Learning to distinguish the symptoms of lightning strikes is a valuable tool for arborists, landscapers, pest control companies, and gardeners. The symptoms may be confused with other causes such as lethal yellowing disease (Candidatus palmae...

Ransomware is a growing concern for non-profits of all sizes but can be prevented with strategic risk management practices to counter these attacks and protect critical infrastructure and data. As they say “it is not a matter of if, but when” you will...

Thousands of trees are struck by lightning every year. These trees will have varying degrees of damage ranging from complete shattering and destruction of the tree, to a slow lingering death, to virtually no apparent damage at all (Figure 1). When...

Conifers are commonly planted in North America to provide year-round screening, as windbreaks or as focal trees in the landscape. However, conifers including certain species of spruce, pine, hemlock, cedar and fir planted in northern areas of North...

Mulches provide many benefits for trees and shrubs. Properly applied mulch will moderate soil temperatures, reduce soil moisture loss, reduce soil compaction, provide nutrients, improve soil structure, foster beneficial microbial communities, and keep...

In response to drought conditions, urban population growth, and dwindling water supplies in Utah, Utah State University (USU) Extension implemented a study using soil moisture meters. USU Extension distributed free soil moisture meters to residents...

UC has been heavily involved in research and extension efforts impacting landscape water conservation legislation for over 30 years. In 1981, UC implemented the California Irrigation Management Information System, a network of weather stations that...

Mulch is often applied in landscape planting beds for weed control, but little research has focused specifically on mulch and preemergence (PRE) herbicide combinations. The objectives of this research were to determine the efficacy of herbicide + mulch...

Understanding carbon footprint (CF) terminology and the science underlying its determination is important to minimizing the negative impacts of new product development and assessing positive or negative cradle-to-grave lifecycle impacts. Life cycle...

Sound master planning for an arboretum starts with an assessment of the existing landscape and leads to an integrated package of management (longterm operations planning), design (the realization of the new visions), and maintenance (day-to-day...