Got Nature? Blog

A Purdue Extension program that helps Indiana communities improve public spaces such as parks and town centers is surveying West Lafayette residents to get input on the city parks and recreation department’s next five-year master plan.

Specialists and educators in Extension’s Enhancing the Value of Public Spaces program are administering the survey and collecting and analyzing the feedback. The objective is to create a five-year plan for improving facilities, services and programs.

Citizens can access the survey online. Those who do not have access to a computer but would like to participate can receive a copy of the survey at the Morton Community Center, the Riverside Skating Center, the Lilly Nature Center and the West Lafayette Parks & Recreation Service Center on Kalberer Road. Deadline to complete the survey is March 15.

“The Enhancing program is strongly rooted in the community development principles of good practice,” said Kara Salazar, sustainable communities Extension specialist. “As such, we concentrate on participation, inclusion, capacity building and balancing action planning with long-term sustainability.”

To read more, check out Purdue Agriculture News‘ full article titled “Purdue Extension program’s objective: enhance public spaces.” Further questions about the survey can be directed to Kara Salazar at 765.496.1070 or salazark@purdue.edu.

Resources:
Purdue Extension program’s objective: enhance public spaces – Purdue Agriculture News
Enhancing the Value of Public Places Home Page – Purdue Extension
Enhancing the Value of Public Places Action Plan – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center

Kara Salazar, Sustainable Communities Extension Specialist
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Photo by Brian MacGowan

As the weather begins to warm up later this year, the sight of Canada geese returning is pleasant to some as a reminder of spring approaching. It can also be downright irritating to others who experience property damage and other conflicts as the geese concentrate on their property. There are several strategies for dealing with geese listed in further detail at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) website, ranging from mild to severe.

The first thing that is important to know regarding geese is that it is simply not a good idea to feed them. While this act is positive in intention, it is a bad thing for both people and geese. Feeding geese gives them an artificially abundant source of food, which can cause them to delay or skip their migration and instead congregate in areas where they will conflict with people. Furthermore, being fed can cause geese to lose their fear of people, giving them the confidence to stroll across roadways and runways. Finally, large amounts of geese competing over bread and other food of limited nutritional value greatly increases their chances of developing and spreading avian diseases. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service‘s free publication “Caution: Feeding Waterfowl May Be Harmful!” further explains the need to stop feeding geese.

INDNR offers a significant amount of other advice on other methods of handling goose problems. Habitat modification such as adding vegetative barriers or suspended grid systems can be a good long term solution by making your land less attractive to geese. If geese have already begun to settle in, nonlethal harassment techniques like air horns and sprayers can be used twice a day to scare geese away from your property. Nests can be legally removed as long as there are no eggs present. If the situation calls for more severe actions, a permit can be acquired to destroy nests with eggs, or another permit can be issued by a District Wildlife Biologist to capture and relocate the animals. In cases of excessive property damage, a District Wildlife Biologist can also issue an agricultural depredation permit to shoot geese outside of the normal hunting season.

There are many methods of handling nuisance Canada geese this spring, and not one solution for every problem. If there is a goose problem in your area, please view INDNR’s Nuisance Canada Goose Management page to learn more about what you can do and how to acquire permits if needed.

Resources:
Nuisance Canada Goose Management – Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)
Caution: Feeding Waterfowl May Be Harmful! – U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Selecting a Nuisance Wildlife Control Professional, Got Nature? blog, Purdue Extension-Forestry & Natural Resources

Aaron Doenges, videographer & assistant web designer
Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources

​Urban Forestry Specialist Lindsey Purcell‘s helpful publication “Tree Pruning Essentials” is now available in a Spanish-language version, “Lo Esencial Para la Poda de Árboles.” This publication explores the techniques behind good pruning, from the planning process before planting to monitoring the tree’s response after the pruning cuts.

Trees continue to survive in spite of the many challenges they face in the urban environment. However, to grow from seedling to a mature tree in the urban forest, they need our help. They are the largest, oldest living organisms on the planet and can live long, healthy lives with some assistance. We often place trees in less-than-favorable growing locations that don’t allow natural development and maturity and often require pruning to develop a durable structure, improve clearance and maintain aesthetics.

Pruning has been called “one of the best, worst maintenance practices” performed on trees. The process creates wounds, which have a major impact on plant processes. Improper cutting on a tree causes severe damage or even death. To prune properly, it is important to understand both the proper techniques and how the tree responds to pruning.

Check out “Lo Esencial Para la Poda de Árboles” or “Tree Pruning Essentials” and make sure you are pruning your trees to maximize safety, aesthetics, and tree health!

Resources:
Lo Esencial Para la Poda de Árboles (Tree Pruning Essentials)– The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Instalación de Árboles: Proceso y practicas (Tree Installation) – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Tree Pruning Essentials – The Education Store
Trees and Storms: Understanding Damage, Risk and Recovery – Got Nature? Blog, Purdue Extension – FNR
Tree Risk Management – Got Nature? Blog, Purdue Extension – FNR
Prune Your Trees​ – Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Lindsey Purcell, Urban Forestry Specialist
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Question: I am noticing pine trees dying in my neighbors’ yards and along the streets in Carmel and NE Indianapolis. The needles turn rust colored and fall within a couple weeks – leaving a bare tree. Some of these trees are mature but most are young. Should I be concerned? What should I do to protect my pine trees? What should I be looking for if it is a pest?

Answer: Many Indiana trees are dying from stress caused by the extreme weather we have had in the last few years. Urban Forestry Specialist Lindsey Purcell and Extension Consumer Horticulture Specialist Rosie Lerner discuss this in more detail in the Purdue Agriculture News article “Purdue experts: Tree deaths across Indiana may be related to weather stress.” There are also other potential causes of foliar discoloration and branch dieback in pine trees that are explained in the publication “Stress-related Conifer Dieback“.

If you’d like to investigate the issue further, a certified arborist​ can conduct a ground evaluation or you can examine the trees on your own using the Purdue Tree Doctor app.

Resources:
Purdue experts: Tree deaths across Indiana may be related to weather stress – Purdue Agriculture News
Stress-related Conifer Dieback – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Purdue Plant Doctor App – Purdue Botany and Plant Pathology and Extension Entomology
Needle cast in Colorado Blue Spruce, Purdue Landscape Report
Blue Spruce Update, Purdue Landscape Report
Why Spruce Trees Lose Their Needles, Purdue Extension
Blue Spruce Decline, Purdue Extension
Diseases Common in Blue Spruce, Purdue Extension
Tree Installation: Process and Practices, The Education Store, Purdue Extension resource center
Tree Planting and Urban Forestry Videos, Subscribe to our Purdue Extension-FNR YouTube Channel
Find an Arborist, International Society of Arboriculture

Lenny Farlee, Sustaining Hardwood Extension Specialist
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

Electrical utility lines serve nearly every neighborhood, adding efficiency and luxury to every day of our lives.

Likewise, trees enhance our neighborhoods and bring beauty to our surroundings. Trees improve our air and water quality. They shade our homes, screen undesirable views, and help reduce noise along with many other ecosystem services.

We want both.

Purdue FNR Urban Forestry Specialist Lindsey Purcell addresses the conflicts that sometimes arise when trees and electrical lines must share space and ways to avoid them in his latest publication “Trees and Electric Lines“. Check out the publication to learn more about how to avoid boundary issues, safety concerns, power outages, and more while dealing with trees and electric lines.

Resources:
Trees and Electric Lines – The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center
Tree Risk Management – Got Nature? Blog, Purdue Extension – FNR
Trees and Storms: Understanding Damage, Risk and Recovery – Got Nature? Blog, Purdue Extension – FNR
Urban Forestry and Arboriculture – Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources
Power Friendly Trees – Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Lindsey Purcell, Urban Forestry Specialist
Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources

​This year’s Indiana Tree Climbing Competition has come to a close, with Purdue’s Casey Johnson finishing first place in the preliminary events and Jon Montgomery winning the Masters Challenge and going on to the international competition in San Antonio next spring.

Purdue’s public radio station highlighted the event in an article titled “A Different Kind of Athlete: Competitive Tree Climbers Compete In Indiana Championship“. From the article:

“What it does is mimics what you do in a work production standpoint, only in a competition environment,” says Lindsey Purcell, who teaches forestry at Purdue and serves as president of the Indiana Arborists Association. “I mean, I call them tree athletes. Instead of ‘triathletes’ I call them ‘tree athletes,’ because you not only have to understand the physiology and biology of the tree, but you also have to be athletic to get to work.”

To read more, check out WBAA’s article. For this year’s scores and more information on the competition, check out Indiana Arborist Association’s Tree Climbing Competition page.

Resources:
A Different Kind of Athlete: Competitive Tree Climbers Compete In Indiana Championship – WBAA
Tree Climbing Competition – Indiana Arborist Association
International Tree Climbing Championship – International Society of Arboriculture

Lindsey Purcell, Urban Forestry Specialist
Purdue Forestry & Natural Resources

Indiana has experienced extreme weather over the last couple of years. Extreme heat, draught, cold, winds, you name it, we’ve dealt with it. Most recently, through June and July, Indiana has experienced record-breaking rainfall and flooding. These weather conditions can make it difficult for our surroundings, but it can also cause a lot of stress on our trees.

Photo credit: Keith Robinson

Urban trees are more susceptible to weather-related injury because of their oftentimes compromised root systems. In forested areas, trees spread their roots out two to three times the length of the tree. This is important because roots are the tree’s way to receive oxygen from the soil. This provides for a healthy defense system, giving the tree advantages like the ability to draw in moisture during dry spells and secrete fungi- and insect-repelling chemicals. In urban areas, roads and construction oftentimes sever roots or restrict where they can go, leaving the trees in a vulnerable state.

Our vulnerable urban trees are especially likely to be harmed by weather-induced stress. Symptoms like browning of leaves, dying branches and early coloration in the fall are all signs that a tree’s health is declining.

Keep an eye on your trees, and if you are concerned, use the Purdue Tree Doctor app​ or submit a sample to the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Lab as you seek best practices to care and protect your trees.

Resources
Purdue Experts: Tree Deaths Across Indiana May be Related to Weather Stress, Purdue Agriculture News
Drought? Don’t forget the trees! The Education Store, Purdue Resource Center
Plan Today For Tomorrow’s Flood, The Education Store
Community & Urban Forestry, Indiana Department of Natural Resources
The Root of the Problem, Northern Woodlands

Purdue University Agriculture News

Lindsey Purcell, Urban Forestry Specialist
Department of Natural Resources, Purdue University

B. Rosie Lerner, Extension Consumer Horticulture Architecture
Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University​

​

Tree-of-heaven seedling

​Invasive plant species threaten many habitats including forests across Indiana. The introduced Asian tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one of these aggressive and troublesome invaders. Tree-of-heaven grows very quickly on a wide variety of sites from seed and sprouts and can rapidly out-compete native trees and shrubs. There are areas in Indiana forests already dominated by this unwelcome invader. Controlling large infestations of this tree can be very expensive and even dangerous. The sap and wet sawdust of this tree can trigger an allergic reaction in some people.

There is some hope on the horizon. Research work done by the U.S. Forest Service and universities in Pennsylvania and Ohio has identified a fungus that can kill tree-of-heaven and has minimal or no impact on surrounding plants. Verticillium nonalfalfae or Ailanthus verticillium wilt is a soil fungus that has been identified so far in Pennsylvania and Ohio that can rapidly kill large patches of tree-of-heaven. Tests with this naturally occurring soil fungus have shown it to be very effective at killing tree-of-heaven without having significant impacts on surrounding native plants.

This naturally-occurring killer of tree-of-heaven could be an important tool in managing this invasive problem in Indiana. The quickest way to get started with natural bio-control of tree-of-heaven is to locate the fungus here in Indiana. Citizens and resource professionals can help us locate ailanthus verticillium wilt by identifying patches of tree-of-heaven that are being impacted by the fungus. This requires familiarity with the identification of both tree-of-heaven and the symptoms of the wilt disease on the tree.

Close-up of the “teeth” on the leaves of tree-of-heaven

Tree of Heaven has long, compound leaves resembling sumac or black walnut but possessing small notches or teeth at the base of the leaflets. The plant parts have a very unpleasant burnt nut odor when crushed or bruised. The bark is smooth and grey with light grey or white fissures running vertically in the bark. Twigs are very stout with a light tan spongy pith in the center.

Ailanthus wilt causes rapid death of the tree, often within one season, so look for patches of tree-of-heaven where most trees are showing wilting foliage or are already dead. The mortality will often be radiating out from a central group of dead or dying trees. Trees with wilt will have a yellow to yellow-brown discoloration of the wood directly beneath the bark. Healthy tree-of-heaven will have nearly white wood under the bark. The mortality will almost always be groups of trees, not scattered individuals. Several resources are included below to help you identify tree-of-heaven and ailanthus wilt.

If you encounter what you think is ailanthus wilt in Indiana, please contact:
Lenny Farlee, Hardwood Ecosystem Extension Specialist
Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources
Email: lfarlee@purdue.edu
Phone: 765-494-2153

Joanne Rebbeck, Plant Physiologist
USFS, Northern Research Station
Email: jrebbeck@fs.fed.us
Phone: 740-368-0054

Resources
Tree-of-heaven Images, Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health
Scientists Using Fungi to Stop an Invader​, The Columbus Dispatch
Verticillium nonalfalfae, USDA Forest Service
Invasive Species, Purdue Extension​
The Education Store, Purdue Extension Resource Center (search “invasive”)

Lenny Farlee, Hardwood Ecosystem Extension Specialist
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University