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June 2022

NCUFC eNews

Protecting, Sustaining, Advocacy

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COMMENTS

FROM THE CHAIR

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Summertime is upon us NCUFC members! Days are longer and sunshine is brighter. I hope all enjoy the upcoming season. A few things to report.


Would you like to learn more about managing biotic and abiotic tree disorders? If so, join us at Alamance Community College on 21 June, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. More information about this Carolina Canopy Workshop, including a link for registration, is on the upcoming events page of our Council website. 


Also, check out the 22 July webinar, "Volunteer Tree Stewardship: A Partnership Tree Keeper Program".  From 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. registrants will learn how the City of Durham is partnering with two non-profits (Trees Durham and Keep Durham Beautiful) to train volunteers for tree care work on city property. Council leadership hopes to replicate this stewardship model across the state.


Lastly, save the date for the 2022 Great NC Tree Conference. It will be held in Greensboro from 15-18 September. We are still preparing the agenda and finalizing speakers, but we are pleased and excited to "Bring Back the Basics" in arboriculture for our conference theme. We want this event to benefit the professional development of your entire staff . I look forward to reporting more details about this conference in our July newsletter.


Sunscreen up and enjoy the summer weather.


Jeff Kish

Board Chair, NC Urban Forest Council

Bartlett Tree Experts, Raleigh 

North Carolina Urban Forest Council

P.O. Box 37415

Raleigh, NC 27627

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Carolina Canopy Workshop: Managing Biotic and Abiotic Tree Disorders

Graham, NC

June 21st

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NC Community Tree Webinar: Volunteer Tree Stewardship: A Partnership Tree Keeper Program

Online webinar

July 22nd

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2022 Great NC Tree Conference

Greensboro, NC

September 15-16th

Save the Date ~ More Information Coming Soon!

PARTNER EVENTS


NC GIC Water Symposium

McKimmon Center - Raleigh, NC

July 21

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COUNCIL MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

 

New Program Assistant, Kathryn Reis

 

On 1 June 2022, Kathryn Reis joined our staff as the new Program Assistant.  Kathryn is native to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she investigated nature on both foot and horseback with her mother and fished for bass and crappie with her father and siblings.  Those family experiences fostered Kathryn’s life-long passion for ecological understanding and natural resource management.  


Kathryn earned a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and a minor in Zoology from Colorado State University in 1995 and an M.S. in Wildlife Ecology from Michigan State University in 2000.  Her Master's research addressed the both the ecological and human dimensions components of  crop damage by white-tailed deer.  Both before and after graduate school, Kathryn worked in policy advocacy and governmental affairs in Washington, D.C. for a variety of non-profits plus the U.S. Geological Survey.  In 2007, she moved to Cary, NC, to pursue a PhD in Wildlife Conservation at North Carolina State University.  Her doctoral studies exposed her to various theories in organizational development.  She also developed a new collaborative decision-making model and examined its applicability within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast Region.  


Although Kathryn did not finish her doctoral research, due to the arrival of two daughters, she honed her skills on how to become an agent of change while studying at NC State.  She is eager to put her collegiate training and professional experience to use at the North Carolina Urban Forest Council while also learning more about urban forest management.  Please make her feel welcomed!

COUNCIL NEWS

Trees and Utility Lines

by Jason Combs 

Utility Arborist, Duke Energy 


It’s June and we just celebrated Memorial Day, a national holiday for honoring our fallen veterans -- men and women who sacrificed it all for our country.  Memorial Day is also a reminder that summer is just around the corner.  


Welcome again to summer with all the heat and thunderstorms we get in North Carolina.  It’s great to see leaves on trees and overcome allergies associated with tree pollen. Those leafy branches, however, make utility pruning a common task among arborists every summer. Indeed, the thick, bushy trees you passed during your morning community might soon be pruned, yielding a line of trees that look weird, misshaped, or unbalanced.  


During the 21st Century it has become more commonplace for select people to work from home or other remote locations. Additionally increasingly more homeowners and businesses depend on round the clock technology to organize their days and manage their places of work and rest. As a result, today our society depends upon un-interrupted electrical service more than ever before. That observation begs the following question: 


How can you help utility companies meet the dual goal of providing communities with non-stop electrical service while protecting our forested areas? The answer is plan before you plant by choosing the right tree for the right place. 

Far too many times we see small trees at the nursery but never recognize what the average mature height will be for those trees.  Just like puppies, trees grow to be larger than we expect. Consequently, when homeowners plant a sapling without looking up to confirm that sapling's canopy (upon maturity) will not touch an overhead utility line, that homeowner creates an unintended future conflict. The same outcome applies to saplings homeowners planting above buried cables, where the expansive roots of maturing trees collide with underground utility equipment. 


It is important to remember that trees are an investment in time!  We want that investment to pay off by returning years of enjoyment for the communities in which we live.  


As a reminder, the NCUFC has published the Trees & Utilities Manual. That document provides guidance for planting and managing trees around utility lines. If you prefer a printed copy, you may collect one when attending a workshop this summer or contact our new program assistant, Kathryn Reis.  

NATIONAL STORIES

Fighting Invasive Emerald Ash Borers with Woodpeckers and Citizen Scientists

by Margaret Gregory, USFS Research & Development, 24 May 2022

Photo courtesy: Paul Tourlonias / EyeEm GettyImages


Invasive non-native insects have been called the "wildfires of the East," given the damage they cause to trees. One pest, the emerald ash borer, has killed hundreds of millions of rural and urban ash trees.


To help arborists and city planners track and treat potential outbreaks, U.S. Forest Service scientists seek efficient monitoring techniques. Tree rings indicate the emerald ash borer arrived in the United States in the early to mid-1990s, probably embedded in shipping materials from eastern Asia. The beetle ended scientists unil 2002, when it was identified in millions of Detroit's tres. Over the next two decades, it radiated through the Midwest, New England and the South -- with clusters as far west as Colorado.


"We knew nothing about it at first," said U.S. Forest Service entomologist Therese Poland, who has studied ash borer management since the beetle was first detected. According to Poland, early attempts to stymy its spread involved massive ash removal campaigns. But these failed -- and cost thousands of dollars per tree.


As scientists continued studying the beetle, they developed better ways to detect and manage it. They improved beetle traps, bred resistant trees and experimented using parasitic wasps to control beetle populations. 


To complement these options, Robert Haight, a Forest Service researcher in St. Paul, Minnesota, has proposed a more strategic approach: identifying beetle-infested ash trees before they show signs of damage. One way, he says, involves searching for woodpeckers. ...



Link to the full story




Residential Nature Tied to Hundreds of Dollars of Savings in Healthcare Costs

by Arbor Day Foundation, 17 May 2022


Photo courtesy: Arbor Day Foundation


Many of us know — we feel — how essential nature is for our health and wellbeing. We seek fresh air, sunshine, birdsong, flowers, and leaves fluttering in the breeze. Such exposures to nature make us feel happy and alive.


Scientists have quantified these positive impacts of nature on our health for decades. Roger Ulrich found people recovered faster in a hospital when they had a window view of trees rather than a brick wall back in 1979. Since then, the research on nature and health has exploded. I recently participated in an umbrella review that identified 40 other peer-reviewed literature reviews documenting the health benefits of nature exposure. More than 100 health outcomes have been investigated, including mortality, cardiovascular disease, pregnancy outcomes, mental health, general health, allergic diseases, physical activity, sleep, blood biomarkers, etc.


My colleague Aaron Reuben has cleverly compared nature exposure to hydration. Many of us don’t drink enough water. We are chronically dehydrated. This situation won’t kill us but causes slight annoyances that make our daily lives less pleasant. Dehydration causes headaches and fatigue. Nature deprivation might cause irritability, restlessness, and depressive symptoms.


The health benefits of regular and accumulated nature exposure — such as what we might experience living in neighborhood with tree canopy cover — could influence how often we go to the doctor, take medications, and experience medical emergencies that require emergency room visits or hospitalization. Access to healthcare is critical for annual check-ups and when we get sick. However, healthcare in the United States is incredibly expensive. The average person in the United States has more than $11,000 in healthcare costs each year. The possibility of nature reducing our need to incur these costs on an individual and societal level is enticing.


My colleagues and I recently finished the first-of-its-kind study on the relationship between healthcare costs and nature exposure. The study was made possible by generous funding from the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forest Grant Program, as recommended by the National Urban and Community Advisory Council.


Link to the full story

LOCAL STORIES

North Carolina Forest Service Reports New Outbreaks of Emerald Ash Borer and Laurel Wilt

by Kathryn Reis


On 3 May 2022, the North Carolina Forest Service reported sightings of the invasive emerald ash borer for the first time in Stanly County.  Jim Moeller, a forest health specialist with the agency, reported that a forestry consultant found the beetle's characteristic D-shaped exit hole among ash tree canopies when clearing debris on private property in Albemarle.  After cutting down the symptomatic trees, Forest Service staff found the beetle beneath the bark.


The state agency also reported its first sighting of the emerald ash borer in Pitt County, specifically in Greenville's River Park North. Forest Service staff  identified potentially symptomatic trees in January 2022 when exploring where to install emerald ash borer traps in the spring.  During that field tour they found lots of woodpecker activity plus crown dieback.  Upon the staff's return to the site in April to hang the traps, they learned they were too late; the beetles were already well established.


As a result of the above findings, the emerald ash borer now occupies 62 counties across the state. Note, it is the larva of this species that feeds on the nutrient transport tissues of ash trees.  Infected trees typically die within three to five years.


To minimize the spread of this Asian beetle, remember to use only local firewood or specially treated firewood when camping. If people move wood away from their home and across county/state lines, they may inadvertently transport the invasive beetle to a new locality.


On 10 May 2022, the Forest Service announced the presence of laurel wilt disease in Scotland County. specifically in the right of way along Highway 74. Laurel wilt infects multiple plants within the laurel family, such as redbay, sassafrass, and spicebush.


“We generally survey throughout the winter because laurel wilt is easy to see when most other trees have shed their leaves,” said Moeller. “Even though we weren’t dedicating our day to surveying for laurel wilt, anytime we are traveling to various locations throughout the state, we are always staying alert for possible movement of insects and diseases that we track.” 


Laurel wilt arises from the invasive redbay ambrosia beetle, which carries its feeding source (laurel wilt fungus) into tree cavities. As  fungal spores spread within the beetle's tunnels, infected trees wilt and die due to the cessation of water flow.


Link to the full press releases

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