All walnuts removed from Boulder, CO

Gotta be nimble and quick - the modality of death and secondary rotting fungi combined with the moisture level retained from tylosis means the heartwood rots very fast. Cherry are also prone to attract this pest - or a very similar bug, caught but not yet indentified in Texas where Black walnut deaths are epidemic on the southern Edwards Plateau (and those cherries dying just as fast).

So it's spread already, or our region is host to a new and successful pest that's thriving in the changes that many still insist aren't happening.

When I married on the Plateau in '81, there wasn't a single dead tree in any vista, and here we can see fifteen miles across the hills.
 
There's a soluable mix of Neem oil and a adjuvant of dish soap that appears to keep the tree off limits for a week or so - but it's my trees, next to my equipment, that I can address that often. Fifty yards away, surrounded by 500 acres of walnut/oak/cherry savanna, there are no more live walnuts or cherries, which constituted 30% of the hardwood composition.

In my experience, a customer generally accepts a "once only" treatment, seldom two within a given time frame. I don't offer protection commercially anymore unless it's been the years-long relationship with 8 to 10 key clients on significant trees.

I'm not suggesting Neem with soap is the key here exactly, but I have spent many hours with optics examining the die-offs in these species. Officially, there is no information or directives or even acknowledgement of these mortalities, haven't been studied but certainly have been reported. Has to come from the top down I guess. There are boring insecti, this is evident. They leave trails and consume ALL the xylem shortly resulting in dieback, whether they introduce a pathogen isn't even relevent as the vascular tissue is completely destroyed and within a week to ten days, the canopy rapidly wilts and dies. There appear to be
metabolic reaction to these parastic feedings - attempts at compartmentalization are evident, but if it's tylosis response to hydraulic loss or immune-reaction to fungal presense, the dead heartwood resulting from die-off retains moisture unlike a lightning strike or herbicide poisoning.

There are also no life-cycle issues with larvae morphing into feeding phase, it's a damn beetle that bores, eats and tunnels, emerges, then splits to the next tree. I can't I.D. it, seems neither can the academics, and it's phenomenal.
 
Sounds like a bad pest, but still Boulder's approach of demanding that every infected tree be removed leaves little research on treatment options possible.

Knnejerk thoughtless bureaucratic absolutism. Pheh. I wonder if that urban forester has ever been in a tree.
 
Without honeybees, Boulder will lose the herbal tea companies. There's a lot being said about the approach they tried...without saying it.

Tree by tree spraying with deterrents amounts to effort and money, but 200 gallons costing no more than full tank of gas and the tank of gas including the wages for one man to keep busy spraying three tanks a day covering 100 trees each, twice a month until seasonal changes - with something non-toxic to operator, landowner, streams, and pets...seems like a valid alternative to crews mowing down every last walnut tree in hopes of fixing an epidemic that no longer has hosts to threaten. On crunching numbers, it's a no-brainer but they'll ask the guy who prescribed clear-cutting if this proposal is worth looking into and he'll say "No, it's not supported by data" so they'll get the crews out, set some flags, park the trucks and let one guy cut while the others go for coffee until all the walnuts aren't aproblem anymore. Maybe six years max, if the budget holds out.

All I'm saying is the Neem works here, where epidemics and dead trees outnumber the healthy ones and all the "data" has inspired so far, for active management programs...has overwhelmingly failed. Unless you're in the agricultural chemical field. Losses are relative.
 
The common definition of Boulder is:

Six square miles surrounded by reality.

I know many good arbos in the area and up and down the Front Range. In the next few days I'm going to make a few calls to find out what the vibe on the street really is.
 
Yesterday the article came out and I got 2 calls in relation to this. It is the real deal. It has been for years now. It took a while to get the diagnosis around here and even more time to call for immediate action. In that time, the destruction was exponentially growing. It sucks for the people who have Walnut trees (including myself), but it is a blessing for us tree guys.
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At least 4 years ago I saw the signs of a small epidemic. At that time I was at a pivotal point in the business too (I wondered where I should make some investments). I considered getting a portable saw mill because I knew there was going to be nice lumber to be made. Last year one saw mill in the county was getting all the wood. He got overwhelmed with the amount (he ran out of space).

So now, I'm in no position to invest in a portable saw mill,
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Oh well, there is a tree service in my town who made the investment. I'll give them the walnut I harvest.
 
I have heated with Cherry last two winters, saved what I considered a veneer-quality 28ft log...couldn't find even a free taker unless I paid for them to come out and mill it. The nearest mill has a full kiln and prices paid for walnut make it impossible to justify the expense of handling it as timber. Here anyway. Kind of a local shame.

What's a potentially high market here...is the advocacy of "weed" species and former "invasives" that have proven more than well-adapted to the changing and future environment. The natives are failing, period. When unincumbered by proximity competition they grow in fast and uniform to expectations. Varieties make for choices altering the monocultural habits of disease hosts that exacerbate epidemics. They're everywhere, no need to shop for wholesale nursery stock and selections are unlimited.

I'll shortly expect some vehement protest from the native plant community, but hey...best to be first to practice what's inevitable. A tree is a tree in changing Central Texas is how I see it and so do many of my clients. What's always been isn't anymore, that's a certainty.

So for some, yes I think a portable bandsaw is a good investment, as is a firewood processor but for me, a larger transplanter is on the top of the wish list.
 
[ QUOTE ]
"It has to go to the landfill or be milled right away," Reinholt said. "That's one of the biggest concerns; you can't just throw it into a big pile of firewood and let it sit there."

[/ QUOTE ]

Beetles can't complete their lifecycle at the landfill????????
 
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