Sound Arboriculture, LLC

12/08/2024

WHEN OAKS HANG ONTO THEIR DEAD LEAVES

When trees hang onto their leaves, it’s called marcescence. Marcescence is the phenomenon where certain trees and plants, such as oaks, retain their dead leaves through the winter instead of shedding them in autumn. This occurs because the abscission layer, which normally allows leaves to detach, doesn't fully develop. The exact reasons for marcescence are not entirely known, but several theories suggest it could protect buds from winter desiccation, provide nutrients to the soil when leaves eventually fall in spring, or deter herbivores with less palatable twigs.

When I walk through the woods at this time of year, I see some oaks with leaves and some without. This is because some oak species are more prone to marcescence than others. Some juvenile species of oaks, commonly including bur oak, tend to keep their leaves. As trees mature, they tend to lose their leaves or only keep them on lower branches. I have also seen where they sporadically keep leaves top to bottom. Local climate and even genetic differences between trees of the same species can cause some to hold onto or lose their leaves differently.

11/09/2024

06/28/2024

Eastern Long Island and its vineyards are about to be clobbered by The Spotted Lanternfly.

No real effort at the state or county or town level to begin to address it.

The least we could all do is to target Tree of Heaven, it's main food source.

Instead, we will only act, it appears, once the crisis is on us.

57 vineyards on the North Fork. Think of the economic impact this will have. The farms won't be spared either.

We knew this was coming, and we have been sitting on our hands.

06/08/2024

The American chestnut is a native tree, which not only served as a keystone species of the Appalachian hardwood forests in northeastern America, but was also a cornerstone of American culture. The chestnut supplemented the American timber industry and it seemed that almost every cabin was made with its logs. However, from 1904 to 1940, over 3.5 billion American chestnut trees were wiped out by invasive chestnut blight, crippling the Appalachian ecosystem and American timber industry. The blight was caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, a fungus that came with the import of the Japanese chestnuts as ornamental trees starting around 1876. While the Japanese chestnut was resistant to the fungus due to millions of years of exposure, the American chestnut did not have that exposure, and was brought to the brink of extinction due to this invasive pathogen.

05/24/2024

Lunch in the trees!

04/18/2024

04/08/2024

03/27/2024

English Ivy is helping to spread Lyme Disease by providing ground cover for The White Footed Mouse, who carry the bacteria.