Meet The Tree Nurse Of South Burlington

When she noticed a number of newly planted trees seemed to be languishing on Pool Landscaping, including those in her neighborhood, she searched for the root of the problem. In the city’s fast-growing , the , installed for instant , is often neglected.

“We have so many new neighborhoods in the city, and one of the first things developers do is plant the trees; and no one is there to care for them,” Ambusk said.

Associate and interim Cathyann LaRose said want to install as quickly as possible in order to sell property — which isn’t good for the trees.

“They’ve been grown in a pot, and the roots can continue to take over and strangle the tree if it’s not properly planted,” Ambusk said. Some of the trees are planted while still encased in that contain their roots.

So Ambusk has taken the of South Burlington’s into her own hands — along with a pair of . Every Monday evening, from workday’s end until , she and a team of volunteers known as “TREEage” hit the streets of South Burlington to care for the young trees.

The work isn’t difficult, Ambusk said: It really comes down to planting the tree properly and giving it daily care. Following an of time and watering in the early years, it will do quite well on its own for 100 more, she says.

TREEage evolved from Ambusk’s experience in the and of the Urban Landscape programs offered by the University of Extension. The group has grown in number and knowledge in its second year, thanks to ’s pruning and maintenance clinics, Ambusk said. TREEage volunteers cared for 250 trees last year.

“We have literally been going tree-to-tree. It’s pretty slow work,” she said. She estimates South Burlington has 6,000 trees, Pool Landscaping and says Lambert has his hands full just dealing with day-to-day hazard maintenance.

Lambert offers public workshops on proper tree maintenance practices as part of the project. With his instruction, volunteers have undertaken root collar excavations and pruning on some of the more recently planted trees in South Burlington’s residential neighborhoods.

Lambert said Ambusk’s project is proving to be quite a benefit to the city: Her efforts have raised public awareness of the need to maintain the city’s tree resource, and her latest project will increase the number of trees the city will be able to plant.

This month, Ambusk planted 30 Princeton in a new community nursery with a $1,000 grant she received from GE Healthcare, where she works in finance . The city gave her permission to use land located at the National Gardening Association on Dorset Street for the nursery.

The elms are 2 years old and cost about $15 each. In another three to four years, they will be worth more than $200 each and will be ready to transplant to public land in South Burlington. Ambusk plans to add 30 new trees, in a variety of species, to the TREEage nursery each year.

LaRose says the nursery will also give the city credibility toward its goal of becoming a designated “Tree City, U.S.A.”

The Tree City U.S.A. program aims to encourage better care of community forests and advance urban forestry practices while providing cleaner air, shadier streets and aesthetic beauty in populated areas. The designation will also open additional avenues for grant funding: With a tree budget of $1,000 per year (enough to purchase about three trees), the city can use all the help it can get, LaRose said.

The young elms are destined for a future lining South Burlington’s streets, especially in older neighborhoods that haven’t been getting much attention, LaRose said. They’ll be useful as the city’s recreation path extends through new neighborhoods, and there’s a potential the nursery project will be used for educational outreach in the schools. While the project hasn’t officially been linked to the development of the City Center downtown district, LaRose said the timing will be perfect.

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Monday, May 26th, 2008

Muna Wa Wanjiru Has Been Researching and Reporting on Recycling for Years. for More Information on Recycle Wood Visit His Site at

Clothing items are probably the easiest to reuse since they can have a wide range of applicability besides the function for which they were designed in the first place. Consider for instance some ways to recycle wool sweaters! This may look like a challenge but it could be both fun and totally rewarding if you show some good will and imagination. Thus, when you recycle wool sweaters you can actually make some excellent mittens for instance: the sleeve areas are the ones to be used best for the matter. Cut the shape of the mittens into the sleeve, then sew them together, and you’ve got a nice and clean way of re-using some items that would have otherwise been thrown away.

Another way of recycling wool sweaters is by turning them into different apparel items by simple redesign techniques. You can take the sleeves away, and play other tricks with the seams. There are cases when you should have a look at the many clothes re-use tricks that you can find on the Internet. Sometimes, step by step indications are available to allow one make the best of the clothing item by merely transforming it into a totally different model.

The need to recycle wool sweaters is a lot larger given the fact that every year we lose some more items to insects, despite special storage measures that most of us take. If you can no longer turn your wool sweaters into some other clothing item, you can very well re-use them for interior decorations. A great way to recycle wool sweaters is to use the larger parts in order to make throw pillow covers; they are both soft and easy to clean, not to mention that the is easily achieved. One large wool sweater should be enough to make a good pillow case.

When you recycle wool sweaters, felting them is very often the biggest challenge. The whole point is to be able to get the sweaters in such a way so they don’t start to unravel the moment you cut them. Many home designers choose to make the wool fabric a lot denser by washing the wool sweaters in hot water; the material that results afterwards is a lot easier to work with. Therefore, once you get to try it, you’ll realize that the process to recycle wool sweaters is neither hard nor impossible to achieve. Good luck!

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Monday, January 21st, 2008