Treesearch

The early 1940's witnessed a striking increase in strip-mining throughout the eastern coal region. West Virginia, with its extensive coal resources, naturally was caught in the full current of this shift in mining methods. Today the raw gash on the hillside - almost infallibly the mark of a strip-mine operation - is a familiar sight in the State.

When New York City suffered a serious water shortage in 1949-50, some of the reservoirs in its water-supply system were drained almost empty. In some places land that had been covered with water for nearly a hundred years was exposed. This provided an unique opportunity for studying sedimentation and erosion problems in this area.

Hybrid trees, like hybrid corn, may have exceptional qualities their parents did not have. But extensive tests are needed to pick out the hybrids that have desirable characteristics such as exceptionally fast growth and good form.

White pine forests are severely damaged by forest fires. Generally a fire kills all trees less than 20 feet high immediately. Larger trees may die later, depending on the degree of injury. Salvage operations must be started soon after a fire, because insects and fungi quickly attack trees that are killed.

Many northern hardwood stands in the Northeast contain a number of large, worthless trees that were left over from earlier logging jobs. The seedlings and saplings under such stands are usually misshapen by having been overtopped and suppressed for years.

Chemical weed killers have been under test for 3 years as a possible means of preparing planting sites in the scrub oak barrens of Pennsylvania. Here the problem is to kill or set back the competing brush so planted trees can get started without costly release cuttings.

Information about spruce budworm damage in Canadian forests may be useful in reducing losses in Maine if the infestation becomes epidemic there. For this reason the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station has been studying the budworm epidemic in southwestern Quebec since 1945. Since trees are still dying, results of these studies must be considered indicative rather than conclusive.

In tree-breeding operations, it is standard practice to protect the tree flowers with vegetable parchment or sausage-casing bags during the pollination period so no unwanted pollen can get to them. Since the bags often damage the tree, they are usually removed as soon as the pollination period ends - within 2 or 3 weeks.