tamarack

My thoughts: Since it's a double tree, things get complicated. Perhaps the cut should be made as close to the ground as feasible, despite all the extra cutting needed. Those twin stems kind of keep either one from going to the right by itself. If there's room to tip the left stem toward the camera, I'd do that first, cutting about 2' above the old stump to keep the right stem from interfering. First thing I'd do is tie a stout rope to the tree, preferably around both stems (unless the left one can be dropped first) and as high as safely possible, with the other end to a solid anchor, like another sizable but living tree. If a come-along is available, I'd tie a loop in the rope such that, when the tag end was firmly lashed to the anchor and the line from tree to tree was taut, the loop would be almost out to full come-along extension. That way the winch can be used without releasing from the anchor. --Here's how I was taught to safely dump a tree against its lean: Make a normal front notch; I'd recommend open face (90° angle between top and bottom of notch) to help control the fall all the way to the ground. Then make a plunge cut 1-2" behind the notch, making sure there's at least an inch (or 2 with a dead tree) of hinge wood remaining. Then continue the plunge cut toward the back of the tree, stopping 2-3" from going all the way. Then do another plunge cut from the back side 3-4" below where the 1st one would've come out, making sure that 2nd cut covers the "footprint" of the wood left at the back of the tree by stopping plunge cut #1. With the tree held by the hinge and the wood in back, drive a wedge into the 2nd plunge cut (on a big tree I've needed 2, struck alternately, and maybe sprayed with WD-40 first.) The wedging will split the wood between 1st and 2nd plunge cuts and tip the tree in the desired direction. Sounds complicated, but with the rope for safety and the tree never resting on less than 2 spots until it falls, things should go okay. ("Should" requires some "splaining", as Ricky would tell Lucy. I did this procedure on a large ash - 16" by 80' - and unfortunately there was hidden rot that compromised about half the hinge, all one side. The hinge failed and allowed the tree to fall not toward its lean, but sideways away from the rot, where it solidly lodged in another ash. If you see interior rot when you make the front notch, leave a wider hinge, especially behind the rotten part.)

Only measured 0.25" yesterday, while those bright echoes suggested that much coming in 20 minutes. Might've been highly reflective wet feathers at 5,000', or whatever level the radar hits that far from the dome. Another 0.07" overnight at temps 40-42, and still in the mank here in Augusta.

Recall well that event, though it was mainly on the 25th in NNJ - not all that much RA but strong winds taking down newly leafed-out trees and low 40s. High at NYC was 46, about 30° below the norm for the date. And the snowy cold winter of 1960-61 also had a near-solstice surprise - on 5/27 we had cold RA at low 40s and a few pingers.

Had a sprinkle an hour back here in Augusta, but radar says some more significant stuff is now arriving. Temp near 50 and probably about to slide down a few.

When visiting the Minnesota Arboretum some years back, I saw a Mongolian birch (Latin name forgotten) about 20 feet tall and 6" diameter. It had beautiful copper-gold bark, as pretty as any tree I've seen. Is your birch like that?

Shades of 2010, when the 13 weeks ending May 7 featured just 13 with BN temps and that quarter year ran nearly +8°, causing my apple trees to be in full bloom that early. Then May 11-13 had minima of 22,26,25, not only killing every blossom but also toasting all the ash and oak leaves plus some (usually hardy) sugar maple. Most damaging late freeze I've seen.

Could be even worse - the logging contractor who lived just across the frontier from St.-Pamphile, PQ had his garden killed on July 4th week 4 years running, before he gave up. (Back in the cold 1970s, when my pumpkins got scorched on 7/31/78.)

Happens that way sometimes, especially with Miller A's, as already noted. However, that 5-year period was very anomalous. My first 5 winters at that home (50-51 thru 54-55) never saw a double-digit storm, and the 16 winters after 60-61 had only a single 18", on Feb. 9-10, 1969, though Jan. 12-13, 1964 was close.

BWI's top 10 looks anomalously good. However, #1 storms are amazingly similar along I-95 from DCA to HUL, with only PHI and PWM not in the 27-29" range. (And IMO the 31.9" of Feb '13 in PWM was a product of measurement, as their depth rose a lot less than 32".)

The description fits the Eastern tent caterpillar but the picture looks more like the forest tent caterpillar. The latter doesn't make visible tents, and in an outbreak can defoliate whole forest. They prefer aspen but will eat all broadleafed trees. The early 1980s outbreak in N. Maine/NB had these critters being called "army worms." People would open a door and a hundred would crawl in, causing some folks to move away temporarily. Squished caterpillars stopped a few trains from climbing grades. I have a coupe of hickories that I planted out back, but those take awhile to grow and don't do well with transplanting since they have a monster tap root. I laso planted a yellow birch and a tulip poplar, but the tulip is another fast growing tree that drops a lot of branches over its lifetime. Tulip trees drop branches, but they're not in the same league as weeping willow for that. Wood of tulip tree is about as weak as silver maple but the former's vertical growth habitat makes it less likely to break from ice or wet snow. There's a large one - 30"+ diameter and 70'+ tall, in downtown Farmington (Maine) that doesn't seem to shed many branches and has withstood a lot of snow and ice. Two houses up from that specimen is a littleleaf linden (European relative of native basswood) of similar size that is a bit worse for branch loss.

'Fraid so. Had never heard of autumn blaze so I looked it up. Seems highly regarded for fast growth, moderate size, fall color, and tolerance to urban conditions. It's a hybrid of red and silver maples, and the piece I read (which could've worked as ad copy for selling this variety, so maybe check several sources) said that it kept the strength of red maple, which is far better at resisting snow/ice breakage than silver.

If there's no green in the buds, I'm pessimistic, but I'd wait until July before giving up. And that pic confirms that it's not a Norway maple; if it were, I'd not be all that worried about losing an invasive, but it looks like a native maple. Oaks are fine here. Big ol’ leaves. Looking good here, too, though the leaves are only about 2" long - everything is late and this morning's 31-32 didn't help.

Does not sound good. A young open-grown tree that produces those side shoots is probably a tree in trouble, trying to save itself. I f any of those buds are within reach, try splitting a couple with your nails (or with a knife, carefully.) If they're green inside, there's hope. I'm assuming it was planted 8-9 years ago, not grown from seed in your yard. Is it the native red maple, or the variety of Norway maple that has red foliage? (May not make much difference, though.) Has anything changed near that tree? Soil compaction, root damage, change in water table, reaction to lawn chemicals? Kev/Scott: That oak also looks to be in trouble, unless it's merely showing the initial work of this spring's feeding by gypsy moth larvae. Otherwise, something looks to be killing some high-in-crown branches, and that often portends continued dieback. Hope that's not the case. Trees are usually tough, but odd things can happen. There was a very healthy looking pin oak growing in front of the Coke bottling plant in Farmington (Maine), a tree about 15" diameter and 40' tall that had lovely red foliage each fall. (IMO, pin oak has the best fall color of any oak.) Then spring 2 years ago it completely failed to leaf out, and in late summer was removed. I've no idea what caused its death.

Not promising much precision in diagnosing specific agents affecting tree health from a photo, but I'm always ready to make a guess whether I know anything or not. When I was at U. Maine, one of the professors noted that science had not really arrived at a firm reason why trees die. Not referring to death from disease, insects, wind, fire, but just running out of life. Maybe it's similar to why there's a cap on human lifespan, cell replication gets sloppy and bad things result (simplification, but not irrelevant.)

When we lived in NNJ, it was easily noted that those caterpillars ate the white oak group first, then the reds, then everything else but ash. Have not noticed that white-over-red preference in Maine, though the fact that Maine has hundreds of red oaks for every white probably mutes the gypsies' priorities. Lots of reasons for oaks (or any species) to show that symptom, and weakness due to repeated defoliation/refoliation certainly could be a factor. If the non-leafed-out branches are in the main crown and receive good sunlight, the cause is likely some outside agent like gypsy moth or some disease. If the bare branches are within the crown/shade, it could be natural pruning, though white oak doesn't prune itself nearly as efficiently as red.

Even in NNJ, snow on snow wasn't all that common, and the base snow was usually a crummy crust by the time storm 2 came along - made for easy measuring, though. Pow on pow was almost unknown (with the huge exception of Jan 19-Feb 4, 1961.)

Not for much of NNE. And sun hasn't been all that abundant.

76-77 was the snowiest of the 9 full winters there, with 186.7", but not the coldest, as it bottomed out at -35. Coldest afternoon that season came in early Dec at -12 but was spoiled by the -5 at obs time the previous evening. While in Ft. Kent I recorded 4 mornings in the -40s, all when we lived in town, -41 just 11 days after we moved up on New Year's day 1976, -42 and -47 on Jan 12 & 17, 1979, and -42 on Dec 22, 1980. Also had a -39 on Jan 11, 1979, so that month had 3 of the 5 coldest mornings, and ironically, the only 5 Jan days with above freezing minima. Once we moved to the back settlement about 450' higher, we lost the radiational cooling advantage - lowest in 4 winters there was -34 while folks reached -47 by the river in Jan 1984. Coldest wind chill was in the back settlement on Jan 18, 1982. That morning it was -34 with sustained winds to 30 mph and gusts over 40, WCI -101 on the old scale but a wimpy -72 on the new. Got up to -14 for the max, 2nd coldest behind the -20/-34 on Jan 4, 1981. (CAR's max that day was -16, also their coldest. HUL recorded -16/-41 for the coldest mean I've seen from a non-mountain NNE co-op.) The 7 giants of 1956-61: 24.0 3/18-19/56 My dad measured 23.5" in the front yard and it was still accumulating. 18.0" 2/15-16/58 Cold powder 24.0" 3/21-22/58 Paste bomb at 31-32° 18.0" 3/3-4/60 1st mid-teens snow I can recall (2/58 may also fit) 8" new as we boarded the bus at noon for early release. 18.0" 12/11-12/60 Low teens snow, winding down as we headed into the woods for NJ firearms deer season opener. (Dad got nice buck, kept clean hands as he taught me how to field dress it.) 20.0" 1/19-20/61 "JFK inaugural storm" Most came with temps about 10° Started NYC's longest run of <32 maxima, 16 days ending with the 34 max on 2/4. 24.0" (conservatively, wicked hard to measure) 2/3-4/61 Milder, mid-upper 20s, but howling winds, NYC's strongest recorded in Feb. Pack depth 42-45", over 50" to our NW.

Reminds me of when we moved from NNJ to BGR on 1/23/73, anticipating big snowstorms. Dec. 1972 remains their snowiest on record for that month so there was a good pack, but our 1st week in Maine was a thaw. Had a nice 8" dump in late Jan, followed 2 days later by 50° RA that wiped it out completely, and winter was essentially done though we had a 3-day pastefest in late Feb, 9" total while never being more than 4" deep. Then in 73-74 we failed to even approach a 6" storm until one on the equinox, and BGR was contenting for its least snowy winter on record until early April brought a 9" powder event. Only in Dec '75 did we get a double digit wintry storm. Moved to Ft. Kent on 1/1/76, and though we had over 90" in Jan-Feb-Mar there wasn't a storm larger than 8". Not until 76-77 did we see "real" Maine snow. Ironically, the best period for big storms I've experienced was in NJ. From 3/56 thru 2/61 we had 7 storms in the 18-24" range; nothing I've seen/shoveled since then has approached that super-thump period.

Never got here yesterday - high was 53. Total precip thru 7 this morning was 0.57", most of which came 3-5 AM. Had a 10-minute downpour in Augusta at 8, now just very light stuff. Big Q: will we warm-sector this afternoon? Forecast says yes, though as Chris notes in the convection thread, svr chances seem to be retreating. SNH already upper 60s with mid-60s dews while AUG area was near 50.

Hope he doesn't get the "Zucker" treatment - taught one year in SW NH, Monadnock country, and anticipated big snow. It was 2011-12 and he saw less than he had the previous 2 seasons in the NY metro (where he's back to.)

More clouds than sun here but flirting with 60 so still a decent day. Blackflies made their appearance, and one took a bite. Can't remember ever getting bit on the 1st day before - usually they flit around checking the menu for 2-3 days before chowing down.

Usually EAB has infested a tree for a couple years before symptoms become visible, after which comes the quick death you saw. Apparently there is a very small minority of ash that exhibit resistance/tolerance for EAB, so I don't think the species group will go extinct, but will probably be gone as a significant component of the forest. Hillerich & Bradsby can switch to maple. Indigenous people in Maine and the Maritimes, for whom brown ash and the products made from it are important cultural facets, have no plan B.

That (the bolded) is my method to get an accurate measurement. However, I don't try to fill in the melt/sublime pit around the stake. I plant it in the fall on the most level part of the garden, which varies from year to year by what crops were grown, and it's 25' or so from the cleared path to the shed. Getting into shovel reach means snowshoes, and I make pretty deep hol;es in a non-glacial pack - would rather not make a bunch of large foot-deep impressions just a couple yards from the stake if I don't have to. My stake is white with black markings, but made from a 2-by-4 so not exactly thin. I guess we’ll just have to make do if this is the sort of stuff we have to deal with in the current climate regime that everyone talks about here in the forum. I've just distilled some snow/temp data for an informational paper I'm doing on climate change effects on forest management. I have model info for the Northeast but wanted to be Maine-centric, and chose CAR for the north, Rangeley for the western mountains, and Farmington for a lower elevation site still close to the landbase we manage. I may toss the cold/snowy 60s and 70s because they stand out even in a 125-year record like that at Farmington - snowfall 15% higher than in any other full decade and coldest DJF and DJFM temps of any decade. Here's what I've found: Farmington (1893-on) Snowfall: very close to 90"/yr except for 106" in 60s/70s. Max depth locked in at near 30" except 35-36 for 60s-70s. Snowpack retention (records start 1940): Cover 1"+ for recent decades down 3% from 40s-50s. Temps (DJF and DJFM, the period for frozen-ground logging): Significant rise this century, about 2F above 80s-90s and early 20th century. Caribou (1940-on) Snowfall: About a 5% increase this century compared to 40s-50s. However, max depth is down about 5" for the most recent 20 years. (However, I wonder if there's a difference in how snow gets blown around compared to earlier years. The 14" blizzard of late Jan 1977 added 14" to their depth, while storms of 13" and 14" in march 2008 each added just 4".) Snowpack retention: Cover 1"+ down 5-6% for the 21st century. Temps: Significant rise this century, about 2F above 80s-90s and early 20th century. Rangeley (1961-on, so no earlier check. Also, have not parsed their temp data.) Snowfall: Last 10 winters (119.7") same as 1961-on (119.8") Greatest depth 2000-on is 2" above 1961-on. Snowpack retention: 21st century 1"+ cover 2% higher than 1961-on. Conclusion: Little to no effect on snowfall and top depth, slight eroding of 1"+ duration, 21st century winter temp 2F above previous, probably due to more frequent/milder thaws.

Got low 40s RA from that one - typical. Same today, only it's upper 30s. Saw some catpaws and "almost-flakes" coming over Mile Hill on the way in, only Maine report of accumulation was 0.1" in Temple, and I found out that cocorahs site is above 1200'. Numerous 3-5" reports from VT cocorahs.