"Going for a walk the other day along a public trail I was struck by the number of invasive shrubs I saw. Most trees and shrubs have shed their leaves, but burning bush (Euonymus alatus), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) and honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) still have leaves on their branches. Holding leaves and producing food by photosynthesis gives them extra energy to take over the world...
SHELBURNE CENTER, Massachusetts — It was only a year ago that Norman and Lisa Davenport first noticed sunlight flickering through the once-dense shade of a stand of hemlocks on their hilltop farmland.
And now those first trees look more like utility poles than conifers.
As the twin evils of elongate hemlock scale and hemlock woolly adelgid spread...
Over 30 participants attended the recent 4th Annual Vermont Tree Stewards Conference to explore that question and many more on how to keep our trees and communities healthy. Held at the historic Holly Hall in Bristol, this conference provided an educational and networking opportunity for the stewards of Vermont's urban trees and community forests.
In New England, right around the start of autumn, many folks begin to adorn their front doors, fences, and yards with seasonal decorations. Pumpkins, bales of hay, stalks of corn, and a staple in the seasonal traditions, bittersweet. Wreathes and sprigs of these beautiful berries are sold along country roads, and at farmers markets, and are a tempting natural décor option. This plant is...
The winter of 2014-2015 was tough on hemlock woolly adelgid; 97 to 99 percent of the sistens, or winter, generation died. The previous winter had similar winter mortality rates. This helped to give hemlock trees a bit of a reprieve. But, while these recent mortality rates have been high enough to temporarily stop the spread of HWA, the trees are still...
Vic Bogosian has an 18,000-strong army--or, rather, air-force--of wasps, and he's looking for more draftees. They're fighting an enemy of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, the emerald ash borer, an invasive species from China that has been wiping out an important part of Michigan's Native American culture, the ash tree.
"Students and faculty managing the Ithaca College Natural Lands are in the process of removing what they hope is the last of an invasive species of plant known as Japanese stiltgrass after six years of sustained eradication efforts. On Sept. 26, the group cleared out a majority of the remaining stiltgrass.
Mattapoisett — In 2013, at least 1,000 European flies were released into Nasketucket Bay State Reservation with the hopes that they would spread throughout the area. Awesome, right?
It may not sound like good news, but these flies have a very specific job to do: take down the winter moth population.
"Bittersweet — it's the perfect name for a plant that has some lovely qualities but is also a terrible menace. Many people are familiar with this plant because it has been used for autumn decorations. It grows as a vine with an orange-red berry enclosed in a bright yellow casing.
The supple twisting stem and colorful berries make the bittersweet ideal for creating a fall wreath to hang...
"STERLING - There is a swath of grass cut on the edge of a field at Michael Pineo's farm about one-and-a-half highway lanes wide, but even that does not protect the field from one of Central Massachusetts' most challenging invaders.
"It still spreads everywhere," he said, pointing to tree-sized bushes of autumn olive - plants once used for roadside stabilization but now are an invasive...
WORCESTER - Good news on the Asian longhorned beetle front: Surveys of traps hung across Worcester County this summer have turned up only one of the pests in the city, where an infestation of the tree-killing insects was centered, and none in the region beyond.
This suggests that efforts to stop the spread of the beetle are paying off, according to...
"Most readers are familiar with monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus). The striking orange and black species has historically been widespread throughout North America.
Its life history makes it an attractive tool for lessons about insect ecology. Monarch caterpillars forage exclusively on milkweed (Asclepias). Foul-tasting chemicals they acquire from the plants render monarch...
"The tiny seedling was brought over from Eastern Europe and parts of Asia nearly 200 years ago and planted along riverbanks across the United States, mostly in the Southwest, to prevent erosion. It grew fast, its thick branches and oily leaves spreading across five states. As years passed, it became obvious that the introduction of salt cedar, or Tamarisk trees was a mistake. The invasive tree...
In 2001, ash trees began dying in Detroit, and no one could say why. Then glittering green beetles were discovered crawling out of an ash log.
American scientists had never seen the beetles, and they reached out to experts around the world for help. A Slovakian entomologist named Eduard Jendek solved the mystery: Detroit’s ash trees were being killed by Agrilus planipennis, the emerald...
