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What is Soil Profile Rebuilding? Susan Day Explains.

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This site is a good candidate for Soil Profile Rebuilding (SPR) because soil is compacted and has an impermeable layer that can likely be broken up by the backhoe subsoiling process. Note limestone gravel mixed in soil indicates pH will be high, which will not be altered by the rehabilitation process. Surface gravel should be removed if possible and underground infrastructure clearly marked. Photo by Susan D. Day

Drs. Susan Day and Nina Bassuk have collaborated on a variety of research projects in the urban forest, with a special focus on soil remediation. Susan Day is an associate professor in the Virginia Tech Departments of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation and Horticulture, and longtime Council stalwart Nina Bassuk directs the Urban Horticulture Institute at Cornell.

Here, Susan Day summarizes her findings after ten years of researching Soil Profile Rebuilding (SPR), a technique that the urban forestry community will be hearing about! See also this post from 2014 about Nina Bassuk’s related soil amendment research.

Soil Profile Rebuilding: An Alternative to Soil Replacement

by Susan Downing Day

Urban foresters and their allies know poor soils can lead to an endless cycle of dieback and tree replacement. Even if trees do establish, growth can be underwhelming and tree health disappointing. Increasingly, project managers have been turning to soil replacement, where existing soils are excavated and removed and replaced with “recycled” or blended soils. These soils present their own challenges, however. For example, many imported blends rely on high sand contents to improve drainage, resulting in low water-holding capacity and drought stress for unirrigated plantings. Resulting sharp transitions in soil texture introduce the possibility of creating a “bath tub” effect in situations where it is impossible to replace all the soil and new soils are confined to the immediate vicinity of individual trees.

There is an alternative to soil replacement that is especially appropriate where there are extended open soil (unpaved) areas such as in street medians—soil rehabilitation. Soil rehabilitation can help restore important ecosystem functions such as stormwater transmission and vegetation support to existing native soils.

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Arbor Day Planting in Perry with Funding from Council

Volunteers prep to plant a weeping larch
Volunteers prep to plant a weeping larch in Perry’s Village Park on Arbor Day 2016.             Photos by Steve Townes 

The Village of Perry is another community that received Arbor Day 2016 funding through our Council in partnership with the DEC. Perry Tree Advisory Board Chair and Village Trustee Eleanor Jacobs sent in this report. 

Securing the NYSUFC Arbor Day Community Grant was the first major accomplishment of the recently formed Village of Perry Tree Advisory Board (TAB). The group’s excitement at this achievement can’t be over-emphasized.

To implement the grant, the TAB worked with Village Parks Director Renee Koziel to select locations in the Village park to plant nine trees. The TAB selected the varieties of ginkgo, weeping larch, and Japanese white pine—and Ms. Koziel bought these from the Village’s tree supplier. The goals were to diversify tree plantings in the Village park, fill in spaces where trees were lacking, and plan for the future where trees may have to be removed.

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Arbor Day 2016 Celebration in Pound Ridge

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Carolynn Sears (Conservation and Tree Board) , Michael Kagan (Pound Ridge Land Conservancy), Susan Lee (Pound Ridge Garden Club), Bonnie Schwartz (Town Board), Gail Jankus (Planning), and Richard Lyman (Town Supervisor) admire one of the twin American Beeches planted near the Pound Ridge Town House on Arbor Day. Photo by Jody Sullivan

The 2016 Arbor Day celebration in Pound Ridge (pop: app 5100), a town in Westchester County, took place over several days. An Arbor Day grant from the NYSUFC in partnership with the NYSDEC funded the purchase of a 3.5″-caliper, 12-foot-tall American beech and an ID plaque to go with it.

Pound Ridge Conservation and Tree Board Chair Carrie Sears says, “One aspect of our celebration that I am particularly proud of is the collaboration between the Town, the local Garden Club, the Land Conservancy, and Bartlett Tree Experts. And the Pound Ridge Highway and Maintenance Department continued to water the trees throughout a very long, dry summer.”

In this post, Sears recounts the Town’s celebration:

Thank you for funding the Pound Ridge 2016 Arbor Day celebration, which promoted an urban forestry program in the community in many ways. Our celebration included four different events and the planting of five native dogwoods, two American beech trees, and over 100 seedlings from the NYSDEC Saratoga Tree Nursery in different locations in the community. It also included a hands-on workshop, “Your Land and Our Water: Computer Modeling of Local Watersheds,” which allowed participants to see how trees make a difference in watershed protection. 

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NYSUFC Partners with NYSDEC to Award Arbor Day Project Grants

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Otisville, NY Garden Club members planted this red maple and other trees as part of the Village’s 2016 Arbor Day celebration, which was supported by an Arbor Day grant from the New York State Urban Forestry Council.   

Communities that are just getting their urban forestry programs up and running, take note of this grant opportunity! In future posts, we’ll highlight some of the 2016 celebrations from grant-recipient communities. Stay tuned to the TAKING ROOT monthly e-news to find out when the next round of Arbor Day grant applications opens for 2017 tree plantings/celebrations. 

From Brian Skinner, Council Vice President:

For the second year, the NYSUFC partnered with the NYSDEC in taking on the administrative and award mechanism for Arbor Day grants (previously known as “Quick Start” AD grants), providing up to $10,000 total in grant monies for communities to conduct 2016 Arbor Day tree planting programs and ceremonies.

Communities that apply and those that are successful are not burdened with the paper mountains, contracts, forms, times delays, etc. that are typical of the much larger State grants. These are Arbor Day grants of up to $1,000 per community to conduct a tree planting event. Since they are meant to assist communities just getting started in their urban forestry efforts, applicants cannot be an existing Tree City USA community or have an ordinance, master plan, or have gotten the grant previously. Simple, less paper, quick turn-around, 50% of your funds up front, simple documentation, only one or two people to deal with, questions answered quickly and directly … a grant writer’s dream!

In 2015, 12 communities from around the State applied, and because some did not request the full $1,000 for their AD projects, the Council was able to award all 12 communities a grant. Word of the simplicity, ease, and success of the process must have spread, because in 2016, 35 communities applied, making the Arbor Day project grants committee work much more difficult and challenging. Council volunteers reviewed the applications and associated documentation and narrowed down the applicants (very tough competition, by the way!), eventually selecting 13 communities to receive a part of the grant funding. Due to some leftover funding from last year and some additional outside funding that was made available for such programmed events, the committee was able to award over $11,400 in grant requests this year.

Our congratulations to all the communities that were selected for grants this year: the towns of Alden, Ellington, Naples, North Greenbush, Pound Ridge, and Unionvale; the villages of Dansville, Orchard Park, Otisville, Perry, and Tivoli; and Friends of Parish (Parish) and Friends of Washington Park (Troy). Please congratulate anyone you know from those communities on their success and continue to encourage other communities to apply next year. And don’t forget to thank the DEC for partnering with the Council for this! Little steps such as this encourage participating communities to look at their trees now with a goal of becoming an Arbor Day Foundation Tree City USA, which in itself has a whole different set of requirements … and we know they’re all up to that challenge.

 

 

Support Lori Brockelbank’s Fourth Tour des Trees to Benefit the TREE Fund

Lori Brockelbank (second from left) with fellow NYS riders.
Lori Brockelbank (second from left) with fellow NYS riders. Photo by R. Jeanette Martin

October 9-15, 2016, cyclists will experience a week of unforgettable scenery, cycling and camaraderie as the Tour des Trees rolls through the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, starting and ending in Charlotte, NC. 

Tree plantings and community engagement are hallmarks of every Tour, and Professor Elwood Pricklethorn (aka Toronto arborist and veteran Tour cyclist Warren Hoselton) provides educational programs for young audiences along the way. The Tour also adds new trees to the growing urban forest planted by its cyclists.

Since 1992, the Tour des Trees has grown to become the largest fundraiser for tree research and education in the world. In 2015, it generated over $340,000 that will be used to support a variety of research projects and educational programs for budding tree care professionals. 

Lori Brockelbank: 

Four years ago, I embarked upon my first journey with the Stihl Tour des Trees to benefit the TREE (Tree Research and Education Endowment) Fund. I could not have known how much of an impact that one week would have on my life. I remember how hard that first tour was—I never knew my knees could hurt that bad from just pedaling a bicycle. I am happy to say that through three bike tours, my fellow bike riders became among my dearest friends. We have encouraged and learned from each other. The biggest lesson I have learned is that it’s okay to ask for help—and sometimes the nicest people will come along and help you without you even asking.

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NYSDEC Urban Forestry Intern Jennifer Kotary: Get to Know Her!

Jennifer KotaryIn 2016, NYSDEC Urban Forestry Program Coordinator Mary Kramarchyk mentored her second summer intern, Jennifer Kotary. “The goal of the internship is to expose and recruit forestry students into the world of urban forestry,” Kramarchyk says. “Jennifer’s excellent technical and communication skills helped her fit right into DEC’s program. She was thrown into and completed real work—and “extra” activities so meaningful to the success of the program—that, without her, we would not have been able to accomplish.”

Jennifer Kotary:
Two days after my graduation (’16) from SUNY ESF’s Ranger School, I began at NYSDEC via the Research Foundation in the Urban and Community Forestry summer internship. A connection with Mary Kramarchyk at the New York Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting was the beginning to an internship opportunity to better my understanding of what urban forestry is in action. Now that this internship comes to a close, I realize that as urban forestry initiates and sustains connection between community and the environment, my internship has connected me to a critical passion of mine which includes all things trees.

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ESF Ranger School Graduation, where Jennifer celebrates her proudest moment with Director Dr. Michael Bridgen. Photo by June McWarf

People. Urban forestry has connected me to people. I am so thankful to Mary Kramarchyk, Mary Martin, and Sally Kellogg who took me under their wing and amazed me with their adaptive ability to joyfully get done a plethora of responsibilities for the state program. Via statewide ReLeaf meetings, I witnessed the individual personalities of ReLeaf committees flourishing in each New York region. Exposure to NYS DEC’s Bureau of Lands and Forests and the great group of people assisting in statewide forestry is continually inspiring. Lastly, I met an impressive slew of tree-related individuals via the summer’s ReLeaf Conference at Skidmore College.

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Rochester’s Urban Forest Master Plan

Rochester UFMPCalling all Master Plans! Rochester City Forester and NYSUFC Executive Committee Member Brian Liberti shares the following intro from the most recent Rochester Urban Forest Master Plan. You can also see Ithaca’s Urban Forest Master Plan here.

We’d like to collect as many UF Master Plans from around the State as possible, so that communities can learn from one another. Please send yours to editor@nysufc.org.  

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of Rochester, New York, is its forest of trees. There are numerous tree-filled parks, and practically every avenue and street in the city is lined with trees. Even the city’s cemeteries, so often barren fields of funerary monuments, are veritable forests.

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WNY CommuniTREE Stewardship Program Completes Inaugural Training

Inaugural group of WNY CommuniTREE Stewards in spring of 2016. Photo by John Choczynski
Inaugural group of WNY CommuniTREE Stewards in spring of 2016. Photo by John Choczynski

By Lori Brockelbank, NYSUFC Treasurer and Certified Arborist/Municipal Specialist, Wendel Companies

The first-ever Western NY CommuniTREE Stewardship Program instruction has come to a close for most of the participants, but the learning and experience continues. You can read more about the program’s mission and partners on this earlier blog post. Out of the 20 people that initially signed up for the course, 13 completed the classroom requirements.

At the conclusion of the classroom sessions, I will admit I had my doubts about whether the students had truly received enough training to go out on their own. I know personally I learn more when I get my hands dirty and I am in the field applying the classroom instruction. A few of the students expressed the same concerns; for this reason each student is required to volunteer 10 hours of supervised field time doing tree planting and/or small tree pruning in a variety of places throughout the City of Buffalo. This field work is a great chance for students to get further coaching and ask questions.

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Bronx River Alliance & Partners to Restore Bronx River Forest

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The beautiful 23-mile Bronx River. Photo Courtesy Natural Areas Conservancy

This story comes to us from Bronx River Alliance Deputy Director Maggie Greenfield and Natural Areas Conservancy Communications and Public Outreach Manager Nicole Brownstein. 

The Bronx River has seen its fair share of history. It was first called the Aquehung, or “River of High Bluffs” by the local Native Americans. Two tribes, the Weckquaesgeek and Siwanoy, drank the river’s water, fished along its banks, and hunted in the surrounding woods. The river also held a spiritual significance for them and was a place for ritual baths each year. Jonas Bronck arrived in 1639, brokered a deal with the Native Americans for 500 acres along the river, and turned it into farmland.

Mills sprang up along the river, harnessing its energy and using it as a natural flowing sewer system. As the manufacturing industry fell into decline and the mills began to disappear, the river remained a dumping site for the surrounding communities. This was before we fully knew or cared about the effects of industrial and residential waste dumping.

It wasn’t until the environmental movement picked up in the mid-1970s that the restoration process began along the 23-mile river. In the late 1990s, the Bronx River Working Group was founded, with more than 60 community organizations and businesses combining efforts to orchestrate work along the river. The spirit of this effort led to the creation of the Bronx River Alliance, a group dedicated to restoring the waterway. When they began their work, these activists found objects as bizarre as refrigerators, tires, and even a wine press in the river. Today the river’s health is returning, evidenced by the long-awaited appearance of river herring, American eel, eastern oyster, and beavers. But our work is not yet done.

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