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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Fall foliage was sort of “sub-par” this year. Can’t really complain. The last 2 years have been awesome. Normally, I don’t notice American beech for its fall foliage, but this year beech seemed better than normal. Instead of a brown-drab, beech was showing aContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Some strong winds hit central Ulster County over the weekend and sought out those “weak unions” resulting in torn branches and stem-failures. One tree in particular seems to always have problems–‘Bradford’ pear. Bradford pear was planted abundantly as an ornamental street tree in urban/suburbanContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Over the last 2 days, I’ve been cutting trees over in Pawling, Dutchess County for a study led by SUNY ESF for improving habitat for New England cotton-tails. Burning bush is an exotic shrub that has become common in many parts of the HudsonContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I have showed this red maple tree’s foliage in previous posts. The tree sits in front of my house; It’s foliage is one of the best I know of, despite this year being terrible for red maple in general. When I first moved toContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Well, it finally happened; I got to taste my first pawpaw fruit. One of our members let me try a pawpaw from one of their trees near West Shokan. I gotta say, this a great fruit. It really does taste like mango, banana-custard. IfContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Fall foliage is spotty this year. Some sugar maples look pretty good and have that bright golden color. However, it seems only the youngest and healthiest trees are showing nice foliage. Most sugar maples I’m seeing so far are turning a brown color, probablyContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? There’s a tree I first became aware of when my first daughter was born in 2013–Korean dogwood (Cornus kousa). I noticed it outside the hospital in Rhinebeck growing vigorously beside the building; It was loaded with fruit. I didn’t realize that this dogwood berryContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? I’ve said it before & I’ll say it again; There is nothing like a hemlock stand. On my short overnight trip, I ran into one of the oldest growth hemlock forests I’ve seen in the Catskills. Some of these trees must have been overContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Abundant and consistent rainfall has been wreacking havoc with apple trees. Leaf fungi spores “run wild” and spread prolifically under moist conditions. Frog-eye leaf-spot (Botryosphaeria obtusa) has been seen on several members’ apple trees already leading to early leaf-drop. This fungus was confirmed byContinue Reading

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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE FOREST? Went for a hike the other day back in the woods and stumbled upon some white oak branches on the forest floor. Branches had been cut from above by a hungry black bear that was after the acorns. Once the branches laid on theContinue Reading