During a recent Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario webinar, Jim Jones, a British ecologist and hedge laying expert, explained how a managed hedgerow can fulfil several roles within agriculture.

Why it matters: Managed North American hedgerows could provide a biodiversity and ecological boost to areas with diminished woodland coverage.

“Hedgerows can create a landscape with a sense of place. That gives you a relationship to the land you wouldn’t otherwise get,” said Jones, who now calls Ontario home.

North American shelterbelts and windbreaks utilize deciduous trees with conifers on the outside to reduce wind effect. However, U.K. hedgerows are managed fence lines that provide ecological benefits and hold cultural significance.

“North American hedgerows tend to be the strips of vegetation that have remained within field boundaries, usually because fieldstone has been scraped to create a boundary and the woody species have grown up there,” he said.

“They’re the great habitats for wildlife, but they’re not really any use in terms of as a field (boundary) or livestock boundary.”

A managed hedgerow can play a massive role in biodiversity, said Jones, especially in regions with diminished woodland coverage, like southwestern Ontario. They can provide multi-species habitat and a microclimate from the grass boundary inward.

“When you’re starting to think about a new hedge row — doing it from scratch — you’ve got to ask yourself what it’s for, especially if (you’ve) had no concept of what a planted, managed hedgerow is all about,” Jones said. “You’ve got to think about what kind of function your hedgerow is going to perform.”

Coniferous trees are not ideal for hedgerows because they don’t respond well to coppicing, which is the process of cutting the tree at its base to promote rapid new growth. That is fundamental in hedgerow management, said Jones.

The backbone structure of a new hedgerow consists of 50 per cent of one species, like Ontario’s hawthorn, Osage orange or black acacia.

Hedgerow propagation doesn’t require ground preparation, although conditioning soil using turf stripping, plowing, spraying and use of landscape fabric helps. Transplants can be slot- or notch-planted into existing conditions, Jones said.

He likes a dense one-metre planting structure with five plants, ideally one or two-year-old whips, in two staggered rows 38 centimetres apart with 45 cm between each plant. Rabbit and deer guards are recommended.

“(Staggering) provides more structure as the hedgerow starts to grow. People are often surprised at how dense a hedgerow is planted, but once you come around to managing it, you see how important that is.”

Fit for Ontario

Although the availability of wood and barbed wire allowed North American farmers to drift away from labour-intensive hedgerow fencing, there was a resurgence in the 1840s and again in the 1930s to combat soil erosion during the dustbowl, mostly using Osage orange.

The thorny tree, which grows in Caledon but is threatened by the proposed Highway 413, is said to be “horse high, bull strong and pig tight,” making it an excellent base for Ontario hedgerow systems, said Jones.

The challenge lies in creating a cohesive list of species ideal for North American-managed hedgerows because European options aren’t necessarily viable.

To date, Jones has used American hazelnut, gray dogwood, chokeberry, nannyberry, arrowwood, serviceberry, black chokeberry and fragrant sumac in pilot hedgerows on Mount Wolfe Farm in Albion Hills.

In addition, Topsy Farm on Amherst Island also used Alleghany serviceberry, nannyberry, red oak, ninebark, hackberry, meadowsweet, grey dogwood, maple, highbush cranberry and chokecherry for its hedgerow.

Hedgerows have a circular lifecycle of 50 to 100 years before they become derelict and die. In the first 50 years, the shoots will proliferate from below-cut stems and thicken yearly, densifying interlocked branches.

At some point the hedgerow requires rejuvenation from the bottom, where hedge laying comes into play, said Jones.

Using stakes and binders, a “living hinge” is cut about four-fifths of the way through the tree near the base and is laid at a 35-degree angle between the stakes as a single-brush or double-brush system. Traditionally, if livestock is on both sides, a double brush system is employed.

He said a generous number of stems within the border is essential before laying a hedgerow.

The Ontario Rural Skills Network provides hedge laying workshops, as does Jones’ business, Hedgerow Co., which propagates indigenous species for hedgerow development.

The post Hedgerows enjoy potential new growth in Ontario appeared first on Farmtario.

“Those are ready,” he said, looking at a nearby apple tree, one of 4,500 planted in neat rows through wheat fields on his farm near Peterborough, in eastern England.

The wheat had been harvested a couple of weeks earlier, but Briggs welcomed the added work of apple picking and the extra income it provides.

He is among a small group in Britain working to revive the ancient practice of agroforestry, or growing trees on the same piece of land as field crops or livestock pasture for economic and ecological benefit.

The farming method all but disappeared in Britain in the wake of the Second World War, when the government, under pressure to feed a rapidly growing population, paid food producers to switch to single-crop farming methods.

But agriculture experts say it is poised to make a comeback as part of the government’s tree-planting campaign to help meet its climate target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Nature doesn’t do monoculture,” said Briggs, an early adopter of the practice who is advising the government on agroforestry standards.

“We’re taking some of the best practices of forestry and mixing them with agriculture to embed diversity, to be resilient, but in a way that we can still manage.”

[RELATED] Agroforestry: The unsung matchmaker for agricultural biodiversity

In a report released in early November, the Woodland Trust, a British conservation charity, said planting 30 per cent of British grass pastureland with trees could produce net-zero carbon emissions from pasture-raised livestock by 2050.

Britain has committed more than US$560 million to planting 30,000 hectares (about 74,000 acres) of trees per year between 2020 and 2025.

About 70 per cent of the country’s total area is agricultural land, but only a little more than three per cent of British land is now used for some form of agroforestry, according to Paul Burgess, an agroforestry professor at England’s Cranfield University.

In its 2020 report, the government’s Committee on Climate Change recommended increasing the area of farmland that incorporates trees to 10 per cent, saying it could cut planet-warming emissions by six tonnes per year by 2050.

Burgess noted that planting trees on agricultural land can cut more emissions than planting trees on non-agricultural land, with trees in some cases leading to reduced fertilizer use or a lower density of beef cattle, a key source of climate changing emissions.

[RELATED] Farmers at the forefront of reducing GHG emissions

But even proponents of agroforestry say making the practice more widespread will not be easy, not least because there is a lack of available trees to plant.

“If agroforestry was to take off at the level that we would all like to see, we don’t have the tree supply (nationally),” said Helen Chesshire, lead farming advocate for the Woodland Trust, which gives grants to farmers to plant trees.

“Currently, we have a bottleneck.”

Farming over forests

Farming with trees in a multi-crop system is not a new idea. People have used the technique for thousands of years, including on the British Isles, and it is still the method of choice on vast swathes of the planet.

Farmers and other agricultural experts say agroforestry boosts biodiversity, aiding vital pollinators like bees and birds, while reducing instances of pest and disease infestation for both plant crops and livestock.

For instance, spreading fruit or nut trees throughout a crop field, rather than grouping them together in an orchard, makes it harder for disease to jump from tree to tree.

The practice also slows land degradation because trees store nutrients and water in the ground and protect soil against wind erosion, as well as buffering crops against flooding.

All can help counter the effects of rising temperatures and intensifying drought, experts say.

Despite the benefits of multi-crop systems, a range of European and U.K. agricultural policies, starting in 1962, incentivized farmers to clear trees to grow more monocrops, said Briggs, the Cambridgeshire farmer.

That created “a chasm” between agriculture and forestry, he said, which over the past decade a coalition of farmers, ecologists and non-profits have been lobbying the British government to close.

Since the United Kingdom left the European Union in 2020, all four of its national governments have announced the development of agroforestry standards and payment programs to encourage more trees on farms.

“The government now seems to at least accept that trees on farms are no longer an issue, that they are part of the farming system,” said Chesshire of the Woodland Trust.

[RELATED] Reviving the forest — with agriculture as part of the mix

‘Change is a challenge’

Advocates say policy incentives are the crucial first step to upscaling agroforestry.

Tackling the country’s tree shortage will take time, said Chesshire, noting that the trees should be cultivated domestically to avoid importing invasive species or diseases that could risk the entire system.

The next step, supporters say, is raising basic awareness of agroforestry techniques.

“People make the mistake … of assuming that farmers are foresters, and they aren’t. Change is a challenge for them,” said David Brass, CEO of The Lakes Free Range Egg Company in Cumbria.

The Lakes sources eggs from more than 70 farms and requires all of its producers to have 20 per cent of the area their hens range in covered in trees, Brass explained.

The company provides initial payments to many reluctant farmers to plant trees and pays a “significant premium” for ongoing maintenance, he said.

On his own farm, Brass said his investment paid for itself within the first two years. Hen mortality dropped and egg quality increased.

As descendants of jungle fowl, chickens are happier and more secure among trees, he said, adding that trees also shield the animals from extreme temperatures.

Time for a revival

Time is another challenge farmers face when looking to move into agroforestry. Trees can take five to 70 years to mature, depending on the species.

“Asking tenant (farmers) to invest in trees if they have a five-year tenancy and apples take beyond five years to get anywhere near a return is problematic,” said Matthew Heard, an ecologist in charge of environmental research at the National Trust, Britain’s largest private landowner.

“That’s where stepping up as a landlord is really important.”

In addition to adjusting lease terms so landlords offer longer tenancies, farmers also want the government to extend its sustainable farming payment scheme from covering three years at a stretch to eight years, in light of the multi-year financial risk they take until trees are established.

For all the challenges, agroforestry advocates say the boost for food security and economic productivity, as well as the environmental benefits, far outweigh the costs.

On his farm, Briggs pointed to a petrified tree trunk on the edge of a field.

“Before we farmed the area, there were trees here,” he said. “We have to put trees back into the landscape in a way we can manage. This is what the land returns to.”

The post How mixing farms with forests can help nations reach net zero appeared first on Farmtario.

For those working to create “silvopasture” the ultimate goal is a diversity of landscapes on the farm that more accurately mimics the natural world.

Steve Gabriel, who wrote a book called Silvopasture, recently spoke to the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO) annual convention. He says silvopasture won’t supply all your pasturing needs even if you successfully establish forage species beneath the trees. “Don’t convert your best pastures to a tree plantation” because those good open pastures are crucial in a well-managed rotational system.

Why it matters: Silvopasture can increase farmland use by incorporating woodlands for grazing and provides carbon sequestration benefits. 

If your farm is fortunate enough to be home to a mature woodlot with mixes of species, ages and sizes of trees, says Gabriel, it most likely should not be pastured even if the expectation is that pasture species could be established and the woodlot fenced off.

Gabriel and his wife run Wellspring Forest Farm near Trumansburg in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Previous management had left behind badly degraded soils in the cropped areas and some poorly regenerating wooded areas. Their goal, when they eventually hand over control of the farm, is for it to be on a path to being a healthy forest — with agricultural production as part of the mix.

“My excitement with silvopasture is to look at the land as an entire organism,” he said.

A movie, Livestock on the Land, produced by Practical Farmers of Iowa was required viewing for convention attendees. It explores the causes of the loss of livestock from much of Iowa’s rural expanse. By telling the stories of farmers working against that trend, it proposes that bringing back animals onto farms can transform the sustainability of the farm businesses, of the natural environment, and of rural communities as a whole.

Gabriel believes silvopasture has this same potential. Ideally decisions about forests, he offered, shouldn’t only be made at a farm scale. They should also be made on a watershed scale because what used to be a forest — even if it doesn’t currently have trees growing on it — covers that entire watershed.

He acknowledges the current system of land ownership makes it very unlikely this will happen. But by making decisions about the stands of the forest on his farm, he’s confident some of those positive impacts will still be possible.

His definition of silvopasture is “ecological restoration of livestock habitat.” And he says he has seen benefits from silvopasture both for the environment and the livestock.

Gabriel says their approximately 50-acre (owned plus leased) farm is representative of a lot of the landscape in the northeastern U.S. — a region where farmers have typically looked to the open fields as the agricultural aspect and only thought occasionally about the wooded areas as a source for selective-logging timber.

Wellspring’s main crop is mushrooms, grown both inside and on inoculated logs in the wooded areas, plus pastured sheep. Ducks were brought in to control grubs in the mushrooms, but also led to a booming duck egg sideline.

Gabriel says there are two ways to move into silvopasture: converting from a woodlot or planting trees in a cleared area. In both cases, it’s best to start slow so you don’t end up with too much work and not enough time to do it.

Traditional managed logging typically leaves a mid-storey layer that will grow into the bigger trees for subsequent harvests. But for silvopasture, this layer blocks light. So a different approach is used to open up the canopy and allow in more light for the cultivated forage species to thrive.

The “stand map” he first drew up for the farm had “old abandoned farm fields that were grown over with a mix of species” and some spots they simply couldn’t access at all because they were grown in too densely. Cutting a path through those areas was “a good, valuable first step.”

He carries flagging tape with him so if he sees a “keeper tree” he’ll flag it. For deciding what to keep and what to remove, Gabriel likes the philosophy imparted to him by a friend of the Seneca nation: “thin as nature would thin.” You don’t take out the best trees because those are the ones that are going to contribute to genetic improvement in the stand. Yet you can still find marketable trees.

This philosophy, he says, generally leaves behind a stand that, to the untrained eye, doesn’t look like it has been harvested at all.

As early as possible, make the area accessible to animals because they can accomplish some of that early work themselves. This fall, the Gabriels are bale-feeding sheep in a woodlot that’s in the early stages of transition to silvopasture. They feed in the morning and the sheep, he says, have the rest of the day “with a lot of extra time on their hooves.” They spend much of it stripping bark off buckthorn and, in the spring, this will be much easier to remove with a forestry mulching machine.

Dealing with the debris is a balancing act. You need to leave some behind for soil health, but you also need accessibility both for the animals and for vehicles used in fencing or other work.

“Make your fence access as wide as your vehicle and your mower,” he advised. If you only cut a narrow fencerow, fencing material continually gets caught during work in the area.

Don’t clear too quickly. Trees that grew in dense bush, if they’re a species with shallow roots like pine or some sugar maple, might not be adapted to high winds. Also, if you’re not ready to establish as much forage as you’re clearing brush, you’re just encouraging unwanted species of undergrowth to re-establish.

Their chosen methods for forage establishment are bale grazing and frost seeding. For the sheep, they drop a bale in a different spot each time to evenly distribute the seeds from the hay and the fertility from the sheep. 

For establishing trees in an open area, seedlings are the most common approach. Be aware that, for the first three years this will require lots of your time and resources. “Globally, we’ve been pretty bad at planting trees,” Gabriel said because they’re so often dropped in the ground and left to fend for themselves.

In a wild forest, the chance of a seed eventually turning into a tree is, depending on species, as low as 0.02 per cent. We can vastly improve that seedling’s chances, but it’s important to select good tree stock. Work with a nursery you trust.

If you have a farm with a legacy of a hard, compacted layer at six, eight or 10 inches deep, your success rate with seedlings will suffer. You’ll need to do some soil remediation work first.

The post Reviving the forest — with agriculture as part of the mix appeared first on Farmtario.

Passed by municipal council on April 26, the temporary, 120-day bylaw pertains to wooded landscapes more than half an acre in size, and a specified density of trees.

It comes as council and municipal staff determine how to approach wider environmental policies within the community, and how they will be incorporated into its pre-existing Natural Heritage Strategy, which is an effort to address environmental issues such as continued loss of tree cover via a variety of means. 

Why it matters: Chatham-Kent intends to update its environmental policies but some within the farm community feel left out. 

The overall intention of the temporary bylaw, according to the municipality’s website, is to address “the removal of all, or substantially all, of the trees within any portion of a woodland or woodlot” where the area of tree cover is in excess of the aforementioned acreage.

It is set to expire Aug. 24. 

If less than 0.1 hectares (approximately 0.25 acres) of the woodlot/woodland is removed, it is not considered clear cutting under the bylaw. So, some selective harvesting is still permitted.

Gabriel Clarke, growth and sustainability manager for Chatham-Kent, says the bylaw was brought forth by Wallaceburg councillor Aaron Hall in part due to a concern that woodlot clear-cutting would spike as the municipality revisits environmental policy, including woodlot management. 

Such concerns are not without precedent, as the public consultation period before adoption of the Natural Heritage Strategy in 2013 and 2014 coincided with a loss of between 1,000 and 1,300 acres of Carolinian woodland.

Farmers feel targeted

A group of farmers have created the Chatham-Kent Landowners Association in response to the bylaw. Brian Wright, a member and spokesperson for the group, says they are concerned about the temporary ban and what they perceive to be a move to a full ban once the current bylaw expires. 

Wright says the ban disproportionally affects landowners and the municipality did not consult them before developing and accepting the bylaw. He says public consultation involved a survey that they perceived as pro-bylaw, with no opportunity for comments. 

“We don’t have a problem getting together with them,” says Wright. “If the county wants to work something out, why didn’t they invite us? If you want to put something in place, everybody has to be involved.”

The Heritage Strategy was adopted in 2014 and included ways to work with the agricultural community. Wright says this structure was going to work but the municipality “dropped the ball” by not following through with its stated commitments.

He says most landowners are conscious of the low amount of tree cover in the county and of the need to not remove trees unnecessarily. The bylaw makes it more difficult to remove problem trees and scrub but has few checks on tree and land loss for urban development, he added. 

The Kent Federation of Agriculture has also opposed the temporary ban, stressing the importance of farmer participation in environmental policy updates. 

Confusion around the purpose of consultation

Clarke says the municipality notified 2,800 landowners via letter about the bylaw’s passage. A radio and newspaper campaign was also initiated. The public consultation process on tree cutting and other environmental policies followed the bylaw implementation and closed July 9. 

Speaking as an administrator, Clarke says he believes confusion about the consultation process stems in part from a misinterpretation of what the community survey was designed to do. 

It was intended to highlight the tree cover-related policy options the community would be willing to support, including education and incentive programs in addition to regulation, he says. It did not ask for a simple yes or no on a permanent cutting ban. 

“Our goal as an administration is to try and distill that into some kind of coherent report for council to consider,” says Clarke in reference to 3,600 survey responses. 

“Council’s current direction really only focuses on the current issue. It captures all woodlots, but the vast majority exist on private agricultural lands. The engagement process was designed to respond specifically to develop council’s motions.”

Regarding tree cover and the threat posed by urban rather than rural pressures, he says no specific direction has been provided to the administration by council. 

“What we tried to do with the engagement process was focus specifically on council direction and let the community identify additional opportunities for stewardship… If there is consensus in the community, if we’re doing something on woodlots, we should walk the walk and enhance the natural environment in other areas.”

The post Farmers push back against Chatham clear-cut bylaw appeared first on Farmtario.

However, they now face a perfect storm of dry weather and widespread gypsy moth infestations.

Why it matters: Tree-planting for such purposes as windbreaks, shelterbelts and buffer strips are recognized agricultural best management practices for soil and water quality as well as species-at-risk protection.

“Survival (of newly-planted seedlings), I can almost guarantee, is going to be terrible,” said Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) Forester John Enright, the day before the conservation authority’s final planned 2021 planting on May 28 at the Southern Ontario Butternut Seed Orchard near Innerkip.

UTRCA crews typically plant tens of thousands of trees each spring, with additional seedlings and larger-stock trees picked up from the conservation authority and planted by landowners themselves. This year was the highest ever and trees sold out. 

The reason was twofold. Many of those trees replaced those that didn’t get planted in 2020 thanks to COVID-19 work slowdowns at supplying nurseries, conservation authorities and other planting agencies.

The UTRCA trees program gets support from Forests Ontario and Ontario Power Generation and funding allocated through its Clean Water Program.

“We had to defer a lot of projects,” said Hayley Murray, forestry operations co-ordinator for Forests Ontario. But this spring, with safety protocols — including personal protective equipment for workers, regularly sanitizing equipment and tools, minimizing planter density and staggered start times — there was full return to planting. Forests Ontario Forests Ontario aimed to oversee the planting of approximately 2.8 million trees across the province through a variety of partners including conservation authorities.

Secondly, as with many other do-it-yourself outdoor pursuits during the pandemic, planting trees rose sharply in popularity since March 2020. 

“We saw the demand for trees start to increase (last spring) with landowners contacting us at the last minute to see if we had any surplus trees available,” Enright said in a post on the UTRCA website. “That demand has continued to this day. I believe it is definitely COVID-related. More people are at home, with more time on their hands, looking to improve their properties by planting trees.”

At the nurseries, pandemic-related labour issues weren’t as severe as in 2020 but they did persist this year to some degree — enough to hamper efforts to keep up with the record-breaking demand. “Not only were we sold out but our supplying nurseries were sold out as well. This demand for trees is province-wide,” Enright wrote.

So once again this year, some landowners and planting partners were left deferring their plans until next year.

It’s possible, though, that deferring might end up being the best option. That’s because dry — and intermittently unseasonably hot — weather during the 2021 planting season left foresters fearing the worst for the newly transplanted trees. 

Enright’s family has a farm near Peterborough so he is well aware the dry, hot conditions persisted across southern Ontario.

“When we get a year with a drought in July or August, if the trees went into the ground in good shape, hopefully, they can establish some good roots to get them through,” he said. “But we don’t often get this kind of dry weather this early.”

According to Murray, this year’s planting season “started out well, when we were getting rain and cool weather.” But temperatures rose and rains disappeared far too soon across the province, and now she agrees the newly-planted trees face “a perfect storm.”

And the other major front of that storm is the gypsy moth. “Last year was a bad year (for gypsy moth) and it looks like this year is going to be as bad or worse.”

According to Enright, the most common hosts for gypsy moth infestations are red oak, sugar maple, poplar, birch and willow. Adult moths lay eggs on the bark and caterpillars emerge in May and climb into the foliage to devour the leaves. The caterpillars begin pupating in mid-June or early July, and emerge as adult moths in August — so the cycle can begin again.

“But when the population is this high, they’ll eat pretty well anything.”

Severe infestations have been noted, Enright says, from the southwest through to eastern Ontario, and north into the Muskokas.

The UTRCA forester takes some comfort in hoping the current gypsy moth explosion follows the four-year cycle observed with previous infestations. Last year, when landowners in certain parts of southern Ontario saw serious and widespread defoliation, was the third year. This year it’s quite possible that a naturally occurring fungus will cause a significant decline in gypsy moth numbers before the end of summer 2021.

A cool, wet spring might have hastened the arrival of that fungus, Enright explains. As it stands, though, “there’s going to be a lot of damage before we see that collapse — if it happens.”

According to Murray, if a healthy mature woodlot gets severely defoliated by gypsy moth caterpillars, it can usually recover. But it can also be temporarily at higher risk of longer-term damage due to additional stressors such as drought or an ice storm.

As for newly planted seedlings, they’re at less risk of infestation because they don’t host eggs. But given the stress of hot and dry transplanting conditions, there’s still reason to worry.

“I had one (participating) landowner who had watered 2,200 seedlings twice since we planted them,” he said. “And now he sent me a picture of gypsy moth (caterpillars) eating the leaves.”

The post Tree planting emerges from COVID into hot, dry spring appeared first on Farmtario.

OWA executive director John Pineau is now heading both organizations. 

Pineau says the move is being viewed by both organizations as “an opportunity” that had been talked about as a possibility for several years.

Why it matters: Woodlot management can help improve yield of lumber and more stable environments.

President Tony Bull, in a letter on the organization’s website, explains General Manager Astrid Nielsen’s forestry consulting company “is now at a point where it needs her undivided attention,” and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification program coordinator Jim Hendry is moving into semi-retirement while also maintaining his own forestry business.

“The executive realized that this confluence of (the two departures) made for an opportunity to make changes to ensure the future health of the EOMF so that the key programs — forest health network, forest certification program and our educational events — could continue to thrive,” the letter says.

The goal is to phase in the merger and creating one board of directors and one membership under the OWA umbrella by the end of 2021.

“There was nothing desperate about (the decision),” said Pineau. Instead, with the two staff departures, it became “the logical thing to do at this time.”

While there will now be a single top-level staff member instead of two, the search is already underway for a new certification program coordinator. And that person, once hired, will be full-time due to the ability to include some OWA work in the job description.

“So we are going to staff up,” Pineau said. “It gives us more capacity so, in that way, it’s a real advantage for the OWA.” 

According to Pineau, the entire Model Forest network in Canada was originally created in the 1990s and designed to encourage sustainable forest management but lost its government funding about a decade ago. Regional Model Forest groups that persisted were forced to look elsewhere for financial support, and Pineau suggests EOMF was one of the most successful at making that happen.

In particular, he said, securing the rights to deliver the FSC certification program to its members allowed it to expand its influence beyond the “Eastern Ontario” in its name. Almost 80 OWA members in five of the OWA’s 20 regional chapters have achieved FSC certification through the EOMF, and Pineau expects the merger will allow that to grow into additional regions.

OWA also promotes sustainable management in Ontario forests by providing information on best-management practices. It also provided a united provincial voice on the health of Ontario’s woodlots. Like the EOMF, it was created in the early 1990s.

“It’s all about best management practices and allowing private landowners as well as institutional landowners to be good forest stewards,” Pineau said when asked about which elements of their vision statements are already shared by the two merging organizations.

The post Two forest stewardship organizations to merge appeared first on Farmtario.

Inventory data from natural forests on five continents show that species diversity is optimal for equatorial and tropical rainforests, and that, conversely, in forests located in cold or dry regions, it is the abundance of trees and not their diversity that favours the recapture of CO2.

The results of the study, published in Nature Communications, are valuable in defining natural strategies to combat climate change. Global warming is stressing forests through higher mean annual temperatures, longer-lasting droughts and more frequent and extreme weather events.

At the same time, forests – and the wood they produce – can trap and store carbon dioxide (CO2), and therefore play a crucial role in mitigating climate change.

Trees and forests remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it to carbon during photosynthesis, which they then store in the form of wood and vegetation, a process referred to as carbon sequestration. However, not all forests have the same capacity to capture and store carbon.

Opposite assumptions

In recent decades, researchers have suggested that species diversity allows for denser stacking and niche compartmentalization that promotes the abundance of trees within a forest and that this abundance increases the forest’s carbon storage capacity. But another hypothesis suggests that it is not diversity that allows tree abundance but the availability of energy substrate.

Areas with higher energy content allows more trees to thrive per unit area and thus increase carbon recapture. While these two hypotheses question the scientific community on the relationship between diversity and abundance, knowing the answer could pragmatically guide the fight against CO2 emissions.

An international team around Jaime Madrigal-Gonzalez, scientific collaborator at the Institute for Environmental Sciences of the Sciences Faculty of UNIGE, investigated which of these hypotheses is more likely and under which climatic conditions one is more likely than the other.

The question was addressed using inventory data from natural forests from five continents.

For forests located in the coldest or driest regions on Earth, it is seemingly the abundance, promoted by productivity, that determines the diversity.

Here, any increase in the number of species will not necessarily result in more trees and will not therefore have a big contribution to carbon storage.

The findings of these studies are of substantial practical relevance as they will aid decision makers in identifying nature-based climate change mitigation strategies and to successfully use forests and their sequestration of carbon to reach the climate goals defined in the Paris Agreement.

The post Density, not diversity key to northern forest carbon sequestration appeared first on Farmtario.

In the new study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, sequenced the genomes of 22 species of ash tree (Fraxinus) from around the world and used this information to analyze how the different species are related to each other.

Meanwhile, collaborators from the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service in Ohio tested resistance of more than 20 ash tree species to EAB by hatching eggs attached to the bark of trees, and following the fate of the beetle larvae. Resistant ash trees generally killed the larvae when the insects burrowed into their stems, but susceptible ones did not.

The research team observed that several of the resistant species were more closely related to susceptible species than to other resistant species. This meant the UK-based genome scientists were able to find resistance genes, by looking for places within the DNA where the resistant species were similar, but showed differences from their susceptible relatives.

Using this novel approach, the scientists revealed 53 candidate resistance genes, several of which are involved in making chemicals that are likely to be harmful to insects.

The findings suggest that breeding or gene editing could be used to place these resistance genes into ash species currently affected by EAB.

EAB has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in North America over the last 10 years, including in Ontario farm woodlots. While individual ash trees can be protected by using insecticides, the only long-term solution for saving American ash populations is to breed trees with resistance to EAB.

In the study, the U.S. researchers found that European ash was more resistant to EAB than the North American species. However, European ash trees are already affected by an epidemic of the fungal disease, ash dieback, and experts have yet to understand how the two threats might interact.

The study also involved colleagues from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and the Teagasc Forestry Development Department, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

Dr. Laura Kelly, an academic visitor at Queen Mary, Research Leader in Plant Health at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and first author of the study, said: “Ash trees are key components of temperate forest ecosystems and the damage caused by EAB also puts at risk the many benefits that these forests provide.

“Our findings suggest that it may be possible to increase resistance in susceptible species of ash via hybrid breeding with their resistant relatives or through gene editing. Knowledge of genes involved in resistance will also help efforts to identify trees that are able to survive the ongoing threat from EAB, and in turn, could facilitate restoration of ash woodlands in areas which have already been invaded.”

The post Resistant trees found to resist ash borer appeared first on Farmtario.