LONDON, Ohio — Look for new features like wildflowers and a healthy streambank in Farm Science Review’s Gwynne Conservation Area.
The nearly 70-acre facility, part of the Review’s host site, the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio, has two new projects underway — one to diversify its prairie plantings; the other, to protect the banks of Deer Creek, which flows through the grounds.
Review Manager Nick Zachrich said the projects offer two benefits: They improve the Gwynne itself year round. And they demonstrate practices that farmers — especially the Review’s expected 100,000-plus visitors Sept. 19-21 — can take home and use on their own land, too.
Flower power
Asters, milkweeds, blazing stars and coneflowers are some of the...
WOOSTER, Ohio — This year’s Composting in Ohio tour, featuring industry issues and innovative facilities, will center around Lake Erie.
The Aug. 24 event is for anyone interested in commercial or large-scale composting, including business owners, compost facility staff, farmers, scientists and public officials.
Participants on the tour will visit Barnes Nursery Inc.’s compost facility in Huron, which annually turns 20,000 tons of yard waste, food scraps and other materials into plant-friendly soils and composts; and a new system run by the Port of Cleveland and Cleveland’s Kurtz Bros. Inc. that recycles sediment dredged from the lake and the Cuyahoga River.
Huron is about 50 miles west of Cleveland along Lake Erie’s shore.
Cleveland’s...
MANSFIELD, Ohio — A mystery illness is hitting northeast Ohio’s American beech trees.
Called beech leaf disease, it’s causing striped and curled leaves, weak buds, and sometimes the death of saplings.
It seems to be spreading fast, too.
“And we really don’t know what’s causing it,” said Kathy Smith, forestry program coordinator at The Ohio State University.
The less-bad news: An upcoming event will shed light on the disease, plus many other problems that can bug Ohio’s trees.
Diseases, pests and whether you need to treat them
Ohio State’s Tree Diagnostic Workshop — subtitled “What’s Wrong With My Tree?” — is Aug. 4 in Mansfield. Smith and others from the university’s College of Food...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The first-ever Energy Impacts Symposium is taking place this Wednesday and Thursday at The Ohio State University.
The event is an international research conference on the effects of new energy development — including both renewable and fossil fuels — on people, communities and economies.
Organizers are expecting about 140 energy-related social science experts from 25 U.S. states, Canada, five continents and 100 universities. The experts will represent fields such as public health, public policy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science and community development.
How energy development affects people
“The amount of energy development in the past decade has been huge, and has transformed communities across the U.S...
MANSFIELD, Ohio — When it comes to using a chainsaw, there are things you want to cut, like any of Ohio’s millions of still-standing dead ash trees killed by the emerald ash borer pest, and things you don’t want to cut, like … anything not a tree.
A class offered Aug. 3 in Mansfield will help you keep them straight.
Chainsaw Safety: CSAW Level 1 offers 8 hours of training by experts from the Zanesville-based Ohio Forestry Association. Topics will include personal protective equipment, chainsaw safety features, chainsaw maintenance, and the reaction forces acting on a chainsaw’s chain and guide bar.
Those reaction forces, if not accounted for, could cause a chainsaw to kick back and injure the person running it.
Learn how to fell a tree, and...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A July 27 event at The Ohio State University will look at how Ohio communities can experience the most benefits — and fewest problems — from oil and gas work in their areas.
“Community Development in Energy Host Communities” is a panel discussion on the impacts of oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing and related activities on public services, local government revenue, infrastructure and the environment.
Presented by the Environmental Professionals Network, the event is from 7:15 to 9:15 a.m. in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, on Ohio State’s campus in Columbus.
The network is a statewide professional group coordinated by Ohio State’s School of Environment and...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its research partners predict that western Lake Erie will experience a significant harmful algal bloom this summer, potentially reaching levels last seen in 2013 and 2014, though smaller than the record bloom of 2015.
This year’s bloom is expected to measure 7.5 on the severity index but could range between 6.5 and nine. An index above five indicates a potentially harmful bloom. The severity index is based on a bloom’s biomass — the amount of its harmful algae — over a sustained period. The largest blooms, in 2011 and 2015, were rated 10 and 10.5, respectively.
The size of a bloom isn’t necessarily an indication of how toxic it is. The toxins in a large bloom may not be as...
MANSFIELD, Ohio — A July 18-19 workshop in Mansfield — called A Walk Through Ohio’s Forests: The Good, the Bad and the Invasive — will feature two helpful tools for teaching students about nature and the environment, says co-organizer Kathy Smith of The Ohio State University.
The event, which takes place on Ohio State’s Mansfield campus, will explore the campus itself — which covers 600 mostly wooded acres plus has wetlands and a range of plants and wildlife — and the newly revised Project Learning Tree-Ohio, an award-winning environmental education curriculum that includes web-based teaching units.
“These are amazing resources for teaching youth about Ohio’s natural resources,” said Smith, who’s forestry program...
WOOSTER, Ohio — Certain kinds of creepy crawlers only come out at night.
They’ll star at an upcoming event in Wooster.
Secrest Arboretum’s annual Insect Night — a free public event for bug-crazy kids, their families and others — is from 8 to 10:30 p.m. July 15.
Activities will include a bug zoo, face painting, edible insects — meaning that, yes, you can eat them — coloring table, temporary insect tattoos, and an educational hunt in the dark for beetles, moths, fireflies and their friends.
“We’re growing young entomologists,” or insect scientists, said co-organizer Denise Ellsworth of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center.
The arboretum is part of OARDC, 1680 Madison Ave. in Wooster, which in...
WOOSTER, Ohio — There’s a gardening skill called grafting. It’s used a lot on apple trees. And it can help you turn a favorite tree — whether an apple, a pear, a dogwood or another — into more new trees just like it.
When someone grafts a tree, they splice a scion — typically a twig or other cutting — from one tree onto the rootstock — the roots and stump — of another. It turns them into a single new tree that features the best traits of both.
“There’s satisfaction in watching a plant you grafted turn into a large tree,” said Paul Snyder, program assistant at Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum, who’s giving an upcoming workshop on the topic.
The arboretum, part of the Ohio Agricultural Research...
MANSFIELD, Ohio — So you want to know your trees.
On July 7, a class offered at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus will help you.
Called Name That Tree, the class will show you how to identify Ohio trees using common traits like their leaves. About half the class time will be spent outdoors practicing. The 600-acre campus is full of trees.
Knowing how to identify trees can help you take care of them, said instructor Kathy Smith. Smith heads Ohio State’s Ohio Woodland Stewards Program, the class’s sponsor. Every tree species has different care needs, she said.
The class is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. starting in 100 Ovalwood Hall at 1760 University Drive on the campus.
Register by Friday
Registration is $35, includes lunch...
WOOSTER, Ohio — Secrest Arboretum, like gardens everywhere, has its share of weeds. And Paul Snyder, who works there as a program assistant, has seen their best and worst.
Canada thistle, common moonseed and marestail are the toughest to manage, Snyder said.
“Moonseed completely smothers everything,” he said. “Marestail has become resistant to glyphosate (a weed killer) and produces thousands of tiny seeds.
“Jumpseed and bittersweet are the sneakiest. They have a knack for blending in with other plants.”
Canada thistle, however, is the prettiest, Snyder said.
It has “wonderful flowers that smell great,” he said.
Class is July 6 in Secrest Arboretum
On July 6, participants will discover those weeds and others — and...
MANSFIELD, Ohio — A June 20 tour in northern Ohio will show how trees get turned into products, including Amish-made lumber and furniture.
“We hope people find it an eye-opening experience,” said co-organizer Kathy Smith, a forestry expert at The Ohio State University. “A lot goes into that process.”
From Forests to Furniture starts on Ohio State’s wooded Mansfield campus, where Smith and colleagues Amy Stone and Marne Titchenell, both also with the university, will give talks under the trees on owning woodlands, managing wildlife and dealing with the deadly emerald ash borer pest.
Then participants will travel by bus to Millersburg in Holmes County for tours of two Amish-run businesses:
HW Chair, which makes hardwood...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A pocket of Columbus has its own smaller pockets, and they’re rich with plants and wildlife.
The next Environmental Professionals Network breakfast program will explore these biodiversity oases and how residents are working to protect them.
“Valuing Landscapes: The Ravines of Clintonville” is from 7:15 to 9:15 a.m. June 8 in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Admission is open to both EPN members and the public.
Clintonville is a neighborhood in north-central Columbus, and its many ravines — including Glen Echo, Walhalla and Overbrook — carry streams down to the Olentangy River. Creatures you might not expect in the city, such as barred owls and...
WOOSTER, Ohio — Paul Snyder, program assistant in Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum, has grown a garden’s worth of new plants from cuttings.
He’s grown Japanese orixa, which turns white in fall and, he said, “smells like Old Spice.”
He’s grown more than a few Mediterranean redbuds, which, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map, are barely tough enough to survive in the region in the first place.
“We used to have only one” in the 115-acre arboretum, Snyder said. “Now we have others planted throughout the collections.”
He’s grown common figs, which are “fun and easy to root.” The challenge, he said, is “getting them through their first winter once they...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Learn how to get your house in order, energy-wise, at two events on May 16 at The Ohio State University.
Erik Daugherty, founder of the Nashville, Tennessee-based home-performance company E3 Innovate, will present “Technologies and Strategies for Home Energy Efficiencies: Satisfied Homeowners, Sustainable Planet” from 7:15 to 9:15 a.m. in the university’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, in Columbus.
Afterward, Ohio State will hold its second Green Home Workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. in the same location. The agenda will feature about a dozen sessions and speakers, including experts from the university and industry. Details are at go.osu.edu/GreenHome.
EPN’s monthly...
WOOSTER, Ohio — You can’t eat scenery, as the saying goes, but the organizer of an upcoming workshop says yes, you can.
“People have a renewed interest in growing plants that not only look nice but also can be used for food,” said Paul Snyder, program assistant in Wooster’s Secrest Arboretum, which is holding its first-ever Edible Landscaping Workshop on May 22.
Participants in the event will get close-up looks at a range of edible plants — such as common fig, black chokeberry, asparagus and corneliancherry dogwood — and will see ways to work them into attractive, well-designed landscapes.
The workshop came about because arboretum staff members have been getting more and more questions about edible landscape plants, said Snyder, who...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Put 100 teenagers in the woods for a week, in a place with spotty cellphone service, and you’d think they’d be bored.
But teach them about the nature there, allow time for fishing and swimming, offer the occasional climb up a 10-story oak tree, and “the kids really seem to love it,” said Marne Titchenell, co-director of the Ohio Forestry Association’s 66th annual Forestry and Wildlife Conservation Camp.
The camp is June 11-16 at Ohio FFA’s Camp Muskingum on Leesville Lake in eastern Ohio. It’s for students who have completed 8th grade through those who have just graduated from high school. Its goal is to introduce campers to trees, birds, bugs, mammals and more, including how to manage them.
All outdoors, all the...
WOOSTER, Ohio — Secrest Arboretum’s 24th annual Plant Discovery Day will have hundreds of hard-to-find plants for sale and auction, including at least one with historical roots at The Ohio State University.
Gardeners can buy trees, shrubs, herbs, annuals, perennials, garden art and more at the event, which is the arboretum’s largest annual fundraising event.
It’s from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 13 at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, 1680 Madison Ave., in Wooster. Admission is free and open to the public.
A plant sale runs for the duration of the event. A silent auction goes from 9 to 11 a.m. Lists of all the plants available are at go.osu.edu/2017PDD.
Auction maple has Buckeye roots
A tree in the silent auction, for example...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) has announced the winners of a scientific poster competition held during its 2017 research conference on April 20 in Columbus.
The competition, which drew 83 entries, recognized outstanding research posters by OARDC-supported graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and research assistants and associates.
OARDC is the research arm of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.
PhD students
First place: Yangyang Li, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, “Life Cycle Assessment of Value-Addition to On-Farm Organic Residues Through Anaerobic Digestion and Composting.” Adviser: Ajay Shah, Food, Agricultural and Biological...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Five years ago, David Hanselmann helped launch the Environmental Professionals Network (EPN), a statewide professional group based at The Ohio State University.
Since then, EPN has grown to have nearly 2,000 members. It’s held 55 public monthly Breakfast Club programs, which typically draw more than 125 people, and five signature events, whose top attendance has been 1,400.
Hanselmann — who coordinates EPN as a lecturer in Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources (SENR), part of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences — shares his top five moments from those events.
1. ‘One Million Actions for Planet Earth’
Jack Hanna, director emeritus, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, April 10,...
WOOSTER, Ohio — A research campus in northeast Ohio is getting really crabby — and that’s a good thing.
More than 600 red, pink and white crabapple trees at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster — considered the largest collection of such trees in the U.S. — are nearly at peak bloom.
“They’re just a few days away from full flower,” said Paul Snyder, a program assistant with OARDC’s Secrest Arboretum. “I think they’ll hit full flower on Wednesday or Thursday given our predicted weather.”
The center is part of The Ohio State University and its College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.
The trees’ peak should continue through the coming...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus’s technology-intense Smart Columbus project, which last year beat out ideas from 77 other cities to win the U.S. Department of Transportation’s $40 million Smart City Challenge, is the focus of an April 18 event at The Ohio State University.
Aparna Dial, who’s a staff member with the project and the deputy director of Columbus’s Department of Public Service, will present “Columbus: One Smart and Sustainable City — Using Innovative Technology to Improve People’s Access to Opportunity” as part of the Environmental Professional Network’s (EPN) public Breakfast Club series.
The event is from 7:15 to 9:45 a.m. in Ohio State’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor...
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Combine your work and passions and you can climb mountains. Including real ones.
That’s the message of a presentation being given by Vik Sahney, vice president for sustainability for Seattle-based REI, on April 12 at The Ohio State University.
Sahney, who at age 38 has climbed the highest peaks on all seven continents, including Mt. Everest, will present “From Summits to Sustainability: Reaching for High Places, Personally and Professionally” at 7 p.m. in the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom in the university’s Ohio Union in Columbus.
The event is a signature event of the Ohio State-based Environmental Professionals Network (EPN).
Outdoor retailer REI, whose motto is “A life outdoors is a life well-lived,” is the...
WOOSTER, Ohio — You may someday hear less of that buzzing sound.
A team led by scientists from The Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University has taken the next step toward developing an improved, sustainable mosquito insecticide — one that won’t cause the biting, sometimes-disease-carrying pests to become resistant to it.
If successful, their work could one day help fight the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika and malaria.
In an article published last fall in the journal Scientific Reports, Ohio State entomologists Peter Piermarini and Reed Johnson, Vanderbilt pharmacologist Jerod Denton, and colleagues reported several new findings about a mosquito-killing compound they’ve been studying, including that it seems safe for adult honey bees...
