Arlington Forestry

Arlington Forestry Arlington Forestry is the Facebook presence of Arlington's urban forestry department, for posts on the latest forestry science, and pictures of great trees. View terms of use: https://www.arlingtonva.us/terms-conditions/#policy
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Arlington has a long history of having incredible trees. With 1200 acres of County parkland, public buildings, Public Schools, regional parkland and the contribution of great growing spaces from the federal property (Parkway, Arlington National Cemetery) we have plenty of opportunity for having great trees. Most of our trees exist on private property, and working with our citizens to maintain the beauty and sustainability of our community is crucial to our program. Arlington Forestry is the Facebook presence of Arlington's urban forestry department. Pictures of interesting trees and tree-related stuff, as well as new programs and documents are posted here. Feel free to ask questions and enjoy the galleries of pictures of champion trees and tree curiosities around the County. The forestry department works on maintaining tree canopy around the county by replanting in public right of way through parks, through the Tree Canopy Fund, managed by Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment, and through outreach and education to Arlington's residents. We work closely with the following groups in helping maintain a healthy forest: Tree Stewards, a dedicated group providing education for private citizens on tree care and planting in Northern Virginia. http://treestewards.org/ The Arlington master naturalists, who work with us on horticulture and ecological education: http://www.armn.org/ Our invasive plants program, which helps keep our region maintain its unique and native plant composition: http://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/invasive-plants/invasive-plant-program/ And two very active committees in the County, the Urban Forestry Committee (UFC) and the Beautification Committee (BC), who are very dedicated to our trees and our environment: UFC: http://commissions.arlingtonva.us/urban-forestry-commission-ufc/ BC: http://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/support-trees/arlington-beautification-committee/ We also work closely with Arlington County Schools to help maintain and plant trees on Schools property. Please remember to follow our social media policy for posting: https://newsroom.arlingtonva.us/social-media-general-terms-use/

Sometimes confused for Tree-of-heaven, the native sumacs are weird beautiful beasts with HUGE flowers and berry clusters...
06/06/2020

Sometimes confused for Tree-of-heaven, the native sumacs are weird beautiful beasts with HUGE flowers and berry clusters. Appreciate!

This space alien is the flower of the Fuyu persimmon, known for their large edible fruit. What a neat sight!
06/05/2020

This space alien is the flower of the Fuyu persimmon, known for their large edible fruit. What a neat sight!

Lindens are more known for their dense shade than their flowers or fruit, but there's something graceful about their fru...
06/04/2020

Lindens are more known for their dense shade than their flowers or fruit, but there's something graceful about their fruit's bract. It stays on for a long time after the flower has bloomed, and creates a cool semi-leaf.

It is HOT today. Time to bring out the hose and water your trees! Learn more about how to best water here:https://enviro...
06/03/2020
Watering - Environment

It is HOT today. Time to bring out the hose and water your trees! Learn more about how to best water here:

https://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/care-for-trees/watering/

What You Can Do The best time of day to water is early morning and late evening. You can estimate that about two gallons of water flow through a typical garden hose per minute. Therefore, you should water newly planted trees for at least three minutes. Run sprinklers a bit longer. Both young and mat...

You may have noticed some of our sycamores looking more... sick. They are suffering from sycamore anthracnose, and will ...
05/29/2020
What is happening to the local sycamore trees? | Purdue Extension Forestry & Natural Resources

You may have noticed some of our sycamores looking more... sick. They are suffering from sycamore anthracnose, and will likely recover. Before you decide to remove the tree, please give it a moment to recover: https://www.purdue.edu/fnr/extension/local-sycamore-trees/

Question: I have noticed that a lot of very mature (> 80 ft) sycamore trees look ill. They don't seem to have as many leaves, or as large as they usually get and some have already turned brown and died. There are at least 2 in my 5 acres of woods and have noticed the same with other sycamores while....

To close off the showy native flowers for now is the fringetree, a relative of ash and olive trees, and a great short or...
05/27/2020

To close off the showy native flowers for now is the fringetree, a relative of ash and olive trees, and a great short ornamental tree/shrub. This is showing both the female and male flowers.

Pulling out this invasive tree of heaven shows how much of a root system trees develop even when they are young. This li...
05/25/2020

Pulling out this invasive tree of heaven shows how much of a root system trees develop even when they are young. This little sapling, barely half an inch in trunk diameter, already had roots going out 2.5 feet!

G O A T
05/23/2020

G O A T

Last May, VDOF initiated a case study at Lesesne State Forest to assess the impact of goat grazing on invasive plants. The plot was initially full of a variety of invasive plants, which were preventing native tree regeneration. Goats were allowed to graze for a couple of weeks in May and consumed everything within their reach! Follow-up treatment occurred in August when one subplot received a second round of grazing, while another subplot was treated with herbicide.

One year later, and the combination of goat grazing followed by herbicide is the clear winner! While future follow-up work will most likely be needed, we found that grazing followed by chemical treatment is an effective form of invasive plant control at Lesesne State Forest.

#InvasiveSpecies #NISAW #Goats

(Photos: Pre-goat grazing on plots at Lesesne State Forest. Goats grazing on plots at Lesesne State Forest. Follow-up on a plot, one year after goat grazing.)

Want to know if you need to water your tree this week? Casey Trees has watering alerts on their website: https://caseytr...
05/22/2020
Casey Trees

Want to know if you need to water your tree this week? Casey Trees has watering alerts on their website: https://caseytrees.org/

We restore, enhance, and protect the tree canopy of our nation's capital. Join us!

Sometimes knowing some of the botanic terms can help you figure out what the latin name of a tree is. This is Southern R...
05/20/2020

Sometimes knowing some of the botanic terms can help you figure out what the latin name of a tree is. This is Southern Red Oak, or Quercus falcata. "falcata" refers to "falcate", which speaks to the leaf shape being "hooked" at the end. Southern red oaks tend to have this curved end of their leaves, also called a Spathe.

Bonus native tree flower, the tiny American Holly flower. What they lack in size they don't lack in fragrance. What a de...
05/19/2020

Bonus native tree flower, the tiny American Holly flower. What they lack in size they don't lack in fragrance. What a delightful smell!

Black locust is another showy native plant, that has some fantastic wildlife benefits! Along with that, it's excellent a...
05/16/2020

Black locust is another showy native plant, that has some fantastic wildlife benefits! Along with that, it's excellent at growing on tough sites, like this one, growing along Route 50, on the large mounds created by VDOT.

How many trees do we have in Arlington? While we'll never know the exact answer, we do have some good statistics to refe...
05/15/2020
How many trees do we have in Arlington? - Environment

How many trees do we have in Arlington? While we'll never know the exact answer, we do have some good statistics to reference. In 2016, we performed an i-Tree Eco Study, which helps estimate tree counts and value. Learn more about it here: https://environment.arlingtonva.us/2017/03/how-many-trees-do-we-have-in-arlington/

Figuring out where all the trees in Arlington are, and what species they all are sounds like a daunting task. Luckily, Urban Forestry got help from the U.S. Forest Service, with i-Tree Eco. This free program uses statistical sampling to understand the composition and value of a community’s Urban f...

Not all flowers are created equal, but that doesn't mean we can't recognize them! Check out these tiny black tupelo (Nys...
05/14/2020

Not all flowers are created equal, but that doesn't mean we can't recognize them! Check out these tiny black tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica flowers)!

The beauty of tuliptree flowers never fail to inspire! This is part of the reason one of us insists on calling it a tuli...
05/13/2020

The beauty of tuliptree flowers never fail to inspire! This is part of the reason one of us insists on calling it a tuliptree, and not a tulip poplar. It's in the Magnolia family, and it's Mag-nificent!

Black Cherries are blooming! What an underrated tree this is! Very urban-hardy, with amazing flowers and wildlife value....
05/12/2020

Black Cherries are blooming! What an underrated tree this is! Very urban-hardy, with amazing flowers and wildlife value. If maintained correctly, it can be an amazing tree for us!

Check out this webinar on fighting tree canopy loss on Wednesday! https://www.waa-isa.org/event/urban-forest-connections...
05/11/2020
Urban Forest Connections Webinar: Addressing Tree Canopy Loss through Stronger Ordinances and other Policy Tools » WAA-ISA

Check out this webinar on fighting tree canopy loss on Wednesday! https://www.waa-isa.org/event/urban-forest-connections-webinar-addressing-tree-canopy-loss-through-stronger-ordinances-and-other-policy-tools/

Karen Cappiella, Center for Watershed ProtectionLydia Scott, Chicago Region Trees Initiative Across the country, a number of cities are setting ambitious tree canopy goals to fight the trend of a decline in tree canopy. Among the many causes of canopy loss, development is a key driver, and is one th...

Arlington County Parks and Recreation
05/10/2020

Arlington County Parks and Recreation

#BeAResponsibleTrailUser #ArlingtonVA

While we've been getting some great rain so far, it's good to start thinking about watering your new and mature trees! L...
05/07/2020
Watering - Environment

While we've been getting some great rain so far, it's good to start thinking about watering your new and mature trees! Learn more on how to do that here:

https://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/care-for-trees/watering/

What You Can Do The best time of day to water is early morning and late evening. You can estimate that about two gallons of water flow through a typical garden hose per minute. Therefore, you should water newly planted trees for at least three minutes. Run sprinklers a bit longer. Both young and mat...

We are starting to see some of the impacts of last year's drought on our oaks, unfortunately. With reduced staff due to ...
05/06/2020
Oak Decline - Environment

We are starting to see some of the impacts of last year's drought on our oaks, unfortunately. With reduced staff due to COVID-19, and quite a few oaks impacted, this will continue to impact us throughout the year. Learn more about this issue here:

https://environment.arlingtonva.us/oak-decline/

Background In recent years oaks in the white oak group, such as chestnut oak (Quercus montana) and white oak (Quercus alba), have started dying in significant numbers. Some reports indicate other oaks are affected as well. Reports came from urban foresters, state foresters, residents, and Virginia C...

Black willow twigs can spout entire trees! We started using these at the Windy Run stream restoration project, and they'...
05/04/2020

Black willow twigs can spout entire trees! We started using these at the Windy Run stream restoration project, and they're leafing out well this year! Great for bank restoration, erosion control, and a wonderful wildlife plant!

Another quiz of baby leaves! What do you think we have here?
05/01/2020

Another quiz of baby leaves! What do you think we have here?

Look at this armored monster! A honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) expressing its historic aversion to the now-extinct ...
04/30/2020

Look at this armored monster! A honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos) expressing its historic aversion to the now-extinct megafauna, like Giant Ground Sloths. Also used as darning needles by Native Americans and early European immigrants.

04/27/2020

A reminder for people using our parks: bicycles are not allowed on our natural trails. Our parks are so small, that damage to our natural resources can't be avoided, and the damage severely impacts our trees!

We are experiencing damage in several parks in Arlington. Trees are being removed and damaged, at the detriment of our environment and our park. Please share the word.

There are some awesome free Webinars coming up! The Tree Fund is hosting a talk about Trees and Sidewalks, which should ...
04/25/2020

There are some awesome free Webinars coming up! The Tree Fund is hosting a talk about Trees and Sidewalks, which should be deliciously nerdy:

https://treefund.org/webinars

The Pinxterbloom Azalea is blooming! This gorgeous native deciduous Azalea is so underrated!
04/24/2020

The Pinxterbloom Azalea is blooming! This gorgeous native deciduous Azalea is so underrated!

We're still doing construction inspections, and it's good to see people are following our standards out there! This proj...
04/23/2020

We're still doing construction inspections, and it's good to see people are following our standards out there! This project in Pentagon City has got some perfect protection up for street trees.

We've developed a form primarily to help developers schedule meetings, but it can also be used if you believe a project ...
04/22/2020
Urban Forestry Construction Inspection Request - Environment

We've developed a form primarily to help developers schedule meetings, but it can also be used if you believe a project is not following tree protection permit requirements. You can find it here:

https://environment.arlingtonva.us/trees/care-for-trees/construction-inspection-request/

Urban Forestry Construction Inspection Request Use this form to request a construction inspection for your project, or if you have a concern about tree protection on a project you've seen. The form sends emails to the urban forestry team, who will get back to you as soon as possible, during working....

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Arlington, VA
22206

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(703) 228-1863

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A tree that came down from private property, during our May storm, caused quite a bit of havoc. A good reminder to have arborists inspect your trees on a regular basis!

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Comments

Do you have a recommendation for planting distance of red maples? (I know - overplanted, but we are replenishing a streetscape of red mapl.) My impetus is to try to plant as close as possible without jeopardizing the tree, but a resident has said that red maple should be 25 feet apart. I can't find a lot of precise guidance. Casey says 20 feet from large and 10 feet from small.
Just watched this wonderful programme! Highly recommended!
Anyone know why 6 large trees were cut down outside Harris Teeter on N. Glebe?
Time to water!