Arboriculture & Urban Forestry

The topic of wire basket removal during planting remains an area of contention among nursery growers, landscapers, and arborists who work with balled-and-burlapped planting material. Those in favor of removal fear that the burlap and wire will impede root regrowth and lead to girdling roots, while those opposed to removal believe leaving materials intact improves transplant stability and establishment. (A, M, Bp)

Roadside trees provide benefits to drivers such as traffic calming, roadway definition, and driver stress reduction. However, trees are also one of several roadway infrastructure elements commonly involved in single-vehicle crashes. In this study, Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle records were analyzed to: evaluate the relative frequency of tree-related crashes compared to other fixed-object crashes; assess the impact of roadway-, vehicle-, and driver-related factors on tree crash frequency; and compare the severity of tree crashes relative to other single-vehicle crashes. (A, M, Bm)

The urban forest is a valuable ecosystem service provider, yet cities are frequently degraded environments with a myriad of stressors and disturbances affecting trees. Vulnerability science is increasingly used to explore issues of sustainability in complex social-ecological systems, and can be a useful approach for assessing urban forests. The purpose of this study was to identify and explore drivers of urban forest vulnerability in a residential neighborhood. Understanding the causes of urban forest change and decline are essential for developing planning strategies to reduce long-term system vulnerability. (A, M, T, Bm)

Volunteerism is one way to handle limited resources for municipal inventories. This study follows the Forest Health Ambassador Program and how it used volunteers to track signs and symptoms of infestations by emerald ash borer, gypsy moth, and Asian longhorned beetle. (A, M, Bs)

Apple and pear scab caused by the fungal pathogens Venturia inaequalis and V. pirina can be devastating to apples (Malus spp.) and pears (Pyrus spp). This article details two UK field trials that assessed the efficacy of alternatives to the synthetic fungicides frequently used in fruit production, including a range of silicon fertilizers, a resistance-inducing (IR) agent, and a combination of Si + IR. (A, Bs)

While the industry-standard black plastic container has many advantages in woody plant production, circling and girdling roots on plants grown in them can lead to a variety of post-transplant problems. Plants grown in fabric containers may have fewer circling and girdling roots, potentially eliminating some transplant problems. This study evaluated post-transplant root and shoot growth of Pyrus calleryana ‘Glen’s Form’ (Chanticleer®) produced using three container types. (A, Bs)

It is challenging to successfully grow trees in highly-urbanized areas, such as downtown commercial-retail districts. This research reports on an investigation of multiple abiotic factors that may have contributed to the decline and mortality of 133 London planetrees that were planted in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada as part of a streetscape revitalization project. (A, M, Bs)

The costs of collecting data necessary for urban forest management can be prohibitive for communities with inadequate financial or staffing resources. In this study, researchers assessed volunteer efficacy and the effect of training protocols on data quality by comparing volunteer-collected and university-collected tree inventory data in nine Minnesota, U.S. communities. (A, M, Bm)

Integrated vegetation management programs have successfully reduced the frequency and intensity of power line right-of-way management by promoting low-growing plant communities resistant to tree invasion. To examine whether these principles are transferable to northern ecosystems, researchers tested different methods of imazapyr and triclopyr treatments in Yukon, Canada. (A, U, Bs)

Chlorantraniliprole has become a mainstay for managing turfgrass pests, but little has been published concerning its performance against the pests of woody ornamentals. In this article, researchers evaluated the use of chlorantraniliprole against pests spanning five different orders using real-world scenarios. (A, M, Bs)

Cottonwood trees are a staple of semi-arid environments, but there’s a fine line between the minimum amount of water needed to maintain health, and mortality. The results from an 11-year study look at year-to-year growth, and die-back, patterns. (A, Bs)

Trees play an important role in improving environmental quality, but they can also act as living indicators for the state of the urban environment and help mitigate dangerous pollutants such as heavy metals. This study focused on nine species of ornamentals commonly placed along urban streets in Central Europe. (A, M, Bs)