Urban trees and green infrastructure have new competition.  The concept of complete streets is to provide access and travel for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclist, motorist and public transport  users of all ages and abilities. This movement has become very strong over the last few years.  In my small town of Decatur, GA several streets have already been redesigned with complete streets in mind (see photo below).  Yesterday I attended a bicycle rally at the capitol in Atlanta, GA…

It is no secret that trees are great for the environment, but did you know just how great? Treepeople.com has named 22 benefits of trees and while all of the benefits are amazing, there are a few standouts, both environmentally and for business reasons.

Trees can help to prevent soil erosion and…

http://www.oakpark.com/Community/Blogs/03-23-2012/This_Time_it's_Different

New release about the Morgan Country Tree Nursery, which was severley damaged in this month's Kentucky tornados. 

Frnkfort, Ky. (March 22, 2012) -- The Morgan County Tree Nursery, owned and operated by the Kentucky Division of Forestry, is now open for those customers who made prior arrangements to pick up their orders.

The nursery has been off-limits to the public since a tornado swept through the area on March 2. The 50-acre nursery was all but destroyed by the same…

 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s urban forests, currently valued at about $80 billion, also provide almost  $650 million in benefits such as carbon storage, pollution removal, and energy reduction according to a new U.S. Forest Service report.



The authors of Urban Forests of Tennessee, 2009 found there are 284 million trees in urban areas in the state, with canopies covering 33.7 percent of 1.6 million…

What are the urban forest management practices that you feel should be done, but your boss, or some other equally unqualified person, doesn't let you do? What would you do, what do you think is most important urban forest management practice that should be performed. Drury University is creating their tree maintenance policy, what should it look like? 

Think about your street or community.  If Maple (for example) were suddenly wiped out, how much of your urban tree canopy would you lose?  Some communities in Iowa have as much as 50% maple.  How do you view diversity in the urban tree canopy?

In March of 1912, the Mayor of Tokyo, Japan, Yukio Ozaki, gave 3,000 cherry blossoms to the city of Washington, D.C. to honor a lasting friendship between the two cities and a hope for a continued, positive relationship between the two nations. The First Lady at the time, Helen Herron Taft, and…

There is a great publication put out by ISU Extension on storm damaged trees and selecting species based on storm damage resistance.  As many communitiesare trying to rebuild their urban forest after devastating storms, this is a great resource.  The species list is on the 4th page, but the entire publication has valuable information.  Click below for the entire document:

Storm resistant tree…

As you have seen, or will be seeing shortly, Arborvitae has taken a huge hit this winter.  We had numerous days were the ambient temperature was well above freezing and the needles did not stay dormant.  There is a tremendous amount of winter desiccation.

Management options:

1.  Start watering the trees now until the spring rains kick in.
2. Prune out anything that has not greened up by the second week in May.
3. If these are high valued trees, spraying…

Oak trees are an amazing species of tree, or rather 400 species of tree. The most common kinds of oak trees that we see around the U.S. are red, white, canyon live, Hungarian and Turkey Oak.

The wood from Oak trees is known for being especially strong and hard, and it also has a high tannin content,…

Below is an article related to using LiDAR and discovering some interesting trends in tree heights.

Link to article:…

Many years ago I was chatting with a well known nursery owner who opined to me that we - in the green trades - devoted a great deal of our effort to the un-glamorous work of material transport.  Not hard to argue with when the weight of a single balled and burlaped nursery tree of moderate size is in excess of two hundred pounds. If, say, you're ordering a few dozen for your village, the pounds quickly run into the…

Washington, Feb. 23, 2012 - National results indicate that tree cover in urban areas of the United States is declining at a rate of about 4 million trees per year, according to a U,S Forest Service study published recently in Urban Forestry and Urban Greening. 

Attached is a link to the press release, including a link to the full report,…

From Hollywood blockbusters to Rockefeller Center to everyday television cartoons, there are some very well-known and respected trees in the pop culture world. Click on the link below to see which 12 iconic trees made Entertainment Weekly’s Top 12 Mighty Trees List!

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