Conservation / Tree Health

Inside the walled gates of the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden located at Shibpur in Howrah district, the chirping of birds gets distinctly louder.

Set up in 1787, the 273 acre garden, located at the other end of the river Hooghly, has turned into a graveyard of trees. Massive trees, hundreds in number, with trunks having a girth of several metres, have fallen all over the garden, completely blocking access to large parts of the campus.

There are a number of broadleaf evergreens that provide structure and screening in the shady garden — hollies, camellias and boxwood all spring to mind. But there are very few evergreen conifers that fit the bill. Most crave sunlight.

There is one notable exception: the hemlock, which is an attractive, fine-textured native coniferous tree that grows large but without the dense, leaden qualities of, say, the Norway spruce or the southern magnolia.

A study carried out at the Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) of the University of Helsinki modeled how different street-tree alternatives and the location of the trees affect air quality on the pedestrian level. The study was carried out in collaboration by the University of Helsinki, the City of Helsinki and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Temperate and tropical dry forests—not just rainforests—are home to thousands of unique tree species, a new study reveals.

Scientists studied data from more than 10,000 forest and savanna sites across the Americas, discovering unique and special tree biodiversity.

Conservation efforts have traditionally focussed on rainforests, partly because they contain so many tree species.

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.