Our winter was tough on a lot of trees in our open spaces. The heavy snowfall in February and the strong windstorms this winter have brought down a great number of trees. It seems that the poison ivy vines have weakened many trees like to one pictured. In the picture is a tree with the vines growing to the top. A couple of years ago a very large tree next to this one came down after being weakened by the vines. I have tried to control the vines in my yard that seem to love poplar trees. The vines leave the beech trees alone probably because of the smooth bark of the beeches.
I tried to pull the vines off the trees years ago after we moved into our house. Unfortunately I didn’t take enough precautions to cover exposed skin on my arms. These vines are extremely poisonous and my arms had a bad reaction with blisters. I have since chopped the roots off with an axe and poured vinegar on the remaining roots. That seems to stop their growth.
I am not sure if CA is trying to do anything to the vines on open space land but it seems to be growing uncontrolled in many open space areas. I would hope that these vines would not continue to destroy the trees along many of our paths.
7 comments:
I don't think we'll "loose" them. Maybe we'll "lose" them though.
http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/looselose.html
Brain doesn't function at full speed at 7:40 on Sunday morning. Or maybe I am "loosing" brain cells as I age.
This brings up the larger question as to whether the undeveloped CA Open Space should be managed in some way. When a tree falls in the forest, CA policy has it left there...which could be good for small critters, bugs, etc. However, perhaps it would be better to cut down dead trees before they fall so they don't damage other healthy trees. Firewood could be sold/given away to residents who want it. Would it be appropriate for CA to clear the poison ivy and the English ivy which has taken over may open space trees after it escapes from nearby yards. Talk about an invasive species! At the very least, I would like to see CA be more pro-active in managing the forests rather than just letting things do whatever. Deer damage to trees and understory should also be studied. There might be a better way to handle things, but if we don't look at the current conditions, we won't know what the better way might be.
Which trees in your yard are the popular ones, and how can you tell that they are popular?
By noticing the trees that are so vein ;-).
Are the poplar trees more popular than the others?
Thank you for the post and dialogue regarding the storm damage trees in the open space. It has been a difficult winter and spring in dealing with the weather and subsequent damage. Not sure if I would trade it with last year’s blizzard, but none the less a difficult task.
When Open Space prunes the pathway system, the crews also try to cut the vines when they are close to the pathways. Interesting observation regarding the type of tree that vines do not tend to climb. If you could give the Open Space number a call (410-312-6330) and let us know where the specific tree is we can come out and take a look. Thanks – Sean, Open Space
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