CTPA Updates - CTPA (Connecticut Tree Protective Association)

Registration for the Virtual 100th Annual Meeting

January 11, 2022 by CTPA Admin

Click here to register for CTPA’s virtual 100th Annual Meeting:

When: Thursday, January 20, 2022

Where: Online, via Zoom, from 8:45 am to 2:15 pm

CEUs available: 4.00 for Connecticut Arborists (Category 3D), CT Forest Practitioners are eligible to receive 2.0 credits, while TWAC members will receive 4.00, and ISA Arborist CEUs – 4.5 CEU’s.

The TCIA CTSP program is not offering credits. Details on the process to followed to receive CEUs are listed at the end of this announcement.

How to Register: Online, via the CTPA web site

Registration Fee: $45 members, $60 non-members. Members may register non-members at the member rate.

Recordings: This meeting will be recorded. Only people who have registered may access the recording. People will only need to register once. People who attend the meeting as it occurred may also access the recorded version after the meeting based on their pre-meeting registration. People who did not register before the meeting and did not attend it live may register after the meeting and view the recording. The registration process post-meeting is the same as it is pre-meeting, as are the registration fees.

Meeting Details

8:45 to 9:00 – Annual Business Meeting

During the Business Meeting, Officers and Board Members for 20221 will be elected. The Slate of Candidates has been announced. Also during the Business Meeting, the 2021 finances will be reviewed.

9:00 – “The CTPA – 100 Years Old and Just Beginning”. This talk will look back at how CTPA was founded and what has guided it for the past 100 years, as well as encourage a look forward towards the future. Dr. Kirby Stafford III, CAES, Chris Donnelly and Emmett Shutts, Davey Tree Experts.

10:15 – Updates from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, DEEP and UCONN

Dr. Jason White, Director of the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, will present highlights from the Station’s activities during 2020. This is also CTPA’s opportunity to welcome Dr. White as Station Director. Diane Jorsey from DEEP will give updates from the Pesticide Program and Dr. Jason Vokoun from UCONN will give updates on the program sponsored by CTPA.

10:50 – Scholarship Award

11:00 – BREAK

11:30– “Nature’s Best Hope” Dr. Tallamy will show us how current landscape designs have not been fully effective at sustaining the plants and animals in the landscape. He will talk about how to create landscapes that enhance local ecosystems rather than degrade them and the positive impact it will have to the natural world. Dr. Douglas Tallamy, University of Delaware

12:30 – BREAK

12:45 – “The Nature of Oaks” Oak trees are superior landscape trees throughout most of the US because of their many ecological and aesthetic attributes. In this talk Dr. Tallamy will compare oak species to other popular shade trees in terms of their ability to support animal diversity, protect watersheds, and sequester carbon dioxide. Dr. Douglas Tallamy, University of Delaware

2:15 – Conclusion

A Note on CEUs

DEEP Supervisory Licenses ( 3D)

Only individuals who have registered either for the meeting or to view its recordings may receive CEUs. Registration may be before the meeting or, for those who just want to view the recordings, after the meeting. Those who register to attend the meeting will not need to re-register. The registration fee will be the same, whether registration occurs before or after the meeting. If you wish to receive CEUs, be sure to register under your own name and have provided your DEEP license number.

In order to receive CEUs, attendees and recording viewers must pass a quiz for each section of the meeting. There will be 3 quizzes total. Quizzes will be made available through a link that will provided on the last slide of each of the three educational sessions. Each quiz will consist of 10 questions. The passing score for each quiz is 80%. Individual may re-take quizzes that they did not pass. Quizzes may be taken at any time and must be submitted to CTPA for scoring. Attendees will only receive CEUs for the quizzes they take and pass. Attendees do not need to take all 3 quizzes.

Non-Pesticide Certifications

For CT Forest Practitioner and ISA Arborist, be sure to include your certification in the form when you register. The registration list will be sent to the appropriate organization. Proof of attendance slips for CT Forest Practitioner will be sent out following the meeting.

If there are any questions, please contact the CTPA office.

100th Annual Meeting Update!

January 6, 2022 by CTPA Admin

The CTPA Board of Directors has been monitoring the situation with COVID in Connecticut and has become increasingly concerned about the current increase in cases due to the omicron variant. Out of concern for the health and safety of our members and all who would be attending our Annual Meeting, we have decided to hold our Annual Meeting virtually, through the use of an on-line platform. We know this disappoints some people – we are disappointed ourselves. But, as Board Members, we have a responsibility to look at the bigger picture and do what we feel is right. We do have to put first the health and safety of those who would be attending the meeting.

We are committed to holding the Annual Meeting in some format and are in the process now of working out the details. At the moment, we are looking to hold the on-line meeting on January 20^th, with people to be given the option of viewing in the meeting then, as it is being recorded, and/or viewing a recorded version at a later time. CEU’s will be made available for those who participate in the meeting in either format. People participating in the meeting on the 20^th will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers.

Beyond that, we do not have any additional details. We are hard at work making the arrangements and will let people know as soon as we have the details worked out.

We are especially disappointed as this is the 100^th year of the association and we wanted to kick off the year right. Nonetheless, the organization has always risen to meet the challenges of the times and we will do so now.

Please stay tuned to the website and emails for future updates. Those who have already registered will have their checks returned and will be given the opportunity to re-register for the on-line meeting once we have set that up.

With regards,
Pat Flynn, CTPA President
Cathy Dvorsky, CTPA Executive Secretary

Award of Merit and Arborist Citation Award Nomination for Annual Meeting

October 18, 2021 by

The Connecticut Tree Protective Association regularly honors individuals who have made significant contributions to arboriculture and to the care and protection of Connecticut’s trees. These awards are given annually and presented at the Annual Meeting. The CTPA Board of Directors is requesting nominees for awards for the upcoming Annual Meeting join January 20, 2022 and encourages you to nominate someone whom you feel deserves special recognition.

Award Categories:

Award of Merit– This award is presented to a CTPA member who has shown exemplary professionalism and dedication and made outstanding contributions to the care and protection of Connecticut’s trees.
Arborist Citation– This award is presented to a non-member who has shown exemplary dedication to the care and protection of Connecticut’s trees.

If you know of someone that is deserving of either of these awards, please print out the nomination form and email (info@ctpa.org) or fax (203)793-7924 to the CTPA office.

The deadline for nominations is Friday, December 3, 2021.

The CT Urban Forest Council Offers a Grant Opportunity

September 13, 2021 by

The following is from the CT Urban Forest Council:

The Connecticut Urban Forest Council (CUFC) is pleased to announce a new urban forestry grant opportunity. The Urban Forestry Climate Change Grant Program will provide funding, up to $37,000, to municipalities or non-profits for projects that use urban forestry to address the local effects of climate change and that also include equity and environmental justice as among the goals of the project.

Complete details are available on the CUFC website (https://cturbanforestcouncil.org/grants/climate-change-grants/). There will be two rounds of applications, with the first round due on November 3^rd. Also, stay tuned – CT DEEP will be making an official announcement regarding this and other urban forestry grant opportunities shortly.

Please feel free to spread the word regarding this CUFC grant opportunity. Questions regarding the CUFC urban forestry grant may be asked via the CUFC grant web page.

CAES Valley Lab Moves Its Centennial Celebration to September 10th

August 31, 2021 by

Due to the heavy rain predicted for today and tomorrow and the wet conditions expected to last the remainder of the week, the CT Agricultural Experiment has decided to move its Centennial Celebration to next Friday, September 10th. It hopes this new date will allow many arborists, tree care workers and others to attend. The revised agenda for the September 10th meeting is now available.

There are ceu’s available for a range of pesticide licenses, including up to 4 ceu’s available for arborists. Also, there will be a brewery on-hand to help with the Centennial Celebration, following the late afternoon tour of the Valley Lab’s Hopyard.

No pre-registration needed – just plan on attending! The Valley Lab is located at 153 Cook Hill Road in Windsor, CT. There is no charge for attendance.

The Fall 2021 Arboriculture 101 Class

August 11, 2021 by

Arboriculture 101 is CTPA’s well-regarded class series geared for those individuals who are seeking the CT Arborist License. The class series takes place over 13 weeks, for one night a week, with each class 3 hours in length. Further details regarding the course and what topics are covered are outlined on the Arboriculture 101 page on the CTPA website.

CTPA is announcing that it plans to hold the Fall 2021 session of Arboriculture 101 in-person, at the Jones Auditorium in New Haven. The Jones Auditorium is a part of the New Haven campus of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and is located at 123 Huntington Street.

This arrangement with CAES provides CTPA with a venue for holding the course that is larger than the classroom at CTPA’s facility in Wallingford. This is important, as it will allow for greater social distancing during the fall class session. CTPA is concerned about the ongoing situation regarding COVID and about the need to be careful when making decisions that might affect the health and safety of those individuals enrolled in Arboriculture 101 or who are the course instructors. CTPA is committed to following all applicable guidelines relating to the virus.

Among those guidelines is the mandate of the City of New Haven, effective as of August 10th, that masks are required in all public indoor facilities. As a result, CTPA will require that all fall Arboriculture 101 students wear masks while attending these classes. In addition to moving to a larger class space, class size will be limited to facilitate social distancing. CTPA will also provide hand sanitizer and otherwise do what it can to make the classroom a COVID safe place.

Because of this change in venue, adjustments may also have to be made to the class schedule. While CTPA aims to hold most classes on Wednesday evenings, it may have to move some classes to a Tuesday or a Thursday. A final class schedule will be made available before the start of class.

All of this planning is based on the current situation regarding COVID. However, the classes will run from September 1 to December 1. This means that the situation may change over the next few months. If the situation worsens, CTPA may have to switch from holding classes in-person to giving classes virtually, via Zoom. Students who sign up for the course should be aware that this is a possibility.

If a change to virtual presentations is required, students should feel assured that the same instructors will presenting the classes. The quality of each of the classes will remain as high as they have always been. While switching to on-line classes is not preferred, CTPA has gained considerable experience with teaching the classes via the internet and will always have as its goal maintaining the high standards now expected from this course.

There are a still few spaces currently available in this fall’s Arboriculture 101 course. To sign up, visit the Arboriculture 101 Registration page. or the view the current class flyer for further details. Please note that this post is intended as an update of the flyer, which was printed and distributed earlier this summer.

To sum up this message:
• Arboriculture 101 will be held this fall, at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station Jones Auditorium in New Haven. Classes will run from September 1 to December 1.
• Because of COVID, masks will be required of all students while in class. Social distancing must also be practiced during class. CTPA and CAES are committed to following the guidelines set by local and state authorities.
• If the situation with COVID worsen, we may be forced to switch from holding classes in-person to holding classes virtually.
• Full details, including as to how to register for the class, are on the CTPA website.

Happenings at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station – Two Upcoming Events

July 30, 2021 by

The CT Agricultural Experiment Station is hosting two events that could be of interest to CTPA members. This coming Wednesday, on August 4^th, the Experiment Station is hosting its 111^th Annual Plant Science Day. This all-day event will be taking place at Lockwood Farm in Hamden, near Sleeping Giant State Park. There is no charge to attend and individuals may receive 3.25 pesticide credits towards any category of their pesticide license.

Full details, including the Plant Science Day Program, are available on the Station web page. Among the several talks to be given are an update on beech leaf disease, a discussion of deer in your garden, a presentation on container and raised beds gardening and a talk on industrial hemp. One of the highlights of Plant Science Day, however, is the opportunity to visit individually with the Station Scientists. Station researchers are on hand to describe directly, often through field demonstrations, what they have been up in their research and to answer questions regarding topics of interest to attendees.

Plant Science Day runs from 10 am to 4 pm. To obtain ceu’s, attendees must arrive and register by 10 am, with credit sheets to handed out at 3:30 pm. Otherwise, there is no need to register in advance – just come on out and plan to spend a few hours while enjoying the day!

The second event, to take place on Thursday, September 2^nd, is the 100^th Anniversary Celebration of the Experiment Station’s Valley Lab in Windsor. During this event, there will talks on boxwood blight and armored scales by Rich Cowles, updates on the biological control of hemlock woolly adelgid by Carole Cheah and on forest management by Jeff Ward, and on beech leaf disease and also a tour of the Valley Lab hopyard, led by Jim Lamondia. The day will include catered food, an overview of the history of the Tobacco Station, as the Valley Lab was originally known as, and the symbolic groundbreaking on the renovation of the Valley Lab’s main building.

This event will occur on the Valley Lab’s property in Windsor. The Valley Lab Centennial Program has been posted. Pesticide credits will also be available. Again, there is no charge. Further details will be announced as they become available.

Here is the link for further information on the Valley Lab.

Beech Leaf Disease – 2021 Update

June 16, 2021 by

Please Note – this article updates an earlier post on Beech Leaf Disease, from June 22, 2020.

In a recent press release, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) reported that beech leaf disease has become much more widespread in the state, with an increasing number of findings coming in from a wider area. CAES is reporting that the range of symptoms associated with the disease are also increasing, perhaps due to the association with the dry weather from 2020.

Because of the current extent of beech leaf disease, CAES is not longer encouraging arborists or others to report citing of the disease to the Station.

For people who seek further information on beech leaf disease, CAES is referring people to the US Forest Service Pest Alert on Beech Leaf Disease. People might also review an article entitled An Overview of Beech Leaf Disease, written by Dr. Bob Marra and published in the October 2020 edition of the New England SAF newsletter.

The full CAES press release on Beech Leaf Disease, with pictures, may be downloaded. The text of the CAES press release is as follows:

Beech Leaf Disease Now Widespread in Connecticut

New Haven, CT – Scientists from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) have confirmed that Beech Leaf Disease (BLD), first detected in lower Fairfield County in 2019, is now widespread and prevalent on American beech (Fagus grandifolia) throughout Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, and New London Counties. It also appears to be spreading into Litchfield, Tolland, and Windham Counties, albeit less severely; to date there are no confirmed observations of BLD in Hartford County. This disease, which can kill trees within several years of detection, was first discovered in 2012 in Ohio, followed in subsequent years by detections in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada.

The symptoms on beech foliage, best observed from below looking up into the canopy, are characterized by dark striping between leaf veins, as pictured below (left). However, this year the symptoms are severe, and can include: aborted leaf enlargement; cupping, browning, and yellowing of foliage; branch and tip dieback; and in some cases, premature leaf drop. CAES and DEEP Forestry believe that 2020’s hot and dry summer, exacerbated by this year’s dry spring, are playing a role in the observed symptoms.

Beech leaf disease is caused by the foliar nematode, Litylenchus crenatae subsp. mccannii. The nematode appears to cause disease on only American, European, and Oriental beech (F. grandifolia, F. sylvatica, and F. orientalis). Scientists at CAES have joined forces with researchers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario (Canada), and at USDA-ARS to study disease development, transmission, and control.

Research on control options, conducted in Ohio, have not been promising. However, treatments are being promoted by several tree-care companies, for which they claim some success. Property owners may wish to contact their arborist or tree warden about these options.

Given the already well-documented widespread occurrence of BLD in 2021, reports of BLD in Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex, and New London Counties to CAES and DEEP are no longer requested.
###
Media Contact:

Dr. Robert E. Marra
Associate Scientist / Forest Pathologist
Department of Plant Pathology & Ecology
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
123 Huntington Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Phone: 203-974-8508
E-mail: Robert.Marra@ct.gov

Summer Meeting 2021 Registration

June 11, 2021 by

We are excited to open up registration for the Summer Meeting. This year it will be held on Thursday, July 15, 2021 at the Farmington Club in Farmington, CT from 8:00am to 4:30pm. We have a great line up of speakers with all the sessions being held outdoors, and good food. There will be exhibitors under the tent and in the field. Come spend the day!

Due to timing of mandates being lifted, the CEU’s are pending in all categories. We will update the website as the CEU’s are given for the summer meeting. Thank you for understanding.

On-Line Registration

PDF Registrations
(pdf)

(pdf)

2021 Summer Meeting

May 28, 2021 by

The CTPA is excited to announce that the summer meeting will be held July 15, 2021 at the Farmington Club in Farmington, CT. Things are getting back to normal; although we are not completely there yet. For starters, all attendees will be asked to respect the COVID-19 guidelines set forth by the State of Connecticut and in place at the time of the summer meeting.

The board is working toward getting speakers and activities lined up and CEU’s in place. We ask for your continued patience in getting this information to you once it has been finalized.

The registration fee for this year’s meeting will be:

Members: $90.00 in advance and $115.00 walk-in registration.

Non-members: $100.00 in advance and $125.00 walk-in registration.

Those interested in a booth at the trade show should contact the CTPA office directly after June 7th by emailing cathy@cpta.org or calling (203)484-2512.

The board is conscientious of money and realizes that for some people the past couple of years have been difficult financially. While there has been no increase in membership dues for years, as a board we do need to make these increases in registration to help cover the costs of both the event and those of the association overall.

We look forward to rolling out the speaker and CEU information in the coming weeks and opening up registration very soon.

Wishing you a safe Memorial Day on Monday!

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