WB Logging and Timber Management

05/04/2023

Deep in the luscious pine forests of East Texas, small bulging orange spindle-shaped growths may be seen on pine trees – evidence of a pesky disease known as fusiform rust. Fusiform rust, is caused by a fungus native to the southern United States and can be devastating to timber producers.

Fusiform rust is interesting in that oak trees, particularly water oaks, are required for the fungus to complete its life cycle and cause infections of pines. During spring, powdery, orange-colored, spores are carried by the wind from infected pine trees to newly formed oak leaves.

Fungal infections on the oak leaves produce basidiospores. Doing little to no harm to the oak leaf, these basidiospores are then carried back to pine trees from late April through June.

Luckily, fusiform rust has declined during the past 35 years due to advances in trees genetics that allow tree growers to produce rust resistant pine trees. Learn more about fusiform rust at https://bit.ly/3Vumt9Q

03/18/2023

03/09/2023

Winter and early spring are the perfect time to plant trees in Texas because the cooler temperatures provides time for root development and acclimation. Our West Texas Nursery offers a variety of high-quality, affordable tree and shrub seedlings, including Afghanistan pines.

These pines are fast growing trees that reach heights of 35 to 40 feet and best adapted to arid zones and alkaline soils, making them perfect for West Texas. Their soft, green needles form a dense canopy with branches to the ground making them an excellent choice for windbreaks.

Seedlings are currently available, in packs of 25, at the West Texas Nursery or online at: https://westtexasnursery.com/collections/all

03/08/2023

Spring weather has sprung in Texas, bringing a new allergy season with more pollen and hay fever. Many tree species can contribute to hay fever, but oak trees especially, along with grasses, w**ds and other plants make up most of the cause for symptoms.

After coming out of a winter dormant state, oak trees and other tree species begin to flower in the spring when the weather warms, and in doing so, produces a large amount of pollen and allergens. Oak trees are beautiful and provide endless benefits, but when compared to other pollen producers, oaks produce more pollen and over a longer period of time.

Oak trees typically release pollen over a 6-8 week period, but individual trees producing at different rates make oak pollen season run from March through June.

A common misconception about spring allergies is often that trees with colorful, showy flowers produce more pollen. These trees, such as crape myrtle, plum, dogwood and magnolia, actually cause less allergies because the pollen on the larger flowers are often “stickier” and are held more strongly by the tree.

03/08/2023

With warmer weather and weekend landscaping projects approaching, don’t forget to properly mulch your trees! Mulch should be 2-3” thick in a circle around the tree, at least to the canopy's edge for young trees and should not be touching the bark of the tree.

Proper mulching helps combat summer heat and:

🌳Protects trees from water evaporation in the soil allowing that water to be available for trees

🌳Limits the growth of grass, resulting in less physical damage from mowers and w**d eaters near the trunk

🌳Slowly decays, providing nutrients for the soil which are then made available to the trees

12/21/2022

As Texas plans for freezing temperatures in the coming days, be sure to take these measures to protect your beloved plants and trees:

🥶Bring all potted plants inside. Even hardier trees and plants are more susceptible to root freeze if they’re not completely underground.

🌳Insulate your trees and plants with mulch. In addition to providing a barrier of protection against wind, freezing temperature and frost, mulching helps trees retain heat from the soil.

While these are some measures to protect your plants, it’s worth remembering that our native forest has adapted to our temperate environment over millions of years. Most of them should be largely unaffected by freezing temperatures – it's the smaller, younger and non-native (especially subtropical) trees that will need a little help to see them through.

Read more on how to care for your trees in the cold at bit.ly/3UQfkP3

12/09/2022

While there are many pros and cons to having a real or artificial tree during the holiday season, one thing is certain – real Christmas trees have endless benefits!

🌲 Real trees are both renewable and recyclable. Thousands of organizations will actually take the tree off your hands to convert it into mulch or composted soil after the holidays.

🌲 Christmas trees sequester carbon, produce oxygen and clean the air we breathe. Similar to having plants or fresh cut flowers around, real trees also help boost energy and mood and decrease mental fatigue.

🌲 Real Christmas trees help our economy. The real Christmas tree industry has a continuous cycle of economic benefit for our state – they are planted, processed, transported and sold only to start the entire cycle again by planting new seedlings each year.

Read more about the benefits of real Christmas trees at: https://bit.ly/3lPVB0E

11/20/2022

Leaves falling and changing color is not the only major change for trees as the weather turns this season – they also slow down growing!

Trees mainly grow in late spring and early summer, when a new layer of wood is added around the trunk, branches and roots called growth rings. This ring is light and the shape and width of growth rings reflect what type of year the tree experienced, wide being good growing conditions and narrow being rougher conditions such as a drought like we've had this year.

In the fall though, production of the woody layers slows down and a dark growth ring, or late wood, forms which is typically much smaller than the light ring grown in the spring and summer. As you may know, this is also how we can determine the age of a tree and what kind of life it has lived.

Learn more about how trees grow here: http://texastreeid.tamu.edu/content/howTreesGrow/

08/27/2022

Timber management is vital to help mitigate the risk of wildfires.

Idaho leads the U.S. with the number of current active wildfires in the National Interagency Fire Center’s database, which has recorded more than 121,000 acres that have been burned from

08/27/2022

August is ! Did you know healthy trees and forests are critically important to protecting water resources and sustaining them? About 50 percent of the freshwater resources in Texas originate on forestlands, which provide a continuous and abundant supply of clean water.

Sustainably managed forests and woodlands are able to provide clean water in addition to many of the products we use daily, such as lumber and paper, as long as Best Management Practices, or BMPs, are implemented. BMPs are acceptable practices that could be implemented to protect water quality and promote soil conservation during forestry activities.

Texas A&M Forest Service, in cooperation with forest sector partners, develops and updates BMP guidelines based on new research, technology, operations and monitoring results. This cooperative, non-regulatory program is completely voluntary, although the current BMP implementation rate in Texas is 94%.

So, as you take a drink of water today, remember – Healthy Forests = Clean Water. Learn more at https://tfsweb.tamu.edu/ForestsAndWater/.