News

Forests ---- The landscape would be empty if you were gone.

Acer saccharum

October 3, 2012 by Polyporus badius

sugar bush

from root to bud, and beyond.....and back to the root again

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stats & things

January 18, 2012 by Polyporus badius

  • The death of a 70 year old tree returns over 3 tons of carbon to the atmosphere... 
  • Trees are the longest living organisms on earth.
  • The average metropolitan tree survives about 8 years. 
  • Takes about ten years for a tree to even start productively storing carbon.
  • Trees keep our air supply fresh by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.
  • Moon trees were grown from seeds taken to the moon by Stuart Roosa, Command Module pilot of the Apollo 14 mission of January 31, 1971. The effort included 400-500 seeds, which orbited the moon on the first few days of February 1971. NASA and the USFS wanted to see if being in space and in the moon's orbit would cause the seeds to grow differently than other seeds.
  • 1 million seeds, the amount a mature birch tree has been known to bare in one year.

 more random facts:

  • telephone poles are trees
  • maple syrup comes from trees within a healthy forest.
  • telephone poles are not maple trees
  • Jerry Garcia sustained his health and his energy levels drinking maple infused Jun elixers.
  • Song birds trigger tree lenticels to function (slits in the bark of trees that allow gas exchange)
  • Shamans preserve black bear's gall bladders in maple syrup
  • long chain polysaccharides molecules in maple syrup are found to be naturally occurring in two other places: Ganoderma species (Reishi fungi) and breast milk
  • ectomycorrhizae: capri-sun's latest flavor....justkiddin withya:) its a type of fungi that without most forests especially those growing on depleted soils could not survive without.the fungi forms a symbiotic relationship with tree roots by forming a sheath around the root-tips and forming a Hartig net; a complex network of fungal hyphae that is the site of nutrient exchange between the fungus and the trees.

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Identify your Fungi

January 6, 2011 by Polyporus badius

There were some fun links here, but the overwhelming amount of info surrounding the Kingdom: Fungi is too much for people to maintain up-to-date sites.....which is fine. I suppose i will attempt to update this as often as i can with interesting news about what fungus is doing in the world....

meanwhile i would enjoy the challenge of identifying your fungus to the best of my ability, so feel free to send me pictures or mail me decent samples.....i will do what i can. 

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Form Follows Function

November 23, 2010 by Polyporus badius

Restoring storm damaged trees, and restoring topped trees; important to both tree health and property safety (reducing the likelihood of tree failure).

A tree that has been damaged due to freezing temperatures and windy conditions, causing broken limbs and trunks is susceptible to failure and disease.

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