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I was just reading a prank letter about an arborist that cultivated a bunch of giant sequoias in order to take revenge upon a city. So, it got me to ask. Are we allowed to cut down giant sequoias, if somebody planted one in yard? It would grow like bamboo, so you probably have to do it quickly to avoid a disaster. But I'm just wondering if you would be allowed to chop it down because you didn't plant it and it wasn't natural.

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

A tornado touched down in Milton, Calif. east of Stockton on Wednesday. Wind speeds reached 90 miles per hour, which was strong enough to break many trees. A tornado touched down in Milton, Calif. with powerful winds that damaged many trees on Wednesday. Wind speeds topped out at 90 miles per hour in the community east of Stockton. Pine and oak trees were splintered, but no injuries were reported in Calaveras County. The tornado touched down around 4 a.m. and traveled less than half a mile, according to National Weather Service information. The tornado was 50 yards wide, according to...

THE Moon destroyed a forest on Earth just by wobbling, according to a new study. The theory solves a mystery from 2015 which involved tens of millions of mangrove trees dying in Australia.... ...The researchers used 30 years of national satellite data to conduct their research and correlate the Moon's behavior with the mass tree death. This helped them spot a pattern of trees dying every 18 to 19 years, which is in keeping with the Moon wobble timeline....

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A St. Petersburg man was arrested for driving under the influence on Thursday afternoon after crashing into a ditch off I-275. According to a Florida Highway Patrol arrest report, troopers responded to a crash off the 1-275 off ramp at 38th Ave. N. at around 2 p.m. Troopers said they found Adam Smallwood, 39, in the driver’s seat of a car registered to him and with the keys in the ignition. Smallwood reportedly crashed into some small trees and ended up in a water-filled ditch. Troopers said Smallwood’s speech was slurred and he kept repeating...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday announced plans to replant trees on millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation’s forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of climate change. The U.S. Agriculture Department said it will have to quadruple the number of tree seedlings produced by nurseries to get through the backlog and meet future needs. That comes after Congress last year passed bipartisan legislation directing the Forest Service to plant 1.2 billion trees over the next decade and after President Joe Biden in April...

ANALYSIS: Increasingly, scholars and the media link so-called animal privilege with economic and sociological terms such as inequality and intergenerational wealth “Squirrel privilege is real.” “Checking Privilege in the Animal Kingdom.” “Even Hermit Crabs Have Wealth Inequality.” These headlines hail from Salon and The New York Times, respectively, and represent a growing trend among scholars and the media to tackle animal “inequality” — and also argue humans can learn important lessons about income inequality and privilege from such studies. “Inequality is a threat to our social fabric, but it’s not just a human problem,” argued the World Economic Forum in...

President Joe Biden’s order to protect the nation’s oldest woodlands is raising a simple but vexing question: When does a forest grow old? The answer could affect millions of acres of federally-managed forests where environmentalists want logging restricted as climate change, wildfires and other problems devastate vast forests. Scientists say there's no simple formula for what's old — in part because growth rates among species can vary greatly.

Journey with Helen into the wisdom and teachings of three master teacher trees, bringing the initiation and medicine needed for 2022 and beyond. Trees are often overlooked and disregarded in our search for healing, but their power and support is extraordinary. As well as bearing fruit, birds nests and treehouses, they are wisdom carriers and can provide healing as profound as any other medicinal plants that are more widely recognised. Whilst travel has been restricted, and the galactic energy is mounting, the earth is offering us a chance to come home to the medicine we are surrounded by. Connecting to...

Chainsaws are an important tool in any homeowner’s tool shed. From trimming trees to clearing fallen branches, there is no quicker way to cut through thick branches or take down a tree. In fact, you won’t get a tool with more power per inch than a chainsaw. But all that power comes responsibility. The chain of the chainsaw moves anywhere from fifty to even eighty miles per hour at full throttle, cutting through the thickest branches with ease. Just imagine what this tool can do to your fingers or toes after a small moment of distraction.

Aerial outline of Pando. (Lance Oditt/Friends of Pando) RICHARD ELTON WALTON, THE CONVERSATION24 NOVEMBER 2021 In the Wasatch Mountains of the western US on the slopes above a spring-fed lake, there dwells a single giant organism that provides an entire ecosystem on which plants and animals have relied for thousands of years. Found in my home state of Utah, "Pando" is a 106-acre stand of quaking aspen clones. Although it looks like a woodland of individual trees with striking white bark and small leaves that flutter in the slightest breeze, Pando (Latin for "I spread") is actually 47,000 genetically identical...

In 1999, radiologist Nicola Strickland went on a holiday to the Caribbean island of Tobago, a tropical paradise complete with idyllic, deserted beaches. On her first morning there, she went foraging for shells and corals in the white sand, but the holiday quickly took a turn for the worse. Scattered amongst the coconuts and mangoes on the beach, Strickland and her friend found some sweet-smelling green fruit that looked much like small crabapples. Both foolishly decided to take a bite. Within moments the pleasantly sweet flavor was overwhelmed by a peppery, burning feeling and an excruciating tightness in the throat...

Vice President Kamala Harris asked NASA if it could use its satellites to track trees “by race” in various neighborhoods as part of “environmental justice” during a recent display on climate change, leading many to ridicule the vice president online and even giving rise to a “Black Trees Matter” hashtag. Black Trees Matter

Decaying wood releases around 10.9 gigatons of carbon worldwide every year, according to a new study by an international team of scientists. This is roughly equivalent to 115 percent of fossil fuel emissions. Co-author of the study Professor David Lindenmayer from The Australian National University (ANU) says it’s the first time researchers have been able to quantify the contribution of deadwood to the global carbon cycle. “Until now, little has been known about the role of dead trees,” Professor Lindenmayer said. “We know living trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But up until now,...

Removal of trees from the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) site commenced Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. Felled trees and stumps could be seen along the northern edge of the Jackson Park Women's Garden. Further south within the OPC footprint more trees had been cut, their stumps remaining in the ground. Earlier in the week, trees in the OPC site had been marked with bands of different colors: blue, green and white. According to a contractor doing a survey of the trees on the site, the trees with green and blue bands were to be "repurposed" and those with white bands were...

An advocacy group focused on protecting public parks in Chicago has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt construction of former President Obama’s presidential library which kicked off Monday. In an emergency request for a temporary injunction filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, the nonprofit Protect Our Parks argued that the federal government failed to carry out required environmental reviews for the Obama Presidential Center, which is being constructed in the historic Jackson Park. The group has long been opposed to construction of the library in the park located on the city’s South Side, claiming construction will put the...

It’s worse than we thought. It’s bad enough that “peoples of color” are victims of racist math and racist bird names, but now we know they are also made to suffer from “tree inequity.” It’s worse than we thought. It’s bad enough that “peoples of color” are victims of racist math and racist bird names, but now we know they are also made to suffer from “tree inequity.” A research group called American Forests, in conjunction with the United States Forest Service, recently announced that peoples of color, living as many do in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, often have fewer trees...

Tree racism uncovered in Minneapolis. But won't putting more trees in black neighborhoods remind them of lynchings? Well worth watching 2 minutes of launacy

There is a saying among some farmers in the Carolina Sandhills: “A man would have to be a fool to cut down a longleaf pine.” It’s not because the gangly-limbed tree is particularly beautiful. The pine doesn’t have a magnolia’s flowers or an oak’s shade. He could get $4,000 an acre for clear-cutting his mature longleaf pines for timber. Or, he said, he could earn $1,200 an acre collecting pine needles from the same trees — every year.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is leading a campaign to plant 6 billion trees across the country this year. It forms part of his ‘’Green Legacy’’ project to promote eco-tourism and combat the effects of climate change. The initiative highlights his focus on the environment ahead of the elections. At the launch in a meeting hall filled with freshly watered seedlings Tuesday, Abiy encouraged Ethiopians to plant billions of trees.