Clymene Tiger Moth seen in July in a northern Ohio forest. (Photo: R. Kappler) | |
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Hi all,
Time seems to have flown by. We are hoping you’re having a great summer season. It’s your last chance to assess lingering ash and beech this year. Be sure to also keep an eye out for large survivor American elms and let me know if you’re up for monitoring untreated hemlock woodlands.
-Rachel Kappler
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Young elm planting (Photo: USDA Forest Service) | |
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Plans are underway to establish an American elm seed orchard at the Metroparks Toledo (MPT) Blue Creek Native Nursery, in partnership with The USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station. Clones of American elms with demonstrated resistance to Dutch elm disease as well as yet untested clones will be planted for increased genetic diversity. The trees are expected to produce seed in as early as ten years and will serve as a source of improved American elm for MPT and other stakeholders in the region.
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Report a survivor American elm. Besides using Treesnap to report large (>22 inch DBH) American elms, you can also use ArcGIS survey123.
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Banded Tussock moth on an ash leaf (Photo: R. Kappler) | |
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As of August 5, we have 200 new Great Lakes Region lingering ash reported this year in TreeSnap. Looking through them, 160 are legitimate lingering ash. Shout out to the Grand Traverse, Michigan region for surveying the most ash trees this season!
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We’re looking for more organizations that can host a long-term fenced lingering ash progeny orchard/planting in the future. Please reach out if you are potentially interested and let us know how much space you have and whether you’d need funding to help get it started. Already-running nurseries and orchards are great contenders, but a fenced-in plot on state land or conservation easement may also be a possibility.
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Mourning dove nest in American beech tree that has BLD. (Photo: R. Kappler) | |
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Development of an online BLD story map is in progress for future public consumption. If you have any photos or pdfs you’d like to add to it, please contact Dani Martin at danielle.k.martin@usda.gov.
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Staff at Holden Forests & Gardens revisited 48 long-term forest monitoring plots this year to assess changes in BLD presence and severity, beech mortality, light availability, and down woody debris. This is part of a new study established this April to explore how severely infected trees are responding to the disease. The team has also begun monitoring 36 trees in the Holden Arboretum research orchard, selected based on disease severity. Three times a week through June, staff recorded observations of bud break, leaf emergence, and full leaf out, taking pictures of individual trees weekly to visualize the progress throughout spring. Staff will monitor these trees again in September to document color change, leaf drop, and marcescence. If you have questions about this research, please contact Brianna Shepherd at bshepherd@holdenfg.org.
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 | Lingering eastern hemlock in North Carolina. (Photo: A. Kappler) | |
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Monitoring hemlock: This fall/winter we are encouraging areas that have HWA but low hemlock mortality to set up a monitoring plot that will not receive pesticides. We aim to learn more about the local infestation timeline and gather data on trees that persist after others have died.
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Have an update to share in the next GLB FHC newsletter? Email us! | |
Lingering ash canopy (Photo: R. Kappler) | |
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Last chance to spot lingering trees this year: August is your last chance to look for ash, elm, and beech that are lingering in otherwise infected areas and may be resistant to their respective pests. It’s an enormous help to us to know where these trees are located!
Report tree sightings with the TreeSnap app or by emailing them to us directly at rkappler@holdenfg.org.
Training workshops to help with tree ID, using the TreeSnap app, and more are available online or in-person at locations across the Great Lakes — contact Rachel today to sign up, or to set one up for your organization!
As always, Rachel also offers online or in-person training workshops to help with monitoring, seed collection, tree propagation, grafting, and more.
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Partner Spotlight:
TreeSnap
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TreeSnap was released in July 2017 as a collaboration between scientists at the University of Tennessee and the University of Kentucky. Since then, the app has been used by approximately 2,600 scientists, landowners, foresters, and passionate citizens to record nearly 20,000 trees. This database is primarily used by scientists to quickly locate trees that possess criteria relevant to their research.
The app is one of many maintained by the Staton Lab at the University of Tennessee. Developers there work closely with scientists to create new surveys and update old surveys to better accommodate the evolving needs of researchers. The app has many partners, most recently adding The Nature Conservancy through its funding for the Trees in Peril effort to save beech, elm, hemlock and ash trees.
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To protect urban ash from EAB, quarantining is tops. An international team led by biologists at Carleton University in Ontario modeled optimal management strategies for North American urban street trees. Current practices based on “rules of thumb” and large investments in biological control both underperformed; the best strategies spent 99% of project budget on quarantines and could save a million more trees. (Hudgins et al. 2024 Conservation Science & Practice)
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Burlap makes a great EAB egg trap. USDA ARS researcher Jian Duan tested whether burlap fabric or polypropylene curling ribbon would induce EAB to lay eggs on the trap. Both did, with the burlap detecting 2x the eggs as the ribbon (about equal eggs when standardized to 1 meter). (Duan 2024 Journal of Pest Science)
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The native parasitoid Phasgonophora sulcata kills more EAB as ash density declines, while introduced parasitoid Spathius galinae kills more EAB as ash density increases. Neither tree species richness nor ash density impacts woodpecker predation on EAB. These effects were not associated with reduced EAB densities or improved canopy condition (Wilson et al. 2024 Environmental Entomology)
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Under future climate, suitable EAB habitat should decrease in the US – but increase in China. A team led by researchers in Ürümqi, China modeled EAB distribution against habitat and climate for its native (China) and invasive (US) ranges. They also noted surprisingly low bioclimatic niche overlap in the two ranges; suggesting possibly significant EAB adaptation in the US population. (Sheng et al. 2024 Appl Ecol and Environ Research)
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Nematodes confirmed in asymptomatic beech. A team out of the Holden Arboretum surveyed leaf bacterial and fungal communities in both symptomatic and asymptomatic American beech. Fungi, but not bacteria, on leaves were significantly different based on nematode presence; both differed based on symptomology despite occurring widely, suggesting possible opportunistic infection. (Burke et al. 2024 Environmental Microbiology)
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Thinning regenerating beech won’t help maples. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry tested different techniques to reduce high densities of regenerating beech, which are crowding out other hardwood forest species. Six years later, large beech regeneration density was reduced, but sugar maples did not take advantage of the increased growing space. (Searle et al. Canadian Journal of Forest Research)
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Even in optimistic climate models, HWA expected to cover entire eastern hemlock range by the end of the century. Researchers in Ontario modeled the distribution of hemlock woolly adelgid under several climate change scenarios; none were encouraging. More extreme warming scenarios result in a more rapid northwards shift by mid-century. (Cornelson et al. 2024 Canadian J of Forest Research)
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Got Laricobius beetles? Look at your eDNA. Cornell University researchers developed primers and probes that can be used to detect the presence of – and tell apart – HWA biocontrol beetles Laricobius nigrinus (introduced), Laricobius osakensis (introduced), and Laricobius rubidus (native) in environmental DNA. (Liu et al. J of Economic Entomology)
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Eastern hemlock salvage logging might be hasty. A team out of Harvard Forest tested timber harvest against experimental girdling (to emulate death by insect pests) to understand long-term effects on forest health. After logging, trees quickly filled the gaps; after girdling, trees filled in more slowly, increasing understory vegetation and overall species diversity while maintaining aboveground carbon storage of the standing deadwood. In both treatments, black birch was the most abundant tree recruited. (Plotkin et al. 2024 Ecol Applications)
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An international team conducted a survey and workshop with forest experts from Canada and the US. They identified five organizing themes for research and management action to address forest invasions. Their results highlight mismatches between funding, media attention, and perceived risk expressed by forest experts, notably in the role of urban forests and the nursery trade. (Hudgins et al. 2024 Forest Ecology & Management)
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Have new research to share in the next GLB FHC newsletter? Email us! | | |
The Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative is an initiative co-sponsored by Holden Forests & Gardens and the USDA Forest Service, funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative | |
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. | |
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MISSION: Holden Forests & Gardens connects people with the wonder, beauty, and
value of trees and plants, to inspire action for healthy communities
VISION: All communities transformed into vibrant places where trees, plants, and people thrive
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