Forestry
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Yesterday my neighbor pointed out that one of the pines in my yard was dead. Another one nearby looks sick, so I need to have them checked for southern pine beetles. So this article on the spread of southern pine beetles into the Northeast was especially timely. Even though this winter in New England has…
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The National Phenology Network (NPN) provides information about the progress of physical events like budbreak, appearance of some insects and specific pests, and ice-off dates on lakes (in cold areas of the country). A recent article using their phenology map shows that this year we are running about 22 days ahead of average conditions for…
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As the climate in the northeastern US is getting warmer and wetter, beech trees are replacing maple and birch in the forests there. This is not good news because beech trees are less valuable than maples and birch, which can be used for furniture or maple syrup production instead of for firewood like beech. Tourism…
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Our partner the Southern Regional Extension Forestry group has a new newsletter available. You can read it here.
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It’s well known that in a drought, trees near the tops of hills are more likely to die than trees farther down the hill. This is because water runs downhill, and whatever water is captured in the dry conditions is more likely to be stored in valleys. The water table also drops more steeply in…
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Fruit Growers Newsletter published a story this week on the economic impacts of Hurricane Irma just to Florida agriculture. The story breaks down the losses by agricultural sector, but the total overall is over $2.5 billion. And they point out that does not include the loss of future production or the cost of rebuilding infrastructure. …
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Here’s an astounding fact on timber losses in Florida due to Hurricane Irma from David Zierden on Twitter, passed on from the Florida Forest Service: the amount totalled $1.633Billion, equal to about five of Florida’s annual timber harvests. I have not seen similar loss estimates for Georgia or South Carolina so far.