inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Let me paint you a scenario:

Homeowner: Hi, [municipality]! I would like to have this tree removed. Do you mind? Municipality: Yes, we mind, you can not remove that tree. H: But I really want to build a patio out front! M: Too bad. H: Well, I paid a lot for this house, I work hard for my money and I feel like I should be able to build a patio on my property. M: Well, you can’t. Bye!

Homeowner goes ahead and builds a patio right up to the base of the 60ft tall spruce. Building a patio is hard work, it involves some sort of digging, compacting soil, laying foundation (I’m not sure, I don’t build patios) and the tree’s roots were definitely in the way. So what can you do? I guess you could either cut those roots off (it has lots of roots!) or just compact the soil around them, because trees don’t need oxygen or anything, right?

So either the roots die and rot away or are removed completely. Do you know where this is going? And after a certain amount of time, years maybe, and a certain number of wind storms, the tree, missing half of its anchoring roots, finally succumbs to the force and falls over, smashing a neighbouring birch tree and missing the neighbour’s house by eight inches. Not just any old part of the house, but the kids’ bedroom. There it hangs, blocking the garage, hanging over the driveway until an arborist can come to safely remove it.

What really incenses me about this is (aside from the homeowner’s ignorance resulting in a near tragedy) that now we arborists are getting flooded with calls from people who are frantic and afraid that tall trees everywhere are going to fall down and destroy the people and things that they love, when it is often human error that is causing these trees to come down and not the nature of trees themselves. I can understand this fear of tall trees, but we can’t go around cutting down every tree. We need trees in our cities to produce oxygen, moderate the heat island effect, filter pollutants, protect and improve soil, create habitat, the list goes on, and these benefits increase with mature, large-canopied trees.

I think that the municipality could have been a little more proactive in providing information along with their decision to deny the homeowner’s permit application. It’s not really their fault, but if they’d had the common sense to assume the homeowner might go ahead and try something under the table, a thing that many people do after having their request declined, they could have instead offered some kind of advice; for example: “if you are going to go ahead and build that patio, make sure it’s [X distance] away from the base of the tree or else you are going to seriously damage the tree’s structural support and jeopardize the safety of yourself and your neighbours.” Or they could have done what they often do, and say “yes, you can remove this tree as long as you replace it with another tree of appropriate quality, size and species.”

For the record, I think that the permitting process should be a lot quicker for hazardous trees. Too many hazardous trees get hung up for too long in the permitting process. When canopy goals meet public safety, things get tricky.

My main point is, you don’t have much to fear from a well-placed, well-planted, properly maintained tree. They don’t like to fall over, and they try their best to make their roots strong enough to hold themselves up. And when they become old, or ill, and hazardous, it should be a fairly simple process to get them removed. But if you cut half of those roots off to install a patio or to dig for any other reason, or raise the grade over a root system, or plant a tree with girdling roots or a tree inappropriate for the soil type you end up with trees failing at the base, destroying property and infrastructure, and possibly causing injury or death. And then who cleans up those failed trees? Arborists. Storm damage is one of the more dangerous types of tree work, and unfortunately, it does claim lives, as we saw last week. The arborists were out doing emergency storm work while the storm was still going and a second tree fell on top of them.

So, think underground, friends! The roots are important and they spread far and wide! It should really be common knowledge, but it’s not.

If you’re worried about how hazardous the trees on your property are, every tree care company I’ve ever heard of gives free quotes - read: free information about your tree and what it might need, with no obligation. You could also hire a TRAQ (Tree Risk Assessment Qualification) Certified Arborist to write you a risk assessment report. A lot of non-certified arborists also have this knowledge, but the certification helps you choose if you’re just cold calling.

Anyway… rant over. This one just really bugged me.

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 9: In Which Work is Cancelled Due to Snow and I Have Time to Make Crafts

Every day I think to myself, as I toss things into the chipper, “this would be worth seventy bucks as a cutting board,” “this would pay my rent as a table”, “this would be a thirty dollar holiday arrangement at Loblaws”. Now, I don’t know how to make cutting boards or tables, but I can make arrangements, and one day I finally decided to save a few pieces from the chipper. 

It started with this little mantelpiece arrangement,

...and then moved on to the kitchen, 

...and the bathroom...

...and finally, ended with the creation of my very first wreath. 

Of course, Prometheus watched me from the forest of supplies as all of this madness was taking place!

It feels nice to have all of these little wintery celebration spaces in the apartment. In such a chaotic world, these little practices that we do to make our own spaces safe and cozy can be incredibly nourishing, helping us to go out and do what we can to make the world a better place every day. 

However you celebrate the onset of winter and the holiday season, I hope you have as much fun with it as I'm having!  

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 8: In Which We Visualize the Depth of the Root Zone

I went to a job site the other day that had a tree whose root zone looked like this:

Clearly it was a removal job, since leaving the tree with half of its roots severed would create a huge hazard (it could and probably would fall over). I thought it was a bit unfortunate since the tree was quite healthy otherwise, but this home owner was redoing their yard and, well, this is just how it ended up. 

At any rate, I just wanted to share this with you because it is a good visual of where most of a tree’s roots are in clay soil. Most urban and suburban soils are heavily clay based for the benefit of building foundations, and this is how the trees deal with it. So, think carefully about where your trees’ roots are before you dig any trenches or have any subterranean work done!

You can learn more about tree roots (specifically in a residential context) by clicking here!

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 7: In Which I Go Check Out Some Other Urban Forests

Last time BEAMS went on tour I decided that I would try to keep track of any interesting trees I saw in the cities where we were playing, and here are the results! You can, of course, just Google these places and see what trees are commonly found there, but if you want to see it through my eyes, read on.

July 5th - Chicago (@ The Township)

We were pretty busy running around in Chicago. Between finding a sweet brewery, hanging out in Wilco’s Loft and window shopping at Chicago Music Exchange I didn’t make many observations, but I did notice that the trees were pretty much the same as in Toronto, which makes sense because it’s not all that different of a climate. Lots and lots of Honey Locust. 

Below: Honey Locust. I didn’t get pics of any of the ones in Chicago, but this one I pulled off the Internet does the trick. Notice the fern-like leaves.

July 6th - Indianapolis (@ Melody Inn)

I found some neat trees in the field outside of the Denny’s where we ate breakfast. Some of the trees that I observed growing in the field were Sycamore, Trembling Aspen, White Fir, Norway Spruce, Manitoba Maple, Black Locust, Honey Locust, and Kentucky Coffeetree. One would expect to see some of these growing wild in Toronto (Manitoba Maple and Black Locust, especially) but it was really neat and unusual to see White Fir and Sycamore growing wild.

Below: White Fir in a backyard - I forgot to take pictures of the ones in Indiana! Notice the Honey Locust in the background with my climbing rope hanging out of it, all ready for me to go up and prune!

Below: Sycamore, easily recognized by its camouflage-style bark, except that it can be hard to distinguish from its relative the London Planetree. Picture is not by me, clearly.

July 7th - Louisville (@ Modern Cult Records)

Being in Kentucky is really neat because it’s so much more lush than I had ever imagined that it would be. A lot of my family is from central Oklahoma, so for a long time I associated the South with dry and hot plains. Now I know better. I saw a lot of trees that I had not really seen before!

Zelkova - Notice the neat bark in the background!

Kousa or Japanese Dogwood - I think it’s in between dropping its spring flower petals and getting its berries ready for fall.

Roundleaf Sweetgum

Regular shaped Sweetgum, which I think may have been the inspiration for The Land Before Time’s “Tree Stars”

Particularly impressive Tulip Trees

Similarly impressive Pin Oaks

River Birch, which looks quite similar to one of my favourite trees, Paperbark Maple!

Goldenraintree - this one baffled me for a while, but I finally discovered what it was, thanks to a website called “What Tree Is That?”

Our old nemesis, Tree of Heaven, trying to be sneaky...

The cutest little friend Juniper

July 8th - Cincinnati (@ CincinNative)

Unfortunately, we were too busy eating BBQ and playing in a sprinkler to really take note of the trees, but it’s just across the river from Louisville, so it’s quite a similar environment!

July 9th - Chardon (@ Love Fest in Chardon Square)

Lots of similar trees to home, with the notable exception of Tulip Trees and Honey Locusts growing wildly, seen from the road!

Thanks for reading my first Tour Tree blog. BEAMS may be playing Texas in February, so it’ll be neat to make some observations down there! Until then, other stuff, and being an arborist at Arborcorp.

Oh, and as usual, but maybe I don’t ever say this out loud, please let me know if I’ve misidentified anything, or comment with any interesting info! I’m still just learning, too. I imagine that I will be for a long, long time. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

The day that I got the rest of my personal protective equipment (PPE) felt a lot like Christmas! I’ve got my Petzl climbing helmet, protective ear muffs (105 dB), high visibility sweater, safety glasses, rubber palmed gloves, JELCO harness, Forest Master chainsaw pants, and some Pioneer steel-toed boots. I’m getting the safety, knots, and climbing training from Humber. Soon I’ll be ready to get employed! Hard times, come again no more. 

This is all thanks to the Youth Pre-Apprenticeship Arborist program that the Career Foundation puts on in partnership with Humber, with the cooperation of a lot of great arborists in the area. Check it out here if you’re interested! It may be going on again next year. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 6: Back in the Game!

Well, it’s been a long time since I last posted, and I have a good reason, I swear! 

During the summer of 2014 I was a field hand for non-urban forest research, and due to my strict theme for this blog, I did not post anything about chipmunks, insect emergence traps, or boat motors. When I got back from the non-urban forest I spent the next year and a half working in guitar repair, which was also irrelevant to this blog; however, a few weeks ago I started a training course that will lead to me becoming an arborist’s apprentice. I'm back in the game! 

Above, 2014: Cute, but not urban forestry.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the International Society of Arboriculture Ontario (ISAO) conference "Strength in Diversity: The Science of Arboriculture”. I arrived late - it started on Wednesday morning and I arrived Wednesday evening - but here are what I considered the highlights of the conference (in no particular order)!

Disclaimer - The pictures of the speakers are ones that I found on the internet. I wasn’t really using my camera much, and they would have been pretty boring, distant photos anyway. 

1. Diana Beresford-Kroeger: “Family Forests: Relating to Trees” (Thursday, 8:30AM and Q&A at 1:00PM) 

Diana gave us all an incredible pep talk about our role as arborists to be stewards of the forest. She talked about forests‘ role in mitigating climate change and at length about the healing qualities of trees and the importance of preserving the biodiversity of forests for medicine. She used humour and anecdote to educate us on a great breadth of topics, and I’ve never heard anyone address the sweeping complexities of forests with such grace. The stories that she told in response to people’s questions in the afternoon made it the most enjoyable Q&A session I’ve ever sat in on. I was so rapt that I think my eyeballs were floating out of my head. Do yourself a favour and read her books! At least check out her site. 

Above: A picture of Diana taken from her website, dianasjourney.com.

2. Jennifer Llewellyn: “WHODUNNIT? Solving One Mystery at a Time” (Friday, 1:00PM)

Jennifer presented her talk sort of like a game show, where she posted pictures of a sick plant’s symptoms, asked the audience what they thought was wrong, and then if they gave a correct or close answer they were rewarded with a little solo cup of beer. It was incredibly informative and practical. I suppose it left out those who don’t drink, but it was a fun and engaging way to see real field examples of different types of plant pests, pathogens and damage. You can read her blog for yourself and learn quite a lot! Seriously!

Above: Jennifer Llewellyn, not sure who took this but I found it on her blog. 

3. Brian French: “Ascending the Giants and the Future of Arboriculture” (Friday, 3:50PM)

I liked this presentation because, while I am very excited to be an arborist, up to this point I hadn't been able to see how it could make the best use of my degree. I mean, having a B.Sc. in Forestry certainly applies to the industry, but you don’t actually need a degree to be an arborist, and as much as nothing is ever really a waste of time, I certainly want to put my knowledge to its best use. 

This presentation opened my mind to other important tasks that you can accomplish with the skills of an arborist. If you think outside the box you can think of really neat projects on your own that can be fun and also very good for the forest. Brian used the project that he is part of as an example. Ascending the Giants is a non-profit initiative to document “champion” examples of each species. In doing so, they hope that present and future generations will see how eroded our expectations of forests have become, that our forests could be even more astounding, and that letting trees reach their “champion” maturity is a worthwhile goal. Check it out! And, check out Treeverse while you’re at it!

Above: One of Brian’s team climbing a Ponderosa Pine, taken from the Statesman Journal. 

4. John Ball: “Emergency Response for Tree Workers” (Friday, 2:00PM)

This was another great and practical presentation, even though it was graphic and a little hard to stomach at times. John Ball is an emergency medical technician (EMT) as well as an arborist and I think that combination allowed him to give a brilliant presentation on safety. He presented real photos of hazardous job scenarios, the results of those hazards, and how they can be prevented. I was glad that Brian spoke after John to lighten the mood, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t love this presentation. I did. It was very practical and informative, and knowledge is lifesaving in the topic of safety. 

Above: John Ball looking for Mountain Pine Beetle, taken from this website in Delaware. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 5: In Which We Appreciate Mixed Blessings

“I hate the cold.”

I can’t really say that that statement is wrong at all, but it worries me that winter is unappreciated in our society. The absence of seasonal cold in our Canadian climate would actually wreak havoc on our forests and lakes, and since climate change is supposed to result in greater warming at higher latitudes, warmer winters may very well be in our future. You can play around with some models here, but try to think about the assumptions behind the models while you are playing with them!  

Historically, cold winters have been responsible for maintaining balance between forest pests and their hosts, such as the Mountain Pine Beetle and several species of Pine (including Lodgepole, White, Scotch, and Ponderosa. It seems to be true for our local pest of the day, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). Apparently, populations of EAB larvae suffer about three-quarters mortality at about -30 degrees Celsius and almost complete mortality around -35 degrees Celsius (you can read more about it here!).

Specific information about EAB life cycles is a little bit hard to come by, but according to an article by inect enthusiast Debbie Hadley , adult female Emerald Ash Borers seem to lay about ninety eggs per cycle, which is either every year or every two years. The larvae remain in larval form over the course of the winter and survive by eating the phloem of the tree (which is the pathway for nutrients to travel between the roots and other parts of the tree). If one assumed that half of those larvae were female, and each of those larvae survived to lay ninety more larvae, and half of those went on to lay ninety larvae each, there would be 182,250 offspring in the third generation, and if you follow it further that way, there would be 8,201,250 in the fourth. However, if three-quarters of the populations were killed every year (assuming one generation is one year), there would only be 2,848 offspring in the third generation and 32,040 in the fourth. These numbers look a little bit more manageable, right? It’s still exponential growth, though, so let’s make it a little colder.

If we start with one female who lays ninety eggs and 98% of them die in the -35 degree Celsius weather, and half of the surviving eggs are female, we will have 0.9 females. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she’s a full beetle. It is obvious now that if she lays ninety eggs and the same weather happens next winter the population will stay the same.

But it would have to be -35 degrees Celsius for a while, and speaking as someone who recently got frostbite on her ear, I don’t think I’d like that very much. Add the fact that EAB larvae live under the bark where they are insulated and it has to be colder for even longer to reduce that effect.

I am cold just thinking about it.

When you think about it, though, it might be worth bundling up for. The Canadian Forest Service estimates that the direct costs incurred by EAB may add up to $2 billion by the late 2020’s or so. The indirect costs include lost habitat for species dependent on Fraxinus (the Ash genus), lost air and water filtration, less shade, degraded soil health, lower real estate values and sadness at losing beautiful trees.

I was going to touch on some of the other ways that cold temperatures are important for our forests but this seems to be enough for now. If you are in forestry at U of T there is a great class called “Forest Fire Behaviour and Management” that will teach you the physics behind some of the impacts of climate change.

It is big stuff, but I encourage you to think about it! There are a lot of questions that are still unanswered about many organisms and the impact of climate change on their reproductive cycles, and with EAB being such a hot topic right now, maybe some NSERC awards are out there just waiting to be snapped up for EAB life-cycle research.

Stay warm!

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Hello, sister!!!

Herro!

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban forestry part 4: A long, slow fight til' the death

I learned something about trees this summer: they fight nasty.

They live by the code.

Look here for example: two trees. Everything starts out cool when they’re young and then, suddenly, there just ain’t room for the both of ‘em.

One holds the other a little closer. A little tighter. Years and years go by as one is slowly strangled and, given the tree’s stationary nature, it can’t run. It can’t hide. The future will unfold exactly as it seems.

This Horse chestnut just can't handle that young Elm upstart...

...and it looks like the Horse chestnut was successful in telling the Elm "who's boss" (note the lack of bark on the small Elm to the left, and its overall dead-ness).

In another part of town, a Tree of Heaven and an Elm duke it out in a long, slow, vicious battle.

Here, the aggressor is, again, a Tree of Heaven. I do not remember the ID of its victim.

  This situation can result in the death of one of the trees because of a phenomenon known as “girdling”. You may think that the bark on a tree is dead and that the living material is in the core of the trunk, but the living part of a tree is actually only a very thin layer between the outer bark and the inside of the tree. This living layer called the "cambium" differentiates into xylem and phloem cells that facilitate the movement of water, nutrients and hormones through the tree. The wood supporting the tree is actually dead (though protective compounds can still flow through in times of distress). Restricting the growth of the outer bark eventually restricts the flow of nutrients from the roots to the leaves of the tree. This causes leaf production to stop and, with it, photosynthesis stops as well.  

So, when a tree is girdled by another tree, well, you know which tree gets the spot.

I don’t even know how this tree is growing here in the first place, but obviously it won the battle.

Trees can even girdle themselves.

It looks cute, but it's a self-hug of death.

Very sad.

On another note, sometimes trees in close proximity do co-exist:

Both of these trees were doing quite fine last time I saw them!

Girdling is not necessarily restricted to tree vs. tree interaction. Girdling happens from well-intentioned guide wires, clotheslines, swings, fences, and bike locks! To those that sometimes lock their bikes to trees, I have this to say: Never lock your bike to a tree!!

You are harming its only living part. You are cutting its metaphorical windpipe, its esophagus. Even if you don’t kill it, it will be compromised, working harder to make up for the lost xylem and phloem while becoming more susceptible to the everyday stresses of urban life (toxicity, pests, drought, lack of nutrients in the soil, salt… it goes on!) That is all. Don't do it.

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 3: In which there is a Tree of Heaven

O! Tree of Heaven! How stinky be thy nature! How maximum your growth! How sneaky your arrival!

Rumors fly. What is that smell? Is it coming from a tree? Texts sent in the middle of the night. The air smells like semen. Where is it coming from?!

The Tree of Heaven, Ailanthus altissima, is a very common tree in Toronto. Some people confuse it with Sumac, but the Tree of Heaven does not have teeth on its leaflets nor that characteristic red sumac flower. At a quick glance it may also be confused with a Walnut, but Walnut trees have toothed leaflets, rough bark, and... walnuts! 

The Tree of Heaven is native to China but it does very well in urban environments, which is probably why it was planted here in the first place. Unfortunately, it reproduces by sending shoots up from its roots so that it can populate a very large area in a very small amount of time. It is the same process of cloning that is shared among many species that grow quickly in disturbed sites. Tree of Heaven are also prolific seeders. They actually look quite pretty at this time of year, a little bit pink, but don't be fooled. If you let their fallen progeny germinate, expect to have a very thick forest in your yard pretty soon! And, if you let one grow and then decide to cut it down later, good luck. They are also very, very quick to sprout from their stumps. 

The Tree of Heaven is very easy to identify. Once you know what it looks like, I guarantee that you will see it absolutely everywhere. It has very long compound leaves. It looks like the leaves are kind of small, but those are actually leaflets that make up one single leaf. In this picture, the leaf is almost as long as my arm and has twenty-one leaflets. The leaflets often have a little lobe or two, just bumps, near the base of some or all of the leaflets. 

If you can't reach a leaf but you suspect that it might be a Tree of Heaven, look at the bark. It is quite distinct. It is very smooth (unless the tree has an injury).

Most young Trees of Heaven have very prominent diamond patterns that get stretched out as the tree matures to look kind of like this one below. 

Baby versions of the Tree of Heaven are quite adept at growing through cracks in pavement, driveways, bricks, almost anywhere, in inconceivably small amounts of soil.

For this reason, they really can be a great urban tree. It is better to have a slightly undesirable tree than none, if no others will survive. The problem with Tree of Heaven, however, is that it is relatively weak, rather invasive, and despite the fact that it is very tall, its mass of leaves is relatively small, meaning that it does not provide the same quantity of environmental benefits that some other trees do. The more leaves a tree has, the more oxygen it creates and water it transpires. Tree of Heaven have a small leaf mass, and additionally, being non-native, a lot of our native birds and insects have no idea how to use the tree, lessening its value in our urban forest from an ecological standpoint.

Recap: Stinky? Smooth, grey, sort of diamond-patterned bark? Huge leaves with many toothless leaflets? You probably have a Tree of Heaven.  

If you want to know more about the Tree of Heaven, check out the Wiki. It's actually quite good. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

...and then, sometimes my work day looks like this. Oh well!

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Phew! 66 trees inventoried today. That's 1,980 new little facts that I did not know yesterday. And this is why I will only ever pretend to be normal after this summer. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Today, at work, I saw a horrifying bug. It is called the "Pigeon Tremex" (Tremex columba). It was about an inch and a half long, buzzing around in some clover. Quick on-the-job research told us that it bores into the wood of dead and dying trees, which made sense, since shortly after we saw the living Tremex, we saw a dead one with its ovipositor stuck in a declining Norway maple (the females often die after laying their eggs in the tree). 

It's amazing how nature can equally fill me with fascination and horror. The Pigeon tremex! Who knew! Yuck. Cool.

I didn't take this one - couldn't get as good of a photo myself. Thanks, Molly Jacobson. 

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Hello sister!! :0 i see you following my blog, which you are free to continue doing. It is mostly me reblogging fandom things, with some text posts mixed in. If you're cool with that, that is cool! But if you're interested in seeing original content of mine, my main art block is lickfoot and my seldom-used "artistic improvement blog" is flamingodragons. (You do not need to follow either of them, they are just alternatives to my main. ovo )

Ah, cool! I don't quite get the whole Tumblr thing yet. I was just trying to find you ^.^ - and I have now followed them all. Muah hahaha.

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 2.5: Lack of Awareness

So it's been about a month now of looking very closely at trees. Learning about the different species and what they look like as the season carries on has been kind of like scratching away a lottery ticket with a coin, but more informative and not disappointing at the end. Being able to understand the world around me in greater detail is awesome. While experiencing this sense of wonder most of the time, I have also been saddened at seeing what must have been the most majestic Ash trees only during/after the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) invasion. It shocks me that a person can have a 37 metre (+110 foot) tall tree in his or her back yard and be oblivious to its decline until it is completely dead. 

The owners of this property are going to have a tricky time getting this giant out of their yard!

There actually is a preventative treatment for trees that are at risk of infestation. I saw some Ash trees being treated with TreeAzin (a systemic pesticide made from the Neem tree) a few weeks ago:

I deduced that the flat metal tag higher up marks it as an Ash tree, and the green dot marks it as one that is going to be treated, so it wasn't much of a mystery when these started popping up:

Urg.

If you didn't guess, it's the mark of the reaper.  If you notice that a tree in your lawn, park or boulevard seems to be doing poorly (losing leaves, sending shoots or looking weak-leaved in general), click here to find out if you have an EAB-infested Ash tree. The general consensus is that after this summer it will be too out of hand to protect any of the Ash trees that we have left.    Sadness. 

On the bright side, this inventory that we are doing will help urban forest managers to respond more quickly and proactively to future threats!

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 2: Awareness

To whom it may concern at (address): I am dropping this postcard off at your house because I noticed that you have an Ash tree on your property that may be infested with this pest.  I encourage you to take action on preventing its death or managing its decline to prevent/minimize damage caused by its structural failure.  Feel free to contact LEAF for more info. They are very knowledgeable and can subsidize private tree replacements. Best of luck!

Anna Mernieks

[inthemiddleofthecitythereisatree]

Urban Forestry Part 1: Denial

It's been a couple weeks on the new urban forest inventory job, and today when a friendly (and somewhat knowledgeable) resident asked about how the inventory was going, I vaguely replied: "oh, it's been really interesting!" And of course, she asked, "what's been really interesting?" Stumped, (pardon the pun), I said something lame like "well, there are a lot of trees that I've never seen before... weird maples", when REALLY, I should have said: "Some people are in tree denial." It is very interesting. People that, I know for a fact, have trees in their backyard sometimes tell me that they don't. Are they trying to hide them? Or do they not realize that dogwood, serviceberry, cedar, buckthorn, manitoba maple, redbud, and japanese maple are trees? So strange. English oaks, mulberries, hawthorns. Trees are all around us! We're living in a forest! (Even though much of it looks like an out-of-control shrubbery!) Which leads me to the point that accidental trees are still trees, and in an urban forest sometimes we must take what we can get. Let me introduce my nemesis, the Manitoba Maple. 

You can identify these guys quite easily: you know how a "Canada flag" maple has five main parts ("lobes")? A Manitoba Maple has three. The leaf of a Manitoba Maple is actually divided into three "leaflets" - you will almost always find these leaflets in groups of three. Sometimes the leaflets mutate and may join together into a Frankenleaf, and sometimes young or lower leaves do not develop the three distinct lobes that Manitoba Maples usually have. If you're not sure, double check the leaves on another part of the tree.  Oh yeah - why do I consider the Manitoba Maple (Acer negundo) my nemesis? Because they propagate like rabbits and leave these little guys all around:

Last year I put a badminton net up in the yard under my Manitoba Maple and every time someone lost a point they would have to pull out a minimum of ten wayward seedlings.  It's not that these trees are evil, but where they grow, very little native sun-loving vegetation has a chance of surviving. Manitoba Maples just happen to be invasive around these parts. They really like it here. Good for them.  We'll have to truce for now, though, because they really do make up a lot of our urban forest!