Find New Business Strategies at The Great Southern Tree Conference: Nov. 30 - Dec 2, 2011, Gainsville, FL

Growth, Change, Progress are all key words that will be heard throughout the 2011 Great Southern Tree Conference.  While the industry has certainly changed in the last ten years and is currently being reshaped by the economy, the conference remains committed to educating the entire tree industry and aims to enhance the business knowledge of tree producers throughout the Southeastern United States.  Mark your calendars for November 30 – December 2, 2011 and plan to be in Gainesville, FL.

Known for its strong roots in production techniques, this year’s conference also features marketing and business strategies, growth projections and research on pests, water and tree evaluations.  Attendees will be provided with valuable take-a-ways to use instantly in their businesses.

Link to more information: Great Southern Tree Conference

Philippines - DTI, DAR partner for “Plant a Tree Program”

SORSOGON CITY, November 23 (PIA) -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) have forged partnership for the massive planting of the pili trees here in support to the National Greening Program (NGP) of the government.

Pili, considered as a high value crop of of Sorsogon has been also identified as one of the natural environmental trees to be planted to ensure adaptation and mitigation to the ill effects of climate change.

DTI Sorsogon through the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council (SMEDC), also coordinated with local officials in the propagation of the said high value crop.

Leah Pagao, provincial director of DTI Sorsogon, said that pili has already gained a niche in trade fairs as Bicol's best commodity champion in sales, truly marketable and an export earner for the region.

Under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Program (CARP), beneficiaries here were also trained and tapped to plant throughout the province with seedlings supplied by the Department of Agriculture.

Read full press release here: PIA

Quote of the Day

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
Warren Buffett 

San Francisco Tree App

For those living in the San Francisco area, Elbatrop Ltd. has an app for the iPhone and Android platforms which allows you to walk up to any tree in San Francisco and find out what the name of the tree you are looking at. The app provides both the common and botanical names of the tree. The App uses the data from the City's tree database and provides information for over 60,000 trees in the city.

Source:http://www.elbatrop.com/sftrees

iPhone Screenshot:

Link to Apple App Store:http://itunes.apple.com/app/sf-trees/id336678385?mt=8
Link to Android Market:https://market.android.com/details?id=com.elbatrop.sftrees

Davao NGO pushes ‘vertical farming’ to increase production

DAVAO CITY — An agricultural group here is pushing "vertical farming" to enhance food security in conflict-affected areas. Bahay Kubo Foundation head Jose Pepito M. Cunanan said his group has taught such communities "vertical farming," which makes use of trees like acacia, cacao, and talisay in place of trellises, saving on cost and land, since the grower needs only a two-square meter space surrounding the tree. "You just use rope, preferably abaca fiber, and tie it to the branches for the vegetable climbers."

Source: http://www.bworldonline.com

Search launched for largest U.S. trees

By staff report at http://www.tcpalm.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Continuing a tradition begun in 1940, American Forests invites the public to help identify the largest of 861 species of trees for the 70th anniversary edition of The National Register of Big Trees.

Following an extensive two-year review, 57 additional tree species are newly eligible for nomination and 22 species have been removed from the list for a net increase of 35 species from the previous register published in 2008.

“You do not have to own the tree to nominate it. You merely have to locate and measure it,” said Deborah Gangloff, executive director of American Forests.

Big Tree nominations are due Oct. 1 and can be made at www.americanforests.org where there are also measuring instructions and a list of current champions.

Trees earn champion status through a weighted points system that combines height (in feet), circumference (in inches) and one-quarter of the spread of the crown. The largest tree in the United States (and also the largest living thing on earth) is the “General Sherman” Giant sequoia in Sequoia National Park in California.

Gardening: For help with trees, it's best to call a professional arborist

By Tony Tomeo
for Saratoga News

Trees are the most substantial plants in our gardens. They can provide shade, privacy or aesthetic appeal. Some provide showy flowers. Others provide fruit. Some have colorful foliage in autumn. Others have colorful foliage through summer. When they get old and finish their careers in our gardens, most make good firewood. Even trees that do not seem to do much for us are very important to the insects, birds, animals, fungi and all sorts of wildlife that live with them.

Trees have all sorts of personalities. Evergreen trees hold their foliage throughout the year. Deciduous trees drop their foliage in autumn, and replace it in spring. Small trees are no larger than large shrubbery. Large trees may be massive and affect several gardens around them. Some trees have thick canopies that make deep shade, while others cast light shade.

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Garden Clubs In Rye Plant Oak Tree

Posted by Westchester.com
Tuesday, 07 July 2009

Rye, NY - The Little Garden Club of Rye and the Rye Garden Club recently kicked off a special five-year joint Centennial Tree project by planting a white oak (Quercus alba) in the Rye Town Park.

Says Chris Murray of the Little Garden Club, “The Rye Town Park (RTP) is such an asset to the community with its open spaces and impressive tree collection. We are particularly appreciative of Bill Lawyer’s leadership in this important undertaking. He really made this happen, coordinating with the Park staff, the Friends of Rye Town Park, and securing the generous help of Bartlett Tree Experts.” Mr. Lawyer is the RTP Assistant Director For Park Development.

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Plants' Growing Needs : Hibiscus Care

Growing and caring for Hibiscus plants requires cutting off dead leaves and applying soap to the occasional aphid colony. Learn how to care for Hibiscus plants in this free video on gardening.

Class on Tree Biology, Planting & Pruning offered in Ketchikan

June 29, 2009
Monday

Ketchikan, Alaska - The Alaska Division of Forestry, Community Forestry Program announces a one day class on the biology of trees and proper pruning and planting techniques. The class will be held on Thursday, July 16, 2009 at the Ketchikan Gateway Borough office at 1900 First Street.

Decisions made about trees are more successful when based on an understanding of tree anatomy and biology. This class is intended for anyone who designs, plants or cares for landscapes with trees including arborists, landscape architects, park and public works staff, groundskeepers and nursery professionals

The class will cover how trees function as complex systems and how to use this information when selecting, siting, planting, pruning, and maintaining landscape trees. A classroom presentation will be followed by a demonstration in the field and hands-on experience in pruning and planting trees.

More information and a registration form can be found online at http://forestry.alaska.gov/community/ or at the Division of Forestry office in Ketchikan located at 2417 Tongass Avenue, Suite 213.

Trees: Biology, Planting & Pruning
Registration fee is $35
Thursday, July 16, 2009, 8:00 ~ 5:00
Class location: Ketchikan Gateway Borough office, 1900 First St., first floor
Instructor: Jim Flott, Community Forestry Consultants, Inc. of Spokane Washington

Sponsored by the Alaska Division of Forestry, Community Forestry Program

Gardenmagik , Pruning Crape Myrtles, Back to the Garden

The correct way to prune Crape Myrtles. Open up the center and make the tree look taller.

How to price that tree job - insider information

Pamela Lipscomb
Go to Pamela's Home Page
Charlotte Christian Living Examiner

If you have ever had to take down or prune out a tree, you know very well how expensive it can get. The concerns are, how much is this going to cost you, and if you are going to get a fair price.

I recently spoke to Ben the Owner of Carolina Christian Climbers, a small tree care company, here in Charlotte. I wanted to find out how he went about pricing a tree job. Come to find out there is a formula or sorts. I was excited to get this information, which will clear up the mystery, of how to get an idea of how much it will cost you to get tree work done. Here is the formula:

A small tree would be about 1/4 to 1 foot around and up to 25 feet tall. If you have a small tree 25 feet tall, the price would be around $8.00 a foot. Multiply 25 feet times $8.00 and the cost of the tree removal would be about $200.

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How to price that tree job - insider
information

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A Towering Flower

Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by ghanisek

Our woodlands lack flowering trees at this time of year. Most of the trees with showy blossoms bloom in spring, such as Flowering Dogwood, the various cherries and the largest of the shadbushes, (Amelanchier arborea). There is one tree in spectacular blossom right now, however. It’s not native to our area, but it has escaped to roadsides and other open areas. The Catalpa has bigger, showier flowers than any of our native trees, and it grows as big as many of our oaks and maples. The trees are covered with huge white flower clusters at the moment. There are many of them along Route 8 from Beacon Falls to Waterbury, and they’re scattered in many other locations as well.

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ILLINOIS STYLE: Man rents tree to climbers

By DONNA VICKROY The (Tinley Park) SouthtownStar
1:28 PM CDT, June 21, 2009

MONEE, Ill. - Oh, why don't you just go climb a tree.

Amid the fields and forested areas of rural Monee lives a man who wants to help you do just that.

"It's kind of addictive," said Mark Larson, a self-employed carpenter turned tree guru. Larson recently cleared a field around a 300-year-old oak tree on his property.

Dubbed Goliath, the tree now is rigged with climbing ropes and stabilizers, beckoning helmet-clad adventurers to scale its mighty branches.

"Kids love this, and what adult can't remember climbing a tree?" he said. "It's fun, it's a good workout, and when I come down, I am so relaxed. It's like it has a calming effect."

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Tree replantings to take place of Ash

Program to strive for variety of species
Saturday, June 20, 2009

BY JUDY MCGOVERN
The Ann Arbor News

Ann Arbor is launching a significant new replanting program this fall to add roughly 1,000 new trees every year.

The initiative begins half a dozen years after the die-off of once-plentiful ash trees.
City officials say they'll use aerial photos to identify the more pronounced holes in Ann Arbor's tree canopy and concentrate on those spots.

Street trees will be planted across the city, said Kerry Gray, urban forest and natural resources coordinator. City employees will likely do the work, but details are still being worked out.
Ann Arbor had an estimated 5,500 ash trees growing in rights-of-way when the emerald ash borer found its way to southeast Michigan around 2002.

An accidental import from Asia, the pest lays its eggs under the bark of ash trees. The larvae then feed on the material that carries water and nutrients, killing trees in just a few years. About 14 percent of the city's trees were ash.

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Fun with fruit

By Joan Morris
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 06/19/2009 05:17:45 PM PDT

You don't need acres of ground to experience the taste of freshly picked fruit. With today's dwarf rootstocks, everyone can grow at least one fruit tree no matter how small your yard.

Single fruit trees make wonderful accent points in a mixed border with their spring blossom and summer fruit. Apple trees on standard stock and persimmons make wonderful shade trees more than 30 feet tall.

Another form to consider is the espaliered or trained fruit tree, which can be grown flat against a house, wall or fence. Branches are trained in regular patterns, usually horizontal or fan shaped, which actually improves fruit production.



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Fun with fruit

By Joan MorrisContra Costa Times
Posted: 06/19/2009 05:17:45 PM PDT

You don't need acres of ground to experience the taste of freshly picked fruit. With today's dwarf rootstocks, everyone can grow at least one fruit tree no matter how small your yard.

Single fruit trees make wonderful accent points in a mixed border with their spring blossom and summer fruit. Apple trees on standard stock and persimmons make wonderful shade trees more than 30 feet tall.

Another form to consider is the espaliered or trained fruit tree, which can be grown flat against a house, wall or fence. Branches are trained in regular patterns, usually horizontal or fan shaped, which actually improves fruit production.

Read more:

SCIENCE: Hybrid Chestnut Trees Hold Promise as Carbon Sponges

By Katie Mattern

WASHINGTON, Jun 16 (IPS) - Reducing carbon levels in the atmosphere may be as simple as planting a new breed of hybridised chestnut trees, according to a new study by Purdue University Associate Professor Douglass Jacobs.

The hybrid American chestnut tree, which is mixed with a similar and more disease-resistant Chinese chestnut tree, has been found to grow faster than other chestnut trees and retain carbon for a longer period of time, including after its death.

The American chestnut has been facing extinction since the chestnut blight was introduced in the early 1900s, according to Jacobs. But scientists previously had little incentive to bring it back because of its susceptibility to disease.

The decline of the tree has coincided with the rapid rise in the use of electricity and fuel-based transport that made the U.S. carbon output skyrocket in the twentieth century, contributing to the U.S.’s longtime top slot among carbon emitters. However, the new hope for mitigating climate change is not ready to be planted in forests across the country just yet. "We're really quite close to having a blight-resistant hybrid that can be reintroduced into eastern forests," Jacobs said in a press release from Purdue.

"But because the American chestnut has been absent from our forests for so long now, we really don't know much about the species at all." A fungus that nearly made the trees extinct 50 years ago affected chestnuts from the northeastern U.S. all the way to southern states like Alabama.

However, the new trees, which will hopefully withstand another similar disease, are not going to be ready to plant across the U.S. for another decade. Jacobs and his team plan to plant the trees in forests or former agricultural fields that are being transformed into forested land.

Jacobs studied a population of remaining American chestnuts across southwestern Wisconsin and compared them to other varieties of chestnut trees. These trees were unaffected by the fungus because of their distance from the rest of their species.

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