March 2011 Blog Posts (24)

Read about the most important improvements in THE NEW AND IMPROVED i-Tree v.4:

i-Tree will reach a broader audience in educating people on the value of trees.  i-Tree Design is designed to be easily used by homeowners, garden centers, and in school classrooms.  People can use i-Tree Design and its link to Google maps to see the impact of the trees in their yard, neighborhood and classrooms, and what benefits they can see by adding new trees.  i-Tree Canopy and VUE with…

     Spring is almost here and that means planning for state reforestation events  is in full swing.  Reforest Frankfort will take place on April 2 at the Benson Creek Boat ramp, located on the west side of the Kentucky River close to downtown and off of US 127. The event will run from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.  For more information, contact Andrew Cammack at acammack@fewpb.net or 502-803-0764.  

     Reforest Northern Kentucky will also take place on April 2, and will be held at AJ…

This last weekend, I wanted to transplant a white oak that grew from seed.  It was in its 3^rd season, and I wanted to transplant it because it was growing under some utility lines and if left undisturbed a white oak can grow to be 500 years old.   Typically when planting trees, I plant stock from a local tree nursery.  If it is a container tree, often the trees are root-bound and as I have been trained, I remove circling roots to avoid the tree from being girdled later in…

A spammer using the name "Mirian" joined the community and sent messages to several members over the weekend. We have corrected the issue and suspended the membership due to spam. 

If you receive messages in the future you think are spam, please do not click on any links or download any materials from…

Trees brighten city streets and delight nature-starved urbanites. Now scientists are learning that they also play a crucial role in the green infrastructure of America’s cities.

On April 8, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt, attired in a dark suit and top hat, could be found in Fort Worth, Texas, where youngsters looked on from a nearby window as he shoveled soil over the roots of a sapling. It was Arbor Day, which schools across the nation had recently begun…

What do Oklahoma, Missouri and Kentucky have in common? In addition to their state arbor days being this week (Friday, April 1 for Missouri and Kentucky, and all week long for Oklahoma), they also share a common trait among their state trees. Kentucky’s tulip poplar, Oklahoma’s eastern redbud and Missouri’s…

Southeast Georgia is batting three major wildfires. Drought conditions and strong winds have made it difficult to control the fire and more than 34,000 acres have been burned. Click here to read more details in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

 …

A single mature tree can save a homeowner as much as $2,500 in heating and cooling costs over the tree's lifetime. It also filters out water pollution, absorbing as much as 1,390 in storm water runoff annually. It also stores carbon and absorbs greenhouse gases.

Is it possible that one day if we place some goggles on, all the trees around us will be identified with statistics like tree size, day planted, ecosystem contributions, etc., all with two blinks of an eye (like a mouse click)? Sometimes I wonder if this vision will go the way of flying car predictions of the 50s. Factors that make it attainable are the interests in tree inventories, advancement of GIS/GPS software and devices, and the ever increasing power of computing and the associated…

March 21 is Arkansas’ Arbor Day. The pine is the Arkansas state tree, but rather than sharing a picture of just any pine tree, we’ve posted a photograph of the loblolly pine at Mt. Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Ark. This tree is registered in the list of Famous & Historic Trees in Arkansas by the Arkansas Famous…

A must do with a visit to Savannah, only 15 minutes from downtown.  An allee of over 300 live oak (Quercus virginiana), stretching for over 2 miles.  More info here:  http://www.gastateparks.org/Wormsloe…

This morning, U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell traveled to Philadelphia -- city of many street trees -- to unveil a new version of the service's i-Tree software.

Not quite an app -- but the same idea -- it helps both planners and regular citizens assess the monetary value of the street trees plus quantify the environmental services the trees provide.

Read full article at:…

Check out the latest news from International Society of Arborculture:



To commemorate Arbor Day 2011, International Society of Arborculture will launch a new T-shirt design. The shirt will feature the slogan "More Trees Please," that was chosen from suggestions submitted by ISA members.



ISA encourages members to purchase these shirts not only to help promote Arbor Day, but also promote the benefits of…

Green Cities, Good Health is a research-summary website that urban foresters can use to build a stronger, broader case for their city greening efforts.



Research findings are organized using 12 themes: Community Building, Community Economics, Culture & Equity, Active Living, Crime & Fear, Safe Streets, Place Attachment & Meaning, Wellness & Physiology, Healing & Therapy, Mental Health & Function, Work & Learning, and Reduce…

Friday, March 18 is Arizona and North Carolina’s Arbor Day.

Arizonans should visit the Arizona Federation of Garden Clubs website for more information on its Arbor Day celebrations. Events are scheduled to take place in early April with a community celebration and tree planting in Kingman, Ariz.

For North Carolinians wanting to get involved in the Arbor Day celebrations taking place in…

The Grove is going national! Thanks to the support of the U.S. Forest Service, our community is now reaching nature lovers and tree enthusiasts in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C. 

Here’s the schedule for adding new states and territories (which is subject to change):

• March 14: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont
• Week of June 13:…

At Georgia’s Arbor Day celebration at the  Capitol, a “check” for $37.2 billion dollars in ecosystem service value was handed to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, the result of the study “Quantifying the Benefits of Non-Timber Ecosystem Services” conducted by the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia.…

"A pilot project in Norfolk, England found that creating avenues of trees and hedges had a dramatic impact on motorists’ behavior.



The experiment at four villages – Overstrand, Martham, Coltishall and Mundesley – showed that drivers dropped their speed because of the cut in their peripheral vision.



In all there was a 20 per cent drop in the number of motorists driving at 40 to 60mph and overall average speeds fell by 1.5 per cent. At the same time trees were regarded as…