Winter Tree Care: Inspection, Pruning and More
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(November 22, 2020) Now is the time to prepare for winter tree care, and we have just the guy to walk you through your choices. Chad Rigsby works for our chief sponsor, Bartlett Tree Experts. He was with us earlier this year, when we talked about record rains turning into drought conditions.
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4:36 Chad Rigsby from Bartlett Tree Experts
56:48 Jessica Chipkin of Crate Free Illinois, Tyler Lobdell of Food & Water Watch
1:26:59 Meteorologist Rick DiMaio
Here’s a little bit more about Rigsby.
Chad Rigsby is a research scientist and technical support specialist with The Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories at The Morton Arboretum. Chad provides technical support for Bartlett Tree Experts Arborists throughout the country on many matters of arboriculture including pruning, soil, root, and pest management, and plant health care. Chad’s research reflects this diversity and covers many aspects of arboriculture, but his particular area of expertise is in tree stress biology and tree-pest interactions. Chad is particularly interested in understanding tree growth-defense trade-offs and how arborists can manage trees according to their growth-defense strategy, how belowground conditions impact aboveground interactions with pests, and developing best management practices that optimize cost and the health of young/newly planted trees.
The onset of winter is actually a great time to assess the trees on your property. Rigsby wrote to us the other day about winter tree care and a lot more. Here’s some of what he said.
I think an overview/reflection on the 2020 growing season is would be very helpful for your audience. Highlights for that would, indeed, be the extremely wet spring followed by the summer-long drought we had across the Midwest. There are plenty of things to talk about here. Oaks and conifers were hit especially hard and we could probably spend an hour on oak or conifer care, individually.
Conifer Care
Cytospora Canker of Spruce
Diplodia Tip Blight
Pests of Pines
Managing Trees in Severe Drought
We can discuss inspections as well. I think there are a lot of folks out there who don’t know that inspections CAN be done in the winter and we can explain that just because it is winter doesn’t mean we can’t inspect trees for health issues, structural defects, or pruning needs.
Speaking of winter tree care, he urges folks to be on the lookout for winter injuries. Among them are frost cracks, de-icing salt injuries (soil & salt spray), snow/ice load causing breakage, desiccation in evergreens, and deer and rodent browsing.
Winter Injuries on Landscape Plants
Rigsby says that winter is the time for pruning oaks, especially red oaks. Oak wilt was a major topic in the arboriculture & urban forestry community this year. There was a lot of mortality attributed to oak wilt that turned out to be root rot issues.
Bur Oak Blight
Managing Oak Wilt Disease
Trees for Poorly Drained Soil
He also notes that spotted lanternfly is starting to be observed in Midwest. There have been reports of a population in eastern Ohio, and dead adults found in Michigan, as reported by both state DNR’s. He notes that this pest is not a tree-killer like emerald ash borer, but it can be an extreme nuisance.
He also wants to talk about tree planting–species selection and proper planting. In his own words, “There is an epidemic of improper planting out there.” We haven’t even gotten to “volcano” mulching yet! Oh, and did we mention boxwood blight?
By the way, if I haven’t mentioned your favorite disease or pest, or if you have more questions about winter tree care, there’s a lot more information on the Bartlett Tree Experts website.
Creating humane farm systems
The last time I saw Jessica Chipkin and Tyler Lobdell in person was the very last time I attended ANY kind of public event. That was on Wednesday, March 11, more than eight months ago. Crate Free Illinois was holding Chicago’s First Factory Farmed Animal Welfare Town Hall at Dovetail Brewery. in Chicago. I was the moderator.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to explode in Illinois and across the nation. Peggy wisely took a pass on attending the event. I can remember being loaded for bear with wipes and hand sanitizer, which I was using liberally throughout the evening.
The next day, Kathleen and I went into “shelter in place” mode, which we’ve observed since then. No Thanksgiving dinner with family for us.
But even a pandemic can’t stop the fight for farm animal rights. So we’re back together today, via the Intertubes, to see where we stand.
Tyler Lobdell joined Food & Water Watch’s legal team as a staff attorney in 2019, and focuses on combating factory farms through legal advocacy. Prior to joining Food & Water Justice, Tyler spent two years as the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s Food Law Fellow. Now, he is working on the Farm System Reform Act. Here’s what he writes.
- Immediate moratorium on new and expanded large factory farms (as defined by EPA)
- Phase out of existing large CAFOs by 2040
- Authorizes $100 billion over ten years for a voluntary buyout program, allowing existing factory farm operators to pay down debt and/or transition to alternative agriculture systems (like pasture-based or speciality crops)
- Would place responsibility on “integrators” (think Tyson, Smithfield, etc) for the environmental and other harms caused by their contract factory farms. As things are done now, the integrators contract away their liabilities to their contract farms while dictating nearly every aspect of the operation and keeping most of the profits.
- Amends the Packers & Stockyards Act to protect farmers from unfair and abusive practices used by integrators; This 1921 law was intended to rein in large packers, but was gutted by Regan, then Bush Sr, then Clinton, and today is essentially meaningless and farmers are at the mercy of the big multinational packers. Trump ultimately put the nail in the coffin of the Packers & Stockyards Act by eliminating the USDA agency long tasked with implementing it, the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA).
- Reinstates mandatory country of origin labeling for beef and pork products and extends to dairy products. Right now a cow raised and slaughtered oversees (in Brazil for example) and shipped to the U.S. to be “processed” in a U.S. plant can be labeled “product of the USA”. This is a longstanding gripe by US cattlemen and other higher quality livestock producers.
Jessica Chipkin is founder of Crate Free Illinois. Here’s what she has been working on.
New campaign asking Costco to sell only crate free pork: Back in 2012, Costco pledged to end the use of gestation crates in its supply chain by 2022. While this is certainly good news, we learned that Costco’s major suppliers are still planning to use gestation crates for the first part of a mother pig’s pregnancy. In our latest retail campaign, we’re asking Costco to require that all of its suppliers end their use of gestation crates starting from the time the mother pig is impregnated.
Aldi: It’s been over a year since Aldi updated its website to say we “expect our suppliers to pursue the elimination of crates for pregnant sows in favor of group housing.” Unfortunately, an expectation falls short of a commitment, and we’re still waiting to see if Aldi will finally require its suppliers to stop using gestation crates according to a specified timeline.
We learn more today.