Seminar #95 from Online Seminars for Municipal Arborists
July - September 2022
Sections Go directly to the section by clicking on the title below
July - September 2022
Sections Go directly to the section by clicking on the title below
Note: Click on green text in each section for more information and photos.
Tried-and-True City Trees
Edited by Len Phillips
For the past 75 years many species and cultivars of trees that do well in our cities have been planted in cities around the world, while many other favorite trees have come and gone, and still others continue to be planted here and there. Some have become mainstream and enjoyed a 20-30 year run in popularity. However, a few species have been widely planted and successfully grown across a wide range of climates, soils, and growing conditions and are considered the “tried-and-true”.
Here is my personal list of the best of the “tried-and-true” cultivars that have become trusted urban performers for many years. These oldies but goodies have reached a stately size in many communities and are appreciated for shade, beauty and enduring character, while delivering essential environmental benefits. Many cities have recognized the value of these trees and may have over-planted some of them. If you have not planted too many of these trees, you should plan on installing more next year.
Red Sunset® Maple Acer rubrum 'Franksred'
This tried-and-true cultivar is noted for its symmetrical shape, cool summer foliage, dependably bright red autumn color and adaptability. It was selected and trialed for years prior to its introduction in 1966 by J. Frank Schmidt Jr. It was named the “Number One Shade Tree” in the Ohio Shade Tree Trials and soon became the top selling red maple in the country. Despite its many years in the marketplace, it continues to be a top seller and is among the most adaptable, resilient cultivars of the North American native species. The deep green leaves turn bright red in mid-season, which is a timing that complements other cultivars such as the early-coloring Redpointe® and late-coloring October Glory® red maples. Install all three and enjoy 5-6 weeks of continuous autumn color.
Fact Sheet
October Glory® Maple Acer rubrum 'October Glory'
Introduced in 1964 by Princeton Nurseries of New Jersey, this classic red maple is among many extraordinary trees selected by plantsman and author, William Flemer III. This round-headed, extremely symmetrical selection is the last maple cultivar to color in autumn, and when it does, the color really pops. While it is less hardy than most A. rubrum cultivars, it seems to be better adapted to areas with mild winters and hot summer temperatures. Fact Sheet
Skyline® Honeylocust Gleditsia triacanthos 'Skycole'
This is a very attractive cultivar and the most widely planted of all the honeylocusts. This “oldie but goodie” is an ideal street tree for many urban settings. Upright spreading branches create an arching canopy that provides a light, filtered shade for city streets. Small, compound leaflets create a minimum of leaf litter in autumn. Its tolerance of heat, cold, drought, soil compaction and other environmental challenges make it a versatile city tree. Skyline was selected as the “1999 Urban Tree of the Year” by a vote from the members of the Society of Municipal Arborists. This tree's popularity comes from the tree's many unique features and its ability to tolerate the urban environment. Its tolerance of various environmental challenges and excellent form make it an enduring favorite since its introduction by The Cole Nursery Co. (Ohio) in 1957. Fact Sheet
Red Oak Quercus rubra
Red Oak has been planted in cities for a century or more. This species has acquired a reputation for tolerating industrial air pollution. This particularly adaptable North American native oak thrives in diverse landscape settings across the continent. Tolerant of urban air pollution and resistant to verticillium wilt, this fast-growing, broad headed tree performs well under varied growing conditions. It is a valuable oak for lawns, parks, golf courses, commercial areas, boulevards, and other landscapes where a fast-maturing, durable and long-lived shade tree is needed. Birds and other wildlife depend on its foliage and acorns as a source of food and shelter. Its rich, dark green leaves turn to a dark red in autumn. Maturing to a size of about 50’ high x 45’ wide (15x14m), it is hardy through USDA Zone 4.
Fact Sheet
Green Vase® Zelkova Zelkova serrata ‘Green Vase’
Selected and introduced by Princeton Nurseries of New Jersey in 1985, this vase-shaped selection has become the standard of comparison for Zelkova serrata cultivars. More popular and faster growing and narrower than Village Green™ Zelkova, it is appreciated for its symmetrical vase shaped, American elm-like mature form. Its height and spread at 30 years is approximately 45’ x 30’, (13 x10m ). Autumn color is bright orange.
Fact Sheet
Village Green™ Zelkova Zelkova serrata 'Village Green'
Pioneering nurseryman William Flemer III foresaw the enduring value of this cultivar when he introduced it in 1964. This Princeton Nursery introduction remains popular to this day, thanks to its vigorous growth and vase-shaped canopy that reaches a height and spread of approximately 40’x40’ (12m x12m). Faster growing and narrower than the species, its mature canopy is somewhat wider and more rounded than that of Green Vase®. Dense, dark green foliage turns to rusty red in autumn.
Fact Sheet
Sources:
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Tree Worker/Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited by Len Phillips
For the past 75 years many species and cultivars of trees that do well in our cities have been planted in cities around the world, while many other favorite trees have come and gone, and still others continue to be planted here and there. Some have become mainstream and enjoyed a 20-30 year run in popularity. However, a few species have been widely planted and successfully grown across a wide range of climates, soils, and growing conditions and are considered the “tried-and-true”.
Here is my personal list of the best of the “tried-and-true” cultivars that have become trusted urban performers for many years. These oldies but goodies have reached a stately size in many communities and are appreciated for shade, beauty and enduring character, while delivering essential environmental benefits. Many cities have recognized the value of these trees and may have over-planted some of them. If you have not planted too many of these trees, you should plan on installing more next year.
Red Sunset® Maple Acer rubrum 'Franksred'
This tried-and-true cultivar is noted for its symmetrical shape, cool summer foliage, dependably bright red autumn color and adaptability. It was selected and trialed for years prior to its introduction in 1966 by J. Frank Schmidt Jr. It was named the “Number One Shade Tree” in the Ohio Shade Tree Trials and soon became the top selling red maple in the country. Despite its many years in the marketplace, it continues to be a top seller and is among the most adaptable, resilient cultivars of the North American native species. The deep green leaves turn bright red in mid-season, which is a timing that complements other cultivars such as the early-coloring Redpointe® and late-coloring October Glory® red maples. Install all three and enjoy 5-6 weeks of continuous autumn color.
Fact Sheet
October Glory® Maple Acer rubrum 'October Glory'
Introduced in 1964 by Princeton Nurseries of New Jersey, this classic red maple is among many extraordinary trees selected by plantsman and author, William Flemer III. This round-headed, extremely symmetrical selection is the last maple cultivar to color in autumn, and when it does, the color really pops. While it is less hardy than most A. rubrum cultivars, it seems to be better adapted to areas with mild winters and hot summer temperatures. Fact Sheet
Skyline® Honeylocust Gleditsia triacanthos 'Skycole'
This is a very attractive cultivar and the most widely planted of all the honeylocusts. This “oldie but goodie” is an ideal street tree for many urban settings. Upright spreading branches create an arching canopy that provides a light, filtered shade for city streets. Small, compound leaflets create a minimum of leaf litter in autumn. Its tolerance of heat, cold, drought, soil compaction and other environmental challenges make it a versatile city tree. Skyline was selected as the “1999 Urban Tree of the Year” by a vote from the members of the Society of Municipal Arborists. This tree's popularity comes from the tree's many unique features and its ability to tolerate the urban environment. Its tolerance of various environmental challenges and excellent form make it an enduring favorite since its introduction by The Cole Nursery Co. (Ohio) in 1957. Fact Sheet
Red Oak Quercus rubra
Red Oak has been planted in cities for a century or more. This species has acquired a reputation for tolerating industrial air pollution. This particularly adaptable North American native oak thrives in diverse landscape settings across the continent. Tolerant of urban air pollution and resistant to verticillium wilt, this fast-growing, broad headed tree performs well under varied growing conditions. It is a valuable oak for lawns, parks, golf courses, commercial areas, boulevards, and other landscapes where a fast-maturing, durable and long-lived shade tree is needed. Birds and other wildlife depend on its foliage and acorns as a source of food and shelter. Its rich, dark green leaves turn to a dark red in autumn. Maturing to a size of about 50’ high x 45’ wide (15x14m), it is hardy through USDA Zone 4.
Fact Sheet
Green Vase® Zelkova Zelkova serrata ‘Green Vase’
Selected and introduced by Princeton Nurseries of New Jersey in 1985, this vase-shaped selection has become the standard of comparison for Zelkova serrata cultivars. More popular and faster growing and narrower than Village Green™ Zelkova, it is appreciated for its symmetrical vase shaped, American elm-like mature form. Its height and spread at 30 years is approximately 45’ x 30’, (13 x10m ). Autumn color is bright orange.
Fact Sheet
Village Green™ Zelkova Zelkova serrata 'Village Green'
Pioneering nurseryman William Flemer III foresaw the enduring value of this cultivar when he introduced it in 1964. This Princeton Nursery introduction remains popular to this day, thanks to its vigorous growth and vase-shaped canopy that reaches a height and spread of approximately 40’x40’ (12m x12m). Faster growing and narrower than the species, its mature canopy is somewhat wider and more rounded than that of Green Vase®. Dense, dark green foliage turns to rusty red in autumn.
Fact Sheet
Sources:
- “Reference Guide”, J. Frank Schmidt & Son, 2022.
- Nancy Buley, “Stock Available & Nursery News”, courtesy of J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co.
- “Year of introduction for each cultivar is quoted from the Handbook of Landscape Tree Cultivars authored by Willet N. Wandell, East Prairie Publishing Co., 2nd Edition, 1994.”
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Tree Worker/Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Growing Trees after the Pandemic
Edited by Len Phillips
During the Covid pandemic, people were experiencing an increase in stress, boredom, poor mental health and domestic violence. At the same time there was a big increase in the number of visitors to parks and recreation areas, leading to over-crowding in these normally quiet locations. In cities with large urban forests that were designed for only a few people, they became over-whelmed with visitors. Beach-goers also saw record crowds of people, walkers, swimmers and sun bathers, especially during the weekends. Clearly, there was not enough open space available making it difficult to keep the proper social distance and have an enjoyable experience.
Being outdoors as an escape from the stress of the pandemic was actually a good idea. Researchers have discovered that visits to open spaces can reduce stress and improve mental functions and therefore improve mental health. One researcher actually calculated that spending a minimum of 2 hours a week in nature was essential for good health and well-being.
Unfortunately, most cities do not have enough open space, parks, forests, or trees. The World Health Organization recommends that every person have access to open space of at least a quarter of an acre (0.5 hectare) in size and within 1000 ft. (300 m) of their home. However, most cities cannot meet this goal, especially in low-income areas.
Trees and plants in cities provide many health benefits to people including a longer life expectancy, fewer mental health problems, improved cognitive functioning, better mood, and healthier babies. Trees and plants also mitigate air pollution, heat, and noise levels. They provide carbon dioxide sequestration which helps in the fight against the climate crisis. Open space can also improve ecosystems and increase biodiversity in cities, particularly through well designed infrastructure in the city.
A recent study in Philadelphia showed that children who went to a school with more open space had considerably better cognitive functioning than those who went to a school with little or no open space around it. Another study found that early childhood exposure to open space resulted in fewer mental health problems as adults. The study also found that open space reduces premature mortality. Increasing the tree canopy from 20% to 30% prevented more than 400 premature deaths annually. Changing roads and parking lots in order to add trees can alter an environment from detrimental to beneficial for sustainability, livability, and health. In Barcelona, before the COVID19 pandemic, 60% of the city's public space was taken up for the car. New urban design models in the Barcelona Superblocks program increased open spaces by removing parking lots and roads, thereby improving the health of its residents who are using this new-found open space.
However, increasing green space is not always straight forward. The EU funded GoGreenRoutes project is evaluating the implementation of “nature-based solutions” such as green corridors, linear parks, pocket parks and shared walkways, to enhance the physical and mental health in a large number of cities. But no conclusions have been reached to date.
Now more than ever there is a need for more and larger natural outdoor public spaces such as parks, forests, street trees, rivers, lakes and ocean shorelines. These are great public investments, as they not only reduce the transmission risk of COVID19, but also reduce stress and provide space for respite. They are a great resource for people and society. An increased effort should be made to maintain and improve the outdoor public spaces to improve everyone's mental health.
The City of Paris is taking the information in this article to heart. See the goals that Paris has set for itself in the next article, “Look at Paris in 2024”.
Source
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, or BCMA practice credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited by Len Phillips
During the Covid pandemic, people were experiencing an increase in stress, boredom, poor mental health and domestic violence. At the same time there was a big increase in the number of visitors to parks and recreation areas, leading to over-crowding in these normally quiet locations. In cities with large urban forests that were designed for only a few people, they became over-whelmed with visitors. Beach-goers also saw record crowds of people, walkers, swimmers and sun bathers, especially during the weekends. Clearly, there was not enough open space available making it difficult to keep the proper social distance and have an enjoyable experience.
Being outdoors as an escape from the stress of the pandemic was actually a good idea. Researchers have discovered that visits to open spaces can reduce stress and improve mental functions and therefore improve mental health. One researcher actually calculated that spending a minimum of 2 hours a week in nature was essential for good health and well-being.
Unfortunately, most cities do not have enough open space, parks, forests, or trees. The World Health Organization recommends that every person have access to open space of at least a quarter of an acre (0.5 hectare) in size and within 1000 ft. (300 m) of their home. However, most cities cannot meet this goal, especially in low-income areas.
Trees and plants in cities provide many health benefits to people including a longer life expectancy, fewer mental health problems, improved cognitive functioning, better mood, and healthier babies. Trees and plants also mitigate air pollution, heat, and noise levels. They provide carbon dioxide sequestration which helps in the fight against the climate crisis. Open space can also improve ecosystems and increase biodiversity in cities, particularly through well designed infrastructure in the city.
A recent study in Philadelphia showed that children who went to a school with more open space had considerably better cognitive functioning than those who went to a school with little or no open space around it. Another study found that early childhood exposure to open space resulted in fewer mental health problems as adults. The study also found that open space reduces premature mortality. Increasing the tree canopy from 20% to 30% prevented more than 400 premature deaths annually. Changing roads and parking lots in order to add trees can alter an environment from detrimental to beneficial for sustainability, livability, and health. In Barcelona, before the COVID19 pandemic, 60% of the city's public space was taken up for the car. New urban design models in the Barcelona Superblocks program increased open spaces by removing parking lots and roads, thereby improving the health of its residents who are using this new-found open space.
However, increasing green space is not always straight forward. The EU funded GoGreenRoutes project is evaluating the implementation of “nature-based solutions” such as green corridors, linear parks, pocket parks and shared walkways, to enhance the physical and mental health in a large number of cities. But no conclusions have been reached to date.
Now more than ever there is a need for more and larger natural outdoor public spaces such as parks, forests, street trees, rivers, lakes and ocean shorelines. These are great public investments, as they not only reduce the transmission risk of COVID19, but also reduce stress and provide space for respite. They are a great resource for people and society. An increased effort should be made to maintain and improve the outdoor public spaces to improve everyone's mental health.
The City of Paris is taking the information in this article to heart. See the goals that Paris has set for itself in the next article, “Look at Paris in 2024”.
Source
- Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen PhD, “Why cities need more green space than ever”.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, or BCMA practice credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Look at Paris in 2024
Edited by Len Phillips
As Paris gears up to host the 2024 Olympic Games, it also plans to give many other major tourist sights a green new look. The area around the Eiffel Tower, for example, is to be turned into an ‘extraordinary park’ just in time for the Games. The Place de la Concorde, Paris’s biggest square and the site of Marie-Antoinette’s execution, will also be planted with new trees. The suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis will soon be home to a new ‘eco-friendly’ Olympic Village, Media City, and the Olympic aquatic center. Riverside pools, built for the Games and filled with cleaned water from the Seine will subsequently be given over for public use.
Paris is a global icon for food, fashion and historic architecture, but its air quality is so bad that Paris ranks as one of the world’s most polluted cities. The poor air quality is from constant motor traffic, and only 9.5% of its surface is dedicated to greenery. But all of this is about to change.
Mayor Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu, first elected in 2014, has placed green policies at the forefront of her campaigns and is continuing to act on them. Paris is currently undergoing a wide-scale landscaping effort to add more gardens and green spaces to over half the city, plus hundreds of street trees are to be planted over the next five years. Paris, the “City of Light”, plans to top the chart as Europe's greenest city. To help make that happen, building codes have been loosened so it is much easier for Parisians to plant trees in their neighborhoods. Besides adding more gardens and green squares, the plan will call for a special focus on key areas, like the Champs-Élysées.
Plans are afoot to plant four new ‘urban forests’ next to major landmarks in the city. By 2026, Mayor Hidalgo has pledged to plant more than 170,000 trees across the capital, with 50 percent of the city covered with planted areas by 2030.
So far around 900 miles of bike lanes have been created across the city since Mayor Hidalgo came into office. Major roads and the docks that run alongside the River Seine in the very center of Paris, have been shut off to traffic entirely. The world-famous plazas of Madeleine, Nation and Bastille, have already been redesigned to make them more pedestrian-friendly. By 2030 all gasoline and diesel powered cars will be banned from the city.
Much of the impetus behind such high-profile green projects stem back to a momentous international event that took place in Seine-Saint-Denis. Back in December 2015, all eyes were on the northeastern corner of the French capital as it played host to the United Nations “Conference of the Parties” (or “COP”). The talks were hailed as a turning point in the fight against climate change, with countries pledging to limit global warming to no more than 2ºC above pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Climate Conference in 2015, officially known as the 21st Conference to the United Nations Cities, (COP 21) reported that cities produce 60% of the world’s carbon emissions and use 78% of the world's energy, and they will have to play a major role in turning the Paris Agreement from a promise into a reality. So, Paris expects to be showing other cities how it’s done.
The plans stretch far beyond the 2024 Olympics. By 2030, Paris’s most famous street, the Champs-Élysées will be turned into an ‘extraordinary garden’ as part of a massive €250 million makeover. The plans include reducing the number of car lanes from four to two, creating new pedestrian and green areas, and planting ‘tree tunnels’, that improve air quality along the 5,200 ft. (1.9 km) long avenue.
Perhaps most ambitiously, Mayor Hidalgo wants to reshape the way the city's two million residents interact with the city around them, with a focus on reducing car use and encouraging travel by foot, by bicycle, and by public transportation.
One of Hidalgo’s consultants is Carlos Moreno, a professor at the city’s Sorbonne University is one of the major proponents of the ‘15-minute city’ concept. In this model of the city, residents would have access to all basic services (public transportation, shops, schools, parks) within 15 minutes of their home.
The COVID lock down of the past year have given many cities world-wide, pause for thought. In many cases, mayors have capitalized on the lack of foot traffic to push through drastic measures. Yet few cities anywhere in the world are acting quite as boldly and proactively as the 'City of Lights' right now. Traditionally, the two major parks to the east and west of Paris – the Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne, have been known as ‘les poumons de Paris’: the city’s ‘lungs’. But if all goes to plan, Parisians will soon have plenty more space to breathe. The project aims to be completed by 2030.
Source
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Tree Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited by Len Phillips
As Paris gears up to host the 2024 Olympic Games, it also plans to give many other major tourist sights a green new look. The area around the Eiffel Tower, for example, is to be turned into an ‘extraordinary park’ just in time for the Games. The Place de la Concorde, Paris’s biggest square and the site of Marie-Antoinette’s execution, will also be planted with new trees. The suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis will soon be home to a new ‘eco-friendly’ Olympic Village, Media City, and the Olympic aquatic center. Riverside pools, built for the Games and filled with cleaned water from the Seine will subsequently be given over for public use.
Paris is a global icon for food, fashion and historic architecture, but its air quality is so bad that Paris ranks as one of the world’s most polluted cities. The poor air quality is from constant motor traffic, and only 9.5% of its surface is dedicated to greenery. But all of this is about to change.
Mayor Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu, first elected in 2014, has placed green policies at the forefront of her campaigns and is continuing to act on them. Paris is currently undergoing a wide-scale landscaping effort to add more gardens and green spaces to over half the city, plus hundreds of street trees are to be planted over the next five years. Paris, the “City of Light”, plans to top the chart as Europe's greenest city. To help make that happen, building codes have been loosened so it is much easier for Parisians to plant trees in their neighborhoods. Besides adding more gardens and green squares, the plan will call for a special focus on key areas, like the Champs-Élysées.
Plans are afoot to plant four new ‘urban forests’ next to major landmarks in the city. By 2026, Mayor Hidalgo has pledged to plant more than 170,000 trees across the capital, with 50 percent of the city covered with planted areas by 2030.
So far around 900 miles of bike lanes have been created across the city since Mayor Hidalgo came into office. Major roads and the docks that run alongside the River Seine in the very center of Paris, have been shut off to traffic entirely. The world-famous plazas of Madeleine, Nation and Bastille, have already been redesigned to make them more pedestrian-friendly. By 2030 all gasoline and diesel powered cars will be banned from the city.
Much of the impetus behind such high-profile green projects stem back to a momentous international event that took place in Seine-Saint-Denis. Back in December 2015, all eyes were on the northeastern corner of the French capital as it played host to the United Nations “Conference of the Parties” (or “COP”). The talks were hailed as a turning point in the fight against climate change, with countries pledging to limit global warming to no more than 2ºC above pre-industrial levels.
The Paris Climate Conference in 2015, officially known as the 21st Conference to the United Nations Cities, (COP 21) reported that cities produce 60% of the world’s carbon emissions and use 78% of the world's energy, and they will have to play a major role in turning the Paris Agreement from a promise into a reality. So, Paris expects to be showing other cities how it’s done.
The plans stretch far beyond the 2024 Olympics. By 2030, Paris’s most famous street, the Champs-Élysées will be turned into an ‘extraordinary garden’ as part of a massive €250 million makeover. The plans include reducing the number of car lanes from four to two, creating new pedestrian and green areas, and planting ‘tree tunnels’, that improve air quality along the 5,200 ft. (1.9 km) long avenue.
Perhaps most ambitiously, Mayor Hidalgo wants to reshape the way the city's two million residents interact with the city around them, with a focus on reducing car use and encouraging travel by foot, by bicycle, and by public transportation.
One of Hidalgo’s consultants is Carlos Moreno, a professor at the city’s Sorbonne University is one of the major proponents of the ‘15-minute city’ concept. In this model of the city, residents would have access to all basic services (public transportation, shops, schools, parks) within 15 minutes of their home.
The COVID lock down of the past year have given many cities world-wide, pause for thought. In many cases, mayors have capitalized on the lack of foot traffic to push through drastic measures. Yet few cities anywhere in the world are acting quite as boldly and proactively as the 'City of Lights' right now. Traditionally, the two major parks to the east and west of Paris – the Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne, have been known as ‘les poumons de Paris’: the city’s ‘lungs’. But if all goes to plan, Parisians will soon have plenty more space to breathe. The project aims to be completed by 2030.
Source
- Oliver Huw, “How Paris plans to become Europe’s greenest city by 2030”, 14 July 2021. See link to article
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Tree Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
City Trees are Better
Edited by Len Phillips
Trees may not have lungs like people, but tree tissues and soil are exchanging gases just like people breathe. Tree leaves take in air containing carbon, oxygen, pollutants, and other minor airborne elements. The carbon dioxide is used in food production by trees for photosynthesis and trees release oxygen into the air as a waste product. Trees and other plants store the carbon in their trunks, limbs and roots. Trees actually store more carbon than they release, which is great news for all the humans and animals on the planet. About 30% of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are absorbed by forests, in an effect called the terrestrial carbon sink. The trees are providing an incredible service to our planet.
We think about forests as big landscapes, but really, they are divided up into little segments because of human activity. Forests get cut into smaller parcels, as trees are taken down to make space for roads, buildings, agriculture, etc. These alterations to the forest create areas called forest edges which are literally the trees at the outermost edge of a forest.
It has long been assumed that urban trees release and store carbon at similar rates as forest trees, but researchers have discovered this is not true. Soils and trees in urban forests and edges of large forests are acting differently than those deep in large natural forests. Two recent research papers report that city trees grow faster than their country cousins deep in the forest, and that soil in urban areas can hoard more carbon dioxide than previously thought. These results challenge current ideas about conservation and the value of urban forests as more than just places for beauty and recreation.
Using data from the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Inventory and Analysis program which monitors tree size, growth, and land use across the country, researchers found trees on the forest edges grow nearly twice as fast as interior trees. The edge includes those trees roughly 100 feet (30 m) away from the edge. This is because the trees on the edge have less competition than interior forest trees, so they get more sunlight and water. The more a tree grows, because of more light, the more carbon it is taking in.
This is good news, considering that over 25 percent of the landscape in the Northeast United States is included within an edge. But this does not mean that more forest fragmentation is a solution for sucking more carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon storage along the edges of fragmented areas does not come close to offsetting the negative side effects of losing forests.
This study points to the need to conserve existing forest edges, which are typically seen as more disposable. Studies have shown that even though these trees are growing faster with more sunlight, hotter temperatures are causing growth rates of edge trees to plummet.
Forest Soils
In a second study, biologists found that soils at the forest edge felt the effects of forest fragmentation, just like the trees. The soils contain wide amounts of bacteria, fungi, roots, and microorganisms, and they respire carbon dioxide, just like the trees.
Researchers found that not only does forest edge soil release more carbon than interior forest soil, but that the soil is acting dramatically different in rural versus urban forests. They saw that in rural areas with fewer people and buildings, warmer temperatures at the edge of the forest caused leaves and organic matter to decompose faster, forcing the soil microorganisms to work harder and release more carbon dioxide than their cooler, more shaded peers in the forest interior. But, in urban forests, where the ground was significantly hotter and drier, those soils stopped releasing as much carbon.
Urban forests are so hot and dry that the microbes are not happy and they're not doing their thing. The long-term effect of unhappy soil is uncertain, but the findings also mean that urban soils could have a greater capacity to store carbon than previously expected.
Although discovering that urban trees and soils store more carbon might seem like a good thing it is unclear if this boost in carbon uptake will last as the planet continues to warm. Climate change could exacerbate carbon losses from soil, and the forest.
Forests store almost half of their carbon below ground. With cities and countries making commitments to plant more trees in an effort to curb the impacts of climate change, the researchers all agree that where new trees are planted, is extremely important. Factoring in the elevated amounts of carbon stored by forest edges should be taken into account when looking at long-term projections of climate change.
Source:
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Utility Worker, Tree Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited by Len Phillips
Trees may not have lungs like people, but tree tissues and soil are exchanging gases just like people breathe. Tree leaves take in air containing carbon, oxygen, pollutants, and other minor airborne elements. The carbon dioxide is used in food production by trees for photosynthesis and trees release oxygen into the air as a waste product. Trees and other plants store the carbon in their trunks, limbs and roots. Trees actually store more carbon than they release, which is great news for all the humans and animals on the planet. About 30% of carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are absorbed by forests, in an effect called the terrestrial carbon sink. The trees are providing an incredible service to our planet.
We think about forests as big landscapes, but really, they are divided up into little segments because of human activity. Forests get cut into smaller parcels, as trees are taken down to make space for roads, buildings, agriculture, etc. These alterations to the forest create areas called forest edges which are literally the trees at the outermost edge of a forest.
It has long been assumed that urban trees release and store carbon at similar rates as forest trees, but researchers have discovered this is not true. Soils and trees in urban forests and edges of large forests are acting differently than those deep in large natural forests. Two recent research papers report that city trees grow faster than their country cousins deep in the forest, and that soil in urban areas can hoard more carbon dioxide than previously thought. These results challenge current ideas about conservation and the value of urban forests as more than just places for beauty and recreation.
Using data from the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Inventory and Analysis program which monitors tree size, growth, and land use across the country, researchers found trees on the forest edges grow nearly twice as fast as interior trees. The edge includes those trees roughly 100 feet (30 m) away from the edge. This is because the trees on the edge have less competition than interior forest trees, so they get more sunlight and water. The more a tree grows, because of more light, the more carbon it is taking in.
This is good news, considering that over 25 percent of the landscape in the Northeast United States is included within an edge. But this does not mean that more forest fragmentation is a solution for sucking more carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon storage along the edges of fragmented areas does not come close to offsetting the negative side effects of losing forests.
This study points to the need to conserve existing forest edges, which are typically seen as more disposable. Studies have shown that even though these trees are growing faster with more sunlight, hotter temperatures are causing growth rates of edge trees to plummet.
Forest Soils
In a second study, biologists found that soils at the forest edge felt the effects of forest fragmentation, just like the trees. The soils contain wide amounts of bacteria, fungi, roots, and microorganisms, and they respire carbon dioxide, just like the trees.
Researchers found that not only does forest edge soil release more carbon than interior forest soil, but that the soil is acting dramatically different in rural versus urban forests. They saw that in rural areas with fewer people and buildings, warmer temperatures at the edge of the forest caused leaves and organic matter to decompose faster, forcing the soil microorganisms to work harder and release more carbon dioxide than their cooler, more shaded peers in the forest interior. But, in urban forests, where the ground was significantly hotter and drier, those soils stopped releasing as much carbon.
Urban forests are so hot and dry that the microbes are not happy and they're not doing their thing. The long-term effect of unhappy soil is uncertain, but the findings also mean that urban soils could have a greater capacity to store carbon than previously expected.
Although discovering that urban trees and soils store more carbon might seem like a good thing it is unclear if this boost in carbon uptake will last as the planet continues to warm. Climate change could exacerbate carbon losses from soil, and the forest.
Forests store almost half of their carbon below ground. With cities and countries making commitments to plant more trees in an effort to curb the impacts of climate change, the researchers all agree that where new trees are planted, is extremely important. Factoring in the elevated amounts of carbon stored by forest edges should be taken into account when looking at long-term projections of climate change.
Source:
- Jessica Colarossi, “Sucking Carbon out of the Atmosphere”, Science Daily, Feb. 16, 2022
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Utility Worker, Tree Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
“Touch Trees”
The Story of Alex Shigo
Edited by Len Phillips
On May 8, 1930, Alex Shigo was born and raised in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. After high school, he served as a clarinetist with the United States Air Force Band in Washington DC for four years during the Korean War. After his service, he earned a Bachelor of Biological Science degree at Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania, then a PhD in Plant Pathology at West Virginia University in 1960.
He joined the U.S. Forest Service as a tree pathologist in 1958. In 1960 and with his PhD, he became Chief Scientist for the next 25 years before retiring in 1985.
His earliest assignment, was to learn more about tree decay. Luckily about the same time, one-man operated chainsaws were becoming readily available. These saws enabled him to prepare longitudinal sections of trees, which allowed him to study the longitudinal spread of decay organisms within the wood. His tree "autopsy" technique led to many important discoveries that have led to many improvements in tree health care.
Shigo found that trees respond to injuries by sealing off the wounded area through the process of "compartmentalization". Instead of "healing" like our skin, an injury to a tree trunk results in the surrounding cells changing themselves chemically and physically to prevent the spread of decay. These new cells stop the spread by lining the cut area to cover and seal the injured area. Instead of trees healing, trees actually seal the wound right where it happens and eventually grow over the wound. Shigo believed that trees are not made up of "mostly dead wood ", but rather they can control the disease by creating compartments. This major discovery from his work was that trees have ways of walling off decaying tissues, a process which he named “Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees” or “CODIT”. This led to reassessment of arboricultural practices such as pruning techniques and cavity treatments, which showed that many of the then current practices were ineffective (such as coating cuts with tar) and actually these practices were promoting decay and larger than necessary wounds.
Dr. Shigo's biological findings were not always popular with arborists. His findings disputed the validity of many old techniques that the arboricultural industry had used for over a century and taken for granted as undeniably true. His work showed that the traditional methods were unnecessary or even harmful to trees. In Shigo's defense, his conclusions have been confirmed by other researchers, which made them a part of current ANSI standards for tree pruning. Today the ANSI A-300 Pruning Standard reflects his recommendations around the world.
During his career, Alex published many books including: "A New Tree Biology”, "Tree Pithy Points", "Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees", "A Tree Hurts, Too", "A New Tree Biology and Dictionary", “Tree Biology and Tree Care”, “Tree Pruning”, "Tree Anatomy", “The Nature of Tree Care”, "Tree Pruning Basics", and "Modern Arboriculture: A Systems Approach to the Care of Trees and Their Associates,". “The Journey to the Center of a Tree” was published by American Forests. Besides these books, Alex also produced over 270 publications, including many research papers, pamphlets, CDs, and DVDs.
In 1986, Alex retired from the forest service and he started his first “New Tree Biology” workshop. The workshops became very popular as Alex traveled around the world giving lectures. He and his wife Marilyn and daughter Judy Shigo Smith, published these papers as Shigo and Trees, Associates. He traveled the world doing presentations, workshops, seminars and demonstrations, sharing his passion for trees. The Shigo and Trees, Associates business was transferred to their daughter in 2005. His message to arborists everywhere still holds true today, “Touch Trees”.
Alex Shigo was known for his digressive and philosophical style when writing and speaking, and for his trademarked phrase, “touch trees,” with which he autographed his books. Alex died on Friday, October 6, 2006 . He was at his summer cottage at the lake, in Barrington, NH, and while going to his office after dinner he fell going down the steps, landing on the patio, and died from a broken neck.
Sources
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Tree Worker Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
The Story of Alex Shigo
Edited by Len Phillips
On May 8, 1930, Alex Shigo was born and raised in Duquesne, Pennsylvania. After high school, he served as a clarinetist with the United States Air Force Band in Washington DC for four years during the Korean War. After his service, he earned a Bachelor of Biological Science degree at Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania, then a PhD in Plant Pathology at West Virginia University in 1960.
He joined the U.S. Forest Service as a tree pathologist in 1958. In 1960 and with his PhD, he became Chief Scientist for the next 25 years before retiring in 1985.
His earliest assignment, was to learn more about tree decay. Luckily about the same time, one-man operated chainsaws were becoming readily available. These saws enabled him to prepare longitudinal sections of trees, which allowed him to study the longitudinal spread of decay organisms within the wood. His tree "autopsy" technique led to many important discoveries that have led to many improvements in tree health care.
Shigo found that trees respond to injuries by sealing off the wounded area through the process of "compartmentalization". Instead of "healing" like our skin, an injury to a tree trunk results in the surrounding cells changing themselves chemically and physically to prevent the spread of decay. These new cells stop the spread by lining the cut area to cover and seal the injured area. Instead of trees healing, trees actually seal the wound right where it happens and eventually grow over the wound. Shigo believed that trees are not made up of "mostly dead wood ", but rather they can control the disease by creating compartments. This major discovery from his work was that trees have ways of walling off decaying tissues, a process which he named “Compartmentalization Of Decay In Trees” or “CODIT”. This led to reassessment of arboricultural practices such as pruning techniques and cavity treatments, which showed that many of the then current practices were ineffective (such as coating cuts with tar) and actually these practices were promoting decay and larger than necessary wounds.
Dr. Shigo's biological findings were not always popular with arborists. His findings disputed the validity of many old techniques that the arboricultural industry had used for over a century and taken for granted as undeniably true. His work showed that the traditional methods were unnecessary or even harmful to trees. In Shigo's defense, his conclusions have been confirmed by other researchers, which made them a part of current ANSI standards for tree pruning. Today the ANSI A-300 Pruning Standard reflects his recommendations around the world.
During his career, Alex published many books including: "A New Tree Biology”, "Tree Pithy Points", "Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees", "A Tree Hurts, Too", "A New Tree Biology and Dictionary", “Tree Biology and Tree Care”, “Tree Pruning”, "Tree Anatomy", “The Nature of Tree Care”, "Tree Pruning Basics", and "Modern Arboriculture: A Systems Approach to the Care of Trees and Their Associates,". “The Journey to the Center of a Tree” was published by American Forests. Besides these books, Alex also produced over 270 publications, including many research papers, pamphlets, CDs, and DVDs.
In 1986, Alex retired from the forest service and he started his first “New Tree Biology” workshop. The workshops became very popular as Alex traveled around the world giving lectures. He and his wife Marilyn and daughter Judy Shigo Smith, published these papers as Shigo and Trees, Associates. He traveled the world doing presentations, workshops, seminars and demonstrations, sharing his passion for trees. The Shigo and Trees, Associates business was transferred to their daughter in 2005. His message to arborists everywhere still holds true today, “Touch Trees”.
Alex Shigo was known for his digressive and philosophical style when writing and speaking, and for his trademarked phrase, “touch trees,” with which he autographed his books. Alex died on Friday, October 6, 2006 . He was at his summer cottage at the lake, in Barrington, NH, and while going to his office after dinner he fell going down the steps, landing on the patio, and died from a broken neck.
Sources
- Pregler, Steven F., “Celebrating Dr. Alex Shigo”, Tree Care Industry Magazine, October 2021.
- Wikipedia, “Alex Shigo” by Marilyn Shigo, January 19, 2022.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Tree Worker Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Trees with Tales
Kauri Tree
by Len Phillips
The Tree
Agathis australis, is commonly called kauri (pronouced CO-ree) and giant kauri tree. The Champion kauri is named "Tāne Mahuta" or "Lord of the Forest", and is found in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. It is assigned to the Araucariaceae family.
Tāne Mahuta's age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years old, which is longer than New Zealand has been inhabited by humans. Tāne Mahuta is the largest living kauri tree known to be standing in the world today and has grown to 177 feet (54 m) tall and 53 feet (13.8 m) in trunk circumference. It is considered one of the longest living and largest coniferous trees (by girth) in the world. It is named for the Māori god of forests and of birds. It had a cone shape in youth but now has an imposing crown that stands out over all other native trees, dominating the forest canopy. The tree produces cones that vary in color from green to blue. The leaves also vary but from blue to green. Young leaves are often a contrasting color markedly with the usually green or glaucous-green foliage of the previous season.
The Tales
Tāne Mahuta is a remnant of the ancient subtropical rainforest of giant kauri trees that once grew on millions of acres in New Zealand on the North Auckland Peninsula. Other giant kauri trees are found nearby, notably Te Matua Ngahere. Tāne Mahuta is a giant kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. It is the most famous tree in New Zealand, along with Te Matua Ngahere. Tāne Mahuta was discovered and identified in early January 1924 when contractors were surveying for the present State Highway 12 route through the forest. In 1928, Nicholas Yakas and other bushmen, who were building the road, also identified the tree.
Kauri dieback, a disease discovered in 2006, spreads when infested soil is moved, often via mud on shoes. Once the disease gets close to a kauri, the disease’s spores infect its roots, causing them to rot and the tree to die. The disease can infect other plant life, but it is particularly devastating to kauri. When it reaches the trunk, lesions break out. Kauri begins to bleed yellow, puss-like gum in an attempt to cover their sides in thick armor. But it is already too late. The pathogen corrodes the internal tissues that carry nutrients and water, essentially starving the tree to death. When a kauri tree dies, so does much of the surrounding plant life that relies on the kauri for support and protection.
Since 2018, Tāne Mahuta has been threatened by kauri dieback. In fact, Tāne Mahuta stands just 200 ft from another kauri whose roots are infected with the incurable disease. Nearby, five other kakuri have also become infected.
New Zealand's Department of Conservation initiated a plan to protect and save Tāne Mahuta from kauri dieback. Kauri trees have very sensitive surface roots, and the root structures of Tāne are so fragile that raised walkways and guardrails have been built on top of the soil to protect the tree roots from foot traffic around the tree that endangers their life span. The Department keeps employees near Tāne in all types of weather to serve as ambassadors and protectors to explain to visitors the significance of the trees and ensure nobody strays too close to them.
Visitors to Tāne Mahuta have to hose any soil off of their shoes and make sure no soil is on their clothes before entering the rainforest.
According to Maori mythology Tāne is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. Tāne was the child that tore his parents' parental embrace and once done, set about clothing his mother in the forest they have today. All living creatures of the forest are regarded as Tāne's children.
Sources
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Kauri Tree
by Len Phillips
The Tree
Agathis australis, is commonly called kauri (pronouced CO-ree) and giant kauri tree. The Champion kauri is named "Tāne Mahuta" or "Lord of the Forest", and is found in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. It is assigned to the Araucariaceae family.
Tāne Mahuta's age is unknown but is estimated to be between 1,250 and 2,500 years old, which is longer than New Zealand has been inhabited by humans. Tāne Mahuta is the largest living kauri tree known to be standing in the world today and has grown to 177 feet (54 m) tall and 53 feet (13.8 m) in trunk circumference. It is considered one of the longest living and largest coniferous trees (by girth) in the world. It is named for the Māori god of forests and of birds. It had a cone shape in youth but now has an imposing crown that stands out over all other native trees, dominating the forest canopy. The tree produces cones that vary in color from green to blue. The leaves also vary but from blue to green. Young leaves are often a contrasting color markedly with the usually green or glaucous-green foliage of the previous season.
The Tales
Tāne Mahuta is a remnant of the ancient subtropical rainforest of giant kauri trees that once grew on millions of acres in New Zealand on the North Auckland Peninsula. Other giant kauri trees are found nearby, notably Te Matua Ngahere. Tāne Mahuta is a giant kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest of Northland Region, New Zealand. It is the most famous tree in New Zealand, along with Te Matua Ngahere. Tāne Mahuta was discovered and identified in early January 1924 when contractors were surveying for the present State Highway 12 route through the forest. In 1928, Nicholas Yakas and other bushmen, who were building the road, also identified the tree.
Kauri dieback, a disease discovered in 2006, spreads when infested soil is moved, often via mud on shoes. Once the disease gets close to a kauri, the disease’s spores infect its roots, causing them to rot and the tree to die. The disease can infect other plant life, but it is particularly devastating to kauri. When it reaches the trunk, lesions break out. Kauri begins to bleed yellow, puss-like gum in an attempt to cover their sides in thick armor. But it is already too late. The pathogen corrodes the internal tissues that carry nutrients and water, essentially starving the tree to death. When a kauri tree dies, so does much of the surrounding plant life that relies on the kauri for support and protection.
Since 2018, Tāne Mahuta has been threatened by kauri dieback. In fact, Tāne Mahuta stands just 200 ft from another kauri whose roots are infected with the incurable disease. Nearby, five other kakuri have also become infected.
New Zealand's Department of Conservation initiated a plan to protect and save Tāne Mahuta from kauri dieback. Kauri trees have very sensitive surface roots, and the root structures of Tāne are so fragile that raised walkways and guardrails have been built on top of the soil to protect the tree roots from foot traffic around the tree that endangers their life span. The Department keeps employees near Tāne in all types of weather to serve as ambassadors and protectors to explain to visitors the significance of the trees and ensure nobody strays too close to them.
Visitors to Tāne Mahuta have to hose any soil off of their shoes and make sure no soil is on their clothes before entering the rainforest.
According to Maori mythology Tāne is the son of Ranginui the sky father and Papatuanuku the earth mother. Tāne was the child that tore his parents' parental embrace and once done, set about clothing his mother in the forest they have today. All living creatures of the forest are regarded as Tāne's children.
Sources
- The Guardian, “New Zealand's Tāne Mahuta”, Dec 6, 2017
- “Tribe's efforts may help save tree”, Pete McKenzie, Boston Globe, March 9, 2022.
- Wikipedia, “Agathis australis”, May 8 2022.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Planting Trees is Booming But...
Edited by Len Phillips
As the climate crisis deepens, businesses and consumers are joining non-profit groups and governments in a global tree planting boom. Last year saw billions of trees planted in scores of countries around the world. These efforts can be a big win by providing livelihoods for the planters, absorbing and locking carbon dioxide in the tree and soil, and improving the health of ecosystems.
Amid the worsening climate crisis, large groups, companies and countries are increasingly investing in tree planting projects that carpet large areas with commercial non-native species in the name of fighting climate change. These trees sock away carbon but provide little support to the ways of life that once thrived in these areas. The result is a sterile landscape.
If people want to plant trees it should be made positive for biodiversity. Conversely planting of the wrong trees in the wrong place can unknowingly reduce biodiversity, increase local temperatures, speed up the number of extinctions, and make ecosystems far less resilient. This means that perhaps planting lots of trees, is not a good idea UNLESS there is a plan that will require growing and planting the right trees in the right places.
Addressing biodiversity loss, already a global crisis akin to climate change, is becoming more and more urgent. Extinction rates of native species are surging. An estimated million species are at risk of disappearing within the next few decades. An ecosystem collapse does not just threaten animals and plants, but it imperils the food, temperature, and water supplies that humans rely on.
Tree installations should follow the guideline of “planting the right tree, in the right place, for the right reason”. But there is a major disagreement about what “right” means. Big tree farms are being planted for carbon storage and timber. For small-scale farmers, it is providing fruit trees. Naturalists want to see native trees come up on their own, but many weed trees are coming up instead.
There is not enough land on Earth to tackle climate change with trees alone, but if paired with drastic cuts in fossil fuels, trees can be an important natural solution. They absorb carbon dioxide through pores in their leaves and store it in their branches and trunks. This ability to collect carbon dioxide is why forests are often called “carbon sinks”.
In central Africa, a French oil and gas company has announced plans to grow trees on 98,840 acres (40,000 hectares) in the Republic of Congo. But scientists warn that the plan may be an example of one of the worst kinds of forestation efforts. Planting trees where they would not naturally occur, can devastate biodiversity, threaten water supplies, and even increase temperatures because in some cases trees absorb heat that grasslands in other parts of the world would have reflected.
Source:
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, or BCMA practice credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited by Len Phillips
As the climate crisis deepens, businesses and consumers are joining non-profit groups and governments in a global tree planting boom. Last year saw billions of trees planted in scores of countries around the world. These efforts can be a big win by providing livelihoods for the planters, absorbing and locking carbon dioxide in the tree and soil, and improving the health of ecosystems.
Amid the worsening climate crisis, large groups, companies and countries are increasingly investing in tree planting projects that carpet large areas with commercial non-native species in the name of fighting climate change. These trees sock away carbon but provide little support to the ways of life that once thrived in these areas. The result is a sterile landscape.
If people want to plant trees it should be made positive for biodiversity. Conversely planting of the wrong trees in the wrong place can unknowingly reduce biodiversity, increase local temperatures, speed up the number of extinctions, and make ecosystems far less resilient. This means that perhaps planting lots of trees, is not a good idea UNLESS there is a plan that will require growing and planting the right trees in the right places.
Addressing biodiversity loss, already a global crisis akin to climate change, is becoming more and more urgent. Extinction rates of native species are surging. An estimated million species are at risk of disappearing within the next few decades. An ecosystem collapse does not just threaten animals and plants, but it imperils the food, temperature, and water supplies that humans rely on.
Tree installations should follow the guideline of “planting the right tree, in the right place, for the right reason”. But there is a major disagreement about what “right” means. Big tree farms are being planted for carbon storage and timber. For small-scale farmers, it is providing fruit trees. Naturalists want to see native trees come up on their own, but many weed trees are coming up instead.
There is not enough land on Earth to tackle climate change with trees alone, but if paired with drastic cuts in fossil fuels, trees can be an important natural solution. They absorb carbon dioxide through pores in their leaves and store it in their branches and trunks. This ability to collect carbon dioxide is why forests are often called “carbon sinks”.
In central Africa, a French oil and gas company has announced plans to grow trees on 98,840 acres (40,000 hectares) in the Republic of Congo. But scientists warn that the plan may be an example of one of the worst kinds of forestation efforts. Planting trees where they would not naturally occur, can devastate biodiversity, threaten water supplies, and even increase temperatures because in some cases trees absorb heat that grasslands in other parts of the world would have reflected.
Source:
- Catrin Einhorn, “Planting trees is booming globally”, Boston Globe, March 16, 2022
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, or BCMA practice credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Charles Sprague Sargent
By Len Phillips
Charles Sprague Sargent was born in Boston in 1841. He grew up on his parent's 130-acre (53-ha) estate in Brookline, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College, where he studied biology and graduated in the class of 1862. Sargent enlisted in the Union Army later that year, saw service in Louisiana during the American Civil War, and was mustered out at the end of the war in 1865.
After the war, Sargent traveled in Europe and Asia until 1869 when he returned to his family's Brookline estate, "Holmlea", and took over its management as a horticulturist. Under Sargent's direction and influence by his cousin Henry Winthrop Sargent of Boston and his good friend Horatio Hollis Hunnewell of Wellesley, the family estate became a landscape without flower beds or geometric arrangements, but rather a creation of nature with winding lanes, overhanging branches, and a profusion of trees and shrubbery, including the brilliant red Hunnewell Rhododendron that is still very popular today.
In 1872, Harvard University decided to establish an arboretum. Prof. Francis Parkman, at that time a professor of horticulture at Harvard's recently established Bussey Institution, probably suggested his young neighbor Charles Sargent to oversee the development of an arboretum. The following year, Sargent was appointed as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and he held the post for 54 years until his death in 1927.
Even by the standards of Boston society in the early 20th century, Charles Sprague Sargent was unusual. His personality was colder than those around him, and he was notoriously chilly in Boston society. He had nothing to do with local government; and cared little for the social life of his era. He concentrated on his arboretum and was always at work during his waking hours.
He worked closely with botanist Asa Gray. Also, during this time, he published several works in the field of botany and planned and designed the Arboretum in collaboration with Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Arnold Arboretum is a National Historic Landmark and one of the best preserved of Olmsted’s landscapes. Sargent became professor of arboriculture at Harvard in 1879. He planned the Jesup Collection of North American Woods in the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1880. He was also Director of the Botanic Garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1882, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. Sargent made a significant mark on the American landscape and is memorialized by many plants named in his honor. At Olmsted’s recommendation, the arboretum was ultimately transferred by Harvard to the City of Boston, where it became a prime destination within Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system.
Sargent came of age as a dendrologist and published extensively. His influence was felt nationally on the conservation of American forests, in particular the Catskill and Adirondack Mountain Parks in New York State. He was chairman of a commission to examine the Adirondack forests and devised measures for their preservation in 1885. Adirondack Park became the largest publicly protected space in the contiguous United States.
Under the auspices of the Arboretum, Sargent participated in plant-collecting expeditions and introduced exotic Asian plants to American gardens, while simultaneously celebrating native flora in two books, “Silva of North America” and “Manual of the Trees of North America”. A major advocate for the protection of American forests, he worked on the survey team for Glacier National Park and helped create the first conservation policy for the Adirondack region. Sargent served as consultant to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, providing valuable service in the preservation of the historic estate and landscape.
In 1888, Sargent became editor and general manager of the weekly “Garden and Forest", a journal of horticulture, landscape art, and forestry. Garden and Forest was published in 10 volumes from 1888 to 1897 before being discontinued. In 1919 the first issue of the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum was published with Sargent as the editor-in-chief. This Journal is still in publication today.
Sargent was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1896. He was also a major campaigner with John Muir as they successfully fought against the flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
He was a member of the National Forest Commission (1896–97) under President Grover Cleveland, advising on the creation of 21 million acres of national forest reserves. In that position, he clashed with Gifford Pinchot. Sargent advocated for preserving the forests in a state of "wilderness", while Pinchot advocated for conserving the forests in a way that included "sustainable, productive" uses, including timber "harvests."
Sargent traveled with John Muir, Father of American National Parks on several excursions, including Alaska, the western forest reserves, the U.S. South, and about half of Muir's 1903-4 world tour. Muir tells this anecdote, about a trip with Sargent to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina.
“Muir became enraptured by the spectacular view of autumn colors from the top of the mountain and couldn't hold it in. He began to jump about and sing glory to it all. Then he happened to look around and catch sight of Sargent, standing there as cool as a rock, with a half-amused look on his face, but never saying a word. 'Why don't you let yourself out at a sight like this' Muir asked. 'I don't wear my heart upon my sleeve,' Sargent retorted. 'Who cares where you wear your little heart, man,' Muir cried. 'There you stand in the face of all Heaven come down to earth, like a critic of the universe, as if to say, “Come, Nature, bring on the best you have”. Sargent retorted “I'm from Boston where I see views like this all the time!"
Sargent, as the nation's leading expert on trees, was the chairman of the National Forestry Commission to survey the timber reserves of the United States. He recommended the creation of new reserves and submitted a permanent policy for governing them. Although Muir was not a formal member of the Commission, he accompanied the Commission on several tours of forest areas.
Mentor to numerous practitioners in the emerging field of landscape architecture (including Beatrix Farrand and his nephews, Philip and Henry Codman,). Sargent also encouraged the publication of articles by Olmsted, Sr., Charles Eliot, and George Kessler in “among others 'Garden and Forest”, the short-lived (1887-1898) but influential landscape journal that Sargent founded.
Sources
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
By Len Phillips
Charles Sprague Sargent was born in Boston in 1841. He grew up on his parent's 130-acre (53-ha) estate in Brookline, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College, where he studied biology and graduated in the class of 1862. Sargent enlisted in the Union Army later that year, saw service in Louisiana during the American Civil War, and was mustered out at the end of the war in 1865.
After the war, Sargent traveled in Europe and Asia until 1869 when he returned to his family's Brookline estate, "Holmlea", and took over its management as a horticulturist. Under Sargent's direction and influence by his cousin Henry Winthrop Sargent of Boston and his good friend Horatio Hollis Hunnewell of Wellesley, the family estate became a landscape without flower beds or geometric arrangements, but rather a creation of nature with winding lanes, overhanging branches, and a profusion of trees and shrubbery, including the brilliant red Hunnewell Rhododendron that is still very popular today.
In 1872, Harvard University decided to establish an arboretum. Prof. Francis Parkman, at that time a professor of horticulture at Harvard's recently established Bussey Institution, probably suggested his young neighbor Charles Sargent to oversee the development of an arboretum. The following year, Sargent was appointed as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and he held the post for 54 years until his death in 1927.
Even by the standards of Boston society in the early 20th century, Charles Sprague Sargent was unusual. His personality was colder than those around him, and he was notoriously chilly in Boston society. He had nothing to do with local government; and cared little for the social life of his era. He concentrated on his arboretum and was always at work during his waking hours.
He worked closely with botanist Asa Gray. Also, during this time, he published several works in the field of botany and planned and designed the Arboretum in collaboration with Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The Arnold Arboretum is a National Historic Landmark and one of the best preserved of Olmsted’s landscapes. Sargent became professor of arboriculture at Harvard in 1879. He planned the Jesup Collection of North American Woods in the American Museum of Natural History of New York City in 1880. He was also Director of the Botanic Garden in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1882, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. Sargent made a significant mark on the American landscape and is memorialized by many plants named in his honor. At Olmsted’s recommendation, the arboretum was ultimately transferred by Harvard to the City of Boston, where it became a prime destination within Boston’s Emerald Necklace park system.
Sargent came of age as a dendrologist and published extensively. His influence was felt nationally on the conservation of American forests, in particular the Catskill and Adirondack Mountain Parks in New York State. He was chairman of a commission to examine the Adirondack forests and devised measures for their preservation in 1885. Adirondack Park became the largest publicly protected space in the contiguous United States.
Under the auspices of the Arboretum, Sargent participated in plant-collecting expeditions and introduced exotic Asian plants to American gardens, while simultaneously celebrating native flora in two books, “Silva of North America” and “Manual of the Trees of North America”. A major advocate for the protection of American forests, he worked on the survey team for Glacier National Park and helped create the first conservation policy for the Adirondack region. Sargent served as consultant to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, providing valuable service in the preservation of the historic estate and landscape.
In 1888, Sargent became editor and general manager of the weekly “Garden and Forest", a journal of horticulture, landscape art, and forestry. Garden and Forest was published in 10 volumes from 1888 to 1897 before being discontinued. In 1919 the first issue of the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum was published with Sargent as the editor-in-chief. This Journal is still in publication today.
Sargent was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1896. He was also a major campaigner with John Muir as they successfully fought against the flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
He was a member of the National Forest Commission (1896–97) under President Grover Cleveland, advising on the creation of 21 million acres of national forest reserves. In that position, he clashed with Gifford Pinchot. Sargent advocated for preserving the forests in a state of "wilderness", while Pinchot advocated for conserving the forests in a way that included "sustainable, productive" uses, including timber "harvests."
Sargent traveled with John Muir, Father of American National Parks on several excursions, including Alaska, the western forest reserves, the U.S. South, and about half of Muir's 1903-4 world tour. Muir tells this anecdote, about a trip with Sargent to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina.
“Muir became enraptured by the spectacular view of autumn colors from the top of the mountain and couldn't hold it in. He began to jump about and sing glory to it all. Then he happened to look around and catch sight of Sargent, standing there as cool as a rock, with a half-amused look on his face, but never saying a word. 'Why don't you let yourself out at a sight like this' Muir asked. 'I don't wear my heart upon my sleeve,' Sargent retorted. 'Who cares where you wear your little heart, man,' Muir cried. 'There you stand in the face of all Heaven come down to earth, like a critic of the universe, as if to say, “Come, Nature, bring on the best you have”. Sargent retorted “I'm from Boston where I see views like this all the time!"
Sargent, as the nation's leading expert on trees, was the chairman of the National Forestry Commission to survey the timber reserves of the United States. He recommended the creation of new reserves and submitted a permanent policy for governing them. Although Muir was not a formal member of the Commission, he accompanied the Commission on several tours of forest areas.
Mentor to numerous practitioners in the emerging field of landscape architecture (including Beatrix Farrand and his nephews, Philip and Henry Codman,). Sargent also encouraged the publication of articles by Olmsted, Sr., Charles Eliot, and George Kessler in “among others 'Garden and Forest”, the short-lived (1887-1898) but influential landscape journal that Sargent founded.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “Charles Sprague Sargent”, 3/25/22
- The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “Charles Sprague Sargent”, 2020
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Ithaca, New York
Edited By Len Phillips
Ithaca, the "Forest City", is located in central New York State, at the head of Cayuga Lake, one of the 11 Finger Lakes. The downtown area sits on a flood plain at about 390 feet above sea level. The surrounding hills rise to about 900 feet. Ithaca has a current population of 30,569, plus the student residents of Cornell University and Ithaca College. The City has a street tree population of about 11,000 trees. It has been a "Tree City USA" for 34 consecutive years and is the city in New York State to win the most National Arbor Day Foundation Growth Awards: 24 years in total. The City earned two New York Conference of Mayors Local Government Achievement Awards for its urban forestry program: in 1996 for its bare root tree planting program; and in 1998 for the creation of a Structural Soil Video.
The City and surrounding area contains many gorges and waterfalls. The existing vegetation is a mixture of eastern deciduous hardwood and northern conifer forests. The major species are maple, birch, aspen, cherry, hickory, oak, and the smaller forest trees. The top street trees include Norway Maple, Crabapple, Sugar Maple, Honeylocust, Red Maple, London Plane Tree, Swamp White Oak, and Hybrid Elm.
All of the following information has been taken from the City of Ithaca, Community Forest Master Plan and Tree Inventory Report in addition to the Tree City USA application form.
General
Number of park trees maintained 2,692
Number of Street trees maintained 8,305
Average number of trees planted 160 per year
Average number of trees removed 125 per year
Tree City USA 34 years
Total budget $950,000
Planting trees & initial care $142,000
Tree removals $140,000
Stump grinding and site prep $ 50,000
Routine pruning $254,000
Demand pruning $170,000
Emergency pruning $100,000
Inventory & Admin Management $ 94,000
Total budget per capita $ 30
Planting cost per tree $250
Average tree price $100
Training
Conference attendance 7 days
Professional training 30 hours/year
CPR training 6 employees
Aerial Rescue 4 employees
Certified Pesticide Applicator 2 employees
Line Clearance Tree Trimmer 4 employees
Certification 3 employees
Staff
Tree workers 3
Equipment operators 2
Laborers 1
Foremen 1
Administration 2
Public trees per tree worker 2750
Equipment
Aerial lift 1
Chippers 1
Stumpers 1
Pruning cycle 4 years
The Parks and Forestry Section of the Department of Public Works is headed by City Forester Jeanne Grace. She indicated that all the street trees are diversified, healthy, and safe. She will also continue cooperation with urban forestry research at Cornell University, which will lead in developing and utilizing better methods in the urban forestry programs.
The citizens of Ithaca will continue to have an important role in community forestry by participating in programs such as Citizen Pruners, Ithaca Tree Works (which focuses on bare root tree planting), and by serving on the Shade Tree Advisory Committee.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Tree Worker/Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Edited By Len Phillips
Ithaca, the "Forest City", is located in central New York State, at the head of Cayuga Lake, one of the 11 Finger Lakes. The downtown area sits on a flood plain at about 390 feet above sea level. The surrounding hills rise to about 900 feet. Ithaca has a current population of 30,569, plus the student residents of Cornell University and Ithaca College. The City has a street tree population of about 11,000 trees. It has been a "Tree City USA" for 34 consecutive years and is the city in New York State to win the most National Arbor Day Foundation Growth Awards: 24 years in total. The City earned two New York Conference of Mayors Local Government Achievement Awards for its urban forestry program: in 1996 for its bare root tree planting program; and in 1998 for the creation of a Structural Soil Video.
The City and surrounding area contains many gorges and waterfalls. The existing vegetation is a mixture of eastern deciduous hardwood and northern conifer forests. The major species are maple, birch, aspen, cherry, hickory, oak, and the smaller forest trees. The top street trees include Norway Maple, Crabapple, Sugar Maple, Honeylocust, Red Maple, London Plane Tree, Swamp White Oak, and Hybrid Elm.
All of the following information has been taken from the City of Ithaca, Community Forest Master Plan and Tree Inventory Report in addition to the Tree City USA application form.
General
Number of park trees maintained 2,692
Number of Street trees maintained 8,305
Average number of trees planted 160 per year
Average number of trees removed 125 per year
Tree City USA 34 years
Total budget $950,000
Planting trees & initial care $142,000
Tree removals $140,000
Stump grinding and site prep $ 50,000
Routine pruning $254,000
Demand pruning $170,000
Emergency pruning $100,000
Inventory & Admin Management $ 94,000
Total budget per capita $ 30
Planting cost per tree $250
Average tree price $100
Training
Conference attendance 7 days
Professional training 30 hours/year
CPR training 6 employees
Aerial Rescue 4 employees
Certified Pesticide Applicator 2 employees
Line Clearance Tree Trimmer 4 employees
Certification 3 employees
Staff
Tree workers 3
Equipment operators 2
Laborers 1
Foremen 1
Administration 2
Public trees per tree worker 2750
Equipment
Aerial lift 1
Chippers 1
Stumpers 1
Pruning cycle 4 years
The Parks and Forestry Section of the Department of Public Works is headed by City Forester Jeanne Grace. She indicated that all the street trees are diversified, healthy, and safe. She will also continue cooperation with urban forestry research at Cornell University, which will lead in developing and utilizing better methods in the urban forestry programs.
The citizens of Ithaca will continue to have an important role in community forestry by participating in programs such as Citizen Pruners, Ithaca Tree Works (which focuses on bare root tree planting), and by serving on the Shade Tree Advisory Committee.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker, Utility Worker, Tree Worker/Aerial Lift, or BCMA management credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
Honeybees’ Favorite Trees
By Len Phillips
Honeybees are important pollinators for flowering plants, shrubs, and trees, but these busy little insects do more than help beautify the landscape. Crops that supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition are pollinated by bees and other insects. One global study has shown that honeybees are the most important pollinators in the world.
Every year, trees provide some of the best sources of pollen and nectar for the honeybee to collect and bring back to the hive. The queen bee’s brood (eggs and larva) in the hive are fed pollen. The nectar, better known as honey after being processed by the honeybees, provides food for the busy bees as well as for bee growth in the hive.
In the early spring, honeybee scouts leave the hive in search of flowers. When a desirable flower is found, usually a willow (Salix), the scout gathers nectar or pollen and flies back to the hive. The bee does a little “dance” which tells other bees which direction and how far to go to find the desirable flower. The scout also passes out samples of what was gathered so the other bees know what to look for.
Once the spring flowers have finished, the scouts continue searching for other blooms well into the summer. Honeybees do have favorite flowers and trees as sources of pollen and nectar. After the willows, crabapples and apple trees become the most popular sources of food and it happens that crabapple and apple trees also stand out as favorite landscaping choices for humans. The intensity of spring blossoms adds beauty and fragrance for people while providing a feast for the honeybees.
Many varieties of apple and crabapple (Malus) trees thrive in most regions, all summer long. An early favorite for people and the bees is Purple Prince Crabapple. This is a favorite because of its rosy-red blooms that that are welcomed by people and pollinators. Following the flowers, the leaves emerge in spring with a rich purple tint that warms to regal bronze green in summer. An abundance of tiny maroon fruit delights the gardener in autumn and the fruit persists into winter where they serve as food for the birds.
Another excellent crabapple favored by the bees, is the Royal Raindrops® Crabapple (Malus ‘JFS-KW5’ PP 14375) which has eye-popping magenta pink blooms in spring, cutleaf purple foliage in summer, and the bright autumn fruits that recommend this unique crabapple as a top choice among the flowering crabapples. Autumn leaves are reddish purple with orange and bright red tints and when the leaves fall they reveal the tiny, bright red, persistent fruits.
Later in the summer, the linden (Tilia cordata), provide flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer and are favorites of honeybees as source of one of the oldest and most revered types of linden honey. The honey cures insomnia for people and provides many health benefits to the honeybees. Green Mountain® Linden (Tilia tomentosa 'PNI 6051') is characterized by its uniquely two-tone foliage that has fuzzy (tomentose) silvery-green undersides. This shade tree shines when breezes create a shimmering effect as they ruffle the dark green leaves to reveal their lighter-colored undersides. This vigorous grower has an upright, symmetrical habit and forms a dense canopy. Lindens loom large on city streets and plazas, casting cool shade that help reduce the urban heat island effect in cities while reducing energy needs for air conditioning. Their large leaves convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and remove harmful particulate matter from the air. In addition to improving air quality and capturing carbon from the atmosphere, lindens and other large-tree species reduce stormwater runoff, improve the value of surrounding properties, and help to create a cool urban areas that invite passersby to linger.
A couple of other excellent pollinator hosts are Amur Maackia (summer) and Seven Son Flower (Heptacodium), which blooms in late summer/autumn. Though typically grown as a large multi-stem tree, more nurseries are beginning to offer this as a single-trunk tree. Tough, heat and drought tolerant, and smaller stature that’s good for restricted planting spaces.
Also consider other bee friendly trees such as: Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas), which blooms before forsythia, and is welcomed by winter-hungry bees, serviceberry (Amelanchier), pear tree (Pyrus), cherry and plum trees (Prunus), Hawthorn (Crataegus), and Honeylocust (Gleditsia). The friendliest of all is the Catalpa, whose flower has the individual corolla spotted with purple and gold dots, and some of these spots are arranged in lines or rows along a ridge of dots called "nectar guidelilnes" that point the bee toward the nectar reward.
When considering adding any of these trees to a landscape, be sure to also consider when the fruit ripens and the time necessary for harvesting and processing the crops. Finally, consider other ornamental varieties with fruits that are readily pollinated by bees and eaten by people, birds and small animals.
Source
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.
By Len Phillips
Honeybees are important pollinators for flowering plants, shrubs, and trees, but these busy little insects do more than help beautify the landscape. Crops that supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition are pollinated by bees and other insects. One global study has shown that honeybees are the most important pollinators in the world.
Every year, trees provide some of the best sources of pollen and nectar for the honeybee to collect and bring back to the hive. The queen bee’s brood (eggs and larva) in the hive are fed pollen. The nectar, better known as honey after being processed by the honeybees, provides food for the busy bees as well as for bee growth in the hive.
In the early spring, honeybee scouts leave the hive in search of flowers. When a desirable flower is found, usually a willow (Salix), the scout gathers nectar or pollen and flies back to the hive. The bee does a little “dance” which tells other bees which direction and how far to go to find the desirable flower. The scout also passes out samples of what was gathered so the other bees know what to look for.
Once the spring flowers have finished, the scouts continue searching for other blooms well into the summer. Honeybees do have favorite flowers and trees as sources of pollen and nectar. After the willows, crabapples and apple trees become the most popular sources of food and it happens that crabapple and apple trees also stand out as favorite landscaping choices for humans. The intensity of spring blossoms adds beauty and fragrance for people while providing a feast for the honeybees.
Many varieties of apple and crabapple (Malus) trees thrive in most regions, all summer long. An early favorite for people and the bees is Purple Prince Crabapple. This is a favorite because of its rosy-red blooms that that are welcomed by people and pollinators. Following the flowers, the leaves emerge in spring with a rich purple tint that warms to regal bronze green in summer. An abundance of tiny maroon fruit delights the gardener in autumn and the fruit persists into winter where they serve as food for the birds.
Another excellent crabapple favored by the bees, is the Royal Raindrops® Crabapple (Malus ‘JFS-KW5’ PP 14375) which has eye-popping magenta pink blooms in spring, cutleaf purple foliage in summer, and the bright autumn fruits that recommend this unique crabapple as a top choice among the flowering crabapples. Autumn leaves are reddish purple with orange and bright red tints and when the leaves fall they reveal the tiny, bright red, persistent fruits.
Later in the summer, the linden (Tilia cordata), provide flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer and are favorites of honeybees as source of one of the oldest and most revered types of linden honey. The honey cures insomnia for people and provides many health benefits to the honeybees. Green Mountain® Linden (Tilia tomentosa 'PNI 6051') is characterized by its uniquely two-tone foliage that has fuzzy (tomentose) silvery-green undersides. This shade tree shines when breezes create a shimmering effect as they ruffle the dark green leaves to reveal their lighter-colored undersides. This vigorous grower has an upright, symmetrical habit and forms a dense canopy. Lindens loom large on city streets and plazas, casting cool shade that help reduce the urban heat island effect in cities while reducing energy needs for air conditioning. Their large leaves convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and remove harmful particulate matter from the air. In addition to improving air quality and capturing carbon from the atmosphere, lindens and other large-tree species reduce stormwater runoff, improve the value of surrounding properties, and help to create a cool urban areas that invite passersby to linger.
A couple of other excellent pollinator hosts are Amur Maackia (summer) and Seven Son Flower (Heptacodium), which blooms in late summer/autumn. Though typically grown as a large multi-stem tree, more nurseries are beginning to offer this as a single-trunk tree. Tough, heat and drought tolerant, and smaller stature that’s good for restricted planting spaces.
Also consider other bee friendly trees such as: Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas), which blooms before forsythia, and is welcomed by winter-hungry bees, serviceberry (Amelanchier), pear tree (Pyrus), cherry and plum trees (Prunus), Hawthorn (Crataegus), and Honeylocust (Gleditsia). The friendliest of all is the Catalpa, whose flower has the individual corolla spotted with purple and gold dots, and some of these spots are arranged in lines or rows along a ridge of dots called "nectar guidelilnes" that point the bee toward the nectar reward.
When considering adding any of these trees to a landscape, be sure to also consider when the fruit ripens and the time necessary for harvesting and processing the crops. Finally, consider other ornamental varieties with fruits that are readily pollinated by bees and eaten by people, birds and small animals.
Source
- Nancy Buley, “Stock Available & Nursery News”, courtesy of J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co.
The test that follows contains 10 questions. Before taking the test be sure you have read the article carefully. The passing grade is 80% on the entire test.
ISA will award .5 CEUs* for a passing grade. SAF members will earn 0.5 Cat. 1-CF for every five passing test scores. The cost for taking this test is $10. If you purchase an annual subscription for 15 credits, the cost per credit is reduced by 50% (see Annual Subscription link below). We will report all passing test scores to ISA and/or SAF. If you are a member of ISA and SAF we will report your passing test scores to both for no additional cost. Please be sure to add both of your certification numbers when you sign in. Tests with passing scores may be submitted only once to each organization.
*Members of ISA may apply the 0.5 CEUs toward Certified Arborist, Municipal Specialist, Tree Worker/Climber, Utility Worker, Aerial Lift, or BCMA science credits.
California UFC members will receive credit for passing the test. Please add your CaUFC number after your ISA and/or SAF certification number.
ASCA members may submit your ISA certification record to the ASCA and receive credits one for one.
MTOA members must follow the ISA instructions indicated above.
To take the test by the pay per test option, click on the 'Pay Now' button below where you can send payment online securely with your credit card or Pay Pal account. After your payment is submitted, click on ‘Return to Merchant' / gibneyCE.com. That will take you to the test sign in page followed by the test. Members with certifications from both ISA and SAF, please be sure to add both of your certification numbers. These numbers are important for reporting purposes.
To take the test as an annual subscriber with reduced rates, click on Password and enter your test password which will take you to the test sign in page. If you would like to become a subscriber see our Annual Subscription page for details.
When you have finished answering all questions you will be prompted to click ‘next’ to send your answers to gibneyCE.com. You can then click ‘next’ to view your test summary. A test review of your answers is available upon request.
All passing test scores are sent from gibneyCE.com to your organization(s) at the end of every month and they will appear on your certification record 4 to 6 weeks* after that. ISA maintains a record of CEU credits on their website.
*SAF requires 5 passing test scores before reporting.
Test re-takes are allowed, however you will have to pay for the retake if you are using the pay per test option. You can spend as much time as you would like to take the test but it is important not to leave the test site until you have answered all the questions and see the 'sending your answers' response.