FORESTKEEPERS Winter 2020 Prescribed burn at Shaw Nature Reserve. In This Issue Winter Frost to Spring Fire By Rebecca Landewe, The Nature Conservancy 2 Early Bloomers With winter days growing longer, spring will be around the corner soon. This late-winter window is a time when many landowners are preparing for the new 3 Winter Frost to spring growth through the use of an increasingly popular management tool – Spring Fire prescribed fire, also known as controlled burning. Fire is an important component of natural community management in Missouri, as it was a regular 4 Featured Species part of the landscape before European settlement. Many plants and plant communities are dependent on fire to thrive. Open woodlands, which are 5 Forest Bulletin: characterized by widely spaced trees and an abundance of native grasses and Ice Melters wildflowers in the understory, require fire to maintain their character. These woodlands, as well as glades, prairies, and other grasslands benefit from the 6 Stop the Spread nutrient cycling and reduced leaf litter that a controlled burn can provide. Turkey, quail, and other grassland birds respond well to the food and habitat 8 Tree Farmer of fostered by the use of fire. the Year Controlled burns also reduce the risk and severity of wildfires, improve pasture 9 Take a Hike! condition, and can be helpful for treating certain invasive species. Talking with a professional forester and wildlife biologist from the Missouri Department of 10 Events Conservation (MDC) can help you determine if fire is a good tool for you. Fire is New Members not a panacea and also comes with some risk. Early Bloomers Silver Maple There’s one particularly wonderful thing about silver maples: their flowers are one of the earliest of any native plant. Their branches are fringed in bright red and fuzzy cream right after the snow melts, before the ground is warm enough for the spring ephemerals. Early settlers in the Ohio Valley found the sap from the silver maple to be superior to other maples, but production was too slow for commercial use. The trees were a staple in many new towns on the frontier because of their rapid growth (for shade) and ability to adapt to soil conditions. Rue Anemone Rue Anemone is an early-flowering, delicate plant, usually growing singly. Flowers grow in small umbels (round clusters, with flower stalks arising from the same point) subtended by a whorl of nearly round, stalkless leaf bracts. Flowers are variable, with 5–10 sepals that range from white to magenta-pink; sepals may be pointed or rounded. Blooms are present from March until June. The basal leaves appear after flowering has begun. Dicentra The generic name of this delicate spring ephemeral flower derives from the Greek for two-spurred. The flowers are pollinated by early bumblebees, whose proboscis is long enough to tap the nectar. Honeybees, with a shorter proboscis, can gather only the pollen with their front feet. Trout Lily These native plants do not transplant well and should be left alone in the wild. This is a spring ephemeral whose foliage disappears by late spring as the plant goes dormant.These native plants do not transplant well and should be left alone in the wild. This is a spring ephemeral whose foliage disappears by late spring as the plant goes dormant. Erythronium americanum, commonly called yellow adder’s tongue, yellow trout lily, yellow fawn lily and yellow dog-tooth The Leaflet . Winter 2020 2 Winter Frost to Spring Fire (continued) Here are a few things to keep in mind: 1. Attend a training – MDC occasionally offers a class for landowners to learn more about prescribed fire. 2. Prepare a burn plan – Work with a professional to have a burn plan prepared for your property. It is important to prepare a burn plan that outlines the best conditions for conducting the controlled burn. Humidity, tempera- ture, and wind speed are all critical factors to consider and ensure your burn is safe and meets your manage- ment goals. 3. Prepare your fire lines (i.e., firebreaks) – Wellprepared fire lines are crucial for minimizing the potential for an escape. 4. Assemble your crew – Having a trained, qualified burn boss to supervise the burn is important (see NRCS guide). There are a few contractors available that can implement a controlled burn on your property. In some areas, neighbors are helping neighbors with controlled burning through local Prescribed Burn Associations. Talk with your local MDC representatives to see if there is one near you. 5. Wait for the weather conditions outlined in your burn plan – Be ready to cancel your plans if the conditions are not correct or unsafe. 6. Notify authorities – The day before or morning of the burn, notify neighbors, local fire departments and local authorities about your controlled burn. Prescribed burns require careful planning, photo copyright TNC (Tom Fielden) Resources: • Missouri Prescribed Fire Council – The Council is a group dedicated to promoting and protecting the use of safe and responsible use o fire as a management tool. These standards were established to ensure that every qualifying community would have a viable tree- management plan and program. These standards were also designed so that no community would be excluded because of size. In Missouri, cities with Tree City USA certification range in population from 159 to 441,000 people. Tree City USA is a national recognition program sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation and administered in the state by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). It provides a framework to help communities establish a healthy, sustainable urban forestry program. “We are thrilled to see 104 communities in the program this year,” said Russell Hinnah, MDC forestry program supervisor. “Trees bring so much value, and this program helps communities increase that value and keep trees healthy through good tree stewardship.” According to the Arbor Day Foundation, trees yield three to five times their cost in overall benefits to the cities that manage them. Trees can lower costs for storm water management and help reduce energy consumption. Research also has shown the positive impact trees have on people, from improving their health to boosting their property values. “The Tree City USA program is flexible enough that communities of any size can participate, and we encourage city leaders to contact us to learn more about it,” said Hinnah. “Our foresters are ready to assist any municipality interested in joining the program.” Kansas City is the biggest Missouri community in the Tree City USA program, with a population of 441,000 people. Glen Echo Park is the smallest, with 159 people. Several communities have participated for more than 30 years, including: Brentwood, Des Peres, Ellisville, Fenton, Kansas City, Mexico, Rock Hill Springfield, St. Louis, University City, and Webster Groves. Communities who joined Tree City USA this year include: Paris, Frontenac, Pineville, Pleasant Hill, Farmington, Bel-Nor, Pine Lawn, Bel-Ridge, and Glen Echo Park. Get more information about the Tree City USA program, including a list of all participating Missouri communities, at mdc.mo.gov and search “Tree City USA,” or at short.mdc.mo.gov/ZZh. In addition to Tree City USA there are also designations for Tree Campus, Tree Campus K-12, Tree Campus Healthcare, and Tree Line USA. These recognition programs encourage schools, healthcare facilities, and utility companies to plan for trees, use best practices, educate others about the benefits of trees, create care plans, participate in tree planting or service learning opportunities, and much more. For more information about any of these programs, check out arborday.org. The Leaflet . Winter 2020 3 Serviceberry Jam Recipe Ingredients • 3.5 cups serviceberry juice • 2 tbsp lemon juice • 6 tbsp pectin • 5 cups granulated sugar Directions: Pour the serviceberry juice and lemon juice in a large stainless steel pan and stir to combine. Add the pectin to the pan and stir until dissolved. Bring the pan to a rolling boil over high heat. Featured Species Add the sugar, then return to a rolling boil, Serviceberry stirring constantly for Amelanchier arborea 1 minute until sugar dissolves. Amelanchier arborea, commonly called downy serviceberry, is a deciduous, early-flowering, large shurb or early tree which typically grow between 15 and 25 Remove from the heat feet tall in cultivation, but can reach 40 feet tall in the wild. Serviceberry blooms and skim off any foam from early March until May annually. A Missouri native, serviceberry is found from the top. most often in open rocky woods, wooded slopes, and bluffs. Pour the jam into The tree features 5-petaled, showy, slightly fragrant white flowers in dropping sterilised jars, leaving clusters which appear before leaves emerge in early spring. The finely-toothed, 1/4 inch of headspace obovate leaves exhibit good fall color. Flowers give and then process in a way to small, round green berries which turn red boiling water bath and finally mature to a dark purplish-black in canner for 15 minutes. early summer. Edible berries resemble blueberries in size and color and are often used in jams, jellies and pies. Amelanchiers are commonly called Juneberries. The Leaflet . Winter 2020 4 THIS INFORMATION IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION FOREST BULLETIN ICE MELTERS DAMAGE TREES AND SOILS Popular ice-melting salts—common table salt, calcium chloride, ammonium nitrate and urea—can damage plants, making them grow slowly, become deformed, succumb to disease, or die. TREATING FOR SALT DAMAGE TO PLANTS After exposure to salt spray, evergreens may show immediate effects, while deciduous plants (trees that drop their leaves in fall) may not show damage until the next growing season. Symptoms include yellowing or dwarfing of foliage, or dieback and “witches broom” of twigs.