50 Ways to Help the Planet

50 Ways to Help the Planet

Our Favorite: #19. PLANT A TREE
It's good for the air, the land, can shade your house and save on cooling (plant on the west side of your home), and they can also improve the value of your property.

Scientist Advocates Tree Selection for Ecofunctions

Diana Beresford-Kroeger says there are many unseen chemical relationships between trees, chemicals they produce, pollinators and pests are going on in the world around us.

She refers to herself as a "renegade scientist" "[trying] to bring together aboriginal healing, Western medicine and botany to advocate an unusual role for trees"

Bioplanning uses natural chemicals rather than synthetic ones by reforesting cities and rural areas with trees according to the medicinal, environmental, nutritional, pesticidal and herbicidal properties she claims for them, which she calls ecofunctions.

Passing Along Fuel Surcharges

A recent NMPro Survey revealed the different approaches in the industry to fuel surcharges.

Percent of responders with vendors charging fuel surcharges- 100%

• Would not ask a vendor to waive the charge- 67%
• Have switched vendors- 22%

Percent of responders passing the surcharges on to their customers- 33 %
(17% are not and 50% are considering it)

Of those with surcharges:

• Have had requests from customers to waive the surcharge- 28%
• Have lost customers because of surcharge- 29%
• Consider waiving the surcharge at times- 70%

EAB Found in Wisconsin

The first confirmed discovery of EAB in Wisconsin occured in Ozaukee County, on a private woodlot near Newburg.

The second discovery followed soon after the first. A beetle was found on a trap in a park in the Village of Newburg (Washington County).

Ozaukee and Washington County, as well as neighboring counties Fond du Lac and Sheboygan have been quarantined.

State Assembly Forestry Chairman Donald Friske made a statement on August 4 about EAB in Wisconsin.

Climate Change and Scattered Woodlands in Wisconsin

Scattered Woodlands Complicate Forest's Response to Climate Change:

A warming climate may cause tree species to move north to find the right growing conditions, but it may not be a simple switch of tree species.

University of Wisconsin-Madison forest ecologists developed a model that predicts the rate of decline and replacement of trees in northern forests. Their findings show a decrease in forest biomass in the northern part of the state. The rate of climate change is faster than the rate at which the southern trees can migrate north, and there are also barriers along the way. Scattered woodlands in the central part of the state, due to agriculture and development also slows the progress.