August 25, 2022 - A Brief Guide to Late Summer Tree Pests By Amanda Conrad, DOF Forest Health Technician As the summer heat fades and autumn looms right around the corner, you may notice some changes to leaves that have nothing to do with the seasons. Late summer provides a unique setting for forest and tree pests that go mostly unnoticed until this time of year. One such pest, the fall webworm (Hyphantria cunea),... Read More
August 3, 2022 - By Scott Bachman, DOF Senior Area Forester, Blackwater Work Area New Kent County, east of Richmond, experienced a rash of suspicious fires the week of July 18. Fortunately, the fires were intentionally set as part of an FI-210 Wildland Fire Origin and Cause Determination class, and were necessary to train the next cadre of wildland fire investigators in Virginia and the Southeastern part of the United States. During this week-long... Read More
July 21, 2022 - By Ellen Powell, DOF Conservation Education Coordinator You’re working in the garden when you notice a low-pitched hum, and you look around for its source. Could it be a territorial carpenter bee? A clumsy June beetle? Someone’s tiny, wayward drone? No, it’s a hummingbird – our favorite feathered pollinator! The ruby-throated hummingbird is the only species that breeds in the East, although you might see an occasional rufous hummingbird during... Read More
July 6, 2022 - By Ken Sterner, DOF Senior Area Forester, and Josh Bennicoff, DOF Nursery Manager In eastern Mathews County, on the Chesapeake Bay, near the community of Diggs, sits a patch of woodland called “Old House Woods.” It is probably one of the most haunted places in Virginia, the subject of legends and spooky tales. Numerous locals claim to have seen ghost ships floating overhead, ghosts of British Revolutionary War soldiers digging... Read More
June 22, 2022 - By Joe Lehnen, DOF Forest Utilization & Marketing Specialist Sometimes a chance meeting leads to multiple connections, with wonderful results. In the early fall of 2021, Nick Brinen, James Madison University (JMU) Professor of Architectural Design, and Jeremy Harold, Harrisonburg’s Greenspace Manager and Urban Wood Program Coordinator happened to cross paths and chat about a project idea. The result was an amazing collaboration on a very meaningful project…and the birth... Read More
June 9, 2022 - By Amanda Conrad, DOF Forest Health Technician The vibrant, metallic green of an emerald ash borer (EAB) makes it look like royalty of the forest. But this beautiful, invasive insect is also deadly. Just one beetle can lay 40-70 eggs on the bark of its preferred host: ash trees. The growing larvae disrupt the flow of water throughout the tree, which will ultimately kill the tree. A healthy ash tree... Read More
May 26, 2022 - By Katlin Dewitt, DOF Forest Health Specialist Can a fire alarm alert you to an invasive insect? Technically, no, but it seems an appropriate way to raise awareness about the red imported fire ant! The red imported fire ant (RIFA) is native to central South America and was first detected in either Alabama or Florida between 1933 and 1945. In Virginia, this species was first detected in 1989, and so... Read More
May 19, 2022 - By Ellen Powell, DOF Conservation Education Coordinator Readers of my Field Notes posts will know that I like to introduce nerdy words. Today I have two: elaiosome (pronounced eh-LIE-uh-sohm) and myrmecochory (pronounced mer-me-ko-CORE-e). Together they describe a fascinating connection between ants and plants. Myrmecochory is a seed dispersal strategy used by some familiar plants. It means their seeds are carried away by ants! Myrmecochorous seeds have attached structures called elaiosomes.... Read More
April 18, 2022 - By Delaney Beattie, DOF Riparian Buffer Specialist- James River Buffer Program At Greene County Community Park, partners recently came together for the simple act of planting a tree. Thirty trees and shrubs, to be exact – and there are more to come. Greene County Community Park covers 70 acres and is the only public park in Greene County. The land is mostly open fields, but Quarter Creek runs through the... Read More
April 18, 2022 - By Jim Schroering, DOF Longleaf Pine Coordinator and Ellen Powell, DOF Conservation Education Coordinator Forestry usually takes place on a landscape scale. But some forestry work requires meticulous attention to detail. Just ask the team of DOF staff who recently undertook the painstaking process of grafting longleaf pines. Grafting requires splicing a scion – a growing stem with desired characteristics – onto an established rootstock of the same species. You... Read More
