Latest Trees News

A step-by-step guide to renovating a neglected garden

Dec. 17, 2024 09:09 AM EST

Some homeowners gaze out their windows and see lush and beautiful gardens. Others would like to see lush and beautiful gardens but instead are greeted by overgrown, dead or otherwise messy landscapes. Whether you’ve inherited a neglected garden from a previous homeowner or have...

'Tis the season for roasting chestnuts. But in the US, native ones are almost gone

Dec. 15, 2024 09:33 AM EST

It's been a very long time since vendors sold the American chestnut on city sidewalks. It's no longer the variety whose smell some people associate with Christmastime as it wafts from street carts. Because it's virtually extinct. But memories of the American chestnut's legacy keep...

Britain's famous Sycamore Gap tree is gone. 2 men accused of cutting it down are going on trial

Dec. 08, 2024 02:28 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — It was neither Britain’s biggest tree nor its oldest. But the majestic sycamore that stood for 150 years along a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall in northern England was one of the most beloved. Perched symmetrically in a dip between two hills, the Sycamore Gap tree had...

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lights up in New York City

Dec. 04, 2024 23:10 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty-thousand multi-colored lights were illuminated on Rockefeller Center's iconic Christmas tree Wednesday evening to cheers from the crowds gathered to witness the annual New York City tradition. The giant Norway spruce, which this year hails from a tiny...

To save a dying swamp, Louisiana aims to restore the Mississippi River's natural flow

Dec. 03, 2024 20:13 PM EST

GARYVILLE, La. (AP) — Louisiana has long relied on a vast levee system to rein in the Mississippi River and protect surrounding communities from flooding. But cutting off the natural flow of the river with man made barriers has been slowly killing one of the nation's largest forested wetlands. ...

Joshua trees are in peril. California has a plan to save them

Nov. 29, 2024 14:52 PM EST

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a new plan to protect the state's iconic Joshua trees, which are imperiled by wildfires, human development and climate change. The 294-page draft plan includes calls for avoiding or minimizing direct and indirect impacts...

Serviceberry is a sadly underused native tree that helps wildlife and is worth planting

Nov. 20, 2024 08:29 AM EST

Winters were brutal throughout most of New England in Colonial America. It snowed a lot, often into spring, and there were no radiators (or antibiotics). Many settlers didn’t survive the season, but because the ground was frozen solid, the colonists couldn’t bury their dead in real time....

In southern India's tea country, small but mighty efforts are brewing to bring back native forests

Nov. 19, 2024 00:08 AM EST

UDHAGAMANDALAM, India (AP) — Scattered groves of native trees, flowers and the occasional prehistoric burial ground are squeezed between hundreds of thousands of tea shrubs in southern India's Nilgiris region — a gateway to a time before colonization and the commercial growing of tea that...

Disease could kill most of the ‘ohi‘a forests on Hawaii's Big Island within 20 years

Nov. 13, 2024 16:20 PM EST

Ten years ago, a mysterious new disease was found sweeping through Hawaii’s native ‘ohi‘a forests, killing off the foundation of the islands’ ecology and one of the state’s most culturally important trees. Now, researchers are in a race against time. They say most of the...

A green giant: This year's 74-foot Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is en route from Massachusetts

Nov. 07, 2024 15:29 PM EST

BOSTON (AP) — A giant Norway spruce that will serve as this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was en route to New York City on Thursday from its tiny Massachusetts hometown. The 74-foot-high (23-meter-high) conifer, donated by a family that owned it, was cut down Thursday...