We have hefty Halloween version of Forest Digest this week. Enjoy!

  • “These Miniature Super-Forests Can Green Cities With Just A Tiny Amount Of Space”
    We covered this a few weeks, but here’s an in-depth look into the process! A startup in India has figured out how to soak up pollution and reduce floods for trees in cities. The founder, a young industrial engineer, Shubhendu Sharma, uses an intensive process of building nutrients three feet deep in the soil and carefully plotting out a mix of trees, so thick it’s impossible to walk inside. He uses the concept of a multi-layer forests, ensuring that no two tress, once they grow big, fight for the same space. This team, known as Afforestt, uses an algorithm that is able to achieve an efficiency of a 92% survival rate over the past three years.
  • “Agreement protects forests near San Pedro River”The Arizona Republic
    More than 600 acres of private land in one of the Southwest’s most biologically diverse areas will be protected for migratory birds and other wildlife through new agreements with state and federal agencies. The Forest Legacy Programs funded the approval of conservation easements stating that four properties along the lower San Pedro River in southern Arizona will remain undeveloped. The newly protected land is important for the yellow-billed cuckoo that was listed as a threatened species earlier this month as well as the bighorn sheep, javelinas, and bears.
  • “Tree Stories: Galveston’s most famous tree”The Galveston Daily News
    The Borden Oak survived The Great Storm of 1900 and the subsequent grade raising, plus all the hurricanes and droughts since that time. It is the only tree in town that has its own historical marker is protected by the Galveston Historical Foundation. It is featured in the book, “Famous Trees of Texas” (A&M, 1970). It reportedly survives due to the foresight of Thomas Borden, brother of Galveston’s Gail Borden of condensed milk fame.
  • “MIT shows how a tree can be a documentary”WBUR — Boston
    A ListenTree was created by Media Arts and Science graduate students Edwina Portocarrero and Gershon Dublon. It conducts sound vibration from a hidden, remote device. Passersby must press their ears to any part of the trunk or branches to hear the broadcast by way of bone conduction. The students chose trees due to their mythical status and enviro-friendly ubiquity. These trees ran on solar power and a silicone rubber-encased transducer screwed into the tree roots. This will be on exhibit in the entrance of MIT Museum through December 31st as well as presented in Mexico City for Day of the Dead Festivities and in Montreal for the all-documentary RIDM Film Festival.
  • “Lifted on giant inner tubes, an old tree moves in Michigan”NPR
    For almost 250 years, a 44-foot diameter bur oak has been growing on what is now the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor but is in the way of an expansion of the Ross Business School. This move will cost about $400,000, money that came from $100 million donated for the expansion by philanthropist Stephen Ross. There is controversy as to whether the costs for this one tree were worth it.
  • “City of Minneapolis removing all ash trees”KARE – Minneapolis-St. Paul
    The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is taking action to prevent the emerald ash borer from destroying its parks and boulevards. This is a part of the Minneapolis Ash Canopy Replacement Plan, which is an eight-year project that will cost more than a million dollars a year and is funded by a levy. This is done to prevent a sudden, large-scale loss of trees. It will remove a total of 40,000 ash trees, and every one of those trees will be replaced.
  • “Long Island Confronts Destructive Southern Pine Beetles “The New York Times
    Recent warmer winters have created favorable conditions for an unwelcome pest: the southern pine beetle. Though the beetles — and the destruction they cause — were found in New Jersey a decade ago, they have now found their way to Long Island, where communities have begun mounting a defense.