by Leslie Renjilian
Jeanne Wiebenga took the beautiful photo above and below on Friday, October 13. Turns out sometimes Friday the 13th means you're in for a lucky day! Jeanne told me she woke up that morning, saw the beautiful light and ran outside in her pjs to start photographing. I assume she put on clothes before running down the Children's Beach to get the photo above of our beloved Red Oak, but I didn't want to ask too many questions. Hey, whatever it takes. This is hard-hitting journalism here and we need the best photos in the industry.
You may be wondering about the ribbon around the tree. Don't worry—it's a green one and green is good. A green ribbon around a tree means it needs to be pruned. In the case of this beloved tree, it got a special "vitamin" injection last spring and will get a booster this spring.
So green means pruning by an arborist. Note: There are no certified arborists on the Chautauqua Garden Team. Betsy and members of her crew have taken several classes and know when and how to prune so you may see the Garden Team doing smaller tree work, but you will NOT find them scaling trees and hanging from ropes with chainsaws running. That type of work is done by certified arborists.
A pink ribbon means the tree needs to be evaluated by an arborist.
A yellow ribbon means, well, you know the song....
But what makes you sad if you're a tree hugger is a big painted orange X on the trunk. That means the tree has to come down.
Let's talk numbers: this year 12 trees will have to be taken down on Chautauqua Institution property. Last year 13 were removed. The reasons for removal are several, but in Chautauqua, the main reason is that it's a veteran tree (this is truly the name for the very old ones) which has become so weak that it poses a danger to the humans who live and play underneath it.
Dead trees who are lucky enough to have lived their lives in a forest can stand in place as "snags" (dead trees standing) providing housing in their cavities for woodpeckers, owls, bats, and other critters. Eventually the top will fall off, now called a "broken snag," and that is the perfect penthouse for other creatures (particularly chickadees). And then ultimately the tree will fall to the ground and become a multi-unit apartment building for forest critters large and small. The small detritivores who eat the decaying wood are also food for larger animals like bears who paw apart the rotting wood looking for insect larvae. It can take hundreds of years for a tree to completely rot away. So that's the dream life cycle for trees, but it's not practical in our "urban forest."
So here's how we try to the do the best we can while protecting the humans. You may have noticed that in the ravines, the practice is to cut the trees at about 20 feet off the ground, skipping the dangerous stage of a very tall snag and getting right to the stage of a "broken snag." The felled treetop is then left on the forest floor, but cut or laid out so that it doesn't block the mulch walkways. And guess where that mulch comes from? Yup, you got it.
But outside of the ravine, the veterans are taken down and taken away. The danger from falling trees or large limbs is not acceptable and most humans don't yet find a broken snag or a rotting log to be an attractive feature in the landscape (...maybe someday though!).
Nonetheless, a veteran tree in Chautauqua is a prized one and we help them age in place as long as possible by amputating—er, I mean, pruning—dead branches. The Red Oak at Children's Beach and the old Sugar Maples on the Athenaeum Lawn are beloved vets, so they receive vitamins in addition to their annual pruning.
But all of this tree work costs a lot of money. You probably know that from your own experiences at home. This year the Institution will spend over $65,000 on tree removal, pruning, pest management and a few doses of vitamins. Sadly, that completely ate up Betsy's Tree Budget. (As in, no money left to plant new trees.)
Enter the BTG! Since "Tree" is our middle name, this is when we step in. This year the BTG paid for the planting of ten new trees, a few of them quite large.
The BTG will also spend $2,000 this spring to treat the 20 remaining ash trees against the Emerald Ash Borer.
But Gentle Reader, I am well aware that you can do the math—removing 12 trees and planting 10 replacements does not ensure the canopy we know and love for our children and grandchildren. We would like to hike up the number of trees we donate to Chautauqua each year and we would like your help to do so. (In other words, please consider a donation in any amount to the BTG!)
Fortunately in addition to the trees the BTG donated, four additional trees were planted as "Tribute Trees" by families and individuals in memory or honor of a loved one through the Advancement Office.* So this year the balance was: Plus Two Trees! A narrow victory for the tree canopy thanks to Druid Donors like you!
Oh, you thought I was done talking about trees? Nah. That was just a little breather and a chance to insert more pretty pictures.
But if you're not into the nerdy aspects of tree planting, scroll right on down to the Dirt article, because we're about to go DEEP into the world of tree planting in Chautauqua.
Above and below are photos of some of the new trees the BTG donated which Betsy and her team planted in October. Above: An Autumn Blaze Maple on a flatbed truck that was planted beside Beeson. Betsy standing beside a big Catalpa planted beside the Coyle Courts.
Below: A small Catalpa planted just uphill from the water treatment plant. A tiny red oak (one of 3-4) planted below the Coyle Courts.
Now I know what you're thinking as you look at those big trees...and you're right. It is not necessary or even advisable to plant big trees. Author Doug Tallamy advises planting acorns instead of oak trees. Don't worry. We know that and so does Betsy. And the Garden Team DOES plant seeds in addition to nursery trees. The team collects acorns and seeds to start them up at the shop. (Spoiler: next month we will feature photos of the new maintenance building and the grow lights and shelves in the Garden Shop.) They also keep an eye out for volunteers (a sapling that grows up on its own, with no human help) around grounds and stake them (to protect them) or move them to safer locations. And, check out the photo below. That's an oak sapling less than two feet tall. There are four of them along the hillside under the Coyle Tennis Courts. They have red ribbons on them so that they won't get stepped on or pulled or mowed because honestly they are so tiny that they could be mistaken for a weed.
But in a place like Chautauqua where there is so much foot traffic, vehicle traffic and big mowers, sometimes letting trees spend their first 10-15 years in a nursery and then transplanting them here just makes sense. (Plus, admittedly, there is the instant gratification factor!)
Interesting planting note: only three of the trees planted this fall were balled and burlapped (B&B). The rest were all bare-root. This is a recent shift in the industry and it seems like a good one. The bare-root saplings seem to establish faster and experience less girdling than B&B ones. (Girdling is when the roots wrap back around themselves or the trunk and strangle themselves).
The beautiful Sienna Maple in the photo above was planted in Miller Park on September 29, 2023 in memory of Jane Buch by her family, friends and the BTG. Betsy worked with Dan Zuk of Zuk’s Tree Moving Service out of Ohio to select and plant this beauty, which he planted with a huge machine called a tree spade (see photo below).
When Jane Buch died in January of last year, her friends and family knew that a memorial tree would be the perfect way to remember the "Tree Lady." And again, since "Tree" is our middle name, the BTG was honored to help make it happen.
Next year is the Chautauqua's 150th Anniversary and many of us have been scheming about a Tree Planting Campaign in honor of the event. Stay tuned for more on that.
*If you are interested in donating a Tribute Tree to Chautauqua in honor or memory of someone, contact Joanna Kaufman, Assistant Director of Donor Relations, CHQ Office of Advancement at jkaufmann@chq.org or 716.357.6381. The cost is $1,500 and the tree will be recorded in the Tree of Life book in Smith Library.
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