in other words
august15
10
2019
Diggin’ in The Dirt: Oregon Conifers Show Drought Damage
By Chip Bubl
Oregon State University Extension
Service - Columbia County
Upcoming programs:
Columbia County Beekeepers
Group: Monthly meeting on Thursday,
September 5 at 6:00 pm at the Colum-
bia River PUD Building on Highway 30
in Deer Island. Speaker will be Mandy
Shaw on chasing swarms and other top-
ics.
Garlic Festival, Clatskanie
Farmers Market, Saturday, August 17,
10 am - 2 pm Copes Park, Clatskanie
Food Preservation classes:
Drying Fruits, Vegetables, and
Meat (8/20), The Science and Art of
Canning Salsa (8/28). These classes are
$20 each. All will be held at the Colum-
bia Soil and Water Conservation District
Office, 35285 Millard Rd, St. Helens,
OR 97051
Other food preservation class-
es: Contact the Extension office (503)
397-3462 for details. To register on-
line go to : http://bit.ly/ColumbiaFood-
Preservation.
Got food preservation ques-
tions? Give us a call at (503) 397-3462.
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Food Preservation recipes and fact sheets
can be accessed online at: https://exten-
sion.oregonstate.edu/food/preservation.
Poison hemlock
For some reason, there appears
to be an upsurge in the amount of poison
hemlock (Conium maculatum) in Co-
lumbia County. This is not a new plant.
It was unintentionally introduced by set-
tlers to the region at least 150 years ago
and has been part of the landscape ever
since.
The plant is highly toxic to hu-
mans and livestock. Socrates was forced
to drink a concoction of this plant as fa-
tal payment for being somewhat of an
obnoxious dissident in Greece several
thousand years ago (read The Death of
Socrates by I. F. Stone for an interesting
discussion of this event).
The foliage or roots can poison
livestock, with the foliage being more
toxic. The toxicity is not lost in hay or
silage making. Handling the plants or
chopping them with a “weed-eater” can
cause a dermal reaction in many people.
Poison hemlock is a carrot fami-
ly biennial plant, meaning that seedlings
that germinate this year over winter as
visible rosettes (2-5 inches tall in the
winter) which will bolt to flower next
summer. The plant in flower is tall, often
exceeding 5-6 feet. Flowering stems are
very visible right now. The stems have
characteristic purple spotting and the
whole plant has a distinctive “mousy”
odor. The leaves are very lacey and al-
most fern-like.
The flower is similar to Queen
Anne’s lace. Seeds fall near the stem
and up to 85% can germinate immedi-
ately. Some will germinate the follow-
ing year or two but seed viability is rela-
tively short.
Poison hemlock needs disturbed
ground or bare ground with little veg-
etative cover to get started. It can toler-
ate somewhat poor drainage (and may
be more competitive in those areas) but
does not require it. I have seen it in all
parts of the County: along roadsides,
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health. One option is to water at least
six hours every two to four weeks Au-
gust through September. Using a soaker
hose wound around the tree to the drip
line (how far the branches reach) is
much more efficient than other methods.
Though the cost of water adds up, Shaw
said, it’s cheaper than removing a large
tree, which can cost thousands of dol-
lars.
Historically conifers dominated
at higher elevations than the oak-domi-
nant zone of the Willamette Valley. When
Doug-firs and other conifers increased in
abundance in the oak woodlands of the
valley – driven by the end of controlled
fires used by indigenous peoples – the
trees were then on the lower end of their
water needs.
“It’s an elevation-driven thing,”
said Shaw, who has lost 12 Doug-firs
on his five acres of land. “Precipitation
drops as elevation drops. If you start out
in the Coast Range where rainfall is typi-
cally over 80 or 90 inches of rain annual-
ly and go east to the middle of the valley,
you’re historically getting only 40 to 45
inches of rain on average. So, during a
drought, trees that would normally be on
the edge of their drought tolerance aren’t
anymore. Some trees, particularly Doug-
firs and grand firs, are very susceptible to
drought below a certain elevation.”
Compounding the problem is
that drought-affected trees are more sus-
ceptible to pests and diseases, including
aphid- and scale-type insects, bark bee-
tles, root and canker diseases. But many
of the conifers surveyed by Shaw and his
colleagues don’t have insect or disease
damage, reinforcing the diagnosis of
drought damage.
Dave Shaw’s suggestions to
keep a tree healthy:
• Irrigate landscape trees during dry
spells. Apply water slowly over many
hours every two weeks; avoid frequent
shallow watering.
• Apply mulch to the drip line to main-
tain soil moisture. Don’t crowd mulch
continued on page 13
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field edges, and once, a luxuriant stand
in someone’s back yard in Scappoose.
It is showing up a lot more in residen-
tial landscapes. Often, it isn’t clear how
seeds got there.
There are some herbicides that
will help control poison hemlock, but
timing is crucial. There is little evidence
that spraying the flowering stalk at this
stage will keep the plant from going to
seed. And since a biennial dies after go-
ing to seed, what’s the point? Better to
carefully cut off the seed heads and de-
stroy them.
It is more effective to establish
a vigorous competitive cover (usually
grass) where hemlock seeds are germi-
nating. Selective herbicides that don’t
damage grass can be used to control the
escaped rosettes this fall or next March/
April.
Western Oregon conifers continue to
show damage due to drought
Even though we’ve had a mild
summer, conifers in Oregon are still get-
ting hit hard by several years of drought,
to the point that many are dying.
“Beginning in 2013-14, we
started to see significant impact on
Doug-firs in western Oregon,” said Dave
Shaw, a forest health specialist with Ore-
gon State University Extension Service.
“Since evidence of drought often doesn’t
show up until the following spring, we
are still experiencing problems from the
last several dry years.”
It’s past the point of just Doug-
firs dying. Many conifers, including
western red cedar, incense cedar, grand
fir, and even valley ponderosa pine are
succumbing, as well.
The first signs of drought dam-
age are dropping more needles than usu-
al and/or an abnormally high number of
cones (called “stress crop”). That will be
followed by dead branches or tree tops,
and sometimes entire trees.
People don’t think about water-
ing big trees, Shaw noted, but that’s the
best method to prevent death or possi-
bly bring a not-too-stressed tree back to
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