Yahoo: Forget Tree Skirts — This Year the Coolest Christmas Decorators Are Doing 'Trees in Pots'
Forget Tree Skirts — This Year the Coolest Christmas Decorators Are Doing 'Trees in Pots'
Stan Boutin has climbed more than 5,000 spruce trees in the last 30 years. He has often returned to the forest floor knowing if a ball of twigs and moss within the tree contained newborn red squirrel pups. Over the years, those squirrels have taught Boutin and his colleagues many things, including an apparent ability to predict the future. Boutin, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, was ...
Knowing that, forest managers might be able to anticipate an outbreak and plan tree harvests ahead of the beetles or try preventative measures that might work on small outbreaks, such as tree thinning, pruning, setting out hormone traps for beetles, and getting rid of piles of logs that attract beetles.
Burls, spherical woody growths on the trunks of spruce, birch and other trees, are commonly found throughout wooded parts of Alaska.
In interior Alaska and some parts of Canada, witches' broom (an abnormal outgrowth of branches of the tree resembling the sweeping end of a broom), is commonly seen on black and white spruce trees. From late fall through the winter, the brooms are dark brown or "dead"looking and are often mistaken for birds' and squirrels' nests.
A very noticeable fall equinox feature in these parts is when deciduous tree leaves turn from green to yellow or orange or sometimes red, then fade and waft to the ground. Middle Alaska doesn’t have many species of deciduous trees: paper birch, aspen, willows and balsam poplar are all part of the dominant boreal forest here.