Managing Nature - Storms, Fluctuating Temperatures and Pests

Lou Meyer, business developer for Davey's mid-Atlantic region, discusses how arborists work with nature while dealing with storms, temperature changes and pest concerns. 

In this episode we cover:  

• Managing nature (1:02)
• Working with storms (1:58)
• Best time to treat trees (3:30)
• Winter in the mid-Atlantic (5:08)
• Cherry blossoms (6:17)
• How trees handle abnormal temperatures (7:14)
• Managing emerald ash borer (9:43)
• Managing other pests (10:57)
• Enjoying nature (13:38)
• ArborLock Growth Regulator (15:09)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.  

To learn more about early leafing, check out our blog, What Happens If Trees Bud Too Early?

To learn more about pests your trees could be affected by, check out the Davey Blog's Insect & Disease Issues tab.

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company 

Connect with Doug Oster at www.dougoster.com. 

Have topics you'd like us to cover on the podcast? Email us at podcasts@davey.com. We want to hear from you!    

Transcript

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Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each week, our expert arborists share advice on seasonal tree care, how to make your trees thrive, arborists' favorite trees, and much, much more. Tune in every Thursday to learn more because here at the Talking Trees Podcast, we know trees are the answer.

I'm joined this week again by my friend, Lou Meyer. He's regional business developer for the Davey Tree Expert Company from Maryland and the DC area. Lou, thanks again for coming on. I think you've been on the show more than anybody else, and today we're talking about managing nature. I want to know how you're going to do that. How are you going to manage nature?

Lou Meyer: Yes, Doug, I can barely manage my own life, right? Let alone nature. Kids running crazy and business going everywhere. No, it's great to be here. Always nice to hear you on the podcast, and it's a pleasure to speak on behalf of the brand.

Doug: When you think managing nature, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Lou: Yes, so in our industry, that's really the name of the game, is we are working with nature. We're working with nature to manage it in ways that makes nature safer for our clients, more aesthetic for our clients. We're frequently managing the health of trees in nature. Nature itself, the world around us, we've attempted to contain it in so many ways throughout human history, and what we've learned over and over again is we're never going to contain it. Nature always wins, which is great.

Doug: Well, anybody that has a garden can tell you nature's in charge. When it comes to trees, whether it's storms or drought or too much rain, nature's in charge. Talk a little bit about that from an arborist standpoint of, let's start with storms. We're at a point now where we're coming into the spring where we're going to have some changes in the weather. What does that bring to mind for you?

Lou: Right, we've talked about this on past episodes and, having arborists come out to your property to inspect your trees for issues going into storm season is really important. What we're looking for when we're out there is broken limbs in the canopy, dead limbs in the canopy. We're looking for signs of decay in the trunk of the tree, specifically the base of the tree. That's where if you see mushrooms growing out of the base of your tree, that's generally a pretty bad sign. That's where the pressure is on that trunk when the wind blows.

Fungi are a saprophytic life form, your Jeopardy word of the week. Saprophytic means that they feed on decay. The decay itself isn't the problem. I'm sorry, the mushroom itself, the conch isn't the problem. That's a sign of inter-decay. Yes, we're trying to manage that nature by getting ahead of the game, saying, all right, you've got a dead or broken limb hanging over your driveway. Let's prune that out now before the high winds come in so that you don't have a smashed windshield, or God forbid, hurt family member or guest.

Doug: If you had your druthers, would you rather do that before a tree leaves out or after it leaves out?

Lou: There are merits to both.

Doug: Yes, does it matter?

Lou: Yes, it does matter. There are merits to both. Before the tree leaves out, so when the canopy is dormant, it's way easier to see through the canopy. For us to see the tip-top of a large tree, once it leaves out, we're not seeing those top portions of the canopy. However, dead limbs are very easy to spot in the summer because they don't have leaves on them.

Now we, trained professionals, trained arborists, look for bud sets on those dormant branches. We look for signs of fungi, which again are signs of decay within the tree. We look for different cues to tell us that something's going on with that limb.

It's something that you just develop over time. If you were a birder, you look at a backyard, and you see six species where someone else might look out there and just see bushes. we identify issues in trees very quickly and usually pretty accurately. My druthers is in the winter season. Actually, we're recording this on March 13th in the Mid-Atlantic. The buds are starting to pop right now. This is the perfect time. You see that swell, but there's not leaves blocking your view.

Doug: Again, with managing nature, tell me a little bit about your winter season. How was it?

Lou: It has been mild in temperatures. We're going to see some crazy stuff with leaf outs this year and with probably with some tree decline too. One of the issues that's facing our Mid-Atlantic forests right now, and I'm pretty sure it's like this across the United States, too, is the weather fluctuations. We used to have solid, long winters, and then the regular length summers. What we've been seeing over the past few years here and elsewhere is these weather fluctuations where it's warm for a few days and then super cold for a few days. Here in February, we had a couple of days in the 60s. March 13th, it's 72 degrees out right now. That's not normal here. These trees are budding out early, and then getting zapped back by those cold nights.

Again, it's March 13th. In this region, we've been discussing the cherry blossoms for the tidal basin down in DC. That's a huge thing for Washington, DC in this region of the cherry blossoms. The National Park Service puts out a projected peak bloom time, and trees bloom based on something called degree days. We, as humans, follow the calendar. We say, oh, today's day, what, '97 or '67 in the year, but degree days are very different. Degree days are based on temperature and sunlight and a couple of other factors.

We play this game of when things are going to bloom out. Those weather fluctuations that you asked about, that changes everything, and trees don't follow a calendar. They don't know that it's February 16th. They know that it's 70 degrees out, time to leaf out. That causes trouble.

Doug: Yes, what does that mean for the trees? It's eventually going to get cold. In my area in Pittsburgh, we're experiencing the same thing. Not even really a winter, to tell you the truth. Seeing stuff bloom really early and crab apples budding here, cherries blooming here already, awful early. I'm most concerned about my magnolia. My magnolia, I get to see it bloom maybe once every three years, because the buds swell, we get cold wind, and those buds just turn to mush. I want to see my magnolia bloom, Lou.

Lou: Yes, I don't blame you. They're spectacular.

Doug: What does it mean in general for the trees in your region? What do you guys think ahead of spring?

Lou: What happens, well, it weakens the tree, right? When the tree pushes up growth, then it gets zapped back and it pushes up growth and gets zapped back, it's going through its store of carbohydrates, and the carbohydrates are what build new leaves. The first half of the season, trees are putting out growth. Their stems are elongating, their chunks are adding in girth with the rest.

The second half of the season, all of the sugars created through photosynthesis get stored down in the roots of the tree. Then that stored carbohydrate bank is used for pushing out new leaves the next year. If you have those weather fluctuations where it's warming and cooling and the tree's pushing out buds, getting zapped, pushing out buds, getting zapped, it goes through that store of carbs. If that happens a year after year after year, their overall bank of carbohydrates is just diminishing, which takes away from health systems, which takes away from those magnificent blooms.

What we do for that, again, managing nature, what we attempt to do is create a healthy environment for those trees through fertilization, nutrient management, soil work, where we're decompacting the soil, applying the correct amount of mulch around the base of the tree, talking to homeowners about watering the trees, and then trying to control pests and diseases through plant healthcare initiatives so that plant is, or tree, which is a plant, is in as positive a state as possible going into a stressful period.

Doug: Talking about pests and diseases, what are you thinking about as you're coming into spring?

Lou: Yes, well, let's relate it back to managing nature. That's a really tough one. There are pests and diseases that we know about that are native, or even non-native that are normal. Then we also have invasive pests that are species killers, right?

Emerald ash borer is one that is talked about often. I think you and I, our first show was on emerald ash borer actually the first time I was interviewed by you. That was an invasive pest that came in and has killed 99.8% of the ash trees from currently from Colorado East in the United States. We can manage it through certain plant healthcare initiatives through certain products, but really it's just ravaged the forests.

That has been a way where we've learned to manage a natural pest, but it also got out of hand. There are other ones out there. We are managing the Asian longhorn beetle in a number of quarantine zones around the United States. That is a very destructive pest. Right now, the next big one that's coming our way in the Mid-Atlantic that you're seeing, well it's here, so it's definitely in Pennsylvania, is the beach leaf disease. You did a great episode a few months ago on that one. It's what we're fairly certain at this point is a nematode, a little microscopic worm-like looking critter that hangs on the leaves of the trees and just shreds their photosynthetic cells so that they can't make the food that the tree needs.

Those are the large scale ones. The annual ones that we treat for, and we do a fairly well job of managing are things like leaf disease on your cherries. We talked about cherries. That's an annual, just fungal disease. It's in the air particulates that we breathe. It gets on those early cherry leaves. If they're not treated at bud break, at half growth and at full leaf growth, then you're probably going to start seeing, at least in the Mid-Atlantic, and the very humid air that we have here, you'll see defoliation early. Anthracnose is another big leaf disease that affects primarily dogwood trees and sycamore trees. There's fungi, there are pests, aphids and scale and other insects that feed on trees that we are constantly trying to manage.

Doug: Lou, you're really bumming me out.

Lou: [chuckles] Well, the good news is that we are managing them well. One of the tricks also, something that I feel needs to be mentioned is that we have to find balance when it comes to this management, too. 30, 40, 50 years ago, I hate to say it, but the industry's approach was to bomb everything, right? Hey, we want to kill the pest on that dogwood. Let's kill the pest on everything. It's not good for the environment. We're killing all these beneficial pests now too.

What we've pivoted to in the past 15 to 20 years is something called integrated pest management, IPM. This is really good news, Doug, to make you smile is we've gone away from that environmentally destructive approach of spraying everything to targeting specific pests on specific plants to do the least amount of environmental damage possible, ideally none at all, while managing the issues that are affecting your garden, yard, or property.

Doug: I want to change lanes a little bit when talking about managing nature, and something that I know you enjoy doing is spending time in nature. That's part of managing nature is enjoying nature. That's one thing that trees can do for us is give us a place to enjoy nature.

Lou: Oh, you bet. that's the name of the game is when people invest in nature, when they find themselves immersed in nature, they care more about it. The more that people care about the nature around them, the more they want to manage it in a very positive way for future generations. Yes, as far as managing nature on your property goes, going on a forest bathing expedition, or at least just a simple hike to find more appreciation of the trees and shrubs and perennials around us can do a wonder for you and your property.

Doug: Are you making your kids learn every tree and by their leaf and all that, like this is this type of oak, that's that type of oak?

Lou: We're doing the major genuses. Genuses, I should know this one. They know what an oak is versus a maple. They know holly. We have a bunch of hollies on our property so they all know the hollies. My boy, he's learned holly as Ilex. I'm pretty happy about that. Yes, they're learning those. We'll get to individual species soon, but we love talking about them.

Doug: When we do talk managing nature as we finish up, what else comes to mind for you?

Lou: One of the neat ways that we manage nature here at Davey, in the industry, in the arboriculture industry is through something called a growth regulator. We make our own product called ArborLock. Paclobutrazol is the name of the product, but ArborLock. What it does is it slows the shoot growth of trees, and it allows the trees to reallocate that energy to other places where it's needed. A tremendous boost to plant healthcare. It also minimizes the time in between prune cycles.

If you have, let's say, cherry, because we're on that topic. If you have a cherry close to your house, those things grow like crazy. That's something that you're pruning every year to get it off your house or over your driveway or from blocking your sidewalk. Plant growth regulator can really help to minimize the amount of growth each year so that it maybe becomes in every other year or even every third-year prune. It's one of those products that not a lot of homeowners know about. That is a fascinating way that we manage nature here.

Doug: Well, Lou, that was great stuff as always. Mother nature always has an upper hand, but we can do our best to make our landscape look its best by trying to manage nature. Thanks again for spending some time with me. I know that we'll be talking again soon.

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Lou: It's always a pleasure, Doug. Thanks so much for having me on.

Doug: Thanks, Lou. It's always such a pleasure to talk to Lou. Now tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees Podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster, and do me a big favor, subscribe to the podcast so you'll never miss an episode. If you've got an idea for a show or maybe a comment, send us an email at podcasts@davey.com, that's P-O-D-C-A-S-T-S@D-A-V-E-Y.com. As always, we'd like to remind you on the Talking Trees Podcast, trees are the answer.

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