By Caren Madsen
Conservation Montgomery Board of Directors
What does a working mom with a family of four kids, a husband and two dogs do on a Saturday morning? If she's an arborist on the board of Conservation Montgomery, she might be using trees as teaching tools and someone's back yard as a classroom.
Certified arborist and Conservation Montgomery Board Member Andrea ("Andie) Murtha recently guided more than a dozen residents from the Woodland Hills Homeowners Association in Gaithersburg through a session of Home Tree Care 101, a class designed by Conservation Montgomery to help average homeowners learn how to protect and prolong the life of trees on their lots. The class is taught outdoors and provides hands-on instruction in proper mulching,pruning that homeowners can perform safely at home, as well as guidelines on tree planting and overall care of trees on private property.
"This tree didn't get a very good start in life," Murtha says as she examines the structure of a red maple that has multiple trunks growing and unpruned branches. "Let's go ahead and help it out with a little pruning." She then demonstrates appropriate handling of a bow saw, pruning shears and a lopper, which is a long pruning pole used to trim higher limbs. Later kneeling on her hands and knees, she shows homeowners how to avoid loading on too much mulch, creating what arborists call a "mulch volcano" around the base of a tree.
According to Jim Urban, nationally acclaimed landscape architect, researcher and author, about 85% of the Montgomery County tree canopy is located on privately owned commercial and residential land. The overall tree canopy in the county is about 50% but the percentages drop down as low as 8-12% in some urban sections of the county. Homeowners can play a significant role in sustaining a healthy level of tree cover since proper care can prolong the life span of a tree. Upfront maintenance can also make an older tree less hazardous in a storm.
On a Saturday morning as Murtha walks the Woodland Hills neighborhood area with homeowners, she checks the condition of trees and suggests more diverse species for future planting. She has the undivided attention of residents who take pride in the mature trees in their community, but want to do more sustainable planting and tree maintenance in the future.
"The time went by so fast, and we learned quite a bit," said Pam Sonneville, who coordinated the class for her community. "Some people commented that they now look at trees in a different light."
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FIND PHOTOS FROM HOME TREE CARE 101 HERE. To schedule a 2014 Home Tree Care 101 class, please send an e-mail to ConservationMontgomery@live.com. Please note that class sizes must be a minimum of 10 participants.