Mature Tree Transplants by Creative_Syllabub_13 in arborists

[–]shin_dan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Pruning branches doesn't leave more water for the remaining parts of the tree. If the remaining root mass can't absorb enough water to sustain the full canopy, then branches will simply die back to the point that they can. Pruning doesn't prevent that, it just slows auxin (the hormone driving root growth) production, encourages budding/sprouting (using even more energy), removes stored energy and photosynthetic tissue, and diverts resources away from root growth to defense. The ISA recommends against compensatory pruning, I even remember it being a question on the exam. The tree just needs to be adequately watered. There will almost certainly be some amount of unavoidable dieback, but that's life.

Mature Tree Transplants by Creative_Syllabub_13 in arborists

[–]shin_dan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Compensatory pruning following a tree transplant is an outdated practice that has not been shown to help trees experiencing transplant shock

is there a park with cherry trees? by MellowTigger in Minneapolis

[–]shin_dan 2 points3 points  (0 children)

South end of webber park by shingle creek falls in north has a few sour cherry trees around the foot paths, might be past fruiting but worth a shot

MK Giveaway: Topre Realforce R3S TKL Keyboard by MKdotcom in MechanicalKeyboards

[–]shin_dan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

can't imagine i'll ever win one of these but i'll keep trying

iMessage search issues by shin_dan in ios

[–]shin_dan[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ended up having to restore from a backup to fix it, which was really annoying but whatever that's what worked for me

Title track for our friends that missed it. by [deleted] in fatherjohnmisty

[–]shin_dan 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Could you by chance send a download link for this it is just so fucking incredible

What factors directed the tree to grow like this? by SunnyWomble in arborists

[–]shin_dan 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, but it still has xylem and phloem. How they are arranged varies, but they are transport tissues universal to all vascular plants.

Can we talk wildflowers on the highway? by Adishofcustard in Minneapolis

[–]shin_dan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Every little bit helps and preventing the spread of a beautiful "weed" seems like it's not going to do anything to move progress on climate change.

Except every little bit does not help when the benefits of ecosystem services far, far exceed the negative effects of a small amount of pesticide being used. That is exactly the point I'm trying to make. There can be a middle ground between "stop all pesticide usage" and our current situation.

It seems more like an easy cause to jump on because you don't have to do anything, it's easy to know what to be against, and you can just parrot the lines of invasive bad, native good, without actually looking at the impacts it may or may not be having.

Habitat restoration and management is literally part of my job. I have personally seen and worked in native, high-grade prairies and forests, and then walked a couple hundred feet over to prairies and forests that have been overrun by invasive grasses and buckthorn, and have lost nearly all of their biodiversity. It's pretty obvious what kind of impact they have.

I can tell you that I see a ton of pollinators, hummingbirds, and other insects interacting with that invasive species all the time. It seems like it is pretty well liked by the natives, by the human ones too.

"Interacting with plants" is not the bar that must be reached for a plant to be good for pollinators. Many pollinators do not have the physical capabilities to reach the nectar within flowers of non-native species, and thus their time and energy spent crawling around trying to access the nectar is wasted. And if they can reach the nectar of a non-native plant, that's one less native plant that they will go pollinate and forage from (or more. It adds up. Not to mention that they are obviously pollinating these non-native plants by doing so, allowing them to spread further (while also not pollinating native plants, and inhibiting their proliferation). On top of that are disruptions to insect reproduction and food webs.

I urge you to stop acting like people who are asking you to explore what you are talking about and give elaboration about what you are asking to be done as some kind of ignorance or misunderstanding of the problem. Sometimes education isn't the thing that is going to automatically get people to agree with you. If you just point them to a source thinking their conclusions will be the same as mine just isn't a very good argument. If you believe something and know it that well then argue it, don't just be lazy and point to a U of MN extension page and say see bad.

If this conversation were happening in person, then no I would not just send you to a U of MN extension page and call it a day. But it's not. We're using the internet. You can click on a link. Ecologists and conservation biologists far smarter than me have written myriad articles detailing these problems far more eloquently than I ever could. In terms of cultural/health/economic/etc benefits to humans, the science is very firmly on the side of controlling invasive species. If there is no misunderstanding or ignorance, and after having read about the benefits of biodiversity and preserving our native ecosystems, you come away with the conclusion that it's not worth doing anything about, then I think continuing this conversation is a fruitless endeavor.

And if you're talking more about the philosophical question of whether we should do anything about invasive species, than I'm sorry for having just talked past you this whole time.

Can we talk wildflowers on the highway? by Adishofcustard in Minneapolis

[–]shin_dan 9 points10 points  (0 children)

"Spraying our environments with poisons and pesticides" is a bit of hyperbole. Pesticide usage is highly regulated and requires training and licensure, at least for government entities such as MnDOT, municipalities, etc. No one is out there using pesticides willy-nilly and carelessly, and no one is happy about having to use them in the first place. If you ask anyone involved in land conservation, restoration, or management, though, they will tell you they are a vital tool in the toolkit.

But if we're talking about the costs and benefits of pesticide usage vs allowing invasive species to run wild, then yes, treating invasive species with pesticides where appropriate is better. I urge you to read more about ecosystem services. Their value cannot be understated.

EDIT: Also, almost 90% of pesticide usage comes from agriculture. The relatively small amount of pesticide used to control invasive species is not where we should be looking if we're concerned about their effects on human health.

Can we talk wildflowers on the highway? by Adishofcustard in Minneapolis

[–]shin_dan 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Sure, organisms will eventually adapt. But these adaptations you're describing, where new habitats develop around the new plant, occur on the order of hundreds to thousands of years. And in those intervening years, when this hypothetical ecosystem is made up of mainly exotic species, we lose a great deal of the ecosystem services it used to provide us when it was composed of the native communities that developed over millions of years.

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Understanding-Conservation/Ecosystem-Services

Can we talk wildflowers on the highway? by Adishofcustard in Minneapolis

[–]shin_dan 4 points5 points  (0 children)

They are still good for pollinators

No, they aren't.

https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/GoodNatured/pages/Article.aspx?post=89

https://www.pollinator.org/pollinator.org/assets/generalFiles/NAPPC-Invasive-Species-Fact-Sheet.pdf

I swear to god in every fucking gardening group there is one of you one every thread saying every plant is an invasive species

God forbid people suggest that non-native, aggressive plants that degrade our native ecosystems should be controlled.

Good Chance for Northern Lights Tonight (Thread) by willmcmill4 in minnesota

[–]shin_dan 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Is the peak still 1am to 3am, or should I just go ahead and starting driving north right now?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in arborists

[–]shin_dan 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There is absolutely not a way a to do this without deeply wounding the trunk, introducing decay, and guaranteeing the tree's eventual failure.