NC State Expert Gives Fall Foliage Forecast

Posted on October 1, 2009 by kmfaber2

NC State News Release: October 1, 2009

Media Contacts:
Dr. Robert Bardon, 919/515-5575 or robert_bardon@ncsu.edu
Caroline Barnhill, News Services, 919/515-6251 or caroline_barnhill@ncsu.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fall Leaves at the Linn Road Viaduct Despite drought conditions in parts of the state for most of the year, there should be plenty of colorful foliage worth seeing across North Carolina this fall, according to a North Carolina State University expert. Dr. Robert Bardon, associate professor of forestry and extension forestry specialist at NC State, says that in areas of the state that have experienced drought, people should expect to see colors early, and that the leaves will change color faster.

“People should be hoping for weather conditions that are warmer during the day and cooler at nighttime – since they create the most vibrant fall colors,” Bardon says. “However, if we have a wet fall, we can expect less vibrant colors this season.”

During the spring and summer, leaves manufacture most of the food necessary for a tree’s growth. The food-making process occurs in cells that contain the pigment chlorophyll, which gives the leaves their green color. The leaves also contain other pigments that are masked most of the year by the greater amount of chlorophyll.

In the fall, partly because of the changes in the period of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process. As the chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears and yellow colors surface. Other chemical changes create additional pigments that vary from yellow to red to blue.

Some of the understory trees – small trees, shrubs and vines that grow under the taller trees – across the state have already begun the chlorophyll breakdown process. Leaves at higher elevations in North Carolina, such as Mt. Mitchell, are the first to change, usually around the end of September or beginning of October, Bardon says. Then the trees in the lower elevations, moving south and east across the state, begin to change.

“North Carolina is very fortunate to have multiple opportunities to experience fall foliage, given the diversity of parks across the state, ranging from national parks, to state and local parks,” says Dr. Stacy Tomas, assistant professor and tourism extension specialist in parks, recreation and tourism management. “With the shrinking economy, everyone is feeling the pinch in their wallets. Heading out to a park to enjoy the fall foliage and taking in a picnic and a hike is a fun, affordable, family-friendly mini-vacation we can all enjoy.”

College of Natural Resources to Host C.H.A.N.G.E. – 4th Annual Diversity Summit

Posted on September 25, 2009 by kmfaber2

NEWS RELEASE: September 23, 2009

What: C.H.A.N.G.E. 4th Annual Diversity Summit Webinar
When: October 13-15, 2009 from 10:30am – 2:00pm daily
Where: Webinar originates from the NC State African American Cultural Center at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina

Many companies and organizations in natural resources have embraced their diversity challenges, developing programs focused on recruiting underrepresented populations. But important though it is, recruiting is only the first step. Once they join your organization, how do you retain this new talent?

At the "Cultivating Higher Achievement in Generational Engagement" Webinar, the NC State Community for Diversity in Natural Resources will continue the discussion about understanding diversity as it relates to different identity groups as part of the 4th Annual Diversity Summit. The goal of this conference is to provide information about how to increase and improve diversity efforts in all areas of natural resources.

This year the summit will be delivered as a webinar. Embracing this new delivery method has the added benefit of allowing more people to participate. For more information about the agenda, speakers and registration – visit the Webinar website.

Summit sponsors are Weyerhaeuser and the NC State College of Natural Resources

Altered Chestnut Trees Succeed

Posted on September 24, 2009 by kmfaber2

blight resisitant chestnut sapling - image courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service From the News & Observer – September 24, 2009
by Martha Quillin, staff writer
Image courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service

In stands of tiny trees in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia blooms the hope of restoring a mighty giant, as scientists try to bring back the American chestnut from near extinction.

Five hundred blight-resistant American chestnut saplings are thriving a year after they were planted in three national forests, a milestone in the long-term effort to re-establish the tree in its native habitat. Reviving the chestnut, decimated by a fungus, would reverse one of the worst ecological disasters in the nation's history, reviving a major source of food and lumber that forest animals and humans have missed for more than a century.

The cutting-edge genetic research that offers the promise of a blight-resistant hybrid could, if successful, also be used to stop the damage to U.S. forests by other exotic pests, such as bark beetles, the woolly adelgid and Dutch elm disease.
"If it works, there is a long line of similar ecological problems that are waiting for similar kinds of solutions," said Ron Sederoff, a professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at N.C. State. "There are 100 different threatened trees in our American forest, and each one has a disease or a pest that potentially could do as much damage as the blight did to the American chestnut."

Sederoff leads a project to map the genome of the chestnut tree so researchers can create trees that are nearly pure American chestnuts but have the handful of genes from the Chinese chestnut that make that tree resistant to blight. Meanwhile, others are doing a different kind of genetic research, cross-breeding different varieties of trees and growing them in labs, nurseries and test plots to see how they fare.

"Just developing a blight-resistant tree is not enough," said Bryan Burhans, who heads the American Chestnut Foundation in Asheville. The trees have to be planted in the forest to see if they can survive real-world conditions.

Researchers from the foundation, along with the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Tennessee, announced Wednesday that 500 trees planted in experimental plots in three national forests have done well in their first year in the wild. The trees were about a year old and 3 to 5 feet tall when planted. If they succeed in the long term, the trees will help experts determine whether they're on the right track.

The test planting is an important step in a reintroduction process that began more than 50 years ago, when a UT geneticist tried to propagate chestnut trees that wouldn't succumb to blight, Scott Schlarbaum, professor of forest genetics and director of the Tree Improvement Program at UT, said Wednesday.

This work, Schlarbaum said, is "the beginning of restoring an old friend to eastern North American forests."

American chestnuts can still be found; the blight attacks the tree's vascular system but doesn't affect its roots, so new trees continue to sprout. By the time they're 10 years old, though, the fungus strikes again.

It will be five to 10 years before researchers know whether the saplings will survive. Eventually, researchers hope to develop hybrids that are genetically related to native types from each area where they are planted, to give them the greatest chance of survival.

martha.quillin@newsobserver.com or 919-829-8989

Green Clean: Researchers Determining Natural Ways To Clean Contaminated Soil

Posted on September 18, 2009 by kmfaber2

NEWS RELEASE

Media Contacts:
Dr. Elizabeth Nichols, 919/513-4832
Caroline Barnhill, News Services, 919/515-6251

phytoremediation site Researchers at North Carolina State University are working to demonstrate that trees can be used to degrade or capture fuels that leak into soil and ground water. Through a process called phytoremediation – literally a green technology – plants and trees remove pollutants from the environment or render them harmless.

Through a partnership with state and federal government agencies, the military and industry, Dr. Elizabeth Nichols, environmental technology professor in NC State's Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, and her team are using phytoremediation to clean up a contaminated site in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Phytoremediation uses plants to absorb heavy metals from the soil into their roots. The process is an attractive alternative to the standard clean-up methods currently used, which are very expensive and energy intensive. At appropriate sites, phytoremediation can be a cost-effective and sustainable technology, Nichols says.

The Coast Guard site was planted with a mixture of fast-growing trees such as hybrid poplars and willows to prevent residual fuel waste from entering the Pasquotank River by ground water discharge. About 3,000 trees were planted on the five-acre site, which stored aircraft fuel for the Coast Guard base from 1942 until 1991. Fuels had been released into the soil and ground water over time. Efforts to recover easily extractable fuel using a free product recovery system – also called oil skimmers – had stalled so other remedial options were considered before choosing phytoremediation.

We knew that tree growth would be difficult on portions of the site due to the levels of fuels in the soil and ground water, but, overall, we thought the trees could keep this contamination from moving toward the river by slowing ground water flow, Nichols said. Trees need water for photosynthesis so they absorb water from the ground; that process can slow the amount of ground water flowing toward the river.

In the process of absorbing water from the ground, trees can take up fuel contaminants. Some contaminants will be degraded by trees during this process while others will be released into the air by tree leaves and stems. We wanted to demonstrate that the trees would first slow the movement of fuel toward the river, Nichols said.

Trees can also increase the abundance and diversity of soil microorganisms around their roots. Some of these soil microorganisms will degrade the fuel still remaining in the ground. This can be a slower process, but we also want to show that trees will remove the remaining fuel footprint over time, Nichols continued.

Initially, 500 hybrid poplar and willow trees were planted in 2006. Another 2,500 trees were planted in 2007. Our initial results are very encouraging, and amounts of fuel in the ground have decreased much faster than anticipated, Nichols said, but there is still much to learn about how trees can impact residual, weathered fuels over time. There are two areas on the site where trees do not do well, but, overall, tree growth and survival are impressive. The Coast Guard has recognized the value of phytoremediation from this study, and has established two additional phytoremediation systems at different locations on base. [see photos below of plantings over time]

The project received a $240,584 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resourcess (NCDENR) Division of Water Quality 319 program, and an additional $15,000 grant from British Petroleum North America to establish the demonstration site. Nichols worked with Brad Atkinson (NCDENR), Dr. James Landmeyer (U.S. Geological Survey), J.P. Messier (U.S. Coast Guard), and Rachel Cook, a graduate student at NC State, to design and implement the phyto-demonstration site. NC State was recently awarded an additional EPA/NCDENR 319 grant to continue monitoring the site for tree growth and fuel reduction, tree toxicity to fuels, changes to ground water levels and flow, and how fuel contamination is actually removed by trees.

– barnhill –

research site in 2007
research site in 2008
research site in 2009
Progression of plantings on phytoremediation site from 2007 to 2009.

Wood is the New Coal – Carolina Coal

Posted on September 14, 2009 by kmfaber2

woodchips before and after torrefaction process

From the NCSU Bulletin – by David Hunt

The mound of woodchips piled up behind an old barn in Raleigh, N.C.,
could fuel a pretty spectacular bonfire. But as Chris Hopkins surveys
the mound, he has a better idea. Hopkins, a doctoral student in
forestry at NC State University, is part of a team of researchers
working to turn woodchips into a substitute for coal.

Nearby
the team members have set up a tall metal machine called a torrefier
that performs modern-day alchemy. Woodchips go into a large funnel at
the top of the machine and come out as hard, dry, black pellets at the
bottom. In the process, they've changed more than just their
appearance. They've been physically and chemically altered – through
heat and pressure – to make them denser, drier and easier to crush. more…