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NOVEMBER 2013
Spectacle of Fall
CASEY TREES NEWS IN BRIEF
Fall 2013 planting season yields many successes midway through As the temperature drops and the colors of the District begin to change, signs of life begin to stir around Casey Trees. The fall is moving into the city and along with it comes a new planting season filled with fresh opportunities for Community Tree Plantings throughout the city. Undeterred by challenges such as government shutdowns and heavy rain, Casey Trees staff and roughly 350 committed volunteers and students have already planted nearly 250 trees at 11 different planting sites and schools. Casey Trees has received wonderful support from local residents at plantings such as Benning Terrace and Brookland Manor from those who hope to see trees improve their communities.
CASEY TREES NEWS SAVE THE DATE: CASEY TREES’ INAUGURAL AWARDS EVENT | To show gratitude for our community of volunteers and supporters, Casey Trees will host an inaugural spring awards event on April 24, 2014. The event, which will occur on the eve of Arbor Day, will commemorate the closing of the spring 2014 planting season and will honor the most dedicated friends of Casey Trees while also bringing together those closest to our work. Stay tuned for further information on purchasing tickets online and what to expect. CASEY TREES WELCOMES NEW ARBORIST | The Tree Planting Department is thrilled to announce the addition of Marty Frye as its new Arborist working on residential planting programs. Marty, a former intern in the department, has made an impact throughout the organization, whether working in the field or posting to the Tree Speak blog about the latest tree of the month. He looks forward to help promoting and raising participation in Casey Trees’ Tree Rebate and RiverSmart Homes programs. STAFF PRESENTS AT ALLIANCE FOR COMMUNITY TREES CONFERENCE | On Nov. 5, Maisie Hughes and Emily Oaksford, staff from Casey Trees’ Planning and Design Department, presented at the 2013 ACTrees Day
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conference in Pittsburgh. They profiled the new Tree Advocate program that Casey Trees has developed to lead eager volunteers beyond tree planting and into being educated advocates who can impact green public policy and development projects through grassroots efforts. NEW VOLUNTEER COMMITTEE | As Casey Trees continues to build its corps of dedicated volunteers, we have created a new Volunteer Committee. The group, consisting of both staff and volunteers, was designed to help evaluate and improve current programs and create new ways for volunteers to get involved or further their experiences. To build a foundation for the new initiative, the next committee meeting on Thursday, Dec. 5 will focus on developing a volunteer engagement philosophy that is slated to be unveiled this winter.
URBAN FORESTRY NEWS D.C. GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS NEW URBAN FORESTRY LEGISLATION | Mayor Gray introduced the Urban Forest Preservation Amendment Act of 2013, which would streamline administration of the Urban Forest Preservation Act of 2002 and allow the city to use Tree Fund dollars to maintain trees. Regarding the latter, administration officials indicated that they wish to use Tree Fund moneys
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to improve survivability of newly planted trees on public lands, such as parks & schools, through watering, mulching, and other care practices. While using a limited amount of Tree Fund dollars for this purpose may make sense, the Act’s language allows the entire Tree Fund to be diverted for any type of maintenance — street tree pruning for example — which could well happen during tight budgetary period. Casey Trees strongly supports the first provision; however, the allocation of Tree Fund dollars needs refinement to avoid potential negative consequences. Casey Trees continue to follow developments on this legislation and will offer updates on hopeful progress. URBAN TREE CANOPY PRIORITIZATION IMPROVES DECISION MAKING | A team from Cities and the Environment, has profiled the use of Urban Tree Canopy Prioritizations to create more inclusive planning processes to promote better collaboration between government agencies, civic groups and others when including tree canopy targets within urban planning initiatives. Cities are
made up of diverse stakeholders and decision makers each with their own ideas and agenda. Urban tree canopy assessments and prioritization tools can lead to improved adoption of best practices when they are included in decision making and take into account a neighborhoods’ motivations, capacities and interests. RESEARCH LOOKS FOR LINK BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP AND CONDITIONS | Making up for a lack of existing research, a new study published in Landscape and Urban Planning attempted to make the connection between present environmental conditions and the quality of environmental stewardship networks in Baltimore and Seattle. While land cover was not found to be a significant measure of organizational presence or network structure in either city, a correlation was found between the number of organizations, their corresponding community ties and tree canopy percentage in Baltimore neighborhoods. The results hope to further the discussion of urban environmental stewardship in future research.
IN THIS ISSUE... CASEY TREES BRINGS SUPPORTERS TOGETHER FOR FALL PLANTING PREVIEW......................... 4-5 FALL ON CASEY TREE FARM................................................................................................................... 6-7 SPOTLIGHT: BUILDING ON A STRONG SENSE OF COMMUNITY AT BENNING TERRACE................... 8 A CLOSER LOOK AT CASEY TREES’ NEW MOBILE APPLICATION.......................................................... 9 NATIVE PLANTS ARE IMPORTANT FOR BIODIVERSITY IN LANDSCAPE DESIGN........................ 10-11 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING RAISES VISIBILITY OF D.C.’S TREES................................................ 12 UPCOMING CLASSES AND EVENTS IN NOVEMBER............................................................................... 13 ARBOR KIDS: TEMPORARY TREE ART..................................................................................................... 14
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Giving Supporters come together for planting preview exhibition By Elise Roberts, Events and Communications Intern, Casey Trees | As the sun set on the unseasonably warm fall evening of Oct. 2, donors gathered at Fathom Gallery in Logan Circle for An Evening with Casey Trees. This was a special event showcasing our upcoming fall planting season and new programming through a multimedia art installation. Guests enjoyed beer courtesy of local favorite DC Brau ss they made their way between the interior gallery space and a beautiful rooftop patio. From abstract site plans to before-and-after
perspectives, Casey Trees staff members Sara Turner and Emily Oaksford contributed to the gallery materials by creating renderings of projects from the fall 2013 Community Tree Planting season. Among Turner’s pieces were a canvas inspired by the Piney Branch Restoration Project, which will create and restore habitats for neo-tropical migratory birds, and a series of uniquely designed plates highlighting aspects of the upcoming project at the Central Union Mission’s new headquarters. To round out the exhibition, a video featuring the Benning Terrace community in Ward 7 was produced. The video showed the tree planting process, how residents and volunteers, primarily members of the neighborhood’s youth football team, could get involved in the planting and demonstrated the positive changes that trees can make in the community. In addition to the fall planting season, guests were introduced to our newly launched Casey Trees Membership program. Invitations to special events such as An Evening with Casey Trees are one of the many benefits of the program. Other perks include advance registration to plantings, discounts to The ColleCTion and many others. Becoming a Casey Trees Member is easy and can be done online, through the mail and over the phone.
Artistic site plans for many of the season’s planting projects were on display in the gallery exhibit.
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Next spring on April 24, Casey Trees will host its inaugural awards event, which will honor some of the organization’s most dedicated volunteers, supporters and partners. The event marks not only a celebration of the people who contribute to Casey Trees’ mission and work, but also commemorates Arbor Day and the value of our city’s trees.
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As An Evening with Casey Trees came to a close, guests lingered on the rooftop patio as a crisp fall wind arrived. Warm lights glowed from the fruit trees on the patio as new friends were made, laughs were shared and people connected through trees. After such a successful fall event, we look forward to you and other Casey Trees Members joining us next fall.
Guests were able to comfortably move through the gallery space onto the open-air rooftop patio.
Join the Casey Trees Membership program today and become eligible for some great benefits, including invitations to special events such as An Evening with Casey Trees.
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Casey Tree Farm Casey Tree Farm experiences busy fall of harvests and plantings By Brian Mayell, General Manager, Casey Tree Farm | Fall has arrived on Casey Tree Farm with its cooler temperatures, shorter days, and muchneeded rainstorms. Much as we welcome the change of season, we welcome the change from summer’s Farm activities even more. Watering, pruning and managing weeds give way to fall’s rewarding round of digging and shipping trees and planting cover crops and new trees in the Farm’s nursery.
FALL HARVEST The Fall digging began the first week of October with 33 trees dug and balled-andburlapped (B&B) for early Community Tree Planting projects. To date, 186 trees have been dug and shipped to D.C. and 550 trees will have been extracted when harvesting season ends in mid-December. In addition to B&B trees, we are also digging trees grown in rootbags, which weigh a fraction of B&B trees — about 100 pounds compared to the 500-pound weight of B&Bs — are easier to handle for volunteer plantings, and reduce our fuel use and shipping cost significantly.
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RIPARIAN RESTORATION
COVER CROP INSTALLATION
In mid-September, Casey Trees staff travelled to the Farm to help plant 100 8- to 10-foot baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) trees around a pond and in a creek bottom. The trees were grown at the nursery and, once in the ground, were caged with wire fencing to prevent injury from deer browsing and rubbing.
Casey Trees remains committed to our stewardship of the Farm’s 730 acres and the use of best management practices (BMPs) that safeguard water quality.
The planting was part of an ongoing effort to restore riparian forest buffers on our two creeks, Lewis Run and Chapel Run, and along the Shenandoah River. Riparian forest buffers provide excellent wildlife habitat, protect stream banks from erosion and intercept surface runoff to prevent sediment and nutrients from entering waterways.
Among those BMPs is the intensive use of cover crops that prevent erosion while building soil structure and increasing organic soil matter and biological activity. In September, we planted cover crops of winter rye, hairy vetch, forage radish and turnip and crimson clover in tilled strips where we will plant trees next spring. In addition we planted creeping red fescue — a sod-forming perennial grass — in between the nursery’s tree rows, which will prevent erosion, suppress weeds, promote infiltration of rains and reduce dust. Casey Tree Farm continues to be highlighted in The Leaflet and on Casey Trees’ blog, Tree Speak.
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Spotlight Benning Terrace planting highlights importance of community involvement By Max Lopatnikov, Communications and Marketing Intern, Casey Trees | Planting season at Casey Trees brings a great amount of joy, with new trees arriving from Casey Tree Farm and the sense of possibility that comes from doing what the organization does best, working in the dirt and improving the D.C. metro area one tree at a time. While some Community Tree Planting (CTP) events occur in parks and forests, the least quantifiable memories and moments often happen within the neighborhoods and communities that face the greatest urban challenges. On Oct. 12 at the tail-end of a four-day rainstorm, Casey Trees staff and volunteers planted 22 trees at Benning Terrace in Ward 7. Both the energy of the neighborhood football field where the Soldiers youth team plays and the warmth of those who tend the community garden were felt by everyone at the planting that day. For Michael Toland, the planting’s project organizer and a longtime resident of the neighborhood, the planting got neighbors outside and reconnected them with the land. More importantly, he values the impression it left on the children. “You plant a seed and it grows,” Toland said. “Our kids will grow up with the trees they planted.” As neighborhood kids rushed out to join the tree planting, staff and volunteers knew they were
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adding new viewpoints for the youth that will grow up along the trees. That idea prompted the production of a short video about Benning Terrace that illustrates the enjoyment and hope involved in connecting people through trees and making a positive impact on the lives all around the District. The season isn’t over and there are still some planting spots open. Check out the schedule and register online.
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Technology & Research Casey Trees’ new mobile application will streamline data collecting process By Michael K. Potts, GIS Analyst, Casey Trees | If you have been to a Casey Trees planting before, you may have noticed the tablets being used to record our trees. In an effort to continually improve our data, Casey Trees has produced a new mobile app for iPad/iPhone to enhance the way we collect data in our tree yard and in the field. The Casey Trees Mobile Tree Planting App features a simpler user interface, GPS functionality and tree maintenance and inventory tracking, and requires less data entry.
LET THE MAGIC BEGIN When trees arrive at Casey Trees’ headquarters, we know virtually everything about them except their final planting locations. Data such as species, purchase date, size, nursery and root type can be entered in the comfort of the office. The magic happens with the creation of QR codes used to tag trees and scan them into our inventory system. With the new system, we can access information at any time, even remotely, and immediately identify how many trees we have, their species and how long they have been in the yard. In advance of planting day, we can quickly decide which trees should be taken to which planting and once a tree is planted, we scan the QR code, which uses GPS to record the tree’s final location. The app also improves tree care management and will serve Casey Trees as we continue to gauge the mortality of the trees we plant.
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Maintenance actions like watering, pruning, mulching and staking can dramatically affect the survival rates of trees, so it is imperative for the app to record when and how often these actions are performed. The app also records tree condition and whether we should revisit a tree for any special maintenance. These data will be invaluable for our annual tree mortality study.
Urban Forestry Manager Michael Ferguson scans a newly planted tree at the Benning Terrace planting on Oct. 12.
The app tracks our trees from cradle to gate and, in the process, improves our data’s accuracy by allowing us to enter and analyze more information straight from the office in order to spend more time working on trees. The Technical Services and Research Department continues to create valuable online tools for Casey Trees and D.C.-area residents.
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Planning & Design Biodiversity and a call for native plants in landscape design By Emily Oaksford, Planning Associate, Casey Trees | Aside from the clear benefits that natural landscapes provide urban areas, green space such as parks, greenbelts and front yards also provides muchneeded habitat for wildlife in an otherwise concrete jungle.
Betula; Birch
358
411
455
557
Total Lep spp
Populus; Aspen, cottonwood, poplar
100 100
Salix; Willow
200 200
456 300 300
Prunus; Cherry, peach, plum, almond
400 400
Doug Tallamy, entomologist at the University of Delaware, has shown that most insects can only live on plants native to the region and climate in which their species evolved. His research suggests that the increasing use of non-native plants in landscape design significantly reduces the presence of herbivores in an ecosystem, as well as the carnivores that feed on them. This is problematic for a number of reasons.
500 500
Quercus; Oak
But not all landscapes are created equal.
Based on number of moths and butterflies (both native and non-native) that have been 600 found to develop on trees (by genus)
Total Number of moths and butterflies developing on vegetation (both native and non-native)
The presence of wildlife can greatly improve qualityof-life for city dwellers and aid as educational tools for all ages. Trees and plants can serve as a home for bees, butterflies, birds and squirrels; the vegetation itself serves as food for herbivores, while the herbivores serve as food for larger animals. Most important, the biodiversity found in green spaces run the ecosystems that support our own lives.
Top 5 Trees as Hosts for Biodiversity:
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Tree Genus; Common Name
Reference: *Doug Tallamy, “Lepidopteran Use of Native & Alien Ornamental Plants” (Current Projects, Guide to Lepidoptera on Ornamentals).
If caterpillars and other herbivores have a preference for feeding on native plants, then insects — and the birds and other animals that feed on them — will not be present in a non-native species-dominated ecosystem either.
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Trees and their divergent abilities to promote biodiversity of insects and wildlife
Based on number of moths and butterflies (both native and non-native) that have been found to develop on trees (by genus)
543 native 14 non-native
557
4 native 1 non-native
0 native 0 non-native
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0
SPECIES PER TREE
SPECIES PER TREE
SPECIES PER TREE
NATIVE OAK TREES
GINGKO TREES
DAWN REDWOOD TREES
Reference: *Doug Tallamy, “Lepidopteran Use of Native & Alien Ornamental Plants” (Current Projects, Guide to Lepidoptera on Ornamentals).
In an ongoing study, Tallamy has ranked plant genera based on their ability to support Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). By collecting this data, Tallamy has created lists of top-performing species and hopes to develop a plant selection guide for professionals and homeowners
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who wish to help sustain nature in their projects and neighborhoods.
Receive up to $100 back per tree that you purchase and plant in D.C. through Casey Trees’ Tree Rebate program, which features 27 species of native, large canopy trees eligible for $100 rebates.
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Education Discovering trees in the moment By Stephanie Juchs, Community Education Coordinator, Casey Trees | “The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” This Marcel Proust quote in Nancy Ross Hugo and Robert Llewellyn’s book, Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees, emphasizes the goal of all our adult education programs: to give participants information that allows them to connect with trees in a new way — to see them with “new eyes.” This type of eye-opening connection can be forged in a variety of ways, whether it is a newfound appreciation for a tree’s beauty after having some of its unique characteristics pointed out during a tree tour or empathizing with the struggles trees face in the urban environment after taking a class on a special topics such as invasive species, urban pests or trees and construction. We hope after attending an educational program, participants will become more attuned to the trees they see on a daily basis while noticing the beauty of these species and the challenges they face. Though many people become aware of the trees around them during the spectacle of fall color, this month’s tree tours will showcase these brilliant displays as well as look a little deeper and investigate the beauty of fall fruit, resting winter buds and beautiful leaf scars of species commonly found in the District.
Nancy Ross Hugo surveys an American beech in Virginia. Photo courtesy of Robert Llewellyn (“Remarkable Trees of Virginia”).
On Nov. 23, Casey Trees is co-sponsoring a lecture with the Friends of the National Arboretum featuring Hugo, who will be sharing some of the secrets she and Llewellyn, a photographer, discovered in their intense, two-year investigation of small phenomena that often go unnoticed on trees. By becoming more familiar with the fascinating physiology of trees, observers can better appreciate the ecological service and landscape value of trees. We hope you will join us for one of our upcoming tree tours or events and hopefully come away a little more attuned to the changes occurring in the trees around you and the beauty to be found in every season! Registration for Seeing Trees is available through the Friends of the National Arboretum website.
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Events November events with Casey Trees Fall features a great slate of classes and events, from workshops to canoe tree tours. Most events require advance registration; space is limited and waitlists are available.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12 Social: Branch Out Happy Hour 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Brixton 901 U Street NW
Join us at Brixton for our monthly social happy hour for friends and volunteers! Free and open to all. Cost: Free
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16 Family Program: Lacey Woods Park 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Lacey Woods Park Arlington, Va.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17 Tree Tour: Rock Creek Park 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Rock Creek Park Wyndale Road and Beach Drive Chevy Chase, Md.
Enjoy fall color on this tree tour led by author Melanie Choukas-Bradley. The walk, starting and ending at Boundary Bridge, will loop along perhaps the most beautiful part of Rock Creek Park, and where you are certain to be treated to stunning sycamores, ash, maples and more. Cost: Free; CLASS IS FULL
Tree Detectives is a series of family-focused tree tours styled as scavenger hunts, best for families with children in grades 1 to 6.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 Event: ‘Seeing Trees’ with Nancy Ross Hugo 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. U.S. National Arboretum Administration Building 24th Street NE
Join Nancy Ross Hugo for a special afternoon to discuss the behind the scenes work and research that inspired her acclaimed nature book Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secret Lives of Everyday Trees. This event is cosponsored by the Friends of the National Arboretum. Cost: Free **Registration available through co-sponsor Friends of the National Arboretum.
Cost: Free
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Arbor Kids Temporary tree art Trees are dropping lots of goodies this time of year. Enjoy the beautiful fall weather by collecting some fallen tree parts — from beautifully colored leaves to seeds and twigs — from nearby trees and making some temporary tree art! Supplies: • Leaves • Nuts • Twigs • Bark
• Seeds • Other tree parts found on the ground
Craft by Putti’s World. Instructions here.
Project by Nature Detectives. Instructions here. 14
August 2013 | theleaflet