Conservation / Tree Health

Trees, shrubs and woody vines are among the top food sources for honey bees in urban environments, according to an international team of researchers. By using honey bees housed in rooftop apiaries in Philadelphia, the researchers identified the plant species from which the honey bees collected most of their food, and tracked how these food resources changed from spring to fall. The findings may be useful to homeowners, beekeepers and urban land managers who wish to sustain honey bees and other bee and pollinator species.

Along the side of the road that leads to the Santa Rosa mansion “La Casona”, there is a piece of original dry forest, probably the only one we will get to see in our lifetimes. Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) research coordinator Roger Blanco says that here, surrounded by guapinol (West Indian locust or stinking toe), níspero (loquat) and cortez amarillo (golden trumpet) trees, the temperature drops by 5 degrees Celsius (a 9-degree drop in Fahrenheit). We sweat less.

In recognition of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary today, the charity partner for Australia’s National Parks, the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife (FNPW) and global reforestation nonprofit, One Tree Planted have announced a five-year project to plant up to one million trees in Bushfire Recovery Nurseries around Australia. 

Given the impact of Australia’s devastating bushfires in 2019/20, the Bushfire Recovery Nurseries will be the first step in significant replanting following the impact of the bushfires on tree species’ in gravely affected areas. 

Severe restrictions will be placed on imports of some very popular trees and plants in an effort to halt a deadly infection.

Xylella fastidiosa has wreaked havoc on olive plantations in parts of Italy and has also been found in France and Spain.

To prevent the disease spreading to the UK, imports of olive trees and lavender bushes will now be curtailed.

There will also be restrictions on almond, rosemary and oleander shrubs.

As winter turned to spring in the town of Miharu, Japan, a small group of workers pounded posts into the ground to lay a grand pathway at the base of a giant cherry tree. It was the same path they've laid every year, wide enough to give thousands of tourists a chance to walk up and marvel at the ancient tree, as its cascading branches fill with delicate pink flowers dipping toward the ground.

But with the coronavirus pandemic taking hold, it was starting to feel as if that pathway might be laid for no one.

In an effort to receive advanced warning of destructive pests that could wreak havoc on native plantings, researchers from Europe, the United States and China are growing "sentinel trees" in strategic locations around the world.

The Hawaiian Rare Plant Program laboratory has successfully grown approximately 300 of the 1,400 known Hawaiian plant taxa using micropropagation techniques.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Lyon Arboretum’s efforts to protect threatened native plant species serve as a model for other areas of conservation concern.

Cederberg, South Africa (CNN) The rugged and beautiful Cederberg Mountains in South Africa's Western Cape are named after one of the rarest trees on the planet. The Clanwilliam cedar lives nowhere else in the world.

This iconic species originated up to 225 million years ago and survived the last ice age. But today it is critically endangered and its future hangs in the balance.

Acute Oak Decline (AOD) and Chronic Oak Dieback (sometimes called Chronic Oak Decline (COD)) are two concerning diseases affecting the UK’s iconic oak trees. Both seriously affect the health of oak trees, and both can eventually kill the tree. AOD inflicts blisters and black bleeds on the trunk and branches of the tree, while COD targets the tree’s ‘central nervous system’, its roots, truncating its ability to take up water and nutrients and forcing leaves and branches to dieback.