Native Tree Society BBS

ENTS: Over 100 forest fires are burning in boreal forests of northern Saskatchewan. This has produced huge amounts of smoke, causing hazy skies in Minnesota for the last three weeks. Yesterday, July 6, 2015, there was very thick haze and a smell very familiar to me--burning jack pine, balsam fir and...

Bob, Yes, younger trees are more sensitive, they do not have as much energy in reserve to recover form this type of injury. There are hundreds of younger honey locusts in Minneapolis that have died this spring, while almost all of the older ones are recovering. I have also noticed that trees with mu...

ENTS: Many locust trees in Minneapolis and St.Paul, Minnesota are just starting to leaf out this week (week of June 22), while others leafed out at the normal time in mid May. The reason for late leaf out seems to be root damage that occurred during the winter. In commercial districts late leaf out ...

Yes, we have thought about introducing Asian flatworms, but can't be sure they won't kill other native things in the soil. Maybe we don't have to decide whether to introduce them, they seem to be getting around on their own. They have been found in Wisconsin as well other states listed. The flatworm...

ENTS:

Interesting article on invasive earthworms in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdo ... y#continue

Lee

Kouta, Great idea, to compare species richness in areas with similar temperature and size, since we know that both of those factors are strongly related to species richness. I am not surprised to see that the relationships between continents you found are similar to previous studies, since there is ...

No, the winter won't kill white pine weevil, because it overwinters in the leaf litter, and was under the snow all winter, so that this winter would actually be less severe for white pine weevil than warmer winters with less snow.

Lee

Bob
Yes we expect a much warmer winter for 2014-2015.
Lee

ENTS, The Polar vortex arrived in Minnesota about December 3, 2013 and its still here as of May 16, 2014. Fortunately polar air in May is not as cold as in January, due to much longer days and higher sun angle, so I can declare that my 4-month vacation on Planet Hoth is over even though its still 20...

Larry I expected a winter like this, essentially like the winters of 1976-1977 or 1981-1982 but 3 or 4 degrees warmer, and that's exactly what we are getting. Of course this means other places are having a record warm winter. For example Alaska where it was 62 degrees yesterday at one weather statio...