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December 19, 2025
New Study Reveals How Beech Leaf Disease Disrupts the Forest Ecosystem
As beech leaf disease continues to sweep across our region, the longer-term effects of the disease are starting to reveal themselves in the epicenter — right here in Lake County.... more
November 11, 2025
What’s That Thing on the Emergent Tower? HF&G Tests New Forest Pest Monitoring Tool
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
If you’ve been to the Kalberer Emergent Tower at the Holden Arboretum lately — let’s be honest, who hasn’t (#fall) — you may have noticed something new: A pale purple... more
October 22, 2025
Newfound Garlic Mustard Aphid May Help, but Won’t Solve, Our Garlic Mustard Problem
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
In 2021, Rebecah Troutman — at the time Holden Arboretum’s natural areas biologist — was making her rounds and came across an insect she hadn’t seen before. It appeared to... more
September 8, 2025
Ongoing HF&G Study Tests a Novel Way to Give Urban Tree Plantings a Boost
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
Planting trees in cities can bring a host of benefits. They pull pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air, cool neighborhoods, reduce stormwater runoff, and make streets more inviting... more
April 29, 2025
New Study Confirms Beech Leaf Disease Threatens European Beech Trees, Too
KIRTLAND, OHIO — A new study from Holden Forests & Gardens and a team at USDA Agricultural Research Service confirms that beech leaf disease—a fast-spreading disease already devastating American beech... more
April 28, 2025
Study Shows Forest Soils Still Bear the Scars of Industrial Pollution
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
KIRTLAND, OHIO — After 12 years of carefully tracking tree growth and soil chemistry, researchers at Holden Forests & Gardens (HF&G) have confirmed that phosphorus is now a limiting nutrient... more
April 28, 2025
A New Way to Detect Beech Leaf Disease: Rainwater Running Down Tree Trunks
KIRTLAND, OHIO — How do you detect a pathogen that lives way, way up in a tree’s canopy? A novel method for detecting beech leaf disease from the ground—using rainwater... more
April 25, 2025
Good News for Forests: Invasive Shrub Removal Gets Easier After Two Years of Work
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
KIRTLAND, OHIO — A new study from researchers at the Holden Arboretum offers encouraging news for forest managers battling non-native shrubs: the effort needed to control these invaders drops dramatically... more
April 23, 2025
Beech Leaf Disease-Causing Nematode More Widespread Than Visible Symptoms Suggest, New Study Finds
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
KIRTLAND, OHIO — Researchers at Holden Forests & Gardens have confirmed that the nematode responsible for beech leaf disease (BLD), Litylenchus crenatae ssp. mccannii, is present in forest stands across... more
March 24, 2025
30% of Beech Trees Killed by Beech Leaf Disease, New Study Shows
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
Long-term data reveal 30% mortality and alarming growth slowdown in the native beech trees in northeastern Ohio, near the epicenter of beech leaf disease. KIRTLAND, OH — A decade after... more
March 5, 2025
How Nonnative Plants Respond to Climate Change: Holden Arboretum Researchers Report
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
Scientists agree: Global warming is real, and it’s happening today. Here in northeast Ohio, we can most clearly see the signs during spells of too-warm-too-early weather in the spring or... more
February 24, 2025
The Power of Plant Records: How Tracking Plants Helps Save Species
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
If a plant has ever died in your care, you’re in good company. It turns out that even in the world’s botanical gardens, managed by full-time professionals, plants don’t live... more
January 16, 2025
Seedling Scramble: How Warming Changes Plant Communities
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
Kirtland, OH — Our world is warming, and how exactly that will affect our ecosystems is a critical question. As the climate shifts, plants and animals are already responding in... more
January 8, 2025
Holden’s Wildflower Garden Is a Living Laboratory for Climate Change Research—Here’s What Our Researchers Have Learned
Public gardens like the Holden Arboretum and the Cleveland Botanical Garden are great places to visit. But patrons exploring the latest Frost event might miss that behind the scenes, these... more
November 8, 2024
Holden researchers put forest management strategies to the test. Here’s what they found
By Anna Funk, Science Communication Specialist
Private landowners play a critical role in preserving Ohio’s natural heritage where a majority of the state’s eight million acres of forest are privately owned. To manage these forests, land... more
May 22, 2024
Beech Leaf Disease Research Update: The Impact on Microbial Communities
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (KIRTLAND) May 21, 2024 – Beech leaf disease is an emerging threat to American beech trees in the Great Lakes Region and northeastern U.S. Caused by a non-native,... more
March 15, 2024
Holden Forests & Gardens Receives $1.8M to Expand Forest Landowner Support in the Great Lakes Region
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (CLEVELAND) March 15, 2024 – Holden Forests & Gardens today announced that it received $1.8 million from the USDA Forest Service as a part of the nearly $145 million... more
November 21, 2023
Every flower hosts a diverse community of pollen grains (from the wrong species)
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
New research sheds light on the factors that shape the diverse microscopic pollen collections deposited on flowers by pollinators. more
November 8, 2023
Holden Researchers Uncover How a Resilient Tree Acclimates to Stressful Environments
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
The eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is a hardy tree native to the eastern U.S. But lately it’s been encroaching on ecosystems out West — could its physiology be the... more
November 2, 2023
New Study Reveals Overlooked Driver of Biodiversity Across Landscapes: Conditions During Plant Establishment
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
In a new study published in Ecology, Holden researcher Katie Stuble and colleagues use restored grassland experiments to demonstrate how planting conditions impact diversity, but only for certain community types. more
October 24, 2023
New Research Reveals How the Environment and Genetics Influence Plant Microbiomes, Offering Insights for Climate Resilience
By Anna Funk, PhD, Science Communications Specialist
The more researchers investigate the microscopic word, the more microbes have been found living in and on other organisms — including plants. These microbes aren’t just hitching a ride; they’ve... more
October 10, 2023
Northeast Ohio seed bank wants to make an investment in Ohio’s forested future
By Ida Lieszkovszky, Freelance Journalist, Ideastream Public Media
By Ida Lieszkovszky, Ideastream Northeast Ohio’s Holden Forests and Gardens is the proud owner of a new bank, but this bank doesn’t want your money. Holden’s bank deals in seeds... more
August 21, 2023
Holden Researchers Explore an Underappreciated Way Warmer Temperatures Will Impact Ecosystems: Decomposition
By Anna Funk, Science Communication Specialist
In a new study, researchers at the Holden Arboretum improve our understanding of a mechanism for how climate change will impact natural ecosystems. more
August 11, 2023
Fulbright Scholar Dr. Shweta Basnett to speak on Rhododendron pollinators
By Juliana S. Medeiros, PhD, Plant Biologist
Visiting Fulbright Scholar Dr. Shweta Basnett will hold lecture to highlight global diversity of Rhododendron pollinators and sensitivity to climate change. Dr. Shweta Basnett, Fulbright Scholar, University of Maryland, will... more
August 8, 2023
A Seed Station for Forest Restoration
By Anna Funk, Science Communications Specialist
Holden’s new seed bank project forms the core of new climate-fighting reforestation efforts across the region. In December, a crane dropped a fully loaded shipping container into the Holden Arboretum.... more
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