Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Committee

Call to Order. The program was started by President Ken Simons @ 9:37 A.M.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS & NOMINATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP:

Mark Stennes introduced Jim Walsh and moved to nominate him for membership. Sec. Michael Max. Motion Carried.

Approval of Minutes. The minutes of the April 15, 2004 meeting were reviewed and approved. M/S/Carried: Ken Holman/Michael Max.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & CALENDAR ITEMS:

Ken Holman announced that full registration scholarships are available from the Forest Service for the ISA conference in Pittsburgh, August 7-11. Contact Ken Holman at the MN DNR by Thursday, May 27^th if you are interested in applying.

Gary Johnson announced that the MnSTAC field day will be at the U of MN TRE Nursery on August 19 at 9:30 a.m.

Dave Sundmark announced that St. Paul’s Festival of Trees on April 24^th, 9 A.M. – 4 P.M. at Como Park was a great success and thanked all of the partners that organized the event. He passed around a notebook of pictures and documentation of their planning and implementation process.

Jim Walsh is looking for a location for tree trimming demonstrations as part of a new initiative to offer statewide licensing for new tree service companies. Contact Jim Walsh with your ideas.

AGENCY UPDATES:

MnDNR

Today the MnDNR is having an orientation session for their new database of statewide Urban & Community Forestry contacts and community information. They would eventually like to extend access to the database to appropriate agencies and organizations as well as combining this comprehensive database with other existing databases, like MSA, that share similar information.

The Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCMR) is currently in process of choosing proposals for next biennium. Ken Holman encouraged MnSTAC members to call their legislators (list attached) to gain support for MN ReLeaf, which will be similar to the ReLeaf proposal for the current biennium.

MnDOT

Tina Markeson shared that Bailey’s Nursery gave MnDOT several rose varieties that they are testing on touch sites. Contact Paul Walvatne at MnDOT if you are interested in receiving some of these free roses or know of a location where they can be planted.

MDA

Kimberly Thielen-Cremers announced that there will be a GM eradication treatment in Edina this week.

Anne Selness, Invasive Species Unit Supervisor, has taken another job and her position is currently vacant. The MDA is trying to have the Governor pass June as Invasive Species Awareness Month in Minnesota. Minnesota Invasive Species Advisory Council (MISAC) will be presenting at Fort Snelling – contact Kimberly Thielen-Cremers for more information. Twin Cities Public Television Channel 17 recently aired INVADERS AT OUR DOORSTEP: Exotic Pests of the Midwest - check the Channel 17 schedule for further air times.

EAB has been sited in Indiana. For more information on EAB updates, go to www.treesearch.fs.fed.us or www.entm.purdue.edu/entomology/ext/index.htm

UMN

The TRE Nursery at the University of Minnesota is in great need of some volunteers. Contact Gary Johnson if you are interested.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

President Ken Simons encouraged members to sign up for two new committees, Forest Health and Urban Interface Committee.

Awards Committee – The MnSTAC 30^th Anniversary Celebration, in conjunction with the MSA Annual meeting, will be on Thursday, September 30^th at the MN Landscape Arboretum for a dinner banquet. 30 MnSTAC members will receive Growth Awards.

Research & Education Committee – Gary Johnson shared that he recently visited Lake Wilson & Chandler, two communities that will be the featured profile in the upcoming Advocate. Lake Wilson & Chandler received a ReLeaf grant in 1993 to replant trees lost from a tornado. As part of the project, around 5,300 trees were planted. Gary reported that the trees are doing wonderfully and that the project was a huge success.

FEATURED PRESENTATION:

A Panel Discussion on Dutch Elm Disease

Presenters: Jim Hermann, City of Minneapolis; Jim Vaughan, City of Saint Louis Park; Tom Carman, Rainbow Tree Care

Jim Hermann talked about the history of the DED program in Minneapolis. Jim handed out a spreadsheet (attached) of the public and private tree loses due to DED since 1963. In 2003, 1,840 of the 41,078 remaining public elms were lost, while 1,988 of the 27,698 remaining private elms were lost. The spreadsheet also showed number of new trees planted each year. In 2003, 3,072 trees were planted. The city has maintained at least a one to one ratio of tree losses to trees planted. Jim also tied in the Minneapolis Street Tree Inventory that they have completed in 15 neighborhoods (attached). So far, 4,863 out of 31,228 total trees inventoried are elms. These elms were valued at $24,969,679 out of a total value of $50,886,298 for all trees inventoried. Although by Genus the Elms make up only 15.6% of the total trees, their value accounts for 49.1% of the total value of all trees inventoried!

Jim Vaughan covered the DED program in St. Louis Park. With public trees, the forestry program maintains a one to one ratio of trees losses and trees planted each year. In 2003, 391 public trees and 457 private trees were found to have DED. The city subsidizes DED removals and Arbotect injections for private trees (handout attached). On average over the last 9 years, 407 public and private trees were injected each year, with only 8 of those total becoming infected with DED. This year the city does not have a budget for tree trimming, which will be a challenge and will most likely affect their DED infection rate.

Both Minneapolis and St. Louis Park have very successful DED programs and continue to do a great job of controlling infections, however DED is still one of the top causes for tree losses in the area. Tom Carman covered the issues he thinks are responsible for continued losses and infections:

Accessibility to infected elms
Loss of city budgets
In the case of private trees, it is usually left up to the property owners to choose whether or not to pay to have a tree removed or injected
Political reasons
Large numbers of “volunteer” elm trees
Cities have a difficult time enforcing property owners to remove/inject trees when they don’t have the money to remove/inject all of the public trees
Generally, people don’t think DED is that huge of a problem anymore, an epidemic of the past

Group discussion also included updates on which new Elm varieties are performing well. Tom Carman, Gary Johnson and Jim Herrmann all agreed that varieties ‘Accolade’ and ‘Cathedral’ have performed well. Go to www.tre.umn.edu/current_research/elms/elms.htm to find out the latest research on Elm varieties at the UMN.

ADJURNMENT:

Meeting was adjourned at 11:30. M/S. Michael Max/Mark Stennes. Carried.