Ash Seed Collection

On top of a semester already full of classes, schedules, meetings, writing, and data analysis, there is still a little more field work. Now is the time for seed collection of ash trees and Rachel was able to get some help with this from the Forest Service. They went out to collect seeds from the few remaining adult trees in the area.  Many of them have produced seed, but the embryos inside were not fully developed. This can happen for a variety of reasons: the wrong type of weather occurring at the wrong time (spring frost), tree stress (EAB beetle), or golls (parasites creating the flower or seed into a home).  Also, there are male and female ash trees so they cannot fertilize themselves.  If the males and females are not close enough together the pollen from the males cannot fertilize the female flowers on the tree. Here are a few picks of the process and trees:
First is a pic of the extendable pole pruners (yellow), which are very handy and kinda heavy.

 Then this is a branch that has seeds and flowers that have a goll formation

 And one of the seeding trees next to the creek

Fall Color change in Ash tree leaves

Happy Fall Everyone! Fall reminds me of pumpkins, nice 70 degree days, and fall leaf color change.

 Recently, I got to go look for tree leaf color change in black ash trees from a helicopter. The red in the picture above is from maple trees. Ash have a light green to yellow leaf color occurring around now. Black ash are a species of ash tree that is usually found in very wet habitat, wetland for example. There are not too many around our area in NW Ohio, but there is in Michigan. The US Forest Service is interested in looking for tree still alive after the initial die-off from of EAB (Emerald Ash Borer), as they continue to try to breed EAB resistant ash trees. Black ash is the American ash species that is the most similar species to Asian ash/Manchurian Ash.

Here are a few other breath-taking pictures I took from the helicopter.