The Wisconsin Urban Forestry Insider
An electronic newsletter of breaking news and valuable information for the Urban Forest community in Wisconsin and beyond.
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August 28, 2009
Emerald ash borer
Photo by Krista Hamilton, WI DATCP
This issue's contents:
In the News
- Scotland will Use Forests as 'Green Gyms' - The Herald
- Minnesotans Learn about Value of Trees, Invasive Insects from OSU Extension Team
- ISA Tree Professionals Award
- Government Combats Invasives - Columbus Dispatch
Specifically Wisconsin
Emerald Ash Borer
- Emerald Ash Borer Found in Milwaukee County
- EAB Quarantines for Brown & Kenosha Counties
- Blue Ribbons on Stoughton Ash Trees - WKOW-TV
- Fox Cities Residents Watch for EAB - Postcrescent
- Baseball Player Pitches Firewood Message -Saint Paul Legal Ledger
- Putting Wasps to Work - Sun Journal Maine
- Illinois EAB Newsletter
Tools For Your Job
- Northeast Region Forest Pest Update
- Sustain Our Lakes Program Grants
- Job Opportunity - City Arborist - Franklin, IN
Conferences & Seminars
- Impacts of Invasive Insects on Communities - Conference
- Planning Your Way to the Best Urban Forest-Webcast
- Stormwater Retrofitting - Webcast
Scotland will Use Forests as 'Green Gyms' - The Herald
Scotland health officials are planning to use forests and woodland areas as "natural green gyms" to encourage people of all ages to get outdoors and help improve rates of heart disease, diabetes, depression, stress and obesity. The project will help landowners revitalize neglected woodland areas as part of a national "Woods In and Around Towns" initiative.
Minnesotans Learn about Value of Trees, Invasive Insects from OSU Extension Team
The Ohio State University Extension Nursery, Landscape and Turf Team’s (ENLTT) recent educational road trip to Minnesota is an excellent example of what universities, communities and industry — not to mention states — stand to gain when they collaborate and share resources.
ISA Tree Professionals Award
The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) has announced their recognition of seven individuals as “True Professionals of Arboriculture.” ISA’s immediate past president and panel judge, Lauren Lanphear, introduced the award winners before fellow arborists and peers at July’s opening ceremony of the 85th ISA Conference & Trade Show held in Providence, Rhode Island.
ISA launched “True Professionals of Arboriculture” to recognize professional arborists who help increase public understanding of arboriculture and the professional skills of today’s arborists.
ISA Tree Professionals [Exit DNR]
Government Combats Invasives - Columbus Dispatch
Government agencies draft animals, insects (and even fungi) to combat a growing list of invasive species. But does it work? Asian lady beetles, which were brought into Ohio to battle aphids, have become a nuisance themselves. They're mercenaries hired to perform an often violent mission: eliminate a bad element that has moved into our neighborhoods and threatens our way of life. But this is no anti-gang task force or war on drugs. This is a war on bugs (and plants). For decades, governments have imported insects to fend off invasive bugs and plants that destroy our crops, threaten native species and tilt the ecosystem. It's called "bio-control," and scientists say it can be extremely effective.
WI Researchers Study Bristlecone Pine
Cutting-edge research using CT Scan imaging of rare samples of ancient Bristlecone Pine logs was conducted by Forest and Wildlife Ecology adjunct professor R Bruce Allison August 12.
Dr. Allison, whose research interest in nondestructive testing of living tree wood lead him to the Bristlecone Pine National Forest in the Eastern Sierra region of California in July, returned with two large log specimens of a tree that came down last summer as a result of a fire at the Schulman Grove visitor center. This specimen came from the same grove in which the world's oldest living tree began growing over 4800 years ago!
Dendrochronologists have been studying the Bristlecone Pine for decades to uncover the records of weather patterns and climate change stored in the annual rings. Increment borers are drilled into the tree allowing a core sample to be extracted showing a record of ring variations. Allison has set as his objective the development of a nondestructive sampling of the trees' internal structure replacing increment borers with portable x-ray computer tomography scanning similar to those used in medical imaging. The challenge is to create the portability to carry the imaging to the living forest. He has assembled a cooperative cross-disciplinary team including Michael VanLysel, Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Physics at the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Xiping Wang, wood engineer at the US Forest Products Laboratory plus a visiting scholar from the Northeastern Forestry and Engineering University of Harbin, China, Li Li.
The first step in developing an x-ray imaging tool is determining the required resolution, contrast and energy use to view internal wood. The Bristlecone Pine has the most densely packed annual rings at 100-200 per inch and therefore offers the greatest challenge for imaging. The group clustered around the viewing screen of the CT Scanner at the Wisconsin Institute of Medical Research on this first scanning test of the log samples gasped in amazement as the first images of the internal wood structure came into view. The wood pith, annual rings, rays cells, embedded epicormic branches, worm holes, resin ducts and other anatomical features were clearly displayed. Data will be analyzed over the next couple of weeks and additional tests conducted. It is Allison's hope within a few months he will have determined the feasibility of developing such a device and how to proceed.
Both WGIF and WNA Sponsor State FFA Awards
A record 3,417 members, advisors and guests turned out to celebrate the accomplishments of Wisconsin's FFA members at the 80th State FFA Convention in June at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison. The Wisconsin Green Industry Federation sponsored the Diversified Horticulture Proficiency Award, and the Wisconsin Nursery Association sponsored the Nursery Operations Proficiency Award.
Emerald Ash Borer Found in Milwaukee County
An EAB larva was discovered in the City of Franklin on August 27. The larva was sent to federal identifiers and subsequently confirmed as EAB on August 28. City public works officials observed ash trees showing signs of EAB, including D-shaped exit holes, on August 26. State officials were notified, and survey specialists arrived on site to conduct further evaluation with public works staff. A larva was found after peeling the bark on a suspected tree.
EAB in Milwaukee County [Exit DNR]
EAB Quarantines for Brown & Kenosha Counties
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection's emergency rule to establish quarantines on materials that could transport emerald ash borer (EAB) from Brown or Kenosha counties went into effect on Saturday, August 22, 2009. A Federal quarantine for Brown and Kenosha counties is expected to be enacted soon.
Blue Ribbons on Stoughton Ash Trees - WKOW-TV
City officials are tying blue ribbons to a thousand trees in Stoughton, but that doesn't mean they'll be facing a chainsaw anytime soon. City foresters are using a blue ribbon to teach homeowners what could happen if the invasive beetle emerald ash borer would reach the city - or Dane County, for that matter.
City officials marked each of the 1140 public ash trees in the Stoughton, as a preventative measure: to teach homeowners what could happen if the ash-tree-killing beetle arrived (all those trees essentially could have to be cut down).
Blue Ribbons on Ash [Exit DNR]
Fox Cities Residents Watch for EAB - Postcrescent
Appleton forestry director Michael Michlig said he is receiving numerous calls each week from residents who think they've spotted the green, half-inch-long adult ash borers, but thankfully, all have been false alarms.
Fox Cities Watch for EAB [Exit DNR]
Baseball Player Pitches Firewood Message -Saint Paul Legal Ledger
Minnesota Twins reserve catcher Mike Redmond’s latest pitch is to save nearly 1 billion ash trees in Minnesota. The state, which ranks No. 3 in the U.S. in the number of ash trees, needs all the help it can get to stop the trees from being killed by the emerald ash borer, a predatory beetle from Asia.
Redmond, an aficionado of baseball bats made from ash wood, has partnered with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) as the voice-talent on 15- and- 30-second radio ads that just began airing on Twins games and Minnesota Public Radio.
Baseball and Firewood [Exit DNR]
Putting Wasps to Work - Sun Journal Maine
Maine has become the first state to employ wasps as unwitting scientific accomplices. For volunteers with nets, ready to spring at a moment's notice, it's a project to protect the Maine woods from voracious beetles.
For the wasps — suddenly knocked out of the air, paralyzed beetle prey wrenched from their wasp arms, then just as suddenly let go — it's a bit what-just-happened? State forest entomologist Colleen Teerling has spent part of the summer training volunteers and pairing them with colonies of cerceris fumipennis, a ground wasp whose young dine on shiny, wood-boring beetles and — happily for volunteers — don't sting.
Maine Forest Service program [Exit DNR]
Illinois EAB Newsletter
Current information on Illinois EAB program activity is reported in the autumn issue of the Illinois EAB Newsletter.
Northeast Region Forest Pest Update
The latest pest update by DNR Forest Health Specialist Linda Williams. Topics include:
Insects:
- Ash and Privet Borer
- Ash Bark Beetle
- Black Caterpillar
- Boxelder Leaf Gall Midge
- Cerceris Monitoring
- Cuckoo Wasp
- Eastern Larch Beetle
- Emerald Ash Borer
- EAB Look alike
- Forest Tent Caterpillar moths
- Gypsy Moth
- Jumping Oak Gall
- Lacebugs
- Mimosa Webworm
- Redheaded Ash Borer
- Tortoise Beetle
- Ugly Nest Caterpillar
- Viceroy Caterpillar
Diseases:
- Anthracnose
- Beach Bard Disease in UP
Sustain Our Lakes Program Grants
The Sustain Our Great Lakes Program invites proposals for competitive funding through its Community Grants Program and Stewardship Grants Program. Please note these funds are considered federal and would not be eligible to match Wisconsin Coastal Management Program grants.
- Community Grants Program
Grant awards range from $25,000 to $150,000; does not include a pre-proposal stage; full proposals due on October 15, 2009.
The purpose of the Community Grants Program is to support community organizations, state and local governments, and others working at the local level to protect and improve watershed health in the Great Lakes basin while building local stewardship capacity. The program supports habitat restoration, water quality improvement, and watershed planning and management. Projects that include an education, training or community outreach component linked to restoration activities are encouraged. Nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, tribes, and educational institutions are eligible for funding.
Community Grants Program [Exit DNR]
- Stewardship Grants Program
Grant awards range from $150,001 to $1,500,000; pre-proposals for the current funding cycle are due on October 1, 2009; invited full proposals will be due on December 15, 2009.
The purpose of the Stewardship Grants Program is to support large-scale restoration, enhancement and protection projects that will have significant positive impacts on the ecology and water quality of the Great Lakes basin. Nonprofit organizations, state and local governments, tribes, and educational institutions are eligible for funding.
Job Opportunity - City Arborist - Franklin, IN
City of Franklin, IN (20 miles south of Indianapolis) has revised the position description and will be seeking applications until September 30, 2009.This is a regular, full-time, working supervisory position, requiring a combination of supervisory, public relations, clerical, and manual labor skills. The City Arborist performs work individually as well as directing and/or exercising supervision over a small group of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled personnel.
Submit a completed City of Franklin Application for Employment to the City of Franklin Street Department Office, 951 Hamilton Ave., Franklin, IN 46131,by 5:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 30, 2009.
Impacts of Invasive Insects on Communities - Conference
Invasive insects have become an increasing problem for urban, suburban, and even rural communities across the U.S. and some areas of Canada. To address these issues, the U.S. Forest Service, The Morton Arboretum, The Nature Conservancy, and Purdue University have come together to host an important conference this fall near Chicago.
The two-day conference called “Coping with the Costs: The Economic, Social and Environmental Impacts of Invasive Insects on our Communities,” will be held at The Morton Arboretum in the Chicago area, September 29-30.
The focus of the conference is to develop and share strategies for communities facing or anticipating the economic, social, and environmental impacts of invasive pests. These destructive insects include the emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, gypsy moth, and others.
Impact of Invasives [Exit DNR]
Planning Your Way to the Best Urban Forest-Webcast
The Alliance for Community Trees's webcast on Planning Your Way to the Best Urban Forest has been archived and is available for review.
The physical framework of a community is called its infrastructure, and can be divided into two types: green and gray. Gray infrastructure refers to areas of buildings, roads, utilities, and parking lots; green infrastructure includes areas covered with trees, shrubs, and grass. A community can measure the size, shape, and location of its green infrastructure and accurately calculate the public utility functions these areas perform, although cities are only just starting to value green infrastructure for more than its beauty. For local public policymakers responsible for decisions affecting urbanization, the problem is not solely about getting the city or a developer to plant more trees, but rather one of balancing gray and green infrastructure.
Planning the Best Forest [Exit DNR]
Stormwater Retrofitting - Webcast
The Center for Watershed Protection is hosting a webcast on stormwater retrofitting on Wednesday, October 14, 12-2pm EST. Space is limited so register early.
This webcast will focus on the restoration of urban and suburban watersheds through stormwater retrofitting. In particular, it will discuss the design and implementation of stormwater retrofit practices featured in CWP’s Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices manual, which discusses retrofitting existing urban lands, such as parking lots, residential streets, conveyance systems and landscaped areas. The webcast will also provide information about the cost and pollutant removal performance of stormwater retrofits.
Stormwater retrofitting [Exit DNR]
More Conferences & Seminars
For more conferences and seminars check out WDNR's Urban Forest website.
About the Insider
The Wisconsin Urban Forestry Insider is intended as a quick networking tool for all people actively working in the area of urban and community forestry, especially in the state of Wisconsin.
Items that cannot wait for our quarterly print newsletter, Wisconsin Urban & Community Forests, will appear here.
The Insider is produced biweekly by the Urban and Community Forestry program of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin. Past issues will be archived on the UF pages on the WDNR web site.
We are happy to accept your suggestions and contributions. Send them to the editor, at Laura.Wyatt@Wisconsin.gov. Or call her: 608/267-0568.
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