Deadlines and Dates for Upcoming Events, Awards, and Grants
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WEBINAR
"An Overview of the Tree City USA Application Portal"
Sept 2, 11:00 am -Noon.
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Deadline for portal submissions of Tree City USA, Tree Line USA, and Tree Campus USA re/certification applications: December 15, 2020
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These fall events have gone VIRTUAL! Head to their respective websites to learn more.
PNW-ISA Chapter - Annual Training Conference
Partners in Community Forestry Conference
November 17-20, 2020
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Ongoing CEU Opportunities
PNW-ISA classes on tree care. For upcoming classes go HERE.
Urban Forest Connections Webinar Series. USDA Forest Service Research (2nd Wednesdays of the month) - Info, registration, and class descriptions HERE. You can view past webinars too.
Tree Fund Webinars
Perhaps the least well known of urban forestry webinars, these presentations are excellent! They have just added several upcoming CEU-offering webinars to the list! Info, registration, archive, and class descriptions HERE
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For Further Reading and Viewing
Climate Change
Urban Wood
Trees and Human Health
Equity, Inclusion and Diversity
Other
eLearn Urban Forestry is a self-led, online, distance learning program geared specifically toward beginning urban foresters and those allied professionals working in and around urban and urbanizing landscapes, including service foresters, natural resource planners, landscape architects, city officials and public works employees.
Enjoy the newsletter of our "sister UCF program" at the Washington DNR. It is always packed with news and helpful information. We won't be jealous if you subscribe! Tree Link: August 2020.
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Green Infrastructure along street - UCF library
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Other links of interest
Is green infrastructure a Universal Good? (University of California) A StoryMap, which includes the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.
If your city has instituted Green Infrastructure planning, projects, policies, or regulations, please let us know. To help them promote the benefits of urban forestry, the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) is interested in knowing about cities using green infrastructure/Low Impact Development.
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Kristin Ramstad
Urban & Community Forestry Program Manager
503-945-7390
Katie Lompa
Community Assistance Forester
541- 480-3790
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Community Tree Connections (CTC) is a periodic publication by the Oregon Department of Forestry, Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program. Our mission is to help Oregonians improve their quality of life by promoting community investment in our urban forests. Subscriptions to
Community Tree Connections are free and available by subscribing HERE. CTC is published in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service. The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
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| | Triplet cottages among the trees Salem 2020 - UCF Library |
Dear Tree Friends,
Summer 2020 is drawing to a close. Since the pandemic hit, I have been walking daily with my small dog. One day I came across three identical cottages near Bush Park, clearly the restored remnants of times past, shaded by trees. In previous decades, Salem was called "the city of bungalows;" these modest mid-20th century homes built for state workers are still tucked into older neighborhoods near the city center.
The pandemic has changed the world for everyone. Personally, it has slowed me down, allowed me to "travel" to places previously unknown, and discover things with new appreciation, usually with my four-legged companion leading the way. -KR
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After the initial weeks of lock-down, our program revved back up to its previous state of busy-ness. Katie took on producing a series of educational webinars, and Kristin has been promoting the statewide tree plotter inventory project, Per state agency pandemic response guidance, we have not been in the field as much as we would like, but we have found we can do a lot our work via phone, Zoom, and email.
This newsletter has taken a while to take shape due to our adjusting to the "new normal." Below, you will find some explanations for the tree symptoms you may be noticing in your town, project updates, a message from OCT President, Samantha Wolf, and much more. As always, there is a "Click of Trees" to reward your time and effort for reading to the end. For those of you needing CEUs, note that there are lots of webinars available that offer these, check out the links at the left. As always, this newsletter reflects the combined support and effort of several people. Many thanks especially to Samantha Wolf, Katie Lompa, and Jim Gersbach this time 'round.
Take care of yourselves and each other, and if you see a tree needing water -- please give it a drink.
Kristin Ramstad & Katie Lompa
Oregon Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program (ODF-UCF)
P.S. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you, and you would like to subscribe, please visit the U&CF Program Webpage
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Dead Port Orford-cedar Summer 2020- UCF library
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What You May Be Noticing in Your Community Forest Now
For all its charms, Summer also exposes dead and dying trees.
Suddenly dead? Port Orford-cedars
(Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) can be dying for months or years without showing outward signs, then "suddenly" turn orange in the spring, dead from top to bottom, victims of
Phytopthora root disease. Phytopthora lateralis is an oomycete that, facilitated by rain or irrigation splash, moves easily from contaminated soil, mulch, tools, and even muddy footwear, into soil where the tree is growing. Spores can also land on the foliage of the tree or surrounding plants and be washed into the root zone. It invades the tree's fine roots and quickly colonizes the entire root system. Eventually the infection will migrate up the trunk, and ends up girdling and killing the tree. Once infected, the tree cannot be saved. [LINK for more information]. Luckily, in recent years research and commerce have combined to be able to offer cultivated varieties of this tree on a disease-resistant root stock, such as these offered by Monrovia.
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Dead birches Summer 2020 - UCF library
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How do your birches look? Throughout much of Oregon, you may be noticing the foliage on landscape birches turning yellow/brown and thinning. The symptoms can occur in patches, with one part of the tree crown looking green, and other parts
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| | Bronze birch borer exit holes Summer 2020 -- UCF Library |
thinning or leafless. This is due to the tunnelling and feeding of the bronze birch borer larvae, slowly girdling the tree, reducing the photosynthate that reaches the roots, and eventually leading to root starvation. 3/8"-1/2" adult, bronze beetles emerge from D-shaped holes in the spring. These beetles tend to prefer the non-native white-barked birches such as Jacquemonti and European white weeping birches, especially if they are drought stressed. Betula nigra and its cultivars seem to have low susceptibility to this pest. Although often planted in harsh dry sites, birch are usually "happiest" where their roots can be in cool moist soil and their crowns in full sun. Even in irrigated landscapes, birches do not do well in most central and eastern Oregon situations.
Pitchy Pines. When conifers exude a lot of pitch, it is often because they are trying to expel a pest. In much of Oregon, one pest non-native landscape pines are often trying to "pitch out" is sequoia
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| | | Pine pitch response to sequoia pitch moth - UCF library | |
pitch moth, or SPM (Synanthedon sequoiae). SPM moths look like large yellow-jackets, fly during the day, and are rarely noticed. SPM rarely kills pines, it just makes them really really sticky. SPM can be managed using cultural controls, not pesticides, such as proper irrigation, removing resin masses and larvae, and pruning properly at the proper time, i.e., not between February and September. Find a fact sheet on sequoia pitch moth here.
Oregon White Oaks - Flagging? Overwatered? You may be noticing some Oregon white oaks showing dead "tufts" of leaves on the outside of their canopy.
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| | Flagging in young Oregon white oak - Bassetia. -UCF library |
This is caused by a cynipid gall-wasp, Bassetia ligni, that lays eggs under the bark of oak twigs and squirrels that debark the twigs looking to feast on the wasp larvae. With established trees, this flagging, even if severe, should not affect the long-term health of healthy oak trees. Note that these are not the wasps that cause the brown speckled "ping-pong ball-" size galls on oak leaves, which are due to the speckled gall wasp (Besbicus mirabilis).
More importantly, for oak health, old Oregon white oaks do not appreciate summer water. Below, the OWO on the left is (dying) in a previously-irrigated residential yard and, as it has become more stressed, it has also become festooned with parasitic mistletoe. The oak on the right is growing happily in a totally dry, never irrigated semi-truck trailer parking bay in industrial Salem.
Are you noticing trees in decline or with interesting signs and symptoms? Send us a photo, and we will try to trouble-shoot with you!
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| | Healthy Oregon white oak - UCF library
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| | | Unhealthy Oregon white oak - UCF library | |
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| | Tree Inventories are for more than just trees, they keep track of planting locations too. -UCF library. |
It's Not Too Late to Get Involved with Tree Plotter Inventory!
Oregon cities can now receive free from ODF-UCF Tree Plotter Inventory (TPI) software by PlanIT Geo.
Our colleague, working out of the ODF Western Lane District office, Alex Rahmlow, is helping us with TPI outreach. Although Alex works as a Fire Planning Coordinator, he has a strong urban forestry and tree inventory background from before his ODF days - so we are grateful for his help! We encourage you to sign up soon for TPI to take advantage of our extra assistance capacity!
Where do you go from here?
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Start by reading the FAQ document (PDF) located near the top of the ODF-UCF webpage. There you can also view webinars about the software. - Want to know more? There are additional instructional videos on the PlanIT Geo website, such as this one: Getting to Know Tree Plotter Inventory
- Contact Kristin if you would like to tinker/play with the software's demo site or if you have questions.
- Join us for an informal "TPI Tuesday discussion" on Zoom every 3rd Tuesday or the month, where we talk about how folks are doing with the software, and provide updates and tips that may be helpful to users. Non-users are welcome to join us. Please register HERE.
- Before you begin your own city's inventory, we will ask you to complete a "City Information sheet" for our records.
With a tree inventory of your city, ODF-UCF staff can help you make the case for funding a community tree program in your town.
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Attention Tree City USAs
 Lauren Weyers, Program Coordinator at the Arbor Day Foundation will provide An Overview of the Tree City USA Application Portal for 2020 on Wednesday, September 2, 2020@ 11-Noon (PDT). To register, click on Tree City USA Application Portal.
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Photo - Constant Contact Creative Commons
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This free webinar is for both new applicants and existing Tree City USAs that want to know how to submit their 2020 application online using the Tree City USA Application Portal. Lauren will take us on a tour of the application portal and discuss any updates that have occurred since last year's application season. Plan on attending if your city will be applying for 2020 Tree City USA recognition and you will be involved with the application process.
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A Message from
Oregon Community Trees President,
Samantha Wolf
Hello Urban and Community Forestry Community,
I had a supervisor tell me that, "to protect and conserve trees, you have to think of the people first." For Oregon
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| | OCT President, Samantha Wolf |
Community Trees (OCT), this idea is embodied in our name and spirit. OCT is an organization that strives to think creatively when faced with challenges. We sometimes have to make hard decisions and postpone plans to best serve the residents and communities of Oregon, not just the trees.
Like everywhere else, the goals and plans OCT anticipated for the spring and summer of 2020 have been canceled/rescheduled until conditions are safer for people to come together again. Across Oregon, Tree Cities and their Arbor Day celebrations, tree plantings and park improvements, and Arbor Day grant projects have been postponed or implemented by socially distanced city staff and/or limited participants. All the 2020 Urban & Community Forestry Award and Oregon Tree City of the Year recipients put off their official presentations due to health concerns. Pruning and planting workshops planned by OCT's Education committee were postponed as well. The 2020 Urban & Community Forestry conference, originally planned for June, will hopefully occur in June 2021, presuming we will be able to ensure the health and safety of our attendees, speakers, sponsors, and vendors.
The Hiroshima Peace Tree Project supported by OCT and ODF's UCF program is still underway. In some places, in the early weeks of the pandemic, small dedication ceremonies took place in lieu of large public planting events to provide the time and space for communal recognition and peaceful spirit intended by each tree. In other areas, these ceremonies are planned for 2021.
Despite the rapid change the pandemic has imposed, we are heartened to see communities and their "tree professionals" remain dedicated to their work. Public Works and Urban Forestry staff across Oregon have been able to plant and maintain their trees despite limitations. Trees waiting to be planted are carefully tended until public events are feasible. Virtual urban forestry webinars have been developed by a variety of institutions and agencies, including ODF's UCF Assistance program and USDA Forest Service, and presented free. These webinars often provide professional credits needed by certified arborists to help maintain their certifications.
These changes are certainly not what anyone had hoped for in 2020. But, the ability to respond and adapt is a strength that our communities share with trees. Much like our forests, people and communities support each other literally and figuratively. Like tree stands, municipal operations provide guidance and structure, along with resources and protection (particularly to those who are most vulnerable). Forests also plant hope for the future with new trees and foster a diverse community that survives during times of stress. I find that humans are very similar to the trees in our communities. Trees have taught me the strength of resiliency and value of dedication. Because there are trees and people who care, I feel a sense of gratitude and optimism. I hope the same goes for you, too.
To learn more about OCT, please visit our website. To express an interest in joining the OCT Board of Directors, please send an email HERE.
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Green Legacy Hiroshima Peace Trees UPDATE
[Excerpted from a press release by Jim Gersbach, ODF Public Information Officer]
Thursday, Aug. 6 marked the 75th anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima, followed in a few weeks by the 75th anniversary of the close of World War II. Just in time for these commemorations, the Oregon Departm
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| | | Ginkgo leaves in the fall - UCF library | |
ent of Forestry has launched a new online map where people can find the location of 45 Oregon peace trees grown from the seed of Hiroshima trees that survived the atom bomb. Eugene, Cottage Grove and Creswell are three of the 30 towns and cities across the state that received the trees and which are pinpointed on the new map.
Also of interest:
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Your "Click of Trees" *
Your "reward" for reading all the way down a lo-o-o-ng newsletter. Here are some links to an interesting tree feature on the web.
*Credit to OPB's online newsletter and "Click of Zen" feature.
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