Three Cheers for Trees

May 15, 2018

It may look like the trees you see every day are just standing around, blowing in the wind and soaking up the sun. But don’t judge a tree by its cover … these amazing perennial plants are a hard-working bunch. Two mature trees can supply enough oxygen annually to support a family of four, and trees absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over the course of their lives. Not to mention, their shade and wind buffering reduces annual heating and cooling costs by $2.1 billion. We could go on and on, but here’s our point. It’s time to thank our trees! Luckily there’s a day for that.

National Love a Tree Day, celebrated annually on May 16, recognizes trees and all they do for us. You know, like give us the air we breathe … no big deal!

So this National Love a Tree Day, help us say three cheers for trees. GPO has lots of different ideas for you to spread the love, including reading some of our favorite publications from the GPO bookstore:

  • Cozy up to your favorite shaded tree and read a good book. (Keep reading for suggestions).
  • Calculate the age of a tree.
  • Climb a tree … just play safely!
  • Plant or water a tree.
  • Take a nature walk in your nearby park or woods.
  • Teach the kid in your life what their state tree is.
  • Have your kids write a hand-written “thank you” note to our trees. Get creative. They can color pictures of trees. Even better, save a tree and create a card digitally!
  • Practice tree pose. Namaste.
  • Take a trip to see some of the oldest trees in the world at Redwood National Park.
  • Read Why Would Anyone Cut a Tree Down from GPO’s bookstore with a little one. This book details the life cycle of trees and explains how trees work as a renewable resource.
  • Learn about tree species and which species grow near you in the National Individual Tree Species Atlas from GPO’s bookstore.
  • Help restore trees to good health when they need it with How To Recognize Hazard Defects in Trees from GPO’s bookstore.

So go on. Take three deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Ahhhh. And appreciate that precious oxygen a little more this Wednesday, May 16. We salute you, trees.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN RESOURCES MENTIONED ABOVE?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Blogger contributor Cat Goergen is the PR Specialist in GPO’s Public Relations office.

Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

Garden like a Pro

May 10, 2018

Take one look through your Instagram feed and you’re bound to become green with envy (no pun intended) at all the elegant homes decorated with plants … hanging plants, floor plants, plants on bookshelves, plants in the bathroom. It’s official. If your home isn’t flooded with greenery by now, it’s time you get to work in the garden.

But having an Insta-worthy home isn’t all a garden is good for. Hosting an upcoming dinner party? Impress guests with dishes that incorporate fresh herbs like basil or thyme and home-grown tomatoes or green beans. Delicious and nutritious is the name of your garden game. And we can’t fail to mention, nothing completes a dinner party like a dreamy bunch of flowers picked from your own backyard.

Now that spring has finally sprung, there’s no better time to grow your plant or vegetable of choice. But admittedly, not everyone was born with a green thumb. We certainly can’t say we were. Luckily, the GPO bookstore offers the Container Tree Nursery Manual, V. 7: Seedling Processing, Storage and Outplanting so you can learn the techniques of farmers themselves and transform your very own home into a greenhouse … okay you might not want to take it that far, but you get the picture.

Published by the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, this publication addresses plant quality, harvesting, plant storage and more. You’ll learn more than you knew possible about appropriate soil temperature, root growth and best predictors of plant quality. Hint: the latter has to do with the stem of the plant, but you’re going to have to listen to get the full explanation.

While this publication is technical in nature, it’s easy and fun to listen to on a plane or train or on your way into work. Before you know it, you’ll be educating your friends about the ratio of container depth to stem diameter with ease.

So if you love fresh veggies, herbs and plants (and who doesn’t), take a couple minutes to download this eBook. It will be worth it when your garden is thriving, your home comes to life and your guests are wowed by your undeniable gardening skills.

The GPO Online Bookstore – Easy Access to Federal Publications

HOW DO I OBTAIN THIS RESOURCE?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at https://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Blogger contributor Cat Goergen is the PR Specialist in GPO’s Public Relations office.

Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

Celebrate Arbor Day

April 27, 2017

Arbor Day celebrates the value of trees in our daily lives.  It is a special time set aside for tree planting.

For this Arbor Day, April 28, here are a few tips on how to honor those stately trees in your local parks and suburban landscapes by coming together and enjoy those quiet giant oaks, and even a still growing scruffy pine.

  • Hold an Arbor Day ceremony to honor the good stewards in your community.
  • Organize a Largest or Oldest Tree search across your community.
  • Plant a tree. Host a reception to honor Park or Tree Board members in the community.
  • Create a story, produce a play, or present a skit about trees.
  • Choose a public park or downtown area to clean up.
  • Sponsor a craft show featuring artists engaged in crafts with natural materials.
  • Schedule classes on tree pruning, tree selection, identification and planting.
  • Hold a Children’s Read-In at the library.

Best of all…. read a book at home about trees – with your children.

The U.S. Government Bookstore offers publications covering some of the above subjects plus a wide range of “tree hugging” topics depending on your interests. Here a just few examples.

Why Would Anyone Cut a Tree Down?

This delightful book shows children the life cycle of trees, showing that trees are a renewable resource as their seeds can be planted to make new trees grow. It also discusses the need to remove sick, flammable, and other dangerous trees as well as the various uses for wood from cut trees.

National Individual Tree Species Atlas

This reference covers each tree species in the United States and precisely where each species is likely to grow or not grow. Written primarily for horticulturists, the contents are also a wonderful resource for anyone studying America’s tree population: from Boy and Girl Scouts, to landscapers, to forestry professors and guides.

How To Prune Trees

This handy pamphlet provides helpful information on how, when, and why to prune. By following the few simple principles outlined in this publication, you will learn how to produce strong, healthy, attractive plants.

HOW DO I OBTAIN THESE RESOURCES?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Blogger contributor Ed Kessler is a Promotions Specialist in GPO’s Publication and Information Sales program office.

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Posted by Trudy Hawkins

Christmas Tree Manual, O Christmas Tree Manual, How Useful Is Your Guidance

December 1, 2015

That’s not the radio you just heard. It’s a fresh holiday beat from a Federal Government employee! Before you plug your ears or throw a cup full of egg nog at this blog post, please close your eyes and take a moment to think about the poor Christmas trees-in-training out there.

As they grow into canvases fit for a festoon of tinsel and popcorn garland, some Christmas trees are beset by damaging agents and mottled by disease. Insects, mites, fungi, and nematodes can lay waste to hearty spruce, pine, and fir. That all sounds so dire. Thankfully, it’s preventable and treatable. And there’s a government resource for that!  Ok, you can open your eyes now.

001-000-04764-7The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service’s Christmas Tree Pest Manual shows how to diagnose and control damaging Christmas tree pests. This tidy publication provides easy-to-use guidance to ensure that Christmas trees of the North Central and Northeastern regions of the United States are vigorously fit for their wintry spectacle.

A read thru of the varied afflictions listed in the manual will renew your appreciation for the health threats trees must overcome to arrive at your local home improvement store parking lot. Take the bagworm for example. While they might serve for a fitting ingredient in a wizardly potion, bagworm larvae thin foliage and render a Christmas tree unfit for sale.

In case you’re worried the topic of Christmas tree pest management is not in your wheelhouse, the manual includes some comforting language in the introduction. “You do not have to be a pest specialist to use this information. The manual was written in everyday language so that anyone with an interest in Christmas trees can read and understand it.” Whew! Now you can confidently pick up Christmas Tree Pest Manual and tell those loathsome yellow-bellied sapsuckers good riddance.

001-000-04767-1And if you’d like to take your pest manual reading to the next level, the USDA’s Major Forest Insect and Disease Conditions in the United States: 2013 is a concretely good deep-dive.

With early identification and control, injuries to stem, root, branch, and shoot don’t have to be the four horseman of the Christmas tree apocalypse. Because a winter wonderland without healthy Christmas trees is no winter wonderland at all.

How do I obtain these resources?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Our guest blogger is Chelsea Milko, Public Relations Specialist in GPO’s Public Relations Office.

Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, Consumers, Department of Agriculture, Environment | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

You Can See the Forest and the Trees: Wood Works from the USDA

October 22, 2015

001-001-00704-8Wood you like to know more about tree and wood publications from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)? Then read on. And please forgive that starting pun.

In the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory’s 2nd edition of Nondestructive Evaluation of Wood, Robert J. Ross’ synthesizes a number of technical writings on several commercially available nondestructive evaluation (NDE) of wood technologies. NDE is the sensibly non-damaging science of assessing properties and applications of a material without mucking up its long-term usability.

Ross opens with an executive summary of the characteristics of this biologically and industrially rich material. It will leave you pretty much convinced that wood is the virtuoso of the plant world. The spiral-bound compilation continues on in several chapters, with each contributor highlighting the usefulness of their respective testing method. Spoiler alert: ultrasonic veneer grading is the coolest sounding evaluative technique ever.

Dense with authoritative knowledge from forest product technologist, engineers, and research scientists, this publication may have you thinking, “I never thought this knowledge existed but I’m sure glad it’s out there.” Case in point: chapter seven’s research titled Nondestructive Testing in the Urban Forest by Drs. Allision & Wang of the Unversity of Wisconsin, Madison. They attest to “body language” as a method to visually inspect the “presence of internal decay.” Don’t we all wish our own medical examinations were that easy!

Moving on…

001-001-00703-0If you like trees and you like maps, then you need to get your mittens on a copy of the USDA’s new and improved tree atlas The National Individual Tree Species Atlas, a.k.a. the Modeled Atlas, is the product of the Forest Service’s Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team. They used permanent plot data to represent the actual distribution of 264 species throughout the treed zones of the United States.

Each tree was statistically modeled to climate, terrain, soil, and imagery data sets. The result is an impressive collection of accurate, fine-resolution geospatial products. Thumb through the broad, matte pages and you’ll find beautifully mapped individuals from such august tree families as cypress, pine, maple, birch, walnut, elm, olive, and mulberry (can’t mention them all but tree names are awesome!).

Again, trees + maps = tree species atlas. Boom! Make room on your coffee table for it.

How do I obtain these publications?

Shop Online Anytime: You can buy eBooks or print publications —with FREE Standard Shipping worldwide— from the U.S. Government Online Bookstore at http://bookstore.gpo.gov.

Shop our Retail Store: Buy a copy of any print editions from this collection at GPO’s retail bookstore at 710 North Capitol Street NW, Washington, DC 20401, open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Federal holidays, Call (202) 512-0132 for information or to arrange in-store pick-up.

Order by Phone: Call our Customer Contact Center Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5:30 pm Eastern (except US Federal holidays). From US and Canada, call toll-free 1.866.512.1800. DC or International customers call +1.202.512.1800.

Visit a Federal depository library: Search for U.S. Government publications in a nearby Federal depository library. You can find the records for most titles in GPO’s Catalog of U.S. Government Publications.

About the author: Our guest blogger is Chelsea Milko, Public Relations Specialist in GPO’s Office of Public Affairs. 

Leave a Comment » | Agriculture, Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Trudy Hawkins

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