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THE FOREST LANDOWNER #4/5
The Newsletter of the Wayne-Lackawanna Forest Landowners Association
July 2007
Editor: Peter Wynne
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This Month:
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-- Coming Up: Our Annual Picnic
-- Craig Olver on WJFF-FM
-- June Meeting: Roba's Tree Farm
-- EAB Arrives in Penn's Woods and Other Pesty News
-- Websites Worth Visiting
-- Membership Dues for 2007
-- Call for Contributions
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Coming Up: Our Annual Picnic
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Our Annual WLFLA Picnic is July 14 from noon to 6 p.m. at the Salko Family Tree Farm in White’s Crossing, which is near Simpson and Carbondale. Wildlife Diversity Biologist Kevin Wenner will talk about "The Search for Pennsylvania’s Barn Owls"; Wildlife Conservation Officer Frank Dooley will discuss the state's black bear program, and tree farmer Donna Salko will introduce us to food plots and grouse and woodcock habitat improvements.
The Salko farm is off Number 7 Road, and you get there from Business U.S. Route 6. If you're coming along the Casey Highway, go to the end, Exit 7, and get onto Business Route 6 heading toward Carbondale. If you're coming from Honesdale, get onto Business Route 6 toward Carbondale instead of the Casey Highway.
Either way, you make a right onto Canaan Street and follow Canaan around to the right to the stop sign. Go straight ahead onto Honesdale Road. Make a left onto Number 7 Road and go to the end. Pass through the gate and go to the log home about a mile up the road.
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Craig Olver on WJFF-FM
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Consulting forester and WLFLA board member Craig Olver was one of two guest experts on an hour-long radio call-in program June 15th on WJFF-FM, which originates in Jeffersonville, N.Y. Craig shared the microphone with Education Forester Ryan Trapani from the Catskill Forest Association of Arkville, NY. CFA covers a six-county region in central New York State -- Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster.
The program started off with the Craig and Ryan talking about the three caterpillars afflicting our woodlands this summer: Eastern Tent, Forest Tent and Gypsy Moth. Then the two turned to the phones. Six listeners called in, and Ryan and Craig took turns answering calls, with each allowing the other to chime in. Whenever the program threatened to slow down, WJFF manager Christine Ahern got things moving again with a question or two. The program ended with Craig and Ryan giving the websites of their respective organizations.
If you missed the broadcast, you can still hear the program by going to the WJFF website at www.wjffradio.org and clicking on the word "archives" at the top of the page. When the archives page comes up, scroll down to the list of available programs and down to June 15th and the "Friday Forum." There, with a click of your mouse, you can choose a "podcast" of the program or to play or even download it.
(You'll also get five minutes of recent history from an NPR News report which was aired that afternoon and is included with the program.)
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June Meeting: Roba's Tree Farm
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About a dozen WLFLA members -- the "usual suspects," as Captain Renault (Claude Rains) would have put it in "Casablanca" -- turned out for our June 22nd visit to Roba's Lakeland Tree Farm near the Heart Lake corners on Pa. Route 247. Owner John Roba devoted more than two hours to showing us around the 200-acre tree farm, which produces evergreen, shade and flowering trees for sale primarily to landscapers and dealers in nursery plants. The quality of the trees the Robas grow is simply superb.
Throughout the visit, John kept emphasizing that if you want success growing trees you have to plant them in the right kind of soil. And because he has so many trees growing over such a large area, he could point out places where soil conditions were less than ideal for the trees planted there and what the consequences were.
For example, Fraser firs (Abies fraseri) prefer a moist but well-drained soil, and John was able to point out little poorly drained areas in a field of Fraser firs, where the trees growing in the wetter soil had achieved about half the growth of the Frasers nearby. And all the trees were the same age.
If you want a fir and your soil is poorly drained, consider planting a Canaan fir (Abies balsamea var phanerolepis), he advised. This is a subspecies of the Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) that evolved in isolated pockets in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. The Canaan Fir will tolerate wetter soils than the Fraser Fir and, because it tends to break bud later in the spring, is less likely to be injured by late frosts. The Robas grow this handsome, difficult-to-find tree.
The farm is on a windy plateau that John says reaches as high as 1,750 feet above sea level, so just about anything the Robas have success growing should be sufficiently cold hardy to do well anywhere in Wayne and Lackawanna Counties.
You can find a list of the trees the Robas grow and their prices at http://www.robastreefarm.com/nurserytrees.htm Most of the trees are sold "B&B" (balled and burlaped) and are available only in the spring. A few are offered in 15-gallon pots.
You can e-mail the Robas (wife Sue minds the accounts) at sales@robastreefarm.com or you can call them at (570) 563-2904.
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EAB Arrives in Penn's Woods and Other Pesty News
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In case you missed the press release I passed along.... The Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) has now been found in Pennsylvania. The state Department of Agriculture announced the discovery June 27th, after this highly destructive insect was found on an ash tree in Cranberry Township in Butler County, about 18 to 20 miles north-northwest of Pittsburgh and not much further from the Ohio border.
Greg Hoover, an entomologist with the Penn State Extension, said he tagged 62 trees as infected in a single landscape in the Cranberry area and got pictures of adult beetles, including a mating pair. This suggests the beetle is well established in the area, but at this point no decision has been made whether to pursue wide-scale eradication of ash trees, an approach that has been taken at infestation sites in other states.
For now, Butler and neighboring Lawrence, Allegheny and Beaver counties have been placed under a quarantine that bans the movement from the quarantine area of ash nursery stock, green lumber and any other ash material, including logs, stumps, roots and branches, and all wood chips. Moreover, due to the difficulty in distinguishing among species, all hardwood firewood in the quarantine area, including ash, oak, maple and hickory, is covered by the ban.
The infested trees will be cut down and chipped into pieces no bigger than 1 inch on a side, Hoover said. Small pieces of wood like this dry out quickly, and this drying kills any beetle larvae or eggs the chips might hold. The state is looking for cogeneration facilities where the chips can be burned, he said.
Because many species of wood-boring insects, including the Emerald Ash Borer, can be spread by transporting infested firewood and logs, campers and homeowners throughout the commonwealth are urged to use only locally harvested firewood, to burn all of it on-site, and not to carry it to new locations.
Closer to home and not so economically dangerous is a beetle that has been defoliating and sometimes killing Arrowwood viburnums (Viburnum dentata) in northern Wayne and Susquehanna counties, where the multistemmed shrubs are often called "hard hack."
Like the Emerald Ash Borer, the Viburnum Leaf Beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni)is an invasive, alien species that has landed here from abroad. Native to most of Europe, the beetles, which measure from 3/16- to 1/4-inch long, were first found in North America in 1947 on the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario and turned up in northern Cayuga County, N.Y., in 1996.
The beetle larvae hatch out in mid May and skeletonize viburnum leaves, usually starting on the lower branches and leaving only midribs and major veins intact. The larvae will often completely defoliate the plants on which they feed. By early to mid-June, the larvae drop to the ground, go into the soil, and pupate.
By early July, the adults emerge and begin to feed on viburnum foliage once more, chewing irregular circular holes in the leaves. If present in sufficient numbers, the adults can defoliate the shrubs a second time. Both larvae and adults feed only on viburnums of various species, and two of our native viburnums, Arrowwood and Highbush Cranberry (V. trilobum) are hosts particularly favored by the beetle. For either species, repeated defoliation can be fatal.
At this point, no one can say what the consequences will be if the Viburnum Leaf Beetle destroys much or all of the Arrowwood in our region. Obviously, there won't be the economic mayhem the Emerald Ash Borer could wreak, but the impact on wildlife communities could be considerable.
The Arrowwood produces berries that in the fall are consumed by bluebirds, cardinals, robins and even bears. And azure butterflies are said to feed on the flowers. Moreover, many birds and small mammals use the shrubs for nesting sites and shelter.
The Forest Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) has done its worst for 2007, and WLFLA advisor Jack Gearhart, the service forester for Wayne and Lackawanna Counties, is busy surveying the damage and preparing a report that I'll pass along as soon as I get it.
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Websites Worth Visiting
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www.wlfla.org
Type this "URL," as it's called, into your web browser, and you'll get to our very own Wayne-Lackawanna Forest Landowners Association website. Add the site to your favorites, and you'll always have quick access to information on how to reach WLFLA officers and a full schedule of our activities and meetings in 2007.
http://www.emeraldashborer.info/
This website is part of a multistate effort by Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to bring together and make available to the public the latest information about the Emerald Ash Borer.
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/subimages.cfm?SUB=7171
This URL will take you to Forestry Images page devoted to the Emerald Ash Borer. Offered here are 175 images of the insect in all its life stages, the damage it does and the efforts taken to control it.
http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/subimages.cfm?sub=9404
This is the Forestry Images page for the Viburnum Leaf Beetle. Only 27 images are offered, but they're about as good as they get.
http://www.hort.cornell.edu/vlb/
This is the URL for the Viburnum Leaf Beetle/Citizen Science project at Cornell. Along with providing information on the pest, the university has been enlisting laymen to work on research documenting the spread and impact of the beetle, which now can be found in nearly every county in New York State as well as all the Northern Tier counties of Pennsylvania. The project is under the supervision of entomologist Paul Weston, who's generally regarded as the reigning authority in this country on the Viburnum Leaf Beetle.
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Membership Dues for 2007
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WLFLA dues for 2007 are past due, and members who haven't yet sent in a check are urged to do so. A single, family or club membership with one vote (if something comes to a vote) continues at $20 for the calendar year 2007. Checks payable to WLFLA may be sent to WLFLA, c/o Cathy Wendolowski, Treasurer, 2116 Laurel Hill Road, Clarks Summit, PA 18411
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Call for Contributions
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WLFLA members are cordially invited to send along by e-mail items they think worthy of inclusion in this newsletter. Comments, quibbles and downright disagreements are also welcome.
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