Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

Hands-on Experiences Encourage Future Environmentalists

COLLEGE STATION, TX –- A new generation has come of age since the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970. For this and future generations, environmental awareness is an important and burgeoning point of reference.

Today’s urban children live in environments that offer little chance for direct contact with natural ecosystems, and often have to depend on sources such as television and educators for information about ecology and nature. Many children grow up without the valuable personal experiences in nature that are essential to developing a true understanding of environmental issues.

Educators are being challenged to create learning experiences that mold subsequent generations of environmental stewards: young people who are capable of making knowledgeable and conscientious decisions regarding the environment. But classroom teachers who make environmental education experiences a priority often lack resources, funding, time, and ideas about ways to integrate environmental education into classroom learning. Getting children involved in hands-on activities is critical, and gardening just may be the answer.

Youth gardening programs are becoming popular experiential vehicles to help children get “down to earth” and promote environmental awareness in communities and schools. Previous studies have indicated that children who participate in formal gardening programs have shown improvements in science achievement, nutritional choices, self-esteem, and patience. Recently, researchers studied the effect of gardening programs on the development of students’ environmental consciousness.

O.M. Aguilar, a graduate assistant in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University and lead author of the study, explained; “The objectives of the study were to examine an interdisciplinary and experiential approach to environmental education by use of a youth gardening program for third through fifth grade students. In addition, this study evaluated the gardening program’s effectiveness on promoting positive environmental attitudes and a high environmental locus of control with children.”

More than 80% of children who participated in the study had been previously involved in gardening, either through school programs or informal experiences at home. Test results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened. The study showed that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens, and that children’s involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs.

Results from the study also found that there were gender and ethnicity differences among children, with girls and Caucasians appearing to benefit more from the gardening curriculum. Researchers suggested that future research should focus on the development of gardening curricula that target the needs and interests of boys and minority children.

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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/2/243

AND CHECK out Cornell’s Garden-Based Learning resources here.

You can still get in on this…call Lori ASAP

Facilitating Meetings and Building Teams Training

Friday December 12th from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This is a must attend training especially for your staff in Community Horticulture and Plant or Environmental Science 4-H Youth Development.

In today’s climate we must build skill to maximize our efficiency and effective engagement of volunteers.

It is estimated that 11 million meetings are held each DAY in the US and organizations spend up to 15 % of their budgets on meetings. Poor meetings and poor teams lead to loss of money, time and most importantly morale.

This training will help your staff plan and conduct meetings so you build effective teams to maximize your county programs’ impact.

This training is at the DEC Stony Kill Farm facility just south of Poughkeepsie so county associations in the Hudson Valley, Capital District and Long Island are especially encouraged to attend but it is open to CCE staff from across the state.

Participants will walk away with new strategies to immediately apply in our extension work.

Register staff today.

Consider sending a complete team from your county including a person from community horticulture, 4-H youth development, nutritional sciences.. If you’d like to also include a Master Gardener Volunteer and/or 4-H Volunteer contact Lori (bushway@cornell.edu) for space availability.

You can help! – Find ‘em, photograph ‘em, and send ‘em

Diagnostician and hort educator staff answering clients question should attend this workshop Nov 4th (8:00am-12:00pm) Carmel, NY, DEC Credits available, registration required.

details in this PDF
Jennifer J Stengle
Assistant Educator,
Environmental Horticulture & Natural Resources
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County
845-278-6738

For Release: IMMEDIATE                                                                                                           Contact: Maureen Wren
Friday, September 19, 2008                                                                                                                                        (518) 402-8000

NEW YORK TO SEND TEAM OF EXPERTS TO HELP MASSACHUSETTS
FIGHT OUTBREAK OF ASIAN LONGHORNED BEETLES
Large Infestation in Neighboring State Highlights Need for Compliance With
NYS Measures Limiting Transport of Untreated Firewood

            New York State will be sending a team of trained DEC forestry staff to assist Massachusetts in surveying and quantifying the extent of tree and forest damage caused by the Asian Longhorned Beetle, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today. A large outbreak of Asian Longhorned Beetles (ALB) has been discovered in Worcester and assistance has been requested to help inventory the extent of the damage and potential threat to surrounding trees.

Asian Longhorned Beetles are exotic, wood-boring insects that attack a variety of native hardwood species, including maple, birch, elm, poplar, horse chestnut and willow. Upon hatching, ALB larvae tunnel through the heartwood of a host tree until fully grown, then they burrow out of the trunk as an adult beetle. This process weakens the wood, often causing limbs to fall off, and eventually kills the host tree. Native to East Asia, this invasive species has the potential to cause millions of dollars of damage to commercial forests and devastate forest habitats across the state. A picture and more information about the insect can be found at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7255.html on the DEC website.

So far, over 1,000 ALB-infested trees have been found in the Worcester, Massachusetts area. New York’s participation will provide Massachusetts with trained professionals knowledgeable in tree identification, the target pest, and landowner interactions. DEC’s forestry team will begin being sent to the Worcester area in early October, with expenses paid for by the United States Forest Service.

“Massachusetts is grateful for the assistance being provided by the State of New York and its forestry professionals in responding so rapidly to this urgent matter,” said Richard K. Sullivan Jr., Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. “Once the presence of this insect is detected, it is critical to quickly determine the size and extent of the infestation and to take whatever actions necessary to contain or eliminate it. We also applaud and thank New York for its help in eliminating the movement of firewood between the states.”

“In addition to helping assess the damages this destructive insect has caused, DEC’s foresters view this as a valuable learning opportunity in their ongoing battle against other destructive invasives,” Commissioner Grannis said. This outbreak also serves as a strong reminder of the need for vigilance and, proactive steps to close off as many vectors as possible for entry of invasive insect forest pests into New York.  On this front, I strongly encourage residents and, vistors to help prevent the spread of invasive forest pests in New York by carefully adhering to our 2008 emergency rules against transporting untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its orgin.”

ALB and many other exotic pests such as the Emerald Ash Borer and Sirex Wood Wasp can unintentionally be transported long distances via human activity – especially the hauling of firewood. To limit this risk, New York prohibits the importation of firewood into the state that has not been heat-treated to eliminate invasive species, fungi and pathogens that can harm our trees. The regulations also limit the transportation of untreated firewood within the state to less than 50 miles from its point of origin. More information about this emergency regulation can be found at http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html on the DEC website or by calling 1-866-640-0652.

New York State DEC professionals have regularly assisted other states and the federal government in responding to emergencies, including this summer’s forest fires in the west, last year’s forest insect outbreak in Maryland, and the recent hurricanes in Louisiana. In 1996, New York received help from other states in addressing ALB following the discovery of the invasive insect in areas of New York City and Long Island, and again in 2007 when a new infestation was discovered on Prall’s Island off Staten Island.

Invasive species are viewed by New York officials as akin to “catastrophic wildfires in slow-motion” – equating the wildfires that have plagued western states in recent years to the threats that insects like ALB pose to the environmental, economic, recreational, historic and aesthetic benefits provided by healthy forests.

U.S. Forest Service experts have said the Massachusetts infestation may turn out to be one of the biggest that the federal agency has dealt with to date. Already the quarantine area exceeds that in New Jersey and is second only to New York’s.

Tools
Clean, sharpen, and lubricate tools before putting them to bed. Begin by soaking them in a hot bubble bath. Then use a wire brush to scrub off debris. Use sandpaper or a scouring pad to remove rust, if necessary. Have the tools sharpened professionally or do it yourself using a bastard mill file: Place the blade at a 45-degree angle. Pull the file across and perpendicular to the blade (filing in one direction only). Turn the blade over and repeat the process. Remove burs with the file or with sandpaper. Lubricate all tools with purchased lubricant, or simply spray with olive oil, and wipe off the excess. Condition wooden handles by lightly sanding with fine sandpaper, then waxing with paste wax (available in most hardware or big box stores).

This end of the season tip and several more can be found in the National Gardening Association newsletter (website)

There is still time to encourage gardeners to plant cover crops like winter rye or winter wheat.

Here’s a our Gardening resources cover crop factsheet:

Improve Your Soil with Cover Crops

Here are two articles from organic gardening:

Cover Crop Benefits

Cover Crops Basics

Here’s a resource to help you and your volunteers approach those biting questions:

protocol factsheet (pdf)

Do you other resources you have found useful in address these questions? Please share in the comment section or send material to bushway@cornell.edu

Whether you are a home gardener or landscape professional, choosing the right tree or shrub for your site is an important decision. Now there’s a Cornell University website –the Woody Plants Database — that can help you select the species most likely to thrive where you plant them.“Most people recognize the benefits of tree planting – from sequestering carbon to providing shade to improving aesthetics,” says Nina Bassuk, director of Cornell University’s Urban Horticulture Institute.  “But it’s important to make sure that the trees we plant are well-suited to the site before we invest time and money in planting them.”

In her decades of research on trees that can stand up to tough city life, Bassuk identified five key site characteristics that determine the chances of success – or failure – of particular woody plant species:

• How much light the site receives (full sun to shade).
• How cold it gets in winter (USDA Hardiness Zone).
• Soil moisture (from poorly drained to prolonged dry periods).
• Soil acidity or alkalinity (pH).
• Salt spray or salty soils (from road runoff or the ocean).

Simply plug that site information into an online form, and the Woody Plants Database website determines which of nearly 400 trees, shrubs and woody vines should perform well.  You can also refine your search to include only certain sized plants, or evergreen or deciduous species.

The site also includes detailed profile pages for each species that include:

• Images showing species’ ornamental characteristics through the year.
• Potential insect or disease problems.
• Notable cultivars available in the trade.
• Additional information on ornamental characteristics and environmental constraints.

The website focuses primarily on species well-suited for New York and the Northeast, but may be useful in regions with similar environmental conditions, notes Bassuk, who received the prestigious 2008 Scott Medal from Scott Arboretum for her work.

Bassuk traces the roots of this website back nearly 10 years, to a Cornell Faculty Innovation in Teaching grant to develop a website for students in the Creating the Urban Eden course.  Bassuk teaches the course along with her husband Peter Trowbridge, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture.

“Originally, we just wanted a kind of online textbook to help students learn to identify these plants and their characteristics,” recalls Bassuk.  “But we realized that we could turn this information into a powerful tool to help people make better choices about what to plant.”

Visit the Woody Plant Database website:  http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/woody_plants

Editors:  Click on images above for high-resolution images.

FYI: We
are suspending testing oak samples from NYS for Ceratocystis
fagacearum (Oak Wilt) for this season. With the current leaf drop and
the information we’ve received from other researchers, we think the
likelihood of detecting any additional positive samples this year from
NYS is very unlikely.

We would
suspend testing immediately, but if anyone has been talking to a
homeowner, etc. about getting a tree tested that showed symptoms this
season, we will accept samples until Oct 17th. Many of the samples we
received in recent weeks were “in transit” for several days,
and they may have simply dried out too much to be useful, so please
encourage shipment to be sent via a 1 or 2 day delivery service.

We have
also posted a note on our web site regarding suspending testing. When we
have any more information regarding testing for 2009, we will post
that on the web site as well. Please check back in the Spring for more
information.

Thanks,

Sandra

Sandra Jensen Tracy
Plant Disease Diagnostician
Cornell Plant Disease Diagnostic Clinic
607-255-7850
http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/

From George Hudler:

     Video showing in-field screening for oak wilt disease.

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVUZsvyZfVE

       Attached: the latest Oak Wilt Fact sheet.