tamarack

The adage works for me, which I found surprising, though the sample size is small - 21 winters. (Have not parsed Gardiner (13) or Ft Kent (9*). The * is because we moved north from BGR on New Year's Day. That season - 1975-76 - had AN snow for both NOV and winter, but I don't know a good way to determine medians which include a split season.) My median for NOV snowfall is 2.5". Though I've recorded measurable snow in 6 Octobers, in no case did that move O/N totals from below median to above, so that median is also 2.5". The 10 winters with NOV snow below median averaged 96.5" while the 11 at/above median averaged 85.8". The NOV median year came in 2012-13, which totaled 90.4", and switching that winter to the below-median group merely drops both groups' averages by half an inch.

Exceedingly well said, as others have already stated. What gets my goat is people who seem to spend their days searching for reasons to be offended. Earlier today I read a story (MSNBC? Can't recall) on the Betsy Ross flag, and within the story it was noted that ADL had classified nearly 200 symbols as racist or hatemongering, but had yet to receive a single complaint about that flag.

And since wild animals can be unpredictable (understatement!), "threat to cubs" can vary by situation. Many years ago in the north Maine woods, I walked up on a mama and 2 cubs 40-50 feet up 2 trees, noisily chomping beechnuts. I'd stopped immediately upon seeing them, in a less than desirable stance, and after 10 minutes attempted to very carefully sit down. Not carefully enough - mama caught the movement and came down out of her tree at top speed, such that I was confident that my only danger was if she chose the wrong path and trampled me on the way by. It was mid September and the cubs were 2nd year, 50-60 lb. That's about the time the cubs are left on their own as mama is about to start on her next litter. There was a good chance she never came back to look for them. Had they been 1st-year cubs, she might've acted differently.

Agreed, but with a major caveat: Having seen the effects of alcoholism on loved ones, I'd prefer that neither intoxicant be used recreationally. However, the first ship has long since sailed and the 2nd is making ready to leave port. Folks who say that marijuana isn't as bad/dangerous as alcohol make me think of someone saying that a bite from a copperhead is less dangerous than one from a large Eastern diamondback.

Hot as it is, either split those big sections now before the ends dry out, or stack them (tough when so heavy.) Ash, like red oak, tends to split easily, but allowing the ends to dry greatly increases the degree of difficulty. For the most difficult, try splitting along the rings rather than across, sort of flaking pieces off the sides. (And if you ever encounter large elm, try nitroglycerin.)

This is important - the bear always should have a clear plan of escape, and will use it 999 times out of 1,000 (sucks to be #1K.) An N. Maine anecdote from decades back: My co-worker had to walk a half mile up a mega-rutted logging road (impassable for his 2WD) to inspect the harvest, with his only "weapon" a Nelson Tree-Spot, a device to paint-mark trees for harvest. He heard a pickup bouncing and crashing toward him, then as he rounded a corner there was a sizable bear loping down the road toward him but with head looking back at the source of all the noise. When about 30 feet from my chum, the bear turned, screeched to a halt and stood tall on its hind legs. Mike looked at the bear, looked at his paint gun, and wondered. The bear looked at Mike, looked back at the noise, looked at Mike, and wondered. Finally Mr. Bear chose a sideways course into the woods while Mike dealt with a quart or so of adrenaline coursing thru his veins. "startle them while proximal" for sure.

Absolutely true, so research must establish that non-target organisms will not be harmed. Another exotic, winter moth, has been defoliating hardwoods from Mass to Maine, but there is increasing success in control using a parasitoid fly from the invasive insect's home area that has been found to be totally specific to winter moth. Releases have been done in Mass and Maine, populations of the fly have been established and appear to be increasing on their own, and defoliation is way down. My hope is that some critter/fungus native to EAB's natural range and that affects nothing else can do what that fly is doing to winter moth.

A few degrees warmer in Augusta than yesterday at this time, but TD is about 5° lower today (so far.)

Bears are usually timid around humans, even momma with cubs if she sees an escape path for the group. (If she feels cornered or that her cubs are threatened, it gets bad real quick.) Bears also go where the food is, as many owners of birdfeeders or beehives have learned, and the critters can smell such things from an amazing distance. There's an old saying that goes, "An arrow was shot into the air. An eagle saw it fall, a deer heard it fall, a bear smelled it fall." When bears associate human habitation with food, there's problems. The first year that "North Woods Law" was filmed, the wardens took a huge amount of social media opprobrium after a warden put down a medium-size bear in South Portland. That critter was in peoples' back yards, was mere feet from a busy street and maybe 100 yards or so from I-295. (It evidently had crossed the interstate eastbound in the wee hours.) Since the morning commute was in progress when the encounter was filmed, that bear could've been on 295 in 30 seconds or less and the nearest wildlife biologist (qualified to tranquilize animals; Maine wardens are not) was over an hour distant. If that bear had tried to re-cross the interstate, it would almost certainly have been just as dead as by shotgun, and maybe with some people for company.

I think there will some sticker shock after next year, when the cold and snow-starved 1981-90 decade gets kicked off the 30-year norms and 1991-2020 (so far*) takes its place. Bear in mind that the difference between 1981-90 and 2011-20 is 3X the difference in 30-year averages (actually, a bit more than that, as the current decade has 8.5 years of record rather than 10.). Some comparisons, north to south: CAR Ann.T DJF.T Precip Snow 1981-10 39.87 13.99 38.73 111.90 1991-20* 40.38 14.65 40.94 118.71 Farm(ME) Ann.T DJF.T Precip Snow 1981-10 42.28 18.58 48.37 86.68 1991-20* 42.93 19.57 49.41 92.40 BOS Ann.T DJF.T Precip Snow 1981-10 51.76 32.12 43.93 44.29 1991-20* 52.12 32.57 43.42 50.66

I'll take the under for AUG-SEP. Last year included Boston's warmest August on record, at 77.42. Their 1981-2010 average is 72.39. Their warmest September came in 1983 with 70.58, only year above 70 for that month. 1981-2010 is 65.16. AN seems in the cards, but warmest AUG-SEP (by nearly 1° F) looks to be a stretch. Not impossible, just unlikely.

Maybe. If this methodology becomes feasible for broad-scale forest application, that would come only after extensive testing of its effect on non-target organisms and development of application methods - probably at least 10 years down the road. One problem with treating ash in the forest is that it usually is a minor component and almost never forms pure/nearly pure stands on areas larger than a fraction of an acre. Still, this approach warrants further study. My first hope for control is in establishing some sort of biological control, some predator/parasite/disease specific to EAB that can be established in that beetle's range.

That's what I've read, and even if that was only true in the central/southern Apps region, it's still quite possible that chestnut was once the most abundant single species east of the Big Muddy. Despite the immense forest trauma, nature abhors a vacuum and other species, mainly oaks but also hickories, maples, etc., quickly filled in. That same outcrossing was done on the state's Topsham lot for 3 years beginning early in this millenium, though probably with less hybridized male pollen. Unfortunatley, that female tree has died, and though there's no proof, I think that opening up the area around it to gain natural regeneration (an action I fully support, as we've done it for chestnut elsewhere) may have facilitated the inoculant's reaching a 60-year-old specimen that had shown no prior signs of disease.

Looks good. Those horizontal branches tend toward a downward angle as time goes on, I think more for gaining sunlight than due to weight.

Just getting them off the tree without piercing one's hands is a challenge, and once those spines soften the least bit, squirrels are all over them. I learned this about 25 years ago when trying to collect nuts from a 1962 planting on our Hebron lot. (Alas, all are blighted and gone.) First day I tried, I had no hand protection and chose not to bleed. 2 days later I was better prepared but the squirrels had beaten me to it - nothing but husks remaining, all on the ground. The next year I managed to gather about 20 burrs (wrecked one nut opening a burr and rather than pitch it, had a taste - quite sweet, even w/o roasting.) Planted about 30 nuts on the Topsham lot, but between deer and blight, only one still survives.

Here's the current monthly averages, as of the end of last month: JAN 3.24" FEB 3.06" MAR 3.64" APR 4.01" MAY 4.01" JUN 5.30" My first full month in our house was June 1998, with 12.81". Month would still be at 4.94" without '98. JUL 3.92" AUG 4.02" SEP 3.67" OCT 5.62" NOV 4.31" DEC 4.46" Year 49.26" The 10-year period 2005-14 had only one year below 50" (2013 with 48.66") and averaged 54.42". Two years, 2005 and 2008, hit the 60s. The other 11 years average 43.99" and have not reached 50" once.

A staff forester found several chestnuts, some 60 feet tall, on a state lot about 25 miles NNW from BGR. He had the harvesters cut small patches immediately south of the better specimens, to encourage reproduction. The tactic worked, but unfortunately the biggest of the "adult" trees has died from blight. I've read that oaks can harbor the pathogen without being harmed, so the stuff remains in the environment long after all chestnuts in an area are gone. There are still a few on the state lot in Topsham, but the biggest are either dead or dying.

Our 0.63" brought the month's final total to 99% of the June average.

L.I. Sound?

The defoliator storm of August 30, 2007 left water-gathered piles of dime-nickel hail that were still 2-3 feet deep when I drove by 14 hours after the event, temps not having dropped below 60. Road (Rt 27 in Rome) was a 2-track through 6" of leaf salad. Read reports of up to 4" on the level, but the leaves in the road showed no plows had gone thru. Piles were still 1-2' deep that afternoon (31st), more than 24 hours after the storm. Read this morning that Guadalajara and the nearby mountains are a hail-prone region. That article also showed a pic - date not given - from Denver (similar elevation and hail history) that looked much like the ones from MX.

Sorry, can't be much help on this one - Maine isn't hickory-friendly. We had 3-4 kinds of hickory in NNJ though shagbark was easily the most abundant. Maine has very few native hickories, probably all shagbark, and the closest is along Route 1 in Woolwich, on the midcoast. There's 3 planted ones - 2 shagbark and one of the smooth-barked species (mockernut?) at the north end of Mile Hill in New Sharon, plus some smaller trees that were likely from the original 3, whether planted or naturalized. I've never stopped to look for nuts, or husks, as squirrels probably know to the minute when the nuts are table-ready. Edit: Just found out, from Forestry's "Forest Trees of Maine", that bitternut hickory (C. cordiformis) is found, though rarely, in extreme southern Maine, so maybe that's the smooth-barked specimen noted above. None of the other 4 in your pic show ranges north of Mass. Edit #2: There are records stating that, prior to the blight, one of every 4 hardwood trees east of the Mississippi was an American chestnut. Whether or not that's factual, the elimination of the species as a factor in the Eastern forest is probably the region's highest ecological impact on forests in thousands of years. Due to chestnut's rot resistance, dead snags stood for decades after the disease swept through. My wife lived most of her teen years, (mid 60s into early 70s) in a log cabin built from standing dead chestnut trees about 1930, perhaps 15 years after the trees had died.

June stats at home: Avg. max: 69.4 1.8 BN Max: 82, on 6/10 Coolest max: 59, on 6/2 Avg. min: 46.9 2.3 BN Min: 34, on 6/1 Mildest min: 58, on 6/28 Month's mean: 58.1 2.0 BN Warmest day: 6/28, 77/58/57.5 (Month's only CDDs.) Coolest day: 6/1, 65/34/49.5 Precip: 5.23" 0.07" BN (June precip is 2nd only to OCT.) Wettest day: 20th, 1.85" Thunder days: 2, some rumbles on 6/22, decent storm early in obs period (9P to 9P) for 6/30. YTD precip: 25.12", 108% of avg. Feb-June: 19.63", 98% of avg June cloudiness was AN, but not to the degree of April-May. The 2.5 CDDs YTD are the lowest of 21 years here, eclipsing the 6.5 of 2009.

Spruce pollen (as in that tree) can be even worse. I've seen it 3" deep and rotting on a lee shore in N. Maine.

Lotta meh here, 0.06" 1-1:30 PM then cloudy low-mid-60s as the final echoes pass to west (mostly) and east. P&C says showers likely well into the evening, radar says "Where?" At least we reached garden variety TS last evening.

First real TS here since last August, 0.50" and a couple strikes about a mile away - beats 0.02" and distant rumbles, the TS story before last evening. Essentially no wind, but the close strikes were heard about 8,000 miles away - we were Skyping with son/DIL in Nagoya.