FTN: Save Rodgers Forge’s Sycamores!
From the newsletter:
By Dr. Elizabeth Cyd Hamilton,
Certified Arborist & Doctor of Plants in Baltimore
www.betternature.solutions (703) 585-2264
The Sycamore is a stately tree that is struggling in the urban forest. Tree-lined streets of 80+ year old sycamores are slowing and visibly dying. Why? Let’s first learn a bit more about this giant of the Eastern forests of the United States.
The tree can grow to heights of 60 – 120 feet on a trunk girth of three to eight feet. This tree can live to be 250 years old. It’s a favorite nesting tree for owls and chimney swifts if canopy cavities permit, as well as purple finch, goldfinch, chickadees and other common urban birds eating the seeds.
I couldn’t find data on its average carbon sequestration per lifetime but anything that can produce wood at up to two feet per year and live a couple hundred years with a trunk reaching 100+ feet tall, well, that has got to be an excellent way to store carbon from the atmosphere (sequestering it in bark and trunk and roots). Those sail-like leaves sometimes the size of an adult hand must collect a good amount of particulate matter. All of those characteristics result in cleaner air, healthier soils, and cleaner water.
The disease I am seeing hitting Sycamores is anthracnose. Its damage is most notable in the early spring and then again the summer. The tree will seem to bounce back in springs that are dry and cool. Once the temps heat up or humidity rises – the anthracnose strain will present itself again.
It can be readily treated with a systemic (fungicide) that not only provides five years of protection in mature trees, but also is applied in a manner with the least possible exposure to humans, pollinators, and pets. Proper fungicide applications to protect beneficial microbes is key to good plant/tree health care.
You’ll need to hire an arborist to apply the fungicide. The cost generally varies from $200 to $600, depending upon how large the tree is and if it is suffering from secondary infections, root girdling, or insects. The average price is $260 for a mature tree with no other issues than the fungal infection. Compare that to the cost of removing a mature tree (thousands of dollars) and the benefits that the trees provide, and it’s an easy call to make. Let’s save our Sycamores!
