Forest Health

Back issues of the Branching Out newsletter can be found on this page.

In the News and Notes roundup for this issue: New timber tax tips for the 2023 tax year from the USDA; Maryland marks a milestone on its way to planting five million trees by 2031, and an Anne Arundel County project that was part of it; and a look inside a prescribed burn in the Frederick Watershed.

Webinars on a variety of topics related to woodland health and wildlife in Maryland.

Registration is now open for the Spring 2024 session of “The Woods in Your Backyard” online course. Our course is designed primarily for small-acreage property owners who want to learn how to care for or expand existing woodlands, or to convert lawn space to woodlands.

The white oak is a remarkable tree species. The tree is truly an impressive specimen where older examples are found growing in the open landscape. It is no wonder that this species of oak is Maryland’s state tree.

A team of forest ecologists and social scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, using a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will conduct research aimed at helping owners of small- to medium-sized forest tracts manage their woodlands for ecosystem services.

The wineberry is non-native and invasive. This Asian native was imported to the United States in 1890 by berry growers. They wanted to use it as breeding stock with native raspberries, but it escaped from cultivation and was first observed in natural areas in the 1970s.

The white mulberry reached our shores during the colonial period. This invasive plant is found in every Maryland county.

The expansion of so-called "ghost forests" along low-lying shores of the Chesapeake Bay bear witness to sea level rise. A team of scientists is working to discover the tipping point in the transition from green woodland to dead trees.

Native ecosystems in our woodlands are under increasing pressure from invasive plant species and from both native and invasive vines. Providers of invasive plant and vine control are listed here.