Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina) flowers. Photo from MOBOT Plant Finder (missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder)
Carolina silverbell (Halesia carolina) produces fruits that look more like winged footballs than bells. Thus, one taxonomic synonym for this tree is Halesia tetraptera, where tetraptera means “four wings.” Carolina silverbell falls in that category of urban trees that are best used in parks, campuses, generously wide tree lawns, and other places where the influence of the built environment (asphalt, concrete) on the soil pH is not too profound. This is because it can’t tolerate highly alkaline soil and indeed prefers acidic soil where possible. In high pH-soils, its leaves can appear chlorotic (yellowed).
Andrea Nieves is the NYSDEC Environmental Education Assistant in the Urban Forestry program, covering the needs of the Trees for Tribs program as well.
I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina during the hottest summer on record at the time. When I was four, my parents and I moved to Hyde Park, New York—and I’ve been cold ever since. Nevertheless, despite having to always wear layers (even in summer), I’m glad to have grown up in the beautiful Hudson Valley, and not far from the Catskill Mountains.
There was a field near my house growing up that the neighborhood kids had cleverly named “The Field.” It is a very special place with several landmarks, namely “The Tree” and “The Woods.” I tried to spend as much time as possible there, where my friends and I would make up dance routines, catch pretend Pokémon, swing on a makeshift rope swing, and explore.
In my junior year in high school, the year when you’re somehow expected to know what you want to do with the rest of your life (as least so far as to choose a college major), I remembered exploring The Woods, climbing on logs, and exploring the tiny streams. I remembered the confident feeling that I got from knowing where I was, becoming familiar with the forest and recognizing certain features as landmarks: a bent tree, a mossy rock. I decided to major in Biology, and I focused on environmental research.
Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus) foliage is darker, glossier, rounder, and more leathery than native fringe tree (C. virginicus) foliage, and its flower petals have rounded ends and appear less feathery than those of the native tree. Photo by Bill Haws
There’s some disagreement about the true native (vs. naturalized) range of white fringe tree, Chionanthus virginicus. Although it appears to be indigenous to the Southeast U.S. at least, the potential planting range of this small tree, hardy to USDA Zone 3, is the entire continental U.S. Unfortunately, white fringe tree has been found to be quite vulnerable to Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) like its Oleaceae family cousins, ash trees.
Young Chinese fringe tree habit and showy bloom. Chinese fringe tree can be grown as a standard in tree form, with a mature height and width range of 15 to 25 feet. Photo by Bill Haws
Interestingly, Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus) has not been found to be vulnerable to EAB. It’s thought that since C. retusus co-evolved with EAB, this Asian iteration of fringe tree built up defenses to the beetle over millennia in its native eastern Russia, northern China, Japan, and Korea.
One of the benefits of being a Council member is being eligible for these conference and training scholarships. Please use the brief scholarship application form to apply to any of these:
Society of Municipal Arborists 55th Annual International Conference and Trade Show – $199 scholarships available, deadline Oct 18. For urban forestry professionals and those in allied fields like park management, landscape architecture, and city planning.
2019 Partners in Community Forestry Conference – $399 scholarships available, deadline Oct 18. “Partners” is THE conference for staff and volunteers in the nonprofit sphere of community forestry, but is also of interest to a wide range of professionals.
$1,000 scholarship for MFI 2020, deadline October 31. The Municipal Forestry Institute is a weeklong training in leadership skills for municipal foresters and anyone looking to more effectively navigate within a governmental space, including contractors who work with munis.
DEC ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR URBAN FORESTRY PROJECTS
$1.2 Million in Grants Available to Increase Number of Public Trees and Strengthen Community Forest Programs Statewide
State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos announced up to $1.2 million in grant funding is available for urban forestry projects across New York. Grants are available for tree planting, maintenance, tree inventory, community forest management plans, and for educating those who care for public trees.
“Urban and community forests help improve our air and water, save energy, mitigate the negative effects of climate change, and enhance quality of life for New Yorkers living in the city and the suburbs,” said Commissioner Seggos. “New York State is committed to protecting and enhancing the state’s urban forests and the grants announced today are a valuable tool to support local projects to develop and manage these resources.”
Eligible applicants include municipalities, public benefit corporations, public authorities, soil and water conservation districts, community colleges, not-for-profit organizations, and Indian Nations or tribes. Awards will range from $11,000 to $75,000, depending on municipal population. Tree inventories and community forest management plans do not require a match. Tree planting, maintenance, and education projects have a 25 percent match.
Berna in front of a Parrotia persica at the 2019 NY ReLeaf Conference in Rochester.
Arborist Berna Ticonchuk coordinates the Horticulture program at Finger Lakes Community College (FLCC) and teaches the Introduction to Horticulture, Tree Culture and Maintenance, Plant Propagation, and Certified Applicator Training courses.
Prior to coming to FLCC in 2002, Berna had a 20-year career in public gardens in Rochester and Canandaigua. She brings a wealth of knowledge and professional connections to her FLCC students and to her service on the City of Canandaigua Tree Advisory Board and Sonnenberg Gardens Education Committee.
She says, “One of the strengths of our FLCC program is the deep and longstanding connection we have to green industry professionals around the State who we can put students in contact with. That professional networking, along with keeping up with urban forestry research and practice, are the main reasons I go to the ReLeaf Conference and to regional ReLeaf events.”
At the 2019 NY ReLeaf Conference last July in Rochester, Dr. Leslie Brandt presented a fascinating talk about her work on urban forest adaptation to climate change, and she offered up powerful resources and tools to our community. Here’s a brief summary of those resources compiled by blog editor Michelle Sutton in consultation with Dr. Brandt.
Background
The Climate Change Response Framework (forestadapation.org) is a collaborative, cross-boundary approach among scientists, managers, and landowners to incorporate climate change considerations into natural resource management.
The Framework’s partners are numerous and wide-ranging, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, and dozens of state and local governments, Native American tribes and tribal organizations, universities, and ecological and urban forest institutes and organizations.
The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science (NIACS) works with partners to lead Framework activities across the Midwest and Northeast U.S. Within the Climate Change Response Framework, the Urban Forestry focus addresses urban forest vulnerability for cities and creates tools to help local managers adapt to the effects of climate change.
NYSDEC Urban and Community Forestry Volunteer Coordinator Christina McLaughlin travels widely. Last spring, she fed lorikeets at the San Diego Safari Park.
I grew up in Pittsford, outside of Rochester. I was definitely interested in nature from an early age, because my house was in the woods. I spent a lot of time outside catching frogs and snakes and playing in the dirt. By 4th grade, I’d decided I wanted to be a herpetologist and then a marine biologist.
I went to SUNY Oswego for a Zoology degree because of my love of nature and animals and initial plans to be a zookeeper. After working for a few years, I returned to school at the University of Albany to get a master’s in Biodiversity Conservation and Policy in order to return to biology as a career field. My thesis was on landowner knowledge and opinions of invasive species, inspired by my participation in the Capital Mohawk PRISM.
Christina with husband Mark Lanzafame at a glacial lagoon in Iceland.
Emerald Ash Borer. A report recently published in the Journal of Economic Entomology offers data on the newest parasitoid wasp released against the EAB beetle: Spathius galinae. One of the authors, Dr. Jian Duan of the Beneficial Insect Introduction Unit at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, says including this species in the biocontrol lineup could be a game-changer. “The addition of S. galinae to the current biocontrol arsenal will provide a whole spectrum of protection for surviving ash trees,” he says. To read more, see the summary article by Melissa Mayer in Entomology Today. Photo credit: Jian Duan, Ph.D., USDA-ARS
