Tom Kimmerer: Trees and People

Ancient date palm of Judea germinated after 2000 years

Sun, 12 Jun 2005 03:19:44 GMT

The date palms of Judea are praised in the Bible and the Koran for their beauty, shade, food and medicinal qualities. Now we may get a chance to taste the famed fruit. A date seed found during archeological excavations of Masada, where Jewish Zealots killed themselves rather than fall to the Romans, has germinated and appears likely to survive.

Radiocarbon dating confirms the archeological evidence: the seed is about 2,000 years old. This is the oldest seed ever germinated. Lotus seeds of about 1200 years' age have been germinated in China, but none as old as this.

The seed was obtained by Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician and scholar of medicinal plants of the Middle East. It was germinated by Dr. Elaine Soloway of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies.

At the time of the fall of Masada, when Israel ceased to exist for 1900 years, vast plantations of date palms were found throughout the region. Dates were an important food and medicine. The biblical land of "milk and honey" refers to date honey. The Koran describes the date as a symbol of goodness, and the date palm is associated with heaven. By the time of the Crusades, all the date palms had been destroyed. Modern Israel, for which dates are important symbolically and economically, grows date trees imported from California and originating elsewhere in the Middle East. So, the growth of this seedling could potentially resurrect a highly important plant, both economically and culturally.

There is an important unknown, that will not be revealed for at least 20 years: is the tree a male or female? Dates are dioecious, bearing male flowers on one tree and female on another. If this tree is a male, it will only be a historical curiosity. If it is a female, there should be adequate pollen from males of other date palms to allow the tree to bear fruit.

If all goes well, we could once again taste the fruits of the land of milk and honey, thanks to the Zealots of Masada and the curiosity of a group of scientists.

Getting cherry trees to bloom on time

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:28:26 GMT

Festivals to celebrate the blooming of trees are held all over the world, and can be a major tourist draw. Most famous among blooming festivals are the various celebrations of cherry blossoms in Japan, Washington DC and other places. The vagaries of weather means that blossoms often fail to appear at the scheduled time for festivities. Since festivals have to be scheduled well in advance, it is easy to miss the actual bloom date. As cities become warmer, both because of climate change and the urban heat island effect, blossoms are occurring much earlier, often well before tourists arrive to celebrate the event.

Authorities in Hirosaki, in northern Japan, are funding research by tree biologists to try to control blossoming so that it occurs when the festivals are scheduled. Since hundreds of thosands of tourists may descend on a properly timed festival, the city stands to lose a lot of money if it is unable to predict the timing of blossoming. Hirosaki is in a cooler area than most Japanese cities and the blossom time of cherries often coincided with Golden Week, a national week of holidays. Up to two million visitors go to Hirosaki when the blossoms coincide with Golden Week.

Scientists at Hirosaki University are experimenting with hormone sprays and injections and piling snow around cherry trees. To date, none of the treatments have been effective. This is not surprising. Once a tree's dormancy requirement has been met, the timing of flowering in temperate trees is tightly tied to degree days (heat accumulation above a threshold temperature). It seems very unlikely that hormonal control of flower timing is significant. Packing snow may cool the roots, but flower development is more likely dependent on air temperature. I suspect that the scientists will spend a lot of money without any significant outcome. Maybe it is time to reschedule Golden Week.

The article describing this issue doesn't address some important questions: how often is Golden Week missed, and has there been a trend toward earlier blooming over time? The article says that there has but does not describe the trend in sufficient detail. Also, the urban heat island effect, which is often much larger in cities than other sources of climate change, is not addressed. While little can be done over the short term regarding climate change, the urban heat island effect can be mitigated.

Putting the smell back in flowers

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:37:01 GMT

Horticulturists have selected and bred fantastic ornamental plants with showy, often dramatic flowers. Along the way to today's modern flowers, something has been lost. In the last 50 years, as breeders have selected for better or new colors, larger flowers, longer stems and longer shelf life, they seem to have inadvertently selected against smell. Many modern flowers lack odor or have minor smells compared to their wild ancestors or older cultivars. Now breeders are beginning to pay more attention to smell and to select modern cultivars for odor as well as appearance. Nursery catalogs are beginning to list smell along with color and other descriptors. The desire for strong fragrance is also behind the resurgence in traditional and heirloom varieties.

Volunteers caring for street trees

Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:26:18 GMT

In Palo Alto, CA, an innovative volunteer program is improving the health of city trees. Volunteers working with the citizen organization Canopy are taking care of 1200 street trees planted in the last five years. The volunteers are examining the trees for water needs, support stake removal and problems. Problem trees are reported to the city arborist. They are also leaving leaflets with homeowners to remind them to care for the young trees and providing tips on their care. Water needs of young trees are particularly critical in the summer-dry mediterranean climate of coastal California.

While many cities have active tree planting programs, few have the budgets to properly care for the trees. Citizen organizations like Canopy are a great way to mobilize concerned residents to help care for street trees.

Biggest ecological restoration project

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 16:39:39 GMT

New Scientist has an article (subscription required) about the largest ecological restoration/management project ever. Dust storms from Inner Mongolia and Northwestern China have always swept across northern China, but centuries of deforestation and overgrazing have made matters much worse. Chinese families are forced to stay indoors during the spring wind storms, and the dust destroys machinery and crops. The problem is worldwide: dust from China causes problems, including airport closures, in Korea and Japan. The dust darkens the sky as far away as Colorado.

The Chinese government initially tried building a wall of trees to block the dust. Now, China, along with Korea, Japan and Mongolia, are implementing the largest ecological management project to try multiple approaches to reducing the dust problem. Plans include grasslands restoration in dry areas, reforestation of uplands and a switch from wood as an energy source to wind and solar. There is no shortage of either of these energy sources in the region. One part of the forest restoration scheme involves the use of waste water to irrigate young pine plantations.

Although the project is huge, multinational and well funded, it may not work. Centuries of neglect of western China have made a natural phenomenon into a serious problem, and centuries of effort may be required to resolve it.

Thanks to Dave Roberts at Gristmill. He has a good account of the article here.

Phenology: Springwatch in Britain

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 18:42:03 GMT

The Springwatch project in Britain, sponsored by the Woodland Trust and the BBC, is a large-scale effort to record the timing of spring events in nature. The project has been enormously successful, with over 114,000 observations turned in to date. Initial results suggest that many events normally associated with spring have been occurring throughout the mild British winters of recent years. What is most important is that this kind of large-scale citizen participation in phenology records, if kept up over a long time, will provide scientists with enormously useful information on the impacts of climate change on the natural world.

This is also a great educational tool, one that could easily be implemented in the US. It not only serves an important role in climate change research, but it is an educational tool as well. Any community process that enhances the ability of the citizenry to observe nature is a benefit.

Growing up without nature: British kids don't know their trees

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 18:34:52 GMT

The Woodland Trust found that 94% of British children are unable to identify common native trees. Even oaks were only recognized by 20% of kids in the survey. The survey of 7 to 14 year olds found that the most recognizable tree was holly, known for its indoor use as a holiday decoration.

See earlier Growing up without nature post

Growing up without nature

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 13:40:30 GMT

An interesting article in the New York Times today about the disconnection of children and nature. Kids are so involved in computer games, television, game boys etc. that they seem to spend less and less time out of doors. Neighborhoods are increasingly unfriendly to outdoor play - closing school yards after hours, prohibiting treehouses - and parents are having a hard time getting kids out of the house. A new book due out this summer by Richard Louv calls this "nature deficit disorder."

All of this is based on anecdotal evidence, but I think it is true. Kids know every Pokemon or Power Rangers character but can't name the birds in their back yard - indeed have never even seen the birds in their back yard. My kids are very interested in nature, and spend a lot of time outdoors, but mostly in the back yard. We don't seem to get out in the woods as much as I'd like, though it is certainly very accessible from here. Many of their classmates seem to never have been in the woods.

There is a danger here - it is hard to care about something that is distant and unknown. The more kids are removed from nature, the less likely they are to care about its conservation. Oh, sure, kids are passionate about protecting rainforests, but rainforests are a distant abstraction.

Some years ago, I started asking my Natural Resources students how many were bird watchers. To my astonishment, over 10 years of asking this question, not one student ever admitted to being a birder. That may not be surprising in the general student population, but presumably natural resources students have some larger connection to nature. Not only were they not birders, but they generally could not identify anything in nature - trees, wildflowers, birds - until they took a course in it.

Somehow, we need desparately to reenergize the connection between kids and nature. Environmental education in the schools is important but not sufficient. We need nature education. We need to make knowing your neighborhood trees as important as knowing Pokemon. How do we do that? I'm not sure except by immersion. Kids like mine have an advantage - their parents are biologists. Maybe I should start taking their friends on weekend walks in the woods.

Google Maps shows vast clearcutting in British Columbia

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:51:20 GMT

As a forester, I understand that clearcuts can be a useful management tool. In the Appalachians, where I live, small patch clearcuts are an excellent method to regenerate forests, return of vegetation is rapid (from stump sprouts especially), and impacts on water quality are minimal. As my silviculture professor, Doc Johnson, used to say, all silviculture is clearcutting - we're only arguing over the size of the cut. In other words, there is a continuum from cutting a single tree to cutting an entire watershed. Both ends of this continuum are probably worse than somewhere in the middle.

Nevertheless, clearcutting has to be used with care and responsibility. So it is really disturbing to see the satellite photos of clearcuts in British Columbia using Google Maps. It is difficult for me to believe that this represents responsible, sustainable forestry.

Google Maps lets us look at vast areas of North America with detailed maps and satellite photos. They give ordinary citizens a chance, not just to see what our continent looks like, but what we are doing to it.

Read more at Organic Matter and Mezzoblue. Then go to Google Maps to see the actual maps. You can pan and zoom the maps to get an impression of the vast scale of the clearcuts.

Satellite image courtesy of Organic Matter, derived from Google Maps

Phenology: Oak pollen almost done

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:23:53 GMT

Oak flowering in central Kentucky is almost done for the year. This is good news for allergy sufferers, here in the pollen capital of the US. Oak catkins (male flowers, pictured on the right is scarlet oak) are dropping from the trees, and pollen counts are declining. This has been a good year for oak flowers, with no late-season frosts. Most of the wind-pollinated trees flower early (oak, elm, hackberry, hickory) before or at the time of first leaf flush. For the remainder of the season, insect-pollinated trees will continue flowering. These do not pose problems for people with allergies, since they do not release large amounts of pollen. However, grass pollens will begin to pick up shortly.

Tsunami recovery may threaten Indonesian forests

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:54:17 GMT

Rebuilding Aceh, the Indonesian province most devastated by the December tsunami, will require huge amounts of wood. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that reconstruction in Aceh will require over 1 million cubic meters of wood. Illegal logging is rampant throughout Indonesia, and there are fears that the demand for wood in Aceh will accelerate the ongoing destruction of Indonesia's rainforests. Ralph Ashton, WWF spokesman, says that donor countries should supply wood from sustainably managed forests to assist in reconstruction efforts without denuding Indonesian forests.

WWF-Indonesia has launched a set of green reconstruction guidelines to provide a policy framework for rebuilding Aceh. The guidelines are avalable here (.pdf).

Dari WWF-Indonesia: "Kawasan Aceh yang luluh lantak akan semakin buruk keadaannya bila negara-negara donor tidak segera menyediakan kayu dari sumber yang dikelola secara lestari untuk propinsi yang dilanda tsunami ini."

Welcome to the pollen capital

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 02:21:51 GMT

Lexington, KY, my home town, is this year's official Pollen Capital according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. It is ranked first among US cities in tree pollen measures this spring. Rankings are based on pollen counts, rates of allergy medicine use, and per capita numbers of allergists. But it is pollen that accounts for year-to-year changes in the rankings, and our tree pollen is very high this year. Elm, hackberry, oak and hickory are the major spring offenders.

Here is an article in the Herald Leader, and this year's rankings.

Geneva Convention won't save trees

Tue, 26 Apr 2005 15:11:03 GMT

A Florida couple has lost their latest effort to save the grapefruit trees in their back yard. Florida is struggling with citrus canker, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri. Quarantine rules require all trees within 1900 ft. of an infected tree to be destroyed. The Boca Raton couple, Edmund and Laura Gerstein, sued to stop their two grapefruit trees from the ax. They claimed that the Geneva Convention prohibited government destruction of civilian food sources in time of war. Claiming that the war on terrorism and the Iraq war could cause a food shortage, the Gersteins posted the Geneva Convention on their front door and tried to stop agriculture officials from cutting the trees. The court didn't buy it and the trees have been cut down.

King and Queen trees

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 19:52:14 GMT

Authorities in Shichuan, Ganzu Province, China, have designated two pear trees the King and Queen trees of the town orchard. The 800 ha orchard has over 10,000 trees older than 300 years. The King and Queen are around 450 years of age, according to provincial authorities.

Aside from the cool idea of appointing trees to high office, the brief article in the Chinese press raises the question of how these trees live to such great age. Pears are not typically long-lived, but with continuous care and careful pruning, it is possible they could be this old. I'd love to see pictures, and will try to find some.

Temple uses trees to mark graves

Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:59:59 GMT

A Buddhist temple in Oharamachi, Japan, is using trees instead of monuments to mark graves. Many Buddhists ask for natural burials, and see trees as a way to mark their passing without monuments. The temple has used dogwood, magnolia and kumquat (Fortunella sp.) for the first fourteen burials. The temple will not allow any monuments in their new burial ground, only permitting the use of trees as memorials.

Philippines furniture makers running out of wood

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 02:22:00 GMT

The Philippines, once almost completely clothed in tropical rainforest, is running out of wood. Philippine furniture makers are complaining that prices for raw materials are rising and available wood does not meet demands. Plantations are not producing sufficient raw material, and timber permits for natural forests have been suspended. A four-month suspension of timber permits is allowing government authorities to inspect all operations for compliance with current logging rules. The underlying cause of the shortage is simply that the forests are gone: only about 3% of the original primary rainforest remains. In secondary forests, illegal logging and burning for clearance are rampant. This situation contrasts with Malaysia where restrictions on logging are helping preserve upland rainforest and rubber wood production is filling the demands of furniture makers.

Thailand looks to trees to reduce future tsunami damage

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 02:06:37 GMT

As in Indonesia, the Thai government has realized that coastal forests provided substantial protection against the December 2004 tsunami. Coastal villages with even a small barrier of trees between buildings and the shore fared better than those without the barriers. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment plans to survey coastal forests and begin a coastal planting program. What seems to be missing from the plans is the distinction between planting trees and restoring coastal ecosystems. Malaysia's approach, to protect and restore natural mangrove swamps, and similar efforts in Indonesia are more likely to succeed in the long run.

Swaziland: Balancing tree conservation and economy

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 15:01:14 GMT

In Swaziland, the king's mother is promoting a plan to help impoverished villagers by cenralizing the selling of wood handicrafts and using the internet to promote craft sales. Some villagers are using wood from trees whose harvest is not sustainable, threatening an already critical resource. The needs of the villagers are dire: Swaziland's male population has been decimated by HIV-AIDS, and many households are run by the surviving women.

In conflicts between the dire needs of the poor and the need to conserve critical resources, resources generally lose. In this case, the tragedy of the commons prevails: although the remaining forests of Swaziland are protected on paper, they are treated as a common resource by poor craftspeople.

From the article:

'These trees take more than a person's lifetime to grow to maturity. It is illegal to cut them, but this stops no one. Once they are gone, the handicraft makers are out of business,'' said environmentalist Sipho Ndwandwe.

‘'This disappearance of Swaziland's fuel wood is imminent in some areas, while other areas face the extinction of all indigenous trees in a matter of years, based on the rate of current consumption and the new commercial exploitation of fuel woods,'' said veteran nature conservationist Ted Reilly.

A study commissioned by Reilly classified the country's indigenous trees as a non-renewable resource, many of which are in danger of extinction due to over harvesting. Endangered tree species include lead woods, knob thorns, bush willows (comretums), and umbrella trees (acacia nilotica).

‘'The ancient lead wood (combretum imberbe) in the Lubombo region has been carbon dated to be 1050 years old. Other mature trees of different species are well over 300 years old. For all intents and purposes, such ancient hardwoods can't really be considered to be utilisable resources on a sustainable consumptive basis. They are just too slow growing to produce sustainable yields because they will not replace themselves as mature trees in the span of a man's lifetime,'' the report said.

The study found that when the value of the wood input is considered, the curios made from this product by Swazi craftspeople are ‘'grossly under valued and under priced''.

‘'As large tracts of the Kingdom are being rapidly and systematically desertified, a fuel wood crisis is developing for rural communities, and greater pressures are building on protected lands,'' Reilly said.

Cherry trees loved to death

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 15:20:42 GMT

The famous Japanese cherry trees of the Mall in Washington D.C. are suffering from the footsteps of millions of visitors. Soil compaction is shortening the lives of the cherry trees. Over a million people visit the trees during the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, and twenty million walk the mall the rest of the year. Sidewalks are too narrow to contain the visitors, and except in some critical areas, there are no fences or otehr barriers to keep people off the roots. The outcome is predictable: reduced growth and vigor and shorter lives. The oldest and largest cherry trees are the ones most remote from regular visitors. More at the Washington Post.

In defense of trees

Thu, 07 Apr 2005 14:46:30 GMT

Danny Westneat, a columnist for the Seattle Times, has an interesting column about trees and people. He says that Seattle residents are all to eager to sue their neighbors or the city over problems caused by trees.

"It's almost like we've come to regard trees as humanlike neighbors. If you run into a tree, or trip on its roots, it's not your fault. Blame the tree... That's how I feel about the trees. They are unprovokable. Stolid. They ought to be immune from lawsuits."

Adopt a Joshua tree

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 15:02:34 GMT

Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, is a slow-growing, slow-reproducing species. Its range and habitat are limited, and the species is threatened by land development in the California, Nevada and Arizona desert. Yucca Valley, California, adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park, has established a joshua tree adoption program. Property owners can adopt trees from land being cleared for development, and transplant them to their own property. The trees are free, but the moving costs are borne by the acquiring property owner. More sensible development might be a better idea, but at least this rare species is being protected to some degree. KESQ TV.

Photography: Trees in Snow

Tue, 05 Apr 2005 15:54:14 GMT

Photographs of trees in snow, with accompanying poems, by the renowned Iranian filmmaker and photographer Abbas Kiarostami, are on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. This is the first exhibit by Kiarostami in the UK.
A full description of the exhibit is at Payvand, and sample pictures are at Iran Heritage.
The short poems or poem fragments include:

Snow descends
from the black cloud
with the whiteness of snow

Inside the shrine
I thought a thousand thoughts
and when I left
it had snowed

Technical Difficulties

Sat, 02 Apr 2005 11:52:32 GMT

We are continuing to have technical problems. New posts will be limited until the problem is resolved. We lost some posts and will try to recover them.

Update: Thanks to Steve Kirks of Radio Userland, I think we have solved the problem.

Malaysia, Indonesia burning

Fri, 25 Mar 2005 15:42:10 GMT

Forest fires are blanketing Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in haze. Petaling Jaya, the Kuala Lumpur where my wife and I used to live, had visibility down to 4 km yesterday. In Selangor, much of the smoke appears to be from local fires, particularly in peat soils (soils that are mostly organic matter). Malaysia, Singpore and parts of Indonesia are in a prolonged drought, which has dried out normally wet soils. The problem is not as widespread as in past years.

Reports in New Straits Times, The Star.

Palm conservation on Palm Sunday

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 02:53:05 GMT

Churches in North and South America are changing the way they obtain palm fronds for Palm Sunday celebrations. More than 300 million palm fronds are harvested for Palm Sunday use in the US alone. At least 22 American churches are buying certified chamaedorea fronds to protect palm resources in Mexico and Central America. The Rainforest Alliance has developed a certification program that will help educate villagers in sustainable harvesting practices. Eco-Friendly Palms for Church Services (LiveScience). Rainforest Alliance.