Arborist
The mission of the Bowling Green Arborist is to provide a high quality urban forestry program to the community, in conjunction with expert advice on private tree care. The Arborist cares for the City trees within the road right-of-way, as well as regular line clearance tree trimming program for safe and reliable electricity.
The City of Bowling Green urban forest includes more than 8,800 trees in the public right-of-way, public parks, and green spaces. A healthy and safe urban forest includes: wildlife diversity, higher property values, air and water quality, storm water management, energy savings from summer and winter extremes, and quality of human health.
What's New in the Urban & Community Forestry Program: May 2013
Pine Mountain Beetle Epidemic - Western US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRCLvbMassE&feature=player_embedded
Society of Municipal Arborists
Website:
Volcano Mulch: Mulch piled 12 inches above the root flare.
YouTube on Volcano Mulching
Stem Girdling Roots
Impact on Trees
YouTube on Girdling
Roots
22 Benefits of Urban Trees:
Spruce Trees Impacted by Environmental, Insects, and Diseases:
Spruce trees do not like to be planted wet, clay soils. The spruce trees become stressed and start to decline. Then insect pests are attracted to the stressed tree. The insect pest brings in the disease such as cytospora canker or phomopsis canker.
2013 Tree City USA Award Ceremony, Whitehouse, Ohio on April 18, 2013
Gregg Maxfield, District 2 Forester (Center) presents the 33rd Tree City USA Award
and 20th Growth Award to Honorable Mayor Dick Edwards (Right) and Terry Leek,
BG Tree Commission Chair (Left). Click here to see more photos.
Arbor Day Celebration with Conneaut Elementary School on April 9, 2013.
A total of 75 students at Conneaut Elementary School participated with the Arbor Day Celebration sponsored by the Bowling Green Tree Commission. A poster contest was held with the three fifth grade classes. Each student participating in the poster contest received a certificate of participation. A certificate was given to first, second and third place winners of each fifth grade class. Each fifth grade student were handed an Arbor Day bag filled pencils, rulers, stickers, magnets, buttons and information on how trees are important for the environment. The City of Bowling Green donated 200 tree seedlings to Conneaut Elementary School. Click here to see all the pictures from the Arbor Day Celebration.
Honorable Mayor Dick Edwards and the Arbor Day Poster winners from
Conneaut Elementary School.
Buckeye Yard and Garden on Line: Click here for
more information plant diseases and insect pests by OSU Extension
experts across Ohio.
How Do Buds Break Winter Dormancy?
By May 15th, many of our broad-leafed trees will have broken their winter dormancy and begin showing their fresh spring green leaves. Although you may not notice it, pines and other evergreens will add new shoots, cones and needles this year.
How do tree buds key in to the subtle environmental cues ensuring that their leaves won't get frostbite? Exposure to winter chilling or freezing temperatures, increasing daylight, warming temperatures, inactivation of growth inhibitor hormones, and increase in growth promoter hormones all play a part in the swelling and growth of dormant buds. The interplay of all these external and internal factors varies with each type of tree. Even more remarkably, the timing of breaking of bud dormancy can vary among the buds on the same tree. Phytochromes intercept photoperiod cues and hormones chemically transmit the message that spring has arrived. Among the growth promoter hormones are auxins, gibberellins, and cytokinins, while abscisic acid is a main bud growth inhibitor.
Asian Longhorned Beetle Found in Ohio; OSU Extension Offers Information Hotline
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture today (6/17) announced the first discovery of Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Ohio. An exotic, invasive insect that kills maples and other trees, ALB was found in Bethel, Clermont County, in southwest Ohio.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Agriculture today (6/17)
announced the first discovery of Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Ohio. An exotic, invasive
insect that kills maples and other trees, ALB was found in Bethel, Clermont
County, in southwest Ohio.
For the full story and additional resources, go to:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2011/06/adult_detection_ALB.shtml
http://www.agri.ohio.gov/asianbeetle/
Questions? Call OSU
Extension's ALB Southwest
Ohio Information Line: 513-946-8980.
USDA APHIS have identified the Asian Longhorn Beetle in Clermont County Ohio. Click here for more information.
BG Tree Commission Educational Seminar Series - Future Dates:
September 21, 2013, and November 2, 2012.
Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO)
The Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO) is a Web-based tool that provides land owners, managers, and planners with the most current climate change science available. Developed by EFETAC researchers in partnership with USDA Forest Service Southern Regional Planning, Land and Resource Management, and Cooperative Forestry, the TACCIMO tool:
- compiles climate change projections, literature-based impacts and management options, and Forest Service land and resource management plans in an online database;
- synthesizes these inputs based on user-defined criteria; and
- creates an optional customized report to aid forest planning and management.
Information generated by TACCIMO can satisfy a range of needs for
a variety of users including federal planners and managers as well
as state, private, and cooperative forestry stakeholders.
Click here for more information on using TACCIMO.
Landscaping Options for Underground Electric Transformers:
The City of Bowling Green Electric Division requires 3 feet of space on the sides and the rear of the padmount transformer and a minimum of 8 feet in front of the transformer for safe operations of service. Planting landscape material, rocks, retaining walls or putting in fences to hide the "green box" is a safety issue for both City Electric crews and the land owner. Please click here to see a guide for landscaping in the vicinity of a padmount transformer.
EAB Information:
REMAINING COUNTIES ADDED TO OHIO EMERALD ASH BORER QUARANTINE.
Following recent confirmations of emerald ash borer (EAB) in the Wayne National Forest, and taking into account the infestations in surrounding states, the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) expanded the state's EAB quarantine to include all Ohio's 88 counties on Thursday, September 8, 2010.
Despite the fact that quarantining the whole state will allow for ease of movement of ash materials and hardwood firewood, it is recommended that Ohioans continue to exercise caution when moving these materials. "Limiting firewood movement helps the state protect against the artificial spread of many pests in addition to emerald ash borer, including gypsy moth and Asian longhorned beetle," said Ohio Agriculture Director Robert Boggs. "The department strongly urges Ohioans to continue buying firewood locally." The federal quarantine, enforced by the US Department of Agriculture, remains in effect. This quarantine makes it illegal to transport ash trees, parts of ash trees and all hardwood firewood out of the state of Ohio. There is still interest, and potentially more so with the expanded quarantine, to continue to monitor and track this insect pest. To accomplish this, ODA will continue to accept specimens for confirmation. As specimens are confirmed as EAB, maps will be updated. All samples must be accompanied with a Specimen of Determination form that can be found on the ODA website, or by calling 888-OHIO-EAB. For information on the EAB, check out OSU's EAB website at http://ashalert.osu.edu . Additional information on the expanded quarantine or regulations can be found at http://www.agri.ohio.gov .
For more information, see:
- OSU Extension's EAB website
- Ohio Department of Agriculture's EAB Program
- Society of
Municipal Arborists EAB Information
The Ohio State University & City of Bowling Green EAB Research Project:
Click here for a Youtube by Dr. Dan Herms, OSU Professor of Entomology
Frequently Asked Questions: Click here for more information.
New Photos in the Photo Gallery
Landscape Guide for Developers, Businesses and Home Owners is now available to the public. Click here for PDF copy.
Tree Service Request Click here.
City of Bowling Green Rain Garden Initiative:
The rain gardens will be planted with native plants to Northwest Ohio. The rain gardens will be for public education and function to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff into the combined sewer-storm water system. Click here to see the pictures of the new rain garden construction.
American Rivers with information on Rain Gardens on Youtube
Buckeye Yard and Garden Online: Buckeye Yard and Garden online provides timely information about Ohio growing conditions, pest, disease, and cultural problems. Updated weekly between April and October, this information is useful for those who are managing a commercial nursery, garden center, or landscape business or someone who just wants to keep their yard looking good all summer.
Growing Degree Days and Phenology for
Ohio: Provides estimated dates of
when plants bloom and insect pests hatch throughout the growing
season.
AMERICAN NURSERY & LANDSCAPE ASSOCIATION - American Standard for Nursery Stock. Click here for more information.
NEW - EMERALD ASH BORER (EAB) UNIVERSITY - FREE WEB-BASED TRAINING PROGRAM ON EMERALD ASH BORER. Click here for to register for new classes or view archived webinars.
Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has reached epidemic populations levels in the City of Bowling Green. Businesses and Home Owners should to have their private ash trees inspected by the Municipal Arborist or a Professional Tree Service to determine the options available for managing EAB. Click here for latest research on EAB insecticide treatments. Click here to determine the percentage of canopy thinning on ash trees.
Pictures above from Country Club Drive after routine maintenance pruning (Linden on left and Locust on right).
Routine Maintenance Pruning
Routine Maintenance trees are defined as trees recommended for horticultural pruning to correct structural problems or growth patterns which could eventually obstruct traffic, pedestrians walking on sidewalks, interfere with utility lines, or buildings. Trees in this category are large enough to require bucket truck access or manual climbing. Our crews prune a maximum of 25% of the canopy from the trees. We will move into Ward 4 (North of W. Wooster and West of N. Main) in 2013.
Picture above shows the S-shaped galleries left by the Emerald Ash Borer larvae.
Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) spreads throughout the City Of
Bowling Green.
The numbers of trees identified as infested with Emerald Ash Borer has increased significantly throughout Bowling Green. The City is taking pro-active measures to deal with EAB and now is encouraging citizens with ash trees to consider future actions for their trees. Bowling Green residents and businesses are encouraged to consider options for managing ash trees. Two primary options available: removal/replacement or insecticide treatment. Removal and replacement prior to infestation is the most cost effective option. Dead and dying frequently cost 2-3 times more to remove than live trees due to unpredictable nature of dead wood. The risks to surrounding structures and to the lives of qualified arborists who remove these hazardous trees is a major factor in the cost. For tips on hiring an arborist, visit http://www.treesaregood.org/ for a consumer guide How to Hire and Arborist.
Systemic insecticides may be an option to prolong the life of highly valued ash trees prior to infestation. The Ohio State University Extension Office has developed specific recommendations on insecticides. Click here for more information. While insecticide products are not 100% effective and are preventative measures, it is an EAB management option.
ODOT Certified Training
The Public Works Division staff, Electric Division staff, and Parks & Recreation Department staff attended safety training in aerial bucket truck operations, chainsaw operations, and chipper operations. Our goal is to provide the best service to the residents of Bowling Green and our urban forest.
Our Tree City USA Program has planted over 3156 trees from May 2004 through May 2013. The goal is to plant the "Right Tree in the Right Place" by selecting trees that fit the planting site based on soil type, drainage, infrastructure (power lines, gas lines, water & sewer lines), visibility triangle and long-term capital improvement projects. The City Arborist coordinates with multiple City Departments to include the preservation of trees or tree replacement programs to maintain the canopy effect. All new subdivisions and new business plans are now reviewed by the City Arborist to offer recommendations on future tree plantings and landscape design plans.
Priority Pruning of Large Trees 2013:
Our internal City tree crews will be working on pruning large trees primarily on the west side of the City of Bowling Green in Ward 4, City Park, and the Bowling Green Country Club. The crews will be pruning out dead and diseased branches, broken/crossing branches or branches that extend over the street or sidewalks.
Priority Removal Trees 2013:
Our internal City tree crews will coordinate on removing priority trees on the west side of the City of Bowling Green in Ward 3 & Ward 4, City Park, and Bowling Green Country Club. Priority trees are defined as trees that are dead or have one or more defects that cannot be maintained by pruning. The majority of trees in this category have a large of percentage of dead crown and potential safety hazards. Large dead and dying/diseased tree are high liability risk are included in this category.
Train Pruning of Small Trees 2013:
Picture 1 (Top) shows proper train pruning of smaller
trees. Picture 2 (Center) we are pruning 25%-30% of lower
branches. Picture 3 (Bottom) shows our City tree crew training
the tree.
The Urban and Community Forestry staff will be working in the new Subdivisions from May 2014 to August 2014. The crews are pruning smaller trees to remove dead branches, crossing branches, and branches that extend over the street or sidewalk areas. The objective is to train the tree to provide safe clearance for motor vehicles, signs and pedestrians. The pruning corrects the structure and form of the young trees to help grow healthy and strong as they mature.
