Alabama Urban Forestry AssociationAlabama Urban Forestry Association

PlantingsPlantings SPRING 2014

2014 OFFICIAL ARBOR DAY COMMUNITY Dr. David West, Alabama Cooperative Extension System AUFA Council District 2

Mike’s daughter, Andrea, planting the memorial tree Zarichnak family with Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey and Councilman Jack Wright

The City of Hoover celebrated their recognition as Alabama's Official Arbor Day Community at their Arbor Day event March 8th. The event took place at Aldridge Gardens on Lorna Road. The Official Arbor Day City recognizes one community each year that serves as an example to others by planning, plant-ing, managing and celebrating their urban forest resources.

David West, AUFA Arbor Day Coordinator, presented a Proclamation from Governor Robert Bentley, and also posthumously recognized the service of Mike Zarichnak. Mike, a Hoover citizen and a long time AUFA member and officer, volunteered many years of service to the AUFA. Mike was a friend and inspiration to many of us, and he is sorely missed. The City of Hoover, the AUFA, Alabama Power, Aldridge Gardens and others honored Mike for his many years of dedicated service. A ceremonial tree planting and presen-tations to Mike’s family were part of the day’s activities.

“Trees improve our communities by increasing property values, providing homes for wildlife, improving our quality of life and providing needed shade,” says Colin Conner, President of the Alabama Urban Forestry Association. “The City of Hoover has an exemplary Ur-ban Forestry program that citizens should be proud of”.

The Alabama Urban Forestry Association has partnered with the Governor’s Office since 2003 to recognize an official Arbor Day City or Community for Alabama. For information on how to apply to be the Official Arbor Day City for Alabama in 2015, please visit www.aufa.com, or call David West, AUFA Arbor Day Coordinator, at 256-237-1621.

Carole Zarichnak and grandson, Michael Jr., planting memorial Allegheny chinkapin

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Elena Tetrault, a fifth grade student at Hampton Cove Ele-mentary, Huntsville, won the state’s 2014 Arbor Day State Poster Contest. She was presented with $50 and a one-year AUFA membership for her winning poster, designed around the contest theme “Trees Are Terrific...and Energy Wise”. Some 1,404 students in 26 schools across the State participated in the contest.

Alabama First Lady Dianne Bentley hosted a tree planting ceremony with Elena and contest runners up on the Capitol grounds in Montgomery, Alabama, on Wednesday, Febru-ary 19th. Elena spoke on “What the Arbor Day Poster Con-test Means to Me,” and she will receive an Arbor Week Proclamation signed by Governor Bentley.

The Alabama competition is sponsored by the Alabama Ur-ban Forestry Association, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Alabama Power Company, Legacy, Inc., Alabama Forestry Association, Auburn University School of Forestry & Wildlife Sciences, Asplundh, Davey Tree Co., and Governor Bentley’s office.

Two runners-up were also recognized in the Alabama contest. They are 2nd Place winner Mary Mac Powell, Gulf Shores Elementary and 3rd Place winner Courtney Horn, from Columbia Elementary in Madison. In addition to their cash awards, each student and teacher received other prizes provided by contest sponsors. Educa-tional materials were included.

The Alabama Arbor Day Poster Contest originated in 1997. More information about the Alabama Arbor Day Poster Contest is available by contacting David West at (256) 237-1621 or on the web at www.aces.edu/Calhoun/arborday.

ARBOR DAY POSTER CONTEST 2014 Dr. David West, Alabama Cooperative Extension System AUFA Council District 2

2nd Place

3rd Place

1st Place

Poster Contest winners and Alabama’s First Lady

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CELEBRATING ARBOR DAY ACROSS ALABAMA

2014 Tuscaloosa Arbor Day Tree Giveaway

The Calhoun County Beautification Board, along with the Jack-sonville Tree Commission, sponsored a tree giveaway in Jack-sonville during Arbor Week 2014. Free seedlings (left) were given out to hundreds of residents, with larger trees given out

every 1/2 hour via drawing.

2014 Calhoun County Arbor Day Tree Giveaway

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Laurel Wilt: Invasive Pests Moving into Alabama Beau Brodbeck, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, AUFA Council District 4

The redbay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) is a newly imported pest that is impacting trees in the Lauraceae family in the Southeastern United States. This beetle has the potential to decimate trees such as redbay (P. borbonia), swampbay (P. palustris), sassafras (Sassafras albidum) and in Florida Avocado (P. Americana). The redbay ambrosia beetles and the fungus it introduces could have a devastating ef-fect on Lauraceae species reminiscent to the American Chestnut blight of the early twentieth century. .

The ambrosia beetle has caused extensive tree mortality along the Atlantic coast of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina and most recently in Jackson County Mississippi and Mobile, Greene and Marengo Coun-ties in Alabama (Diagram 1). While the greatest economic impacts of this pest are to the avocado crops in Florida in Alabama, however, there are likely to be ecological impacts.

While trees in the Lauraceae family are not prominent urban trees, they do comprise a significant part of Alabama’s forest ecosystem. Redbay and other trees in the Lauraceae family are of ecological importance to deer, quail, turkey, songbirds and bears that feed on their fruit. Additionally, there are various insects that depend on redbay to complete their live cycle, such as the swallowtail butterfly (Papilio palamedes).

Economically the impact is relatively small in Alabama. Trees in the Lauraceae family have been typically used in forest products industry to in cabinets, boat manufacturing, packing materials and veneers. However, the economic impacts to urban areas may be more pronounces. The loss of these trees and their associated benefits in urban waters ways, parks or natural green spaces could add up when combined with the costs to remove, dispose and replace lost trees.

Beetle Identification: The redbay Ambrosia Beetle was likely introduced in wooden packing material arriving from Southeast Asia. The native range of the Redbay Ambrosia Beetle is India, Japan, Myanmar, and Taiwan. Adult beetles are roughly 2 millimeters long with a cylindrical shape and a brown black color (see picture 1). Identifying these beeltes and the larva are difficult and a specialist should be consulted. In most cases it is easier to identify symptoms and damage associated with the pest rather than the insect.

Symptoms and Damage Identification: Trees are seldom killed by the feeding of Redbay ambrosia beetles. Rather the laurel wilt, associated with the beetle, is a fungus (Raffaelea lauricola) that is introduced and ultimately kills the tree in a matter of weeks or months. This fungus colonizes the tree’s water conducting vascular system and spreads quickly within the tree.

These vessels, which transport sugars and water, are essential to maintain growth within trees. Once clogged by Raffaelea the leaves will begin to wilt and eventually turn a reddish or purplish color (see picture 5). This wilting and discoloration may initially be limited to a few branch-es but will eventually spread to the entire tree. Over time all the leaves will turn brown and can stay at-tached to the tree for up to one year. When bark is removed on wilted trees it is common to see a bluish to dark black discoloration in the outer sapwood that runs with the grain of the wood (see picture 2).

Another identifier of the redbay ambrosia beetles are the toothpick-like structures composed of sawdust emerging from the trunk of the tree. These struc-tures are sawdust or beetle frass that is being pushed from the feeding holes (see pictures 3 & 4). If a tree is found with both the toothpick-like structures and/or the blue stain on the wood, it is very likely the tree has been infested and should be removed immediate-ly to prevent spread.

Picture 2

Picture 1

Picture3

Picture 4 Picture 5

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Spread of the Redbay Ambrosia Beetle: Since the identification of laurel wilt in three Georgia and South Carolina Counties in 2004, the disease has spread to at an estimated 60 counties by 2009 (diagram 1). The beetles are known to fly up to a few kilometers and can even travel further with strong wind currents to infest new trees. However, the primary way this beetle is being spread is through the transportation of wood products by humans.

Efforts need to be made to stop moving firewood, mulches, wood packing materials, felled trees or any other lauraceau wood prod-ucts from known infested areas. The transportation of infested wood products is known to be a major contributor to the spread of the redbay ambrosia beetle in the southeast.

Mitigation and Management: The redbay ambrosia beetle and the associated fungus of laurel wilt are well established in a 60,000 square mile area of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi. Eradicating the insect is not feasible in the southeast. The reality is that there are likely to be high rates of host tree mortality throughout the southeast as this insect continues to spread. The easiest way to prevent the spread and contain this potentially devastating pest is by restricting the transport of infested wood products.

While chemical control in the natural forest is not feasible for environmental and economic reasons, for individual urban trees there are some preventative measures. Research by the Bartlett Tree Labs in North Carolina has shown some success in preventing healthy trees from being infected. The macro-infusion or injection of redbay trees with the fungicide propiconazole has shown to pre-vent the trees from being infested for up to one year. However, reapplying the treatment is necessary for consecutive years. This treatment is costly and will often require using a Certified Arborist as it is relatively specialized and labor intensive.

Arborists and tree workers should take care to destroy infested trees by burning woody material. Disposing of this material on site is preferable to contain the spread. Chipping of infested trees is not likely to be effective in killing all beetles due to their small size. This would result in beetles spreading laurel wilt to susceptible trees around green-waist disposal yards.

It is important to note that while laurel wilt has only been identified in Mobile, Greene and Marengo Counties, the public should report any of the above symptoms in redbay trees to the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. The hope is that his pest does not reach further into Alabama. This article is not intended for homeowners and arborists to begin preventa-tive chemical control treatments, but rather be-come familiar with identifying redbay, swamp redbay and sassafras trees and keep a keen eye for any of the above symptoms and damage. For additional information contact Beau Brodbeck at the Baldwin County Extension Office in Bay Mi-nette, Alabama, by email at brod-bam@auburn.edu or by phone at 251-937-7176.

References: http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/00000000/opmp/ForestLaurelWilt100107.pdf http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs379 http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/ento/x.glabratus.html http://cisr.ucr.edu/redbay_ambrosia_beetle_laurel_wilt.html

Invading pests pose a major threat to Alabama’s natural ecosystems. Whether they are plants, animals or insects the damage they cause can have significant impacts to the native flora and fauna. The challenges associated with invading insects are the lack of natural predators to control their populations. Additionally, their hosts or trees they impact have few natural defenses due to the pest not being a natural component of the ecosystem. This combination can result in large pest populations causing significant mortality of host species.

In the Northeast and Midwest the introduction of the Emerald Ash borer and Asian Longhorn Beetle, both invasive pests, have cause the mortality of thousand of ash and maple trees. Entire neighborhoods have been decimated when urban forests, primarily com-prised of ash trees, were removed due to infestation of emerald ash borers.

Diagram 1: Distribution of counties with laurel wilt disease, by year of initial detection, 2004-2009. Available online at:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/foresthealth/laurelwilt/index.shtml

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Tree Planting 101 Russell Stringer, City of Montgomery, AUFA President, Council District 3 Planting a tree is not really that hard, but if your tree is not planted correctly you will have a sickly specimen that will suffer along for a few years and then expire, wasting your money and effort and giving your neighbors a laugh at your expense. However, if you plant correctly you will have a beautiful shade tree that may last throughout the lives of your grandchil-dren’s children and beyond!

The Right Tree in the Right Place: You have to do your research when deciding what species of tree you want. Look at the spot you have picked out. Are there power lines overhead? If yes, pick a different spot. Does your water line or gas line run underneath your spot? Call the utilities and find out. If yes, pick a different spot.

Then, research the tree you want. Mature height and spread is what you are going to be interested in. Trust me, this is WAY more important than whether or not the tree flowers and what color it turns in the fall. You have to make sure that the tree will still fit your space when it grows up. If it doesn’t, find a smaller tree that will.

First Things First: It all starts with a healthy, happy tree from a reputable grower. Big box stores are NOT reputable growers. Go to a nurse-ry that primarily makes its money growing and selling trees. Those nurseries make sure to have quality material on hand to sell to you the customer. The junk they can’t sell to you (the discerning customer) they sell to the big box stores. BE A DISCERINGING CUSTOMER. (On the flip side, don’t go to a reputable nursery and buy toilet paper. That stuff is much cheaper at a big box store!)

Make sure the tree you are getting has one main stem with smaller, lateral branches regularly arranged along that stem (unless you are buying a crape myrtle, that’s a different animal). Check your tree for broken limbs or a scratched/damaged main stem. You are spending hard earned money on this tree, make sure you are getting a good one. Once you have the perfect specimen, it’s time to get it planted.

Dig A Whole Hole: This is the hardest part of the process if you don’t have an auger (and most of us don’t). Usually your equipment will be a shovel, which means hard labor digging a hole for your tree. Because of the labor involved, most people dig just enough of a hole to wedge their tree in the ground. This ranks really high on the “not good” scale. Ideally, you should dig a hole that is 2 to 3 times the diameter of your tree’s root ball. Once backfilled, this will give your new tree some nice loose soil to grow roots into, making for quicker establishment.

Plant Your Tree: Remove the tree from its container and cut away any girdling roots. These are roots growing around the outside edge of the root ball. If they are not removed, they will continue growing in a circle eventually choking and killing your tree. Cut ALL girdling roots. Make sure to remove any ties or string on the main trunk and branches. Place the tree in the hole, making sure the top of the root ball is a couple of inches above the surrounding soil grade.

Backfill around the root ball, working the soil in with your shovel blade slowly as you go. This will remove most air pockets. Don’t try to pack the soil; simply working it in with your shovel will settle it plenty. Do not cover the top of the root ball with soil. Once you have it settled and straight in its new home, bring the garden hose over and water it in. Go ahead and give it a good soaking, this will remove any remaining air pockets. Add a 2 inch layer of mulch (but NOT on top of the root ball) and you are done. Whew!

Maintenance: For its first year, your tree will need to be watered once a week. One soaking per week is all that is needed, so long as you water it deep. After that first year it should be well established. If you have drought conditions in the second year, you will want to keep watering it, but otherwise that first year should be enough. As the tree grows, it will need pruning. Prune it using proper pruning techniques (we will cover that another time). Do all this correctly, and in a few short years you should have a happy, healthy, trouble free shade tree that will last through several generations.

And that, friends, is how to correctly plant a tree. Put it in the right place and enjoy it for a lifetime!

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2014 ALABAMA FARM OF DISTINCTION via www.alfafarmers.org

A Talladega County landscape tree nursery was named Alabama’s 2014 Farm of Distinction April 3 at the Alabama Farm-City Awards in Birmingham. Hunter Trees LLC was chosen from four finalists. As this year’s winner, brothers Phillip and Will Hunter received $10,000 in prizes. Phillip will rep-resent the family farm and Alabama in the Swisher Sweets / Sunbelt Expo Southeastern Farmer of the Year contest at the Sunbelt Ag Expo Oct. 14-16 in Moultrie, Ga. Located near the town of Alpine, Hunter Trees is known throughout the country as a trusted source for high-quality landscape trees. “Quality is very important to us,” Phillip said. “Our business, our nursery, is specified a lot by land-scape contractors or landscape architects, so they are getting the kind of trees on their jobs that they know are going to look good and make them look good. It’s all part of making us all successful.” Ten years ago, however, the business was just a dream for the Hunter brothers. A graduate of Mississippi State Universi-ty, Phillip was working as a landscape contractor in Birmingham, and Will would soon graduate from Auburn University with a degree in ornamental horticulture. Together with their father, Bill, they set out to build one of the South’s leading nurseries. Today, Hunter Trees covers 300 acres of a former sod and row crop farm. It includes 225 acres of production with 125 varieties of trees. On any given day, there are about 65,000 trees growing at the nursery, including some that are so big only two will fit on a semi-trailer. Phillip says maintaining a clean nursery and good conservation practices are important to the farm's success. “God gave us this land to work with, and we try to be good stewards of it,” he said. “We’ve done the majority of the work ourselves, and we take pride in that.” Like most farmers, Phillip and wife Robin say the things they like most about agriculture are being around family and na-ture. “I love to see things grow,” he said. “We love to be able to start with a small tree and see it grow to a big tree. It’s a great place to work with my family.” Phillip is chairman of the Alabama Farmers Federation Greenhouse, Nursery and Sod Committee and serves on the Ala-bama Agriculture and Industries Board. As this year’s Farm of Distinction winner, the Hunters received a John Deere Gator from SunSouth, TriGreen and Snead Ag dealers; a $1,000 gift certificate from Alabama Farmers Cooperative (AFC); $2,500 from Swisher International and an engraved farm sign from Alfa Insurance. AFC also provided $250 gift certificates to the other finalists, which were Kyser Family Farms in Hale County, F&W Farms in Madison County and Aplin Farms in Geneva County.

Hunter Trees LLC in Talladega County is the 2014 Alabama Farm of Distinction. Seated from left, are Leslee and Will Hunter and Phillip and Robin Hunter. Stand-ing, from left are program sponsors Lynne Morton of TriGreen, Chris Cline and

Kevin Robinson of Snead Ag, Jimmy Parnell of Alabama Farmers Federation, Jim Allen of Alabama Farmers Cooperative and Lester Killebrew of SunSouth

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EXECUTIVE COUNCIL Russell Stringer, President-District 3

Chris Francis, Vice President, District 4

David West, Secretary-District 2

Birgit Kibelka, Treasurer-District 2

Colin Conner, Past President-District 2

DISTRICT 1

Charlie McGuffey

Rhett Murphy

Denise Taylor

DISTRICT 2 Adam Elliott

Kent Moore

Jim Paramore

Shon Walters

DISTRICT 3 Michele Cole

James Jennings

Todd Moseley

Jack Rowe

DISTRICT 4

Billy Allen

Beau Brodbeck

Blake Winston Jarrett

Gary Ickes

Jackie L. Kennedy

Alabama Urban Forestry Association 2014 Executive Council & Council Roster

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Toomer’s Corner Update (Taken from the Auburn University web page) Most, if not all Alabamians are aware of the poisoning and loss of the Toomer’s Oaks located at a corner of the Auburn University campus in downtown Auburn. Phase I of the redevelopment and enhancement of Samford Park at Toomer’s Corner has begun in an effort to restore the beauty and tradition long exhibited at this site. The eagles which have sat atop the brick entrance gates under the trees have been temporarily removed and are in storage on campus and will be returned to the corner upon completion of the project. The project will begin with the installation of fencing around the perimeter of the worksite and the closure of a number of sidewalks in Samford Park as well as the crosswalks at the corner of West Magnolia Avenue and South College Street Phase I will include soil replacement and the installation of brick pavers and a circular seating wall. This work is expected to be completed prior to the start of the fall 2014 semester. Phase I will also include the planting of new trees in early 2015. Phase II of the project will create a tree-lined walkway from the corner into Samford Lawn. Phase I will cost an estimated $900,000. The brick gates erected in 1917 will remain at the corner. Growth rings from the base of the live oaks revealed the tree’s age to be 83-85 years old at the time of their removal in April of 2013. Two Auburn University professors independently counted 81 growth rings in two directions from the center of the tree’s trunk. “The center one-inch section of the trunk was split and not clearly delineated, “said Professor of Horti-culture Gary Keever. “The growth most likely occurred over two to four years, making the trees 83-85 years old.” Images of the trees from 1938 and 1939 show two trees that were 8 to 12 feet tall, an expected range in height for field-grown trees that were 8-10 years old. Prior to the poisoning of the trees, seedlings were grown from acorns collected at the base of the trees and sold to the public. In 2011, one of these trees was planted on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the idea of U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla. Although the oaks have become famous for their sports-related celebrations, “It symbolizes the heritage that land grant institutions provide this country,” said Ross, a 1981 Auburn alumni. WAR EAGLE!

Roots were removed April 9th - from the AU Facebook page

April 23, 2013 - from the AU Facebook page

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AUFA/GIWP Urban Forestry Certification Update Fred Kapp, AUFA Program Manager

The AUFA continues to partner with Auburn University-Montgomery, the Alabama State Parks, Hoover’s Aldridge Gardens and the Green Indus-try Web Portal to bring the Urban Forestry Certification program to the Ag teachers and industry of Alabama.

AUFA Council District 2 Rep Colin Conner and Program Manager, Fred Kapp, are leading the effort but the work would not be possible without the help of our excellent AUFA teaching pool including industry practi-tioners and educators.

The recent class in March was taught by Dr. Jim Jacobi and Jack Rowe of ACES, Jon Ingle of Ingle Tree, Jim Paramore of American Tree, Adam Elliot of ACE Tree, Fred and Colin.

The training continues to evolve and is becoming more practical and pol-ished. We hope to improve our study support by adding more videos and better study guides to the portal as our new grant moves forward in the fall.

Some of the many great outcomes of the program to date include gaining lots of new friends in the 400 Ag teachers and FFA leadership in Alabama and educating landscape, government and industry employees in proper tree care. We wel-come your support, input and help when our next program is offered (currently scheduled for July 23-25). Please note that if you have employees you wish to attend that the class is already half full.

ACES Regional Agent Jack Rowe teaching soils portion of the Urban Forestry Certification

at Aldridge Gardens

Winter Woes to Spring Surge Charlie McGuffey, CM Lawn Co., AUFA Council District I

It's that time of year again in Alabama, the temperature is rising and the days are getting longer. The bees are out in full force and untreated lawns covered in henbit. We are beginning to see many trees showcase flowers and foliage. I'm not sure that will be the case for all plants and trees this spring.

As we know it has been a long and cold winter for most all of Alabama. We saw snowfall from northern Alabama all the way down to the coastline. Temperatures dropped to the single digits for many days and a deep freeze was in full effect. With the freezing rainfall and large amounts of snow, it presented a load on leaves, branches and entire trees like a large oak shipment on a Peterbilt. So how does this affect our trees and plants?

From what I have observed in northern Alabama over the past month, most plants and trees have been very resilient and seem to have awakened without much trouble. The areas that saw significant snowfall and freezing rain had more prob-lems than just road conditions. We saw tree conditions and not all appreciated the extra baggage. Some couldn't stand anymore while others lost branches or whole tops from the weight. While most of the debris has since been cleaned up, I'm still seeing broken branches hanging in the midst of other limbs in tree canopies. With safety being everyone's top priority on and off the job, I encourage everyone to look up. Are the trees on your properties even safe to walk under? The air temperature was extremely cold and the soil temperature followed suit. We will have to monitor our landscape to fully know the effects this winter had, even more on shallow rooted plants. If you believe one of your plants or trees, espe-cially new plantings, is not looking healthy this spring or summer a soil test and proper watering can go a long way. We see more new plantings struggle or die due to over irrigating than the lack thereof. I can't breathe underwater either, makes sense.

The winter has come and gone but while it was so painfully cold for months it is sure to leave a reminder for many plants and trees. We will talk more about this in another article focusing on cold weather triggers and fruit production.

I want to thank everyone involved in the AUFA, the AGITC and the GIWP for teaching and organizing great events/classes and videos to help educate folks. I look forward to the year ahead with the AUFA and working with all of you.

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Alabama Urban Forestry Associa on PO Box 382225 Birmingham, AL 35238‐2225  

Non-Profit Organization US Postage PAID

Permit #100 Anniston, AL 36201

Upcoming Educational Opportunities: Chainsaw Safety Workshops

May 12th & 13th, 8am-3pm, Blackbelt Extension & Research Station, Marion Junction. To reg-ister, contact the Dallas County Extension Office, Phone: (334) 875-3200. May 14th & 15th, 8am-3pm, Thomasville Civic Center / Sports Pavilion, Thomasville, AL. To register, contact the Clarke County Extension Office, Phone: (251) 275-3121. May 16th, 8:30am-4pm, Gulf Coast Research & Extension Center, Fairhope, Alabama. For in-fo, contact ACES Agent Beau Brodbeck @ brodbam@aces.edu or use web link: https://mell-base.uce.auburn.edu/wconnect/CourseStatus.awp?&course=C140516.

GIW Portal ROW and OTPS IPM - May 29th, 9am-3pm, Victory Used Commercial Trucks in Cal-era. Tuition - $35.00. Contact Fred Kapp at 205-862-2588 or fkapp@bellsouth.net to register. Awards 10 recertification points for either license.

GIW Web Portal/AUFA Urban Forestry Certification Program, July 23rd-25th, location TBA. Contact Fred Kapp @ 205-862-2588 or fkapp@bellsouth.net to register.

AUFA Annual Conference, October 8th-10th, in beautiful Orange Beach, Alabama! Great educa-tional program, networking, pesticide license, ISA and RF recertification points. Details coming soon! Mark those calendars!!!