Woodlands Management Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Martha Dwyer-Bergman, Cliff Miles, Louise Davis,
Bob Dewing, Jerry Uhrig
Guests:
Peter Bolo and Kyle Bolo
Administrative
Minutes from the February
meeting are on the website. No changes were needed.
Scout Project: Bluebirds
Kyle Bolo is working to earn
his Eagle Scout level in Boy Scouts.
Over the next year, Kyle will research and organize a plan and implement
the plan to encourage the nesting of bluebirds in
Two good reference books are:
“Bluebird: How You Can Help
Its Fight for Survival,”
and
“The Bluebird Book: The
Complete Guide to Attracting Bluebirds,” Donald W. and Lillian Q. Stokes, A
Stokes Backyard Nature Book, 1991
Some helpful organizations
are:
The North American Bluebird
Society
and
The
And there are many more books
and organization that can be helpful as well.
There are three types of
bluebirds: Eastern, Western, and Mountain. Our locale has only the eastern
bluebirds. There is generally very little overlap between eastern bluebirds and
the other two subspecies. Bluebirds primarily eat insects but will eat seeds
and berries when they have to. The
ecosystem that needs to be recreated is a weedy field at the edge of a forest.
Three local resources which
have bluebird houses are:
Morris County Park System,
which has a network of 50 to 100 boxes throughout the park system. They have a
program which is open for participation. Robert Jennings, Superintendent of
Natural Resources Management, can be contacted for further information.
New Jersey
Audubon Sherman-Hoffman Sanctuary,
Diane and
Allen Nelson of
Sites to consider in town for
locating bird houses are: the reforestation area in Halsey Frederick Park,
across from Borough Garage, near the football fields, the Fliflet
Bird Sanctuary, and the Wildwood Dam.
Kyle is hoping that the
funding of the project will come from a variety of places: Borough Hall, and,
as Louise suggested, applying to the Town Club for funds as well. The specifics of the boxes were discussed,
and Cliff suggested that mounting the boxes on poles and stakes deter snakes
and raccoons from getting into the boxes. Also, building the bottom of the box
with screening prevents wrens from nesting in the boxes. There will be a need for ongoing maintenance
of the boxes: checking to be sure that other birds have not taken them over,
making sure that there has been no predation by snakes, raccoons, etc., and
cleaning after the young have fledged. Bluebirds can have multiple broods in
one year. Some of this work could be done by younger scouts, such as cub scouts,
to bring them into the program.
Reports
Deer
Emil DeVito talk at Boonton Twp
Cliff reported on the lecture
given by Dr. Emile DeVito of the NJ Conservation
Foundation. Dr. DeVito’s
focus currently is on the bird communities in the
Louise reported that in
Cliff noted that down at the
Historically, deer didn’t
have a tremendous variety of plants to eat, thus by spring if the food was so
scarce that the doe would reabsorb one of the fetuses and the population was
not as large as it is currently.
Louise mentioned that she is
aware of a new concept for deer control which is a type of sonar devise that in
placed into the ground at specific distances from each other and when activated
creates a sounds that discourages the deer from entering the area.
Cliff also noted that if
there is NO understory there will be NO natives to regenerate in the future,
only stilt grass. This is the condition
at the “Springs” in the Tourne.
PA
DCNR Deer Count
Jerry reported that a deer
count in
Jerry reported that he had
learned from Rob Jennings that the number of deer culled over the five mornings
in January and February were 16 does and 2 bucks. They regarded their program
as very successful this year because they had full participation and the
hunters had a good understanding of the goals of the program. The program at
Invasives
H&S
article
Jerry passed out copies of the April article for the
Home and School Bulletin. It was the first installment of our invasives calendar. “April
is the time to start pulling out he invasive plants. Garlic Mustard is very common and is easily
identifiable by the small clusters of round leaves that have been green all
winter. You can also pull out smaller
plants of Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, wineberry, and oriental bittersweet.”
Keystone Wild!Notes Article
This article has an excellent
notice on mile-a-minute weed: “Weed It & Reap. Have You Seen This Weed?” We
probably cannot use it directly because this particular invasive is not one of
our primary troublemakers. But the general style is something that we would do
well to consider in our H&S Bulletin notices.
PA DCNR Invasives Tutorial
The best and most
comprehensive invasives tutorial yet can be found at:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/index.htm
It was designed as a one-stop shop for invasives managers. We will link it to our website.
Devil’s
Walking Stick
Martha asked about when all the
Devil’s walking stick in town will be removed.
Jerry said that he would contact Gary Webb about it.
Trees
Tree Threat
Seminar, March 3
The overriding warning was to
NOT plant monocultures rather varieties of trees.
Bacterial Leaf Scorch has
been studied by
There was a handout from
They recommend that mulch
should be cut into small pieces, about one-half inch, whenever there is a
possibility of Asian Long-horned beetles being present. It should also be cut
with sharp blades so that long strings of scraps are not found in the mulch.
These can also harbor beetle larvae.
CORE
Training, March 4
This course was intended
primarily for shade tree commissions but some of the material was helpful for woodlands
management as well. It covered: legislation and model ordinances, urban tree
risk management, and Community Forestry Act guidelines.
Tree risk management was of
particular interest. To begin with, they point out that a defective tree does
not necessarily create a hazardous condition in and of itself. So a defective
tree next to a high traffic area or a park bench could create a hazardous
condition if it was likely to cause injury or property damage in the event of a
major collapse. But a defective tree in the middle of the woodland would not be
considered a hazard because there would not be an obvious likely target. So a
hazardous condition requires two conditions: a defective tree and a likely
target.
They discussed seven
categories of tree defects:
1)
decayed wood,
2)
cracks,
3)
root problems,
4)
weak branch
unions,
5)
cankers,
6)
poor tree
architecture,
7)
dead trees, tops or branches.
Jerry handed out a sheet that
also had a list of common tree species and the commonly found defects and
comments specific to each group/tree.
It was reported that someone
has marked a dead tree on the ECO-Hike apparently as a potential problem. They
put two wooden stakes with plastic bags attached on either side of the tree.
Follow-up note added after the meeting:
After inspecting the tree, it is one of those cases
that looks worse than it actually is. There is a dead
tree that has been leaning against a live tree next to it for a very long time,
leaning about 15 degrees from vertical. Most of the weight of the dead tree is
supported by the slowly rotting end on the ground and not by the branch of the
adjacent tree. Because it will in all likelihood fall across the trail at some
point when it has rotted sufficiently, it would be a candidate for the clean-up
demonstration that Bob Dewing plans. But it does not constitute a hazard because
we obviously do not want to consider all our miles of trails to be targets.
Jerry mentioned that
Cliff and Phil attended this
seminar. The program was as follows:
1)
The Conspiracy
Between Alien Species and Deer in NJ Forests – Emile DeVito,
NJ Conservation Foundation
2)
Strange and
Unusual Trees – Dave Johnson, NJ Forester/Certified Tree Expert
3)
Woody Plants and
Common
4)
Asian Longhorn
Beetle Update – Elisandra Sanchez, USDA and Rosa Yoo, NJ Forester
5)
Unusual Tree
Photos – Tom Purtell, NJ Certified Tree Expert
6)
GIS Tree
Inventories Using GEO Explorer – Mike Sherwood,
7)
Landscape Below
Ground – Neil Hendrickson,
Cliff reported on one of the
more interesting curious trees, called the sickle tree between
Lists for
Shade Tree Commission
Joan Best would like to have
a list of trees to plant for the Shade Tree Committee to use as a guide. Jerry said that we need to create one that
has the pros/cons/ and diseases. Martha
offered to help created the guide and Jerry will make it into a spread sheet
for them to use. We will use Bob’s
listing of trees as our guide (Canopy and understory). Bob’s list shows those
trees that are easily obtained as they are highlighted in GREEN ink.
Shade Tree
Commission Meeting Report
Vernal Pools
Activity
Vernal Pools: Jerry mentioned that they are alive and well
in town but that we need to identify them and document them for the
record. There are wood frogs at
Birchwood and probably behind the YMCA and peepers all over.
Attachments
Conference on Tree Threats
Summary of highlights by
Lynn Uhrig
Four speakers on subjects of control of invasive
pests, Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB), Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) and Bacterial
Leaf Scorch (BLS).
Dr.
Donald Booth,
Showed
examples of monoculture tree planting – bad if you get a pest. Diversity is
necessary.
Suggested planting the small trees that come in
bundles.
Whenever
you bring plant material to your house, isolate it for two weeks or more and
check for infestations. Watch it
carefully for two months.
We
will likely get many more pests in the area because 8000 ships a year come to
nearby ports. Inspection is difficult and plant inspectors work for Homeland
Security. Funding has been decreased.
If
you catch a pest, keep careful records of when and where you found it.
Call
the NJ Dept of Agriculture
609-292-5441. They need
the public’s help.
Cedar
Longhorned Beetle is a rapid killer of arborvitae all over NJ
Mulch
brought to the property should be smaller than one inch or composted for two
months to kill pests. Watch out for
mulch cut with dull blades. Another
speaker recommended the mulch be less than one half inch to kill ALB larvae.
ALB- William Hlubik, Extension Agent,
Attacks tops of trees. ALB in
Using chips of infested trees to burn for
electrical energy.
Cold
kills ALB. Woodpeckers eat ALB.
Resistant
trees – dogwood, tulip,
ALB
tunnels create hazardous trees.
No
natural enemies.
Adult
lives 2 to 3 months – May to October.
Look
for little pits in the bark where the female lays egg. 160
eggs per female.
Look
for frass at base of tree from boring of these pits.
Look
for oozing sap from these holes in maples.
Look
for round exit holes. 3/8 inch diameter. ALB comes
strait out.
Other pests:
Viburnum Leaf Beetle – defoliator. Merit works. Not difficult to
control. Viburnum in woodlands is not as threatened.
Bleeding cancor in Beech. Leave
alone. As an aside he said he saw beech trees killed when leaves were piled on
their roots.
Hemlock wooly adelgid –
EAB-
Dr. George
Hamilton,
Call
him at 732-932-9801, hamilton@aesop.rutgers.edu
EAB
is very small. Not in NJ yet. Closest is
EAB
traveled via firewood from
Quarantine zones in
Stressed
trees attract EAB. They put out detection trees as sinks for the beetle.
Ash
trees drop leaves early in fall and leaf out late in spring.
Look
for D shaped exit holes. Pupate April and May. Larvae chew cambium in summer
only.
Bio
control – 3 parasitoid wasps native to
Stink bug is now on pest list.
BLS- Dr. Ann Gould,
Associate Ext. Specialist,
This
is a landscape disease. Not usually a problem in woodlands. Vectors are edge
organisms.
The
trees affected first are random, not next to each other.
Vascular disease. Bacteria
in biofilm. Bacteria overwinters in the trunks and moves to the twigs in
the spring.
BLS
first discovered in NJ in mid 1980s.
Here
in NJ BLS attacks pin oak, red oak and black oak. No white oak. Also can attack sycamore and elm.
BLS
is transmitted by leaf hoppers and tree hoppers and other insects not yet
identified.
BLS
has many hosts that are not symptomatic. They harbor populations of BLS but may
not have any symptoms. Ex. English and Boston ivy, flowering dogwood, sumac,
Virginia creeper, wild grape, periwinkle, goldenrod, Bermuda grass.
BLS
is now a pest in every
Vector
control does not look promising.
Look
for dead leaves in patches on the trees. BLS interferes with moisture flow in xylum.
Unless
a BLS tree is hazardous, leave it standing and plant a tree of a different
species nearby that can start growing before the affected tree is removed.
Her
department is conducting extensive surveys.
Late
summer look for scorch pattern – brown pattern near edge of leaves. BLS has
random distribution on the tree. After a couple years you will see thinning of
the canopy.
You
can do whatever you want with the tree when you take it down because the
disease is transmitted by insects.