It is the International Day of Forests, a day to celebrate local forests and this year’s theme is Forestry and Innovation. You might be surprised to find out that Holden Arboretum has its own part in assisting with forestry innovation. The time that we spend caring for the forests around the main gardens is matched by the time we spend researching how to improve those forests.

A portion of Holden’s research focuses on eastern hemlock trees resistance to pests, specifically hemlock woolly adelgid. The team is working on how to best propagate hemlock trees, including ways to encourage the trees to flower and seed faster, so that potentially resistant trees can be copied for resistance testing and entered into a breeding program. Propagation methods include copying trees via cuttings and air layering.

This research will help improve our ability to assess those eastern hemlock trees that stay healthy even under pest infestation. In the future our hope is to have the ability to breed pest resistant characteristics into eastern hemlock populations, preserving these valuable trees into the future.

The Community Ecology lab at Holden studies forest health, restoration, and best management practices. In Holden’s Working Woods Learning Forest, researchers explore how proper forest management and invasive species removal can improve forest health. Research findings will help define effective strategies for helping young forests recover following agriculture or other disturbances, and transform into more biodiverse, productive, and resilient forests. Beyond research, Working Woods serves as an educational outreach site where landowners and practitioners can come to learn the nitty-gritty of forest management and see what it looks like in real time.

These research initiatives will support long-term survival of healthy native forests.

Holden Forests & Gardens also encourages you to celebrate trees with their People for Trees campaign, which asks the public to pledge to plant a tree (or more) while providing the information needed to guide you in that process all in one place online. In Ohio, April is the perfect time to plant a new tree because the weather is cooler and wetter, which gives the tree roots time to establish before nature indicates it’s time to bud out into leaves. Pledge today at: https://holdenfg.org/make-an-impact/people-for-trees/