Spruces react
badly to man’s intrusion
By DANA
DUGAN
Express Staff Writer
Around
town one can find only a so-so sampling of trees, since not many grow
well here with the cold nights and desert like days. Spruces,
chokecherries, cottonwoods, aspens and conifers are the norm.
But there
is a "local tree problem that is occurring primarily with spruce
trees," said Bill Josey, a certified arborist, with ArborCare
Resources Inc. in Hailey.
Most of
the trees affected in the Hailey and Ketchum town corridors and along
Highway 75 look burnt and have experienced heavy needle drop. The
"damage in the tree may appear as a clockwise striping up from the
ground, similar to a barberpole," he said. Mites and bark beetles
tend to attack diseased limbs, which further exacerbates the problem.
Bill
Josey, a
certified arborist, with ArborCare Resources Inc. in Hailey, examines a
chemically damaged limb from a spruce tree. Express photo by Dana
DuGan
After
being called in to diagnose problems for several clients, Josey became
frustrated with treating the symptoms instead of the cause. He decided
to put some theories to the test.
In
looking at the conditions, Josey discovered that the root systems of the
trees had commonalties, including limited or no irrigation, construction
damage and proximity to roadways and sidewalks where de-icers are used
in the winter.
Josey
preformed nine foliage and soil tests and found that the tree burning
could be caused directly from the manganese chloride or calcium
chlorides used locally as de-icers.
The
problems come when the trees packed in by pavement and buildings can’t
leech the chloride out of their systems. Where roads slope into tree
areas the problem appears particularly bad, but trees that are either on
or are protected by berms have no such problems.
Josey
came up with several ideas to help the situation. He suggested either
limiting the amount of chloride used or, even better, using sand or
labor instead. Heated pavers help but it’s important to be cautious of
root compaction and cutting when setting the base for the pavers. During
growing season and into the fall, water the trees deeply, and plan and
design with trees in mind, using more tolerant species such as Black
Hills Spruce or Austrian Pine.