Research shows that thousands of Northeast Iowa private landowners don’t understand the state and federal program dollars and technical assistance that are available to help them plan and manage their woodlands. Do you?
A recent study of Forest Reserve Landowners found that hundreds of Northeast Iowa landowners that have enrolled in the Forest Reserve Program do not have Forest Stewardship Plans and may never have consulted a private or public forester.
Why is this important?
- To get the dollars, you need the plan! Most state and federal programs that provide technical and financial assistance require a Forest Stewardship Plan, which can be developed in Iowa by a Regional DNR Forester or a Private Forestry Consultant.
- Pests love it when you ignore your woodlands! Well managed woodlands are less susceptible to disease and invasive species. Iowa is facing invasion from Emerald Ash Borer, Gypsy Moth, Garlic Mustard and other none native species that would love to move into your woodland, kill your trees and out compete your native flowers and trees.
- You are more likely to have the woodlands you want if you plan and manage. Not just for yourself but also for your children and grandchildren. If you want to be able to sell trees, then you should manage for tree harvest; if you want to be able to walk in your woodlands and see many different types of birds, then you should manage for bird habitat, if you love native wildflowers, make sure you know how to stop invasive plants in their tracks!
Call Before You Cut!
1 (855)568-8686
Research shows that every year landowners log their woods or clear their woodlands without consulting a state or private forester. Unfortunately, those studies also show that many woodland owners are not only degrading their future forest resource, they are also throwing dollars away.
In some documented cases, landowners have bulldozed and burned thousands of dollars in trees to plant annual crops without understanding the economic loss until it was too late. Many of the woodland owners are not informed about the benefits of understanding their forest resource. Its simple and beneficial to obtain forest management assistance prior to hiring a logger to harvest their timber.
NE IA RC&D in partnership with the USFS, the Iowa DNR and the Natural Resource Conservation Service to provide free assistance. The RC& D is specifically conducting one-on-one outreach, going to county fairs, home and trade shows and speaking to groups about why woodlands owners should call a state or private forester before they cut. For more information, to set up a meeting or to arrange a speaker for your next meeting contact Richard Kittelson.
Recent Forestry Projects
- EMERALD ASH BORER MONITORING FOR 2011
EAB girdled Sentinel Tree
For the 4th year in a row NE IA RC&D partnered with the Iowa DNR Forest Health Dept. emerald ash borer sentinel tree monitoring program. Sentinel trees are usually 4-6 inch diameter ash trees (sometimes smaller, sometimes larger) in parks and recreation areas that are at high risk for emerald ash borer infestations. Parks with campgrounds are at risk because the movement of infected ash firewood is the main method of transport for the borer. Depending on the size and number of campsites at each park, 1-5 ash trees are double girdled and the bark removed between the girdles. Each tree is tagged with a notice stating the tree is a part of the monitoring effort and gpsed to assist with locating the tree the following fall. It has been determined the ash borer is attracted to stressed ash trees first, so the girdled trees will be the trees that will attract any borers that may be in the area.
The following fall, the ash trees are cut down and the bark is peeled off in 6-10 areas of the tree, looking for the larva stage of the borer and evidence of it’s s-shaped tunneling activity. If undetected, an infestation of emerald ash borer eventually girdles the tree, essentially starving it of water and nutrients. Infected trees decline and die in 2-3 years.
Bark peeling ash tree for EAB
This year 416 sentinel trees statewide were inspected and all were negative for emerald ash borer. RC&D’s part of the monitoring was 104 trees in northeast Iowa parks and recreation sites. The girdling and tagging process was also repeated for the 2012 monitoring.
- Community Tree Inventories
On guard for ‘The Green Menace’
Taking inventory of trees in Howard County
By Keri Bugenhagen
News Editor, Cresco Times Plain DealerCRESCO – Lately, Iowans have been hearing about the looming threat of the emerald ash borer, also referred to as “The Green Menace.” According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), this metallic green insect is an invasive beetle native to China and eastern Asia that is specifically destructive to all varieties of ash trees.
According to Iowa State University Extension, the beetle in its adult stage only causes “minor feeding damage to ash foliage.” However, in the larval stage, the pest “feeds beneath the bark and disrupts water and nutrient flow within the tree, which leads to tree death.”
For the first time last May the beetle, measuring about 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch wide, was found beginning to wreak havoc on Iowa soil near New Albin in Allamakee County – a discovery made by the Iowa Emerald Ash Borer Team.
First found in southeastern Michigan, no one knows for sure how long the beetle has been around, although the USDA reports that the scientific community now believes the beetle has gone undetected on U.S. soil for about 12 years, based on the evaluations of ash tree destruction.
Richard Kittelson, Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation & Development Forestry Outreach Coordinator, has been part of the effort to survey local trees in order to thwart the potential upcoming destruction that might be caused by the emerald ash borer if it should soon move into the area. (Photo by Keri Bugenhagen)
While widespread sightings of the beetle remain to be seen in the area, Richard Kittelson, Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation & Development Forestry Outreach Coordinator, says it’s likely a matter of time before the beetle finds its way to Howard County.
Thus, in partnership with DNR Forestry, Kittelson has recently embarked on a mission to survey all street trees in the county. While publicly owned street trees are in the midst of being inventoried and evaluated, no private trees are to be included.
The project, funded by a grant from the USDA Forest Service allows the DNR to assist communities with a population under 5,000, stretching over 12 eastern Iowa counties.
According to Kittelson, not only does the grant allow for funding to be directed toward the street tree inventories, but also to aid in the development of comprehensive management plans that will be offered free-of-cost to participating communities.
Kittelson says there are a lot of trees in Cresco, therefore taking him a little longer to conduct tree inventories than he had first planned. “I think I’m looking at four to five days more,” he said last week. “I’ve got to say, I’ve gotten more questions from your community than any other community I’ve been in, which is good. It means people are paying attention.”
The tree surveying is meant to help communities in Howard County, as well as in other counties, determine what kind of trees are out there and what condition they’re in. And Kittelson says Cresco does have a high count of ash trees – a count that will be included in the management plan that will be released in the coming months.
State Urban Forester Emma Bruemmer, of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the management plan will be released in an effort to help Howard County prevent the spread of the emerald ash borer and to prepare the community for the damage that may potentially be seen due to the arrival of the beetle. She says the plan will help the community respond more quickly to the pest.
Bruemmer says the plans will discuss the importance of street trees in many different areas, for example the role they play in cleaning the air. “It will also show where some of the unhealthy trees are in the urban forest, and how to remove ‘risk’ trees – trees that could endanger humans or property,” she said. “It shows where all the ash trees are and in the case of the emerald ash borer, where they are and if they need to be removed.”
Bruemmer says risk trees are found in any community. “It’s been hard to keep up with the storms we’ve had this year,” she said. “We do expect to see a lot of risk trees that need to be addressed.”
She notes that not only does eastern Iowa seem to have a large population of ash trees, but there is also a large population of maple trees – over 50 percent in some communities. “Maple trees are a concern in the long-term as we start to see more invasive pests,” she said, adding that the lack of tree diversity could be part of the problem.
For example, the Asian longhorn beetle is another invasive pest that destroys maple trees. “Looking into the future, we hope that showing communities that they have a large population of not only ash, but maple, they can start planting a more diverse forest for long-term health,” she said.
Plant substitutions for ash and maple trees include: native oaks such as red, white, bur, chinkapin, shingle or swamp white; American and little leaf lindens or basswood; hackberry; river birch; gingko; thornless and podless honeylocust; Kentucky coffeetree; black walnut; London planetree; hickories and northern pecan; katsura tree; hophornbeam; hornbeam; pagoda dogwood; Japanese tree lilac; black cherry; serviceberry; flowering crabapple and hybrid elms.
Bruemmer notes that the current economy is having an effect on the removal of risk trees in most communities, however, having already developed a management plan for the City of Postville. “In Postville we found out that in removing risk trees as well as ash trees as the ash borer hits, it would take about 26 years to completely remove them with the city’s current budget,” she said. “It’s not enough to address this problem.”
She adds that in Iowa if the emerald ash borer begins to affect communities like Cresco, there will not be a lot of time to address the issue. As ash trees begin to die off due to the pest, communities will likely only have one to three years to begin removing dead trees as they become an issue to public safety. “Because of lawsuits that can often occur, communities have no choice but to expand their budget and remove the dead trees,” Bruemmer said. “We want to get them to think ahead so they don’t have a large crisis, especially with public safety. It’s a delicate balance because trees provide so many wonderful things for us, especially public trees, but also there is a risk side to that.”
- Northeast Iowa RC&D Gypsy Moth Monitoring for 2011
The gypsy moth is a non-native, serious pest of over 600 hardwood tree and shrub species. The gypsy moth damages the plants when the caterpillar stage eats the leaves. When there are many caterpillars and the damage occurs over several years, the continual defoliation can weaken and sometimes kill the trees.The gypsy moth is a native of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. It was brought to the United States in 1868 by scientist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot to Massachusetts to breed with other moths for a new strain of silk-producing caterpillars or “silkworms.” The experiment failed and some of his caterpillars eventually escaped. With an abundant source of food and few natural enemies in the United States, it has been moving west and south ever since.
The most common method of spread of the gypsy moth occurs when egg masses, which resemble a tan or buff-colored piece of fungus and are from the size of a nickel up to a 50-cent piece, are deposited on vehicles or any outdoor items, such as firewood, which are later moved. The moths can also be moved in the early caterpillar stage by the wind, and as hitchhiking adult moths.
It is important to know the gypsy moth is not established in Iowa. It is known to exist in several eastern states and is established just outside Iowa’s border in Wisconsin. If the gypsy moth becomes established in Iowa, it is important to detect it at the earliest possible time so hopefully it can be prevented from becoming a problem.
Recognizing the gypsy moth is an important part of preventing infestations and severe damage to Iowa’s woodlands and urban landscapes. The males are brown, with several black wing markings. As with other moths, the males have noticeable, feathery antennae. The wingspan of the male moth is about 1.5 inches. The females are white or cream colored with distinctive, V-shaped wavy lines or markings on the wings. Females are larger than the males with a wingspan of about 2 inches. Females do not fly, but the males can fly several miles. The caterpillar is identified by 5 pairs of blue dots or knobs, followed by 6 pairs of red dots along the top of the caterpillar. They are only ¼ inch long at first, but grow to almost 3 inches.
Last spring 7,344 gypsy moth traps were placed throughout Iowa by the “Gypsy Moth Slow the Spread Foundation” (www.gmsts.org/) in partnership with IA DNR Forestry and NE IA Resource Conservation & Development. The traps were picked up in the fall with a total of 347 traps capturing 478 male moths. Iowa may be treating some targeted areas in the spring of 2012 depending on the Slow the Spread budget.
The triangular traps are 3.5 inches high and 7 inches long and placed in trees or on posts. Each trap is labeled as government property and coded for location. Each trap also contains a non-toxic pheromone designed to lure adult males. Once inside the moth is caught in a sticky substance coating the trap’s interior. The person who placed the trap will remove it in late August or early September and the traps sent to the Iowa DNR and Iowa Dept. of Agriculture and Land Stewardship in Des Moines for inspection. The public is asked to please not disturb the traps. If you find a trap on the ground, please call one of the phone numbers listed on the label.
If you have any questions or think you may have a gypsy moth, please feel free to contact:
Tivon Feeley, IA DNR Forestry Health, 515-281-4915, tivon.feeley@dnr.state.ia.us
Or Richard Kittelson, NE IA RC&D, 563-864-7112, kittelson@northeastiowarcd.org
- Community tree inventories conducted in Allamakee, Clayton, and Winneshiek Counties
An extensive tree inventory will help to assess the risk the emerald ash borer may pose to communities in the three counties.In May, 2010, the emerald ash borer, the invasive insect from eastern Asia that kills ash trees, was found on an island on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River near New Albin by the Iowa Emerald Ash Borer Team.
The Iowa Emerald Ash Borer Team includes officials from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and the USDA Forest Service.
The emerald ash borer attacks and kills all ash trees (Fraxinus species) by larval burrowing under the bark and eating the actively growing cambium layers. No 100-percent effective control measures are currently available. Because of this, emerald ash borer is the most serious threat to Iowa’s native forest and urban tree population since Dutch elm disease.
An important component of Iowa’s effort to prevent the spread of the invasive pest is preparing Iowa communities to respond quickly and effectively if the pest is discovered in the community. A grant from the USDA Forest Service allowed the DNR to work with communities that have a population under 5,000 in 12 eastern Iowa counties. The grant provided funding to conduct community boulevard tree inventories and to create comprehensive management plans. The management plans focus on the importance of boulevard trees, overall forest health of boulevard trees, management cycles, tree risk mitigation and suggestions on how to manage the urban ash tree populations. Regional meetings were held to answer questions from the communities that received management plans.
In partnership with DNR Forestry, NE IA RC&D Forestry Outreach Coordinator Richard Kittelson inventoried all boulevard trees in the three county’s communities under 5000 population. Only publicly owned boulevard trees were inventoried and evaluated, no private trees were included. Kittelson contacted each community’s officials before beginning work.
Another grant from the Forest Service allowed the DNR to develop a resource kit to assist in the battle with the invader. The kit is available online at www.iowadnr.gov, then click on the EAB Resource Kit heading in the column on the right side of the page. The EAB resource kit will allow communities to estimate the cost to remove the ash trees and has information on where those trees can be processed. The kit also includes basic identification information and has a list of consulting foresters and tree treatment options.
Additional information about emerald ash borer and current monitoring efforts can be found at the following websites:
- Trout Run Reforestation Project and Bottomland Forestry
This project begin in 2003 and was funded by Iowa DNR- Bureau of Forestry, Northeast Region of the US Forest Service. The goal of this project was to promote forest and timber related conservation practices in Northeast Iowa. The environmental and economic benefits of timber are a driving force behind promotion of this project. Initially this project started from the Trout Run Reforestation Project, a effort aimed at reducing soil erosion on steep cropped slopes by planting hardwood timber.
The Trout Run Reforestation Project has resulted in the targeting of other timber related programs in Northeast Iowa. The use of GIS and water quality modeling have played a key role in determining where forestry outreach occurs. Along the Upper Iowa River in Winneshiek County, GIS was used to identify land qualifying for NRCS Conservation Program 31, Bottomland Forestry. Qualifying land was then cross-referenced with landowner data and contact lists were created. Being that the program is only 50% cost-share, additional funding was secured through the Iowa Farm Bureau to increase cost-share to 90%.
