FORESTKEEPERS Spring 2020 In This Issue A Trillion Trees By Brian Schweiss, MDC Forestry Missouri River Unit Chief 2 Woods Updates The Trillion Tree campaign sounds amazing. According to some, planting a trillion trees could potentially remove 2/3 of the carbon emitted since the Industrial 3 Trillion Tree Revolution. Let’s look at the application of this concept to Missouri. campaign Where might these trees be planted in Missouri? The 2010 Missouri Forest Action 4 Featured Species Plan estimates that 1,456,168 acres of land could be reforested to have forested riparian buffers where needed throughout the state. These are forests, adjacent 5 Forest Bulletin: to streams, that serve to intercept pollution in runoff and keep it out of streams. Shortleaf Pine Planting this would take 582,467,200 trees at a rate of 400 trees per acre. This gets us to 0.058% towards the goal world wide of one trillion trees. 6 Take a Hike! That’s a lot of trees. It’s not only the sheer numbers that makes this daunting but 7 Events also the competing land uses. Many of these acres could already be in pasture or New Members cropland. Thus, in order to plant, we either need to increase production on remaining acres or figure out how we compensate farmers for lost revenue on 8 Missouri Forestry these acres. Summit What about other places we can plant trees? The Bootheel was once 95% forested, but this is some of the most productive cropland in the world and not a very feasible option. The same is true for many acres of pastureland in the state Woods Updates Eastern Redbuds in Bloom Eastern redbud is a native shrub or small tree that is distinctly ornamental in spring with small, clustered, rose-purple flowers covering the bare branches before the leaves. Missouri Department of Conservation’s State Nursery offers a variety of native seedlings for sale, such as the eastern redbud, for reforestation, windbreaks, erosion control, and wildlife food and cover. MDC Teaching Tools The MDC Teacher Portal is designed to provide the highest quality service to Missouri’s educators who are interested in teaching about Missouri’s ecology and conservation. Learn about the Discover Nature Schools curriculum guides and student materials. Explore the Missouri National Archery in the Schools Program. Review grant opportunities, free teacher workshops, and other conservation-related classroom resources and programs. Visit nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/teacher-portal Plant Natives, Not Lawns! • A lawn mower pollutes as much in one hour as driving a car 20 miles. • Lawn mowers use 580 million gallons of gasoline each year. • 30 to 60% of urban fresh water is used for watering lawns. • About 67 million pounds of pesticides are used on U.S. lawns each year. The Leaflet . Spring 2020 2 A Trillion Trees (continued) that were once covered with trees. After that you have land that was once prairie and much of this is now cropped. Either way it does not make sense to plant trees there. What about our urban landscapes? I was told by a member of the Missouri Community Forestry Council that there is room for four million trees in urban areas. That too is a lot of trees. However, many urban trees, especially street trees, do not live more than seven years. It is a rough world for urban trees. This is due to small planting spaces and poor soils in many cases. There are new techniques that will hopefully extend these life spans out to 20 years but that is still far too short to really capture great carbon benefits. I am not discounting the need for these trees. They do provide shade and reduce the heat island effect, retain storm water, provide energy savings around homes and scenic beauty, and some studies even show that treed neighborhoods have lower crime rates. We should absolutely try and fill these planting sites but not necessarily for carbon sequestration. There are other tree options. One is managing existing forests. After all, here we already have 15 million acres to work with. Avoiding forest conversion to other uses, and practices that keep the forest healthy like thinning out unhealthy trees and restricting access to livestock would be great. Managing your forest for long lived species like white oak and shortleaf pine is another option. The private landowner management scenario is a tough nut to crack. Many landowners believe the best option is to leave their forest alone. But forest health can be improved through active management. Not only that, from song birds to deer, wildlife benefit from active management as well. One good potential outcome is that legislation that supports the Trillion Tree initiative also provides venues for active forest management. It pains me to say this as a forester, but forests are not the only answer to sequestering carbon. You should also think native grasslands. While the above ground biomass disappears every year either by grazers or fire, below ground root systems are extensive. Grassland soils tend to have higher concentrations of carbon tied up in the soil. Even though managers burn these systems and put a lot of CO2 in the air, the amounts added to the soil far offsets this. Plus, remember, the CO2 in the air will be re-sequestered by the grass in the next growing season. We are not done yet. The carbon situation is not just about sequestering, it is about reducing our emissions. While you may not think you can have an impact, individuals can make a difference. Think LED lighting, using carbon friendly materials when you have a home built, (wood is good and better than concrete or steel), upgrade your next car purchase to one that is more fuel efficient, turn your heat down and air conditioner up… just give it some thought, anything that uses energy, how can you reduce it? In most cases there is not one single solution that will fix an environmental problem. In the end however, I support the concept of a Trillion Trees Initiative, because I really like trees! They work for us in so many ways. Planting trees is a great benefit to the environment. It will not solve climate change on its own, but you should do it for the many additional benefits trees provide. The Leaflet . Spring 2020 3 Q& A Why do the pods that hang off the eastern redbud tree after it flowers look like bean pods? Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis is in the lugume family so it is actually related to beans! The legume family is an important family of plants in the ecosystem, because they put nitrogen into soil. Without the nitrogen in the soil many essential plant functions would not occur. Featured Species Elderberry Sambucus canadensis Sambucus canadensis, commonly called American elderberry, is native to eastern North America. It is a deciduous, suckering shrub that typically grows to 5-12’ tall. It typically occurs on streambanks, moist woodlands, thickets, fence rows and roadsides throughout Missouri. Tiny lemon-scented white flowers appear in large flat-topped clusters (cymes to 10” across) in June. Flowers give way to clusters of black elderberry fruits (drupes) in late summer. Fruits are attractive to wildlife. Fruits of species plants are sometimes used to make jams, jellies, pie fillings and elderberry wine. Genus name comes from the Latin name, perhaps connected with sambuca, a kind of harp. Group or mass in naturalized areas where suckering spread may be appreciated. Landscape specimen, shrub borders, screens, backgrounds, stream/pond peripheries or low spots. Good sprawling hedge. American elderberry is a rapidly emerging new perennial crop for Missouri and the Mid- west. American elderberry bears large crops of nutritious berries the second year after establishment. At present, use of both fruit and flowers for wine, juice, jelly, jam, syrup, colorant and dietary supplement products is on the rise. Elderberry can also be grown in a “forest understory” managed situation, especially in Missouri. The Leaflet . Spring 2020 4 THIS INFORMATION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION FOREST BULLETIN Shortleaf Pine Mortality Concerns: Isolated pockets of dying shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata). Pockets range from a few individuals to several dozen trees. Foliage starts fading and entire tree crowns turn reddish brown in a few weeks. Fading trees usually appear in late summer. Often no evidence of bark beetle attacks can be seen on lower trunks. Description: Pockets of shortleaf pine mortality are frequently caused by Ips bark beetle attacks. Three species of Ips are common in shortleaf pine. They often differ in the part of the tree they attack. The Small Southern Pine Engraver (Ips avulsus) attacks branches and the upper bole. The Eastern Five-Spined Engraver (Ips grandicollis) prefers the mid-bole, while the Coarsewriting Engraver (Ips calligraphus) is often found in the lower half of the bole. One or more species may be found in a single tree. Ips adults tunnel in the phloem just under the bark, where they lay eggs. Eggs hatch into larvae, which mature into a new generation of adults. Several generations develop within a pine stand in a single year. Ips beetles carry spores of a bluestaine fungus that infects beetle-attacked pines. Fungal colonies grow into the outer sapwood, stopping upward water flow and causing needles to wilt and die. Foliage can change from green to reddish brown in 2 to 4 weeks during the heat of summer. Most Ips beetles have left the tree by the time needles are reddish-brown. Trees with active Ips infestations will have either green or fading foliage.