Members and friends of the Northeast Arboretum located at the UNL - Haskell Agriculture Laboratory (HAL), one and one half miles east of Concord, NE conducted a fund drive earlier this year and obtained financial support to purchase a 2.77 acre parcel of ground from Charles Paulsen of Laurel. This acreage has a planting of trees and shrubs that acts as a living snowfence to protect the adjacent county road from drifting snow and also helps stop the wind and snow from blowing directly on the HAL office building and parking lot. In January, Northeast Arboretum President Lawrence Fuchs began working with Mr. Paulsen in obtaining the property to be included in the Northeast Arboretum management. Over forty different individuals, businesses and friends of the Northeast Arboretum contributed for the purchase. Some contributions came from as far away as Stephenville, Texas and Mahtomedi, Minnesota. The Northeast Arboretum then worked through the University of Nebraska Foundation to buy the property from Mr. Paulsen.

Eleven years ago, Steve Rasmussen, UNL District and Extension Forester and Gordon Olson (the farm manager at the time for the UNL site) approached Mr. Paulsen about establishing a demonstration living snowfence on the property. At that time, the ground was enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program. Mr. Paulsen agreed and in the spring of 1989, thirty different evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs were planted in a multi-row windbreak located directly west of the HAL headquarters. Today there are close to fifty different types of trees and shrubs represented that landowners in northeast Nebraska can order and plant for conservation purposes. Some trees in the windbreak are close to thirty feet tall.  

This is the only planting of it=s type in the state. It allows farmers, acreage owners or other landowners one site to visit to see all the different types of trees and shrubs available in the Nebraska Conservation Tree Program growing in a working windbreak setting.

This collection of trees and shrubs allows them to see and compare what they may want to plant in their windbreak. Having this planting under the management of the Arboretum will allow for more use and management of the resources on the site. The living snowfence windbreak is used extensively for tours and as a reference site for those with questions about windbreak species selection and growth potential. Plans are already underway to establish a wildflower and native grasses planting around the property edges.

For more information on the living snowfence and the Northeast Arboretum, contact Steve Rasmussen, District/ Extension Forester and Northeast Arboretum Curator at (402) 370-4024.

The National Gardening Association has just launched a web site geared toward those whose green thumbs aren=t fully grown yet. At http://www.kidsgardening.org you=ll find tips for captivating even the youngest gardener, plus classroom activities searchable by topic, and a gag of cartoon ATreetures@ designed to teach students to treat nature responsibly.

It=s called the AParent Primer,@ but this link has useful information for teachers, too, such as Chapter One, AGardening At Every Age,@ which explains which gardening activities appeal to different age groups. Chapters Three and Six deal with garden design and choosing plants that kids will especially like. Click on AClassroom Stories,@ AActivities,@ or AAll About Plants@ to search for advice from teachers who=ve already begun school gardens, or for lesson and plant ideas for your students. Or, browse one of the many topics - from herbs to hydroponics - that are listed.

Follow the AMillennium Project@ link to ATreetures,@ to meet these characters who have lots of information to share about tree care and tree planting. Each Atreeture@ represents a different natural process that allows a tree to grow and flourish. Several of the Atreetures@ come with a more in-depth lesson explaining these processes - for example, click on ABlossom@ to learn more about pollination. Other lessons tackle root systems, composting, and photosynthesis.

(Source: Nebraska Cooperative Extension 4-H Alerts Newsletter May 5, 2000)

 Millennium Green is a national project to encourage everyone across the Nation to plant or adopt a tree, establish a garden, or protect or care for a special natural resource treasure in honor of the new millennium. The new Millennium Green web site address is www.green.gov. The web site describes how to get involved and register your project online. Millennium Green is a national project of the White House Millennium Council led by the Department of Agriculture in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Department of Interior, Department of Education, and Department of Justice. There are numerous hyperlinks to other partner organizations on the web site. Private organizations, companies, and individuals will participate in Millennium Green efforts across the Nation. There are links from the Cooperative Forestry web site to the Millennium Green web site. Contact: Susan Mockenhaupt at smockenhaupt@fs.fed.us.

(Source: Shady Lane Newsletter, April 2000)

One thing you won=t see in a forest are manicured lawns around the trees. Research shows that newly planted trees are at a disadvantage when they must compete with grass for water, air and nutrients. A forest tree provides its own mulch with several inches of leaves or needles on the ground. We can imitate this by mulching the planting area with 3 to 4 inches of wood chips, bark, pine needles, straw or shredded leaves (rocks and gravel do not count!).

BENEFITS OF MULCH

Conserves Water

Mulch protects the soil from sun and wind, resulting in less surface evaporation while reducing the need for watering.

Controls Weeds

By blocking sunlight, mulch discourages grass and weed growth, which competes with trees for moisture and nutrients.

Insulates Soil

Mulch keeps the soil cooler in summer - further reducing irrigation needs - and helps reduce the soil temperature in winter. Temperature moderation helps rooting.

Improves Soil Structure/Content

A protective layer of mulch reduces soil compaction from foot traffic and watering practices, allowing water to penetrate more easily. At the same time, mulch increases biological activity, encouraging worms, fungi, and other organisms to work the soil into an optimum consistency; a rich, loose mix with plenty of air spaces for young tree roots.  Organic mulches decay over time, providing nutrients for the tree.

Protect Trees From Damage

There is less chance of mechanical damage from mowers, edgers, and weed whips when the lawn is removed from around the base of the tree and mulch is used.

(Adapted from: Wyoming Tree News - Spring 99)

 

Many of you know and have worked with John DuPlissis, the Northeast District Forester Assistant. John has accepted a position with the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension Service. He will be working through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources based out of Wisconsin Rapids (Central Wisconsin). His work will mostly entail education programming on forest resource issues with landowner groups in a multi-county region.

In the 6 and 2 years that John has been here in the northeast with the NFS and Lower Elkhorn NRD, he has made a lot of friends, accomplished many projects and has worked on conservation tree plantings or community tree activities in most of the counties in this part of the state. His last day is May 31 and he will be sorely missed. His office number is (402) 371-7313. Give him a call and wish him good luck in the north woods. We hope to fill his position in the near future.

The 2000 biennial Community Forestry Conference is set for July 12-14 in Dickinson, North Dakota. The topics include; our past and future in arboriculture, trees for the northern Great Plains, planning a volunteer tree planting project, inventorying small communities, and developing a community plan for the future.

There will also be outdoors hands on sessions which will include: pruning, planting, low water maintenance landscaping and diagnosing tree problems.

Your family is welcome to tour and vacation with you. Registration packets with an agenda will be mailed out soon. Call David Mooter, (402) 444-7804, or Rachel Allison, (308) 532-3611 ext. 161.

This Anew@ decade is starting off dry and hot. With the decade of the 90s just past and being the wettest on record, the next 10 years may be drier than normal to keep a balance. Who knows, but it is sure starting off dry. With our past dry fall followed by the mild winter and now the dry start this spring, there is not much soil moisture to work with. Anyone who has a tree planting that has or will be planted this spring should be planning on ways to give some additional water to the seedlings beyond the limited amount that may fall from the sky.

Watering young trees will make the difference in survival and growth. Water is the most limiting factor for the majority of tree and shrub plantings in the plains. A general rule-of-thumb that is followed is to have one inch of water per week available for the seedling. Due to differences in soil texture and the rate that the water is used or has moved, I prefer to take each situation individually and check the soil once a week and determine if the moisture needs to be replenished on a site by site basis.

Take a soil probe or small trowel and dig 8 to 10 inches from the base of the tree seedling to a four to six inch depth. If there is soil moisture at this depth, do not water. If the moisture starts to be missing, it means the moisture is working it=s way down and you need to start watering to soak the soil profile and replenish the soil profile. Allowing the soil to slightly dry out and the start of dryness to move downward will help the plant establish a better root system rather than having constant moisture close to the soil surface.

Use of a soaker hose or a slow trickle from the garden hose is the best application that will reduce runoff loss. If the seedlings are numerous and in a windbreak setting, then creating small bowls or basins around the base of the tree will allow the water to be poured more quickly around the seedling without running off.

Another technique used is to place 5 gallon buckets next to the seedlings with a small 1/8 inch hole in the base. A large water tank is then used to fill the buckets up quickly with the small hole releasing the water slowly.

Here is a catch that some people may not be considering. If conservation mulch was installed on the windbreak, there will still need to be a watering schedule if there is not sufficient rainfall. The plastic mulch does not create water, it conserves what is in the soil. Thus if the conditions are dry, watering the seedlings with the conservation mulch on the row is still necessary. Many people assume that the conservation mulch is the >cure all@ to their windbreak management. That is not the case, without rain, the trees still need to be watered, though not as often.

Weed and grass control directly around the newly planted seedlings is especially important since those close weeds and grasses will use moisture otherwise available for the seedling. On newly planted windbreaks, keep the weed and grass competition away from the seedling for a 12 to 18 inch radius. Letting vegetation grow between rows and at least 12 inches away from the seedling in the row is a good idea since that vegetation will not use much if any water that the seedling will be using and it will give the newly planted seedlings protection from the wind and sun during the summer. Keep an 18 to 24 inch Aband width@ clean along each side of the tree row the first year and gradually increase that as the trees grow and the corresponding roots go farther from the base of the tree.

From my experience, newly planted trees and shrubs will have 8 to 12 inches of root growth each year. That means the first 18 to 24 inches out from around the seedlings is the area to keep weed and grass free. Let the vegetation grow between the tree rows (in the middle) for protection from the hot winds and for wildlife habitat. Water the seedlings when the soil begins to dry and watch for hot / dry weather pests like grasshoppers and mites.

Facts and Figures to Ponder

Public Service announcements are similar to advertisements, except you don't pay for them! Most radio stations and televisions stations are required to run a certain number of PSAs to meet Federal Communications commission licensing requirements.

While PSAs can provide an economical and effective way to deliver your fire prevention message to the community, there is a lot of competition for a limited amount of time. There are no guarantees about when or how often your PSAs will run, so don't rely too much on this communication method.

You will need to provide PSAs to radio stations and television stations in a complete "ready to run@ format. Unlike print, radio and television are linear B in other words, your audience cannot go back to check a point or fact. Keep your message simple.

Most radio and television stations have Public Affairs or Public Service Announcement directors. Contact them in advance to find out what types of PSA opportunities their station offers and what formats they prefer. If you can "sleep@ them on the need for fire prevention in your community, they may be able to help you produce a PSA.

For your newspaper, radio, and television.

Optional radio sound effect: clock ticking (60 seconds).

• Let=s take a minute to talk about fire. Where do you keep the matches and lighters in your house? I bet your children know. If they know, they may be playing with fire. At home, curious kids usually play with fire in the bedroom - in closets, and under beds - where there are lots of things that catch fire easily. Children don=t know how quickly the flame from a single match can get out of control. They don=t know it takes less than a minute to ignite a room ... less than five minutes for an entire house to go up in flames. In fact, nearly twenty-five percent of the fires that kill young children are started by children themselves. Put matches and lighters in a safe place - far out of the reach of little fingers. Teach your children that fire is no toy. If your child had dropped a match at the beginning of this announcement - less than a minute ago - that fire would already be out of control. This station, your local fire department, and the U.S. fire Administration remind you - and your children: when a kid strikes a match, FIRE STRIKES BACK!.

• Fire Fighters fear more than flames in a Wildland fire. The poison in poison oak and ivy exists in the plants sap and escapes only when the plant is damaged. The sap becomes airborne when the plants burn. A fire fighter breathing in this smoke and sap can develop lung infections, fever, and skin inflammation. Be extra cautious when doing any type of outdoor burning.

• "Fire Kills Kids@ Radio PSA 30 sec. When a kid strikes a match, Afire Strikes Back!@ Don=t let it strike your family. Nearly twenty-five percent of the fires that kill young children are started by children themselves. At home, curious kids usually play with fire in the bedroom - where there are lots of things that catch fire easily. Teach your children that fire is no toy. Keep matches and lighters in a safe place. This station, your local fire department, and the U.S. Fire Administration remind you - and your children - that FIRE STRIKES BACK!

• It=s lawn care time again and the local fire department wants you to be extra careful. More than 60,000 people are hurt in lawn mower accidents every year. So remember these safety tips. Store and pour gasoline safely. Never smoke while refueling. Shut off the engine and let it cool down before refueling, too. Check the cords on electric mowers. If there are any worn spots, have the cord replaced by a reliable repair shop. Never use an electric mower on wet grass. And never leave a running mower unattended. Tragic accidents only take a second to happen.

• On average, nearly 8,000 gasoline fires and nearly 150 related deaths occur each year in the U.S. Gasoline should be used as a motor fuel, not for any other purpose. Any small spark can ignite accumulated gasoline vapors. Always store gasoline in tightly capped containers specifically intended for that use, and always store in a well ventilated area.

• Sparks from RV=s cause numerous wildfires each year. You can help protect our natural resources by ensuring that your RV is fitted with a spark arrestor, available at most hardware and auto parts stores.

This message is brought to you by your local Fire Department would, of course, follow each PSA announcement.

A TOOL has a specific purpose and should be used only for that purpose. The match should be presented as a TOOL having a specific purpose, such as lighting candles, starting a campfire, or lighting a fire in a fireplace.

Parents should agree to let their children strike matches and use fire when they feel the need, but ONLY IN THE PRESENCE OF A PARENT OR RESPONSIBLE ADULT and UNDER SAFE CONDITIONS.

Many fire play (match play) problems are solved simply by having the child promise to use fire and matches ONLY in the presence of the parents, and by the parents agreeing to allow the child to use matches when it is appropriate.

Fire serves a very important and necessary role in our lives. The earlier a person learns the proper and safe use of fire, the less likely there will be a desire to "play" with matches and fire.

Reprinted from AA MATCH IS A TOOL@ Shriners Burn Institute@

Bob E. Vogltance
Fire Resource Manager
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
441 So. Colfax
West Point, NE 68788
Office (402) 472-6631
Home (402) 372-5665