Category: Education

With dropping temperatures and shorter days nearly all of our urban trees have dropped their leaves and gone dormant. The dormant season is the best time to prune trees. For oaks and elms this is the only time to prune and avoid the potential spread of Oak Wilt and Dutch Elm disease. For all other…

Sustainable Atwood and the Atwood Neighborhood received a grant in 2011 to inventory all of the trees on private property in the neighborhood. The Urban Tree Alliance has had the privilege of helping to analyze the data and share it with the community. One outcome was an online map of the inventory data that also includes the…

The Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive wood boring beetle, has been in the Madison news a lot recently. While the insect isn’t yet established in Dane County, it is gradually inching its way here and was recently found in Janesville, WI. For more information about EAB, visit our EAB Page. Here’s what you can do…

The Urban Tree Alliance is hosting a couple of community education classes in the coming months. We’re partnering with Community Groundworks to offer classes on Tree Identification and using tree limbs to make Green Garden Decorations. Classes are free and open to the public; descriptions are below.   TREE ID CLASS Join the Urban Tree…

Having not received significant rainfall in well over a month, plants in Southern Wisconsin are showing signs of stress. Compared to agricultural crops or turf grass, trees have well developed and substantial root systems that allow them to reach moisture that evades other plants. However, in a drought like this even established trees can become…

Last week the New York Times ran a series of three articles on the hazards of trees in the Big Apple. Having worked as an arborist for the New York City parks department and now advising homeowners and municipalities on the health and stability of their trees in Madison, WI, I though it appropriate to…

As of April 1st the season for pruning oak and elm trees has expired. Both of these genera are susceptible to fungal diseases (oak wilt, and dutch elm disease) that are transfered by insects. Open wounds from pruning attract the insects and make it more likely that your tree will contract these destructive pathogens. To…