trees-threatened-disease/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on June 08, 2023, 09:54:55 AM
Does Restoring the American Chestnut Require Greater Risk Than Reward?

Before the mid-20th century, the American chestnut tree used to dominate the East Coast of the United States. The American chestnut, reaching staggering heights of 150 feet, was known as the redwood of the East 1  and played an equally pivotal role ecologically and socially as their West Coast counterparts. Early Native American tribes used the tree 2  as a medicinal and food source, and early Appalachian communities harvested chestnuts, using it for both their own food and their livestock's food. 3 Moreover, tannins from the wood were used for leather processing 4  and the rot-resistant wood built the foundations of 19th- and 20th-century homes. Ecologically, the American chestnut was a dominant tree of its Appalachian range, with researchers estimating the tree compromised 25 to 50 percent 5  of forest cover in its range.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/am/restoring-the-american-chestnut/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 08, 2023, 11:43:47 AM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on June 08, 2023, 09:54:55 AMDoes Restoring the American Chestnut Require Greater Risk Than Reward?

Before the mid-20th century, the American chestnut tree used to dominate the East Coast of the United States. The American chestnut, reaching staggering heights of 150 feet, was known as the redwood of the East 1  and played an equally pivotal role ecologically and socially as their West Coast counterparts. Early Native American tribes used the tree 2  as a medicinal and food source, and early Appalachian communities harvested chestnuts, using it for both their own food and their livestock's food. 3 Moreover, tannins from the wood were used for leather processing 4  and the rot-resistant wood built the foundations of 19th- and 20th-century homes. Ecologically, the American chestnut was a dominant tree of its Appalachian range, with researchers estimating the tree compromised 25 to 50 percent 5  of forest cover in its range.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/am/restoring-the-american-chestnut/

I am not sure I know anything about genetically engineered or modified organisms.  Intentionally I've forgotten what little I knew after making a D in a 4-hour genetics class in the late 70s; I dislike the subject. 

BUT, when it comes to monkeying with genes, I get a tad leery.

As an outsider with little or no familiarity with the tree or blight, it seems to me the safest approach would be to focus research efforts on the "natural" blight resistance found in some trees.  This organization is doing just that.

https://www.accf-chestnut.org/

Dr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: vtfor on June 11, 2023, 11:49:18 AM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 08, 2023, 11:43:47 AMDr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 


I hate to hear this about Dr. Griffin. He always struck me as a real gentleman. I took his class around '08 or '09. Coincidentally, it was around the same time I was trying not to forget about the milkweed bugs in a cup and on top of the refrigerator for another course with all my "extra curricular" activities.

He found out I liked to fish and delayed the start of one of his lectures considerably just to show me the slides of him fishing Alaska when he had research up there when he was just starting out. Throughout the semester he would mention that he was going to see his momma after and we all thought that family had some strong genes.

It was a few years after I graduated and I contacted him about the location of a tree that they collected chestnuts off of to try and do what you previously mentioned. He was nice enough to share the location of the "Amherst Tree." I was grateful to him for being able to visit the tree and it was still something to see even though storm damage had taken out some of the top.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 11, 2023, 17:05:59 PM
Quote from: vtfor on June 11, 2023, 11:49:18 AM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 08, 2023, 11:43:47 AMDr. Gary Griffin was a prominent member and researcher with this group.  He was sure that a 100 percent American Chestnut was possible with a future success story.  He recently passed; he was a great fly angler and loved the Smith. 


I hate to hear this about Dr. Griffin. He always struck me as a real gentleman. I took his class around '08 or '09. Coincidentally, it was around the same time I was trying not to forget about the milkweed bugs in a cup and on top of the refrigerator for another course with all my "extra curricular" activities.

He found out I liked to fish and delayed the start of one of his lectures considerably just to show me the slides of him fishing Alaska when he had research up there when he was just starting out. Throughout the semester he would mention that he was going to see his momma after and we all thought that family had some strong genes.

It was a few years after I graduated and I contacted him about the location of a tree that they collected chestnuts off of to try and do what you previously mentioned. He was nice enough to share the location of the "Amherst Tree." I was grateful to him for being able to visit the tree and it was still something to see even though storm damage had taken out some of the top.


Milkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: vtfor on June 11, 2023, 18:01:56 PM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 08, 2023, 11:43:47 AMMilkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 

It certainly was bugs in a cup with the class you mentioned. I can't remember the one instructor, but I do happen to remember the name Hiner.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 11, 2023, 18:12:30 PM
Quote from: vtfor on June 11, 2023, 18:01:56 PM
Quote from: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on June 08, 2023, 11:43:47 AMMilkweed bugs in a cup?  Was the class Insects and Human Society?  If so, do you remember the name of the instructors? 

It certainly was bugs in a cup with the class you mentioned. I can't remember the one instructor, but I do happen to remember the name Hiner.

Hiner, what a prick!  I feel certain he remains a prick.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on June 22, 2023, 09:38:12 AM
Mature American Chestnut trees found in Tribal Reserve


During the summer of 2021, Tribal Reserve was surveyed for reproductively mature American chestnut (Tilĭ΄, Castanea dentata) trees. The survey supports a larger collaborative effort between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Natural Resources Department and The American Chestnut Foundation to restore this culturally significant tree to the Qualla Boundary (see the Cherokee One Feather Oct. 12, 2020 edition for more information about this collaboration). The Cherokee people have had a relationship with Tilĭ for thousands of years—a relationship that continues today with the making of chestnut bread every fall (though, Chinese chestnuts, Castanea mollissima, have mostly replaced American chestnuts in the recipe).

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The tallest, mature American chestnut found in Tribal Reserve towers into the forest canopy. (Photo by Jaime Van Leuven)

https://theonefeather.com/2023/06/20/mature-american-chestnut-trees-found-in-tribal-reserve/

Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 03, 2023, 17:54:20 PM
https://youtu.be/IsR9sC8Rghs
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on August 19, 2023, 07:22:56 AM
Crews cut down giant chestnut tree Puyallup neighbors say was more than 100 years old



It wasn't just a tree to Jon Palo. It was a piece of Puyallup Valley history. He and other neighbors near Stewart Elementary School were alarmed Thursday when crews with heavy equipment felled the giant chestnut tree on the school's playground. The 73-year-old said he's lived across from the school for more than 40 years. A framed photo of the tree, taken by neighbor Dianna Hamilton in the '80s, hangs in his home.

Read more at: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/puyallup-herald/ph-news/article278387149.html#storylink=cpy
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: trout-r-us on August 19, 2023, 14:43:41 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on August 19, 2023, 07:22:56 AMCrews cut down giant chestnut tree Puyallup neighbors say was more than 100 years old


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It wasn't just a tree to Jon Palo. It was a piece of Puyallup Valley history. He and other neighbors near Stewart Elementary School were alarmed Thursday when crews with heavy equipment felled the giant chestnut tree on the school's playground. The 73-year-old said he's lived across from the school for more than 40 years. A framed photo of the tree, taken by neighbor Dianna Hamilton in the '80s, hangs in his home.

Read more at: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/puyallup-herald/ph-news/article278387149.html#storylink=cpy

"After following appropriate tree removal protocols with the city, the district removed the tree from the playground area due to it being a prolonged health risk to students with life-threatening allergies to tree nuts," the statement said.

Really? Who new? I guess if that's true, the world will be a safer place when they're all gone.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: trout-r-us on August 19, 2023, 14:54:25 PM
When I read of Chesnut trees, my mind always wanders back to my school days.
I still have memories of the nuns drilling this one into our heads.😁

"Under a spreading chestnut-tree
     ⁠The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
     With large and sinewy hands,
And the muscles of his brawny arms
     Are strong as iron bands."
.................
..........
..........

https://poets.org/poem/village-blacksmith
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 14, 2023, 12:00:59 PM
The American chestnut tree is coming back. Who is it for?
As federal agencies prepare to deregulate transgenic chestnuts, Indigenous nations are asserting their rights to access and care for them.

When Neil Patterson Jr. was about 7 or 8 years old, he saw a painting called "Gathering Chestnuts," by Tonawanda Seneca artist Ernest Smith. Patterson didn't realize that the painting showed a grove of American chestnuts, a tree that had been all but extinct since his great-grandparents' time. Instead, what struck Patterson was the family in the foreground: As a man throws a wooden club to knock chestnuts from the branches above, a child shells the nuts and a woman gathers them in a basket. Even the dog seems engrossed in the process, watching with head cocked as the club sails through the air.

Patterson grew up on the Tuscarora Nation Reservation just south of Lake Ontario near Niagara Falls. The painting reminded him of his elders teaching him to harvest black walnuts and hickories.

"I think, for me, it wasn't about the tree, it was about a way of life," said Patterson, who today is in his 40s, with silver-flecked dark hair and kids of his own. He sounded wistful.

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https://grist.org/indigenous/transgenic-american-chestnut-indigenous-rights/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on September 21, 2023, 08:30:40 AM
The American Chestnut Tree is Coming Back. Who is It For?

As federal agencies prepare to deregulate transgenic chestnuts, Indigenous nations are asserting their rights to access and care for them.

When Neil Patterson Jr. was about 7 or 8 years old, he saw a painting called "Gathering Chestnuts," by Tonawanda Seneca artist Ernest Smith. Patterson didn't realize that the painting showed a grove of American chestnuts, a tree that had been all but extinct since his great-grandparents' time. Instead, what struck Patterson was the family in the foreground: As a man throws a wooden club to knock chestnuts from the branches above, a child shells the nuts and a woman gathers them in a basket. Even the dog seems engrossed in the process, watching with head cocked as the club sails through the air.

Patterson grew up on the Tuscarora Nation Reservation just south of Lake Ontario near Niagara Falls. The painting reminded him of his elders teaching him to harvest black walnuts and hickories.

"I think, for me, it wasn't about the tree, it was about a way of life," said Patterson, who today is in his 40s, with silver-flecked dark hair and kids of his own. He sounded wistful.

The American chestnut tree, or číhtkęr in Tuscarora, once grew across what is currently the eastern United States, from Mississippi to Georgia, and into southeastern Canada. The beloved and ecologically important species was harvested by Indigenous peoples for millennia and once numbered in the billions, providing food and habitat to countless birds, insects, and mammals of eastern forests, before being wiped out by rampant logging and a deadly fungal blight brought on by European colonization.

Now, a transgenic version of the American chestnut that can withstand the blight is on the cusp of being deregulated by the US government. (Transgenic organisms contain DNA from other species.) When that happens, people will be able to grow the blight-resistant trees without restriction. For years, controversy has swirled around the ethics of using novel biotechnology for species conservation. But Patterson, who previously directed the Tuscarora Environment Program and today is the assistant director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, has a different question: What good is bringing back a species without also restoring its traditional relationships with the Indigenous peoples who helped it flourish?

https://modernfarmer.com/2023/09/american-chestnut-tree-coming-back/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on September 21, 2023, 16:17:30 PM
Quote from: Woolly Bugger on September 21, 2023, 08:30:40 AMWhat good is bringing back a species without also restoring its traditional relationships with the Indigenous peoples who helped it flourish?



Do any of you find this sentence peculiar?

Are you bringing back THE species?

Does incorporating blight-resistant genes from wheat into the American Chestnut make it a different species?

That ship of restoring traditional relationships between the natural world and indigenous peoples may have sailed long ago.  Unfortunately. 
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on October 05, 2023, 08:49:45 AM
Tree Farmer Buzz Ferver Spreads His Love of Chestnuts, on the Ground and in the Kitchen

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Allan "Buzz" Ferver, a 66-year-old with a fetching grin and an Abe Lincoln-style beard, stood at his kitchen island holding a clear plastic bag. Inside was a pale, nondescript meal, a few shades creamier in color than white flour. He spooned some into a mug, added boiling water and stirred. As the water swirled around the grounds they darkened to tan, and the steam developed a sweet, nutty aroma. "Chestnut coffee," he said as he handed over a cup. The taste was reminiscent of Ovaltine, but earthier.

Over the next few minutes, Ferver offered up a bowl of rich chestnut grits laced with cow butter; a slice of wheat bread spread with a thin layer of chestnut butter; and a bowl of tiny, shiny, pan-roasted nuts, their shells cracked to show the ivory flesh inside. We ate the nuts raw, too, cracking the shells with our teeth and biting out the nutmeats.

https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/tree-farmer-buzz-ferver-aims-to-restore-the-american-chestnut-in-vermont-and-in-your-kitchen/Content?oid=39234863
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on October 28, 2023, 11:38:30 AM
https://youtu.be/gxTiv05bi-A
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 03, 2023, 07:55:37 AM
FREE Weekend Screening: CLEAR DAY THUNDER

Join us this weekend, November 4 & 5, 2023, as we celebrate The American Chestnut Foundation's 40th Anniversary with a special offer. We are thrilled to present the award-winning documentary, CLEAR DAY THUNDER: Rescuing the American Chestnut. Here's how to access your free viewing:

INSTRUCTIONS
1.   Click this link - CLEAR DAY THUNDER (https://www.rescuingtheamericanchestnut.com/so/06OjIkb2C/c?w=8ZUHiMF8LIidxCX5OMtVU5eO2lCcRFCvEkNjUMlzRhI.eyJ1IjoiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY2xlYXJkYXl0aHVuZGVyLmZpbG0vIiwiciI6ImVlM2VhNzM4LWI0MDktNGE1MS04OTBlLTNjZjMwNDkzZmE2NCIsIm0iOiJtYWlsIiwiYyI6IjE0YzMzODUxLTFlZDItNDkzYy05NDQ1LWJhMWM0ZTlkZmVmZSJ9)
2.   Click on "Watch Now" button.
3.   Create an account (it's quick and easy!)
4.   Then use code "TACF40" when you check out and it will remove the $10.
o   Of course, if you wish to pay the $10, then we thank you for your donation!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 05, 2023, 11:01:44 AM
https://wapo.st/3SsojbV

IMG_0240.jpg
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on November 07, 2023, 18:33:05 PM
Old apples are an interesting subject, but this backward looking hobby.  Some really great apples have been developed by simply by average folk working to find a better apple.

The Gala apple although not a recent addition, is an example of a great apple.  It is a cross between a Golden delicious and and  Kidd Red, which is a cross between a Cox orange Pippen, and old Delicious apple which is probably more like the original Hawkeye Red Delicious which is actually a good apple.

The Ginger Gold is chance seedling

The Pristine apple which is highly underrated is a cross between an unnamed seedling aka Co-op 10, and an obscure Spanish apple.

We need more peeps doing this kind of work.  This guy is hard core.

https://youtu.be/TACp80b4gTU?feature=shared

Take the best of the past, breed them, and make something even better.  Git R done!
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Mudwall Gatewood 3.0 on November 08, 2023, 08:19:14 AM
Quote from: Onslow on November 07, 2023, 18:33:05 PMOld apples are an interesting subject, but this backward looking hobby.  Some really great apples have been developed by simply by average folk working to find a better apple.

The Gala apple although not a recent addition, is an example of a great apple.  It is a cross between a Golden delicious and and  Kidd Red, which is a cross between a Cox orange Pippen, and old Delicious apple which is probably more like the original Hawkeye Red Delicious which is actually a good apple.

The Ginger Gold is chance seedling

The Pristine apple which is highly underrated is a cross between an unnamed seedling aka Co-op 10, and an obscure Spanish apple.

We need more peeps doing this kind of work.  This guy is hard core.

https://youtu.be/TACp80b4gTU?feature=shared

Take the best of the past, breed them, and make something even better.  Git R done!


We sampled the streams in this facility for several years.  Their apple orchard, with 25 plus varieties, is worth the visit.  Apples are cool!

https://www.nps.gov/hofu/learn/photosmultimedia/virtualtour.htm
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 17, 2023, 21:31:55 PM
https://www.instagram.com/p/CzwWgFJs2dK/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Onslow on November 18, 2023, 07:05:07 AM
I sure hope this chestnut restoration effort bears fruit.
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on November 23, 2023, 11:46:37 AM
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire: Push to plant 1 million nut trees in mid-Atlantic

In the panoply of smells that mark the transition of fall into winter, few are more evocative than chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
The aroma that inspired the first line of Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" emanates from the U.S.'s once-thriving nut tree crop, which was devastated by a 1900s-era blight.

Now, in 2023, there's a push to help plant 1 million nut trees in the mid-Atlantic.

Michael Judd, co-founder of SilvioCulture, Inc. — a Maryland-based nonprofit seeking to partner with landowners, farmers, investors and other stakeholders — said the smell of chestnuts roasting is alluring.

"Chestnuts remind me almost of a sweet potato on a tree," Judd said. "You get this sweet — both aromatic and tasting — nut."

Some have first experienced roasted chestnuts on a New York City pushcart, with hot pretzels stacked nearby.

"It's very easy to create a set of coals to roast chestnuts," Judd said. "Across Europe and Asia, this is a very common street food — of course, in the wintertime everyone wants to gather around a warm spot."

https://wtop.com/local/2023/11/chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire-push-to-plant-1-million-nut-trees-in-mid-atlantic/
Title: Re: Native Tree/Plant Plight
Post by: Woolly Bugger on December 28, 2023, 15:57:30 PM
America Lost Its One Perfect Tree
Lumber, shelter, delicious nuts—there was nothing the American chestnut couldn't provide.


Across the Northeast, forests are haunted by the ghosts of American giants. A little more than a century ago, these woods brimmed with American chestnuts—stately Goliaths that could grow as high as 130 feet tall and more than 10 feet wide. Nicknamed "the redwoods of the East," some 4 billion American chestnuts dotted the United States' eastern flank, stretching from the misty coasts of Maine down into the thick humidity of Appalachia.

The American chestnut was, as the writer Susan Freinkel noted in her 2009 book, "a perfect tree." Its wood housed birds and mammals; its leaves infused the soil with minerals; its flowers sated honeybees that would ferry pollen out to nearby trees. In the autumn, its branches would bend under the weight of nubby grape-size nuts. When they dropped to the forest floor, they'd nourish raccoons, bears, turkey, and deer. For generations, Indigenous people feasted on the nuts, split the wood for kindling, and laced the leaves into their medicine. Later on, European settlers, too, introduced the nuts into their recipes and orchards, and eventually learned to incorporate the trees' sturdy, rot-resistant wood into fence posts, telephone poles, and railroad ties. The chestnut became a tree that could shepherd people "from cradle to grave," Patrícia Fernandes, the assistant director of the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, told me. It made up the cribs that newborn babies were placed into; it shored up the coffins that bodies were laid to rest inside.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/12/american-chestnut-perfect-tree-restoration/676927/