High Desert Tree Selection Attacks Drought, Pollution, Salt and Toxins

Summary: High desert tree selection appeared last, Dec. 3, in TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension co-sponsored Learn at Lunch webinars for 2019.

Dr. Heidi Kratsch's high desert tree selection survey, presented in the TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension's Dec. 3, 2019, Learn at Lunch webinar, esteems chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) as a long-lived, low-maintenance, pest-free, salt-tolerant species; chinkapin oak with Tagetes ‘Crackerjack', Ageratum 'Blue Horizon' and Asclepias curassavica ‘Red Butterfly' in Chicago Botanic Garden's English Oak Meadow, Monday, July 25, 2016, 21:06:36: cultivar413, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

High desert tree selection, from Dr. Heidi Kratsch's intermountain arborist survey, assumed the Dec. 3 date as 2019's last topic in TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Learn at Lunch webinars.

Practical Aspects of Tree Selection, formal educational, slide-supported presentation live-broadcast from noon to 1:00 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, broached high desert tree selection arboriculturally, culturally, environmentally. It considered alkalinity, boron, drought, heat, low relative humidity, poor drainage, salinity, shade and wind tolerances; cold hardiness; disease and insect pest resistance; and native species. It described tree selection for aesthetic value, availability, branch structure, cost, ease of establishment, growth rate, lifespan, maintenance requirements, mature size, minimal debris and seasonal interest.

The 121 participating arborists from the Rocky Mountains westward to the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada excluded from high desert tree selection flammability, invasiveness and suckering.

The University of Nevada Extension survey, supported partly by the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) National Institute of Food and Agriculture, fit in client preferences.

The Kratsch survey generated from Reno, Nevada, gathered such tree selection guides as climate change preparedness, municipal street tree lists and right tree, right place guidelines. It headed toward diversity over monocultures, evergreen species over deciduous (from Latin dēciduus, "falling down, falling off") and popular, proven performers over overplanted, provenly problematic species. It included effects of elevation and microclimates, irrigation schedules, power-line clearances, root structure, snow load tolerance, sunscald resistance in heat islands, wildlife resistance and winter interest.

Signaling ash (Fraxinus), elm (Ulmus) and fir (Abies) suffering environmental-stressed, secondary-pest infestations and surveying attendees joined the high desert tree selection webinar's first and second half-hours.

Tree tolerances at or above USDA hardiness and American Horticulture Society (AHS) heat maps' intermountain-zoned upper ranges kindled 41 and 37 percent of webinar attendee recommendations.

Sixteen and 6 percent listed trees tolerant of salty reclaimed or recycled waters and write-ins recommending selection for climate-changed reduced snowpack, rising temperatures and severe droughts. The second half-hour mentioned salt-tolerant black (Robinia pseudoacacia) versus honey (Gleditsia triacanthos) locusts' respective borer, fast-growing and limb-failing versus pod gall midge and spider mite vulnerabilities. It noted pyramid-profiled young, flat-topped mature black (Pinus nigra) and Bosnian (P. heldreichii) pines and drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant, space-nabbing pinyon (P. edulis) and single-leaf pinyon (P. monophylla).

High desert tree selection observes oversized, porcupine-intolerant, salt-tolerant, space-nabbing ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Cooley spruce gall adelgid- and engraver beetle-intolerant, drought-tolerant blue spruce (Picea pungens).

High desert tree selection presents boron-tolerant, salt-tolerant, tip-burn semi-sensitive bur (Quercus macrocarpa) and, more alkalinity-tolerant than pin oak (Q. palustris), drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant red (Q. rubra) oak.

High desert tree selection queues up drought-tolerant, nipple gall-intolerant, salt-tolerant common hackberry (Celtis occidentalis); messy-fruited northern/western catalpa (Catalpa speciosa); and space-nabbing London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia). It references boron-tolerant, drought-tolerant, salt-tolerant crabapple's (Malus) apple scab-resistant, fireblight-resistant varieties and salt-tolerant Rocky Mountain junipers (Juniperus scopulorum) 10-foot (3.05-meter) reach as a residential fire hazard. It perhaps showcases boron-tolerant, salt-tolerant Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus); boron-tolerant, fruit-famous, salt-tolerant, wildlife-friendly, winter-interest hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum); and long-lived, low-maintenance, pest-free, salt-tolerant chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii).

High desert tree selection tends toward AHS-mapped zones 4 through 7's 14- to 30-day and 60- to 90-day temperatures above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius).

Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) attracts as a boron-tolerant, fruit-famous, salt-tolerant, wildlife-friendly, winter-interest species, according to Dr. Heidi Kratch's presentation on high desert climate tree selection, offered for the TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension's Dec. 3, 2019, Learn at Lunch webinar; Washington hawthorn in Bridgewater Township, Washtenaw County, southeastern Michigan, Oct. 17, 2019, 17:31:08: F.D. Richards, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Dr. Heidi Kratsch's high desert tree selection survey, presented in the TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension's Dec. 3, 2019, Learn at Lunch webinar, esteems chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) as a long-lived, low-maintenance, pest-free, salt-tolerant species; chinkapin oak with Tagetes ‘Crackerjack', Ageratum 'Blue Horizon' and Asclepias curassavica ‘Red Butterfly' in Chicago Botanic Garden's English Oak Meadow, Monday, July 25, 2016, 21:06:36: cultivar413, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/131880272@N06/28664583862

Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum) attracts as a boron-tolerant, fruit-famous, salt-tolerant, wildlife-friendly, winter-interest species, according to Dr. Heidi Kratch's presentation on high desert climate tree selection, offered for the TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension's Dec. 3, 2019, Learn at Lunch webinar; Washington hawthorn in Bridgewater Township, Washtenaw County, southeastern Michigan, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, 17:31:08: F.D. Richards, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/50697352@N00/48916204781/

For further information:

Kratsch, Heidi. 3 December 2019. "Practical Aspects of Tree Selection for High Desert Climates." Utah State University Forestry Extension > Webinars > Archived Webinars > 2019.
Available @ https://forestry.usu.edu/webinars/index

Marriner, Derdriu. 21 December 2019. "Urban Trees Advocate for Human and Urban Health and Vice Versa." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/12/urban-trees-advocate-for-human-and.html

Urban Trees Advocate for Human and Urban Health and Vice Versa

Summary: Urban trees affirm active human, non-polluted urban health, according to a TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension webinar Nov. 19, 2019.

U.S. Forest Service and University of Washington research scientist Kathleen Wolf credits her sabbatical at Japan's Awaji Landscape Planning and Horticulture Academy (ALPHA) with inspiring the establishment of Green Cities: Good Health website, a collaborative project of the U.S. Forest Service's Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Program and the University of Washington; view of ALPA campus, Hyogo Prefectural University, Kobe City, southern Honshu, Japan: 淡路景観園芸学校／兵庫県立大学大学院 緑環境景観マネジメント研究科, via Facebook Oct. 15, 2014

Urban trees advance urban health in arboricultural, epidemiological associations articulable in economic values and research evidence, according to a co-sponsored TREE Fund and Utah State University Forestry Extension webinar Nov. 19, 2019.

Dr. Kathleen Wolf of the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest Research Station began her formal educational presentation with a World Health Organization (WHO) definition. Her webinar, Health Benefits of City Trees: Research Evidence and Economic Values, concurs with WHO's correlating health with disease and infirmity-free mental, physical and social well-being. Her Lunch and Learn webinar deferred to the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service portal for Green Cities: Good Health reviews and summaries.

The hour-long presentation, until 1 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, equated air quality, physical activity, social contacts and stress reduction in natural environments with health and well-being.

A database of 4,500-plus peer-reviewed publications from the 1970s through 2015 furnished research findings focused upon health-friendly, tree-friendly economic and urban forest planning and planting implications.

Active, healing, mentally and physically healthy, risk-reducing, therapeutic lifestyles versus community and social ties, place attachment and meaning and safe streets gauge human versus urban health. Urban trees help human and urban health by harvesting air pollutants, excess heat and ultraviolet radiation but hurt human health for those who have pollen allergies. Economic models and medical research respectively inform arborists and urban foresters about market-determined health and tree costs, not non-marked-valued tree benefits, and about pollen-impacted health.

The second half-hour on diseases and disorders that jeopardize human and urban health joined the first on healthy inputs from nature generally and urban trees specifically.

The Wolf slides keep track of health care spending for 2016, at $10,348 per person and at $3.5 trillion overall, and of mortality causes for 2017.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the 15 leading causes for a total of 2,813,503 resident deaths in the United States in 2017. They mention, first through ninth, heart diseases; cancer; accidents; Alzheimer's, cerebrovascular and chronic lower respiratory diseases; diabetes mellitus; influenza, pneumonia; and kidney disease, disorder and inflammation. They next note septicemia (from Latin sēpticus, "putrefying" and -emia, "blood"); essential and renal hypertension; Parkinson's disease; and pneumonitis (from Greek πνεύμων, "lung" and -ίτης, "inflammation").

Urban trees for human and urban health optimally operate against costly, health-compromising behavioral and mental disorders; cardiovascular and circulatory diseases; neoplasms; and musculoskeletal disorders.

Urban trees for human and urban health optimally palliate costly, health-compromising, mobility-restricting diabetes, blood, endocrine and urogenital disorders; chronic respiratory diseases; non-communicable diseases; and neurological disorders.

Greening urban spaces by 35 to 40 percent perhaps quantifies as health care spending reduced from 2017's $327 billion on diabetes and $1.1 trillion on hospitalizations. It recommends bringing nature close; creating refuges and 20 to 50-minute walking loops; generating diverse, mature-specimen greening blocks; and planting for tree-filled entrance and window views. It suggests the forest immersion therapy that survives from older Chinese practices into more recent Japanese cultural appropriations as sim-lim (森林, "forest-bathe") and shinrin-yoku (森林浴, "forest-bathing").

The Wolf webinar tells arborists and urban foresters what diseases, disorders and stresses trouble human and urban health and to transplant the most tolerant urban trees.

The U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) Pacific Northwest Research Station website describes Green Cities: Good Health website as a database of "summaries on the benefits of urban trees and green spaces," based on more than 1,700 scientific articles, with key findings revealing the benefits of proximity to nature for city-living humans: Blue Urban @GreenBlueUrban, via Facebook Sep. 20, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

U.S. Forest Service and University of Washington research scientist Kathleen Wolf credits her sabbatical at Japan's Awaji Landscape Planning and Horticulture Academy (ALPHA) with inspiring the establishment of Green Cities: Good Health website, a collaborative project of the U.S. Forest Service's Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) Program and the University of Washington; view of ALPHA campus, Hyogo Prefectural University, Kobe City, southern Honshu, Japan: 淡路景観園芸学校／兵庫県立大学大学院 緑環境景観マネジメント研究科, via Facebook Oct. 15, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/596607490451035/photos/a.596610457117405/596610350450749/

The U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) Pacific Northwest Research Station website describes Green Cities: Good Health website as a database of "summaries on the benefits of urban trees and green spaces," based on more than 1,700 scientific articles, with key findings revealing the benefits of proximity to nature for city-living humans: Blue Urban @GreenBlueUrban, via Facebook Sep. 20, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/GreenBlueUrban/status/778239761446232065

For further information:

Barron, S.; S. Nitoslawski; K. L. Wolf; A. Wood; E. Desautels; S. R. J. Sheppard. 2019. "Greening Blocks: A Conceptual Typology of Practical Design Interventions to Integrate Health and Climate Resilience Co-Benefits." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16: 4241.

GreenBlue Urban ‏@GreenBlueUrban. 20 September 2016. "Brilliant new project launched Green Cities Good Health @TreesforCities @GIPartnership @The_RHS." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/GreenBlueUrban/status/778239761446232065

Marriner, Derdriu. 2018. "Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing Year-Round, Indoors and Outdoors, for All." Wizzley.
Available @ https://wizzley.com/shinrin-yoku-forest-bathing-year-round-indoors-and-outdoors-for-all/

Wolf, Kathleen. 19 November 2019. "Health Benefits of City Trees: Research Evidence and Economic Values." Utah State University Forestry Extension > Webinars > Archived Webinars > 2019.
Available @ http://forestry.usu.edu/webinars/index

Wolf, Kathleen L.; Marcus K. Measells; Stephen C. Grado; and Alicia S.T. Robbins. 2015. "Economic Values of Metro Nature Health Benefits: A Life Course Approach." Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 14(2015): 694-701. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2015.06.009.
Available @ https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/journals/pnw_2015_wolf002.pdf