Hello, Jerome! As the Tree of Heaven serves its purpose, cut them down and use them as organic matter to regenerate the soil. Eventually, with aggressive maintenance, it's feasible to replace more and more of these invasive trees with native trees, bushes, and grasses. Such an interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
As long as you're financing that project and hiring the labor you might have a good idea. Last I heard there are hundreds of thousands of biologically degraded ecosystems from that tree for you to get started on.
Probably better off removing Tree of Heaven from all the other places its wrecking before turning our attention to the ONE place it's doing something good.
The tree is really good at destroying the infrastructure of buildings and is responsible for a heap of problems that cost the town a whole heap of money. My (step??) uncle used to be the mayor of Jerome and I lived there for around 4 years. That tree can be dangerous for a lot of reasons. Don't ever try to climb one, for instance, as it is not very strong and the largest of branches will just break off like basal wood. The tree solved issues but was also one of the reasons the whole town burnt down 4 or 5 times over. They grow so fast and spread so fast they can create an incredible amount of fuel for fires in a very short amount of time. I miss Jerome sometimes. It is a really fun slice of the west and anyone with the means should strive to visit. It is truly unique.
How cool would it be to take all those dead trees and throw them in that discard pit from the mine? Then collect the yard and kitchen waste from the town and chuck that in there as well. Occasionally throw in some activated char and build the largest terra preta site in the state. Imagine that extending from that area and all the trees that are beneficial that could then be planted. Wouldn't it just be fun to try?
I've never seen a spotted lanterns personally, but we have lots of trees of heaven next to some butternuts (aka White Walnut) up in northeast Ohio & they're fine. I am trying to girdle the trees of Heaven, so they stop seeding, though. Hopefully, enough of them will die eventually.
@@warrenpuckett4203 I had a small walnut tree in my yard. It had a bunch on it. The tree was not in a good spot, so I cut it down. Walnut trees and Ailanthus look similar, but they have a different odor when the leaves are crushed. I've always thought Ailanthus smelled like rancid peanut butter.
@@warrenpuckett4203 black walnut, mulberry, maple, apple, pear, grape. They destroy all of them. But they prefer tree of heaven above all the rest. I've seen people in the Philadelphia area have great success with bait trees. They cut down all but one mature tree of heaven and they poison it. All the spotted lanternfly in the area go to that tree above all else, and they all die. As an organic gardener who moved from a SLF impacted area to a place where it hasn't reached, yet, I intend to use the bait tree method when they get here. They're such a devastating pest, I'll poison one tree so I don't have to poison my whole garden.
The mayor was like many other municipal authorities of the time doing the same thing with other plants. Sadly there are native trees and shrubs which could have been used to better effect.
I thought it was a high desert landscape there like Bisbee where Emory oak, Ponderosa pine and juniper grow in the hills and mountains. Never been to Jerome.
@@got2kittys - Jerome is not desert. They average 18-25 inches of precipitation depending on the elevation. The original vegetation was grassland and dense chaparral at the lower elevations of the town, intergrading into juniper and pinyon and ponderosa pines higher up on Cleopatra Hill. Some of the causes of the current sparseness of the vegetation are explained in the video. In addition, almost all of the sizeable trees in the near vicinity were cut down for mining timbers and firewood. This combined denuding of the vegetation resulted in much of the topsoil being washed away. It will take centuries for some of the areas to come back.
I live just 10 miles east of Jerome, in Cottonwood. It's a fun and a little crazy town, and I had no idea what that tree was that is all over up there! I have smelled it and it's awful. We are in a very desert area, although Jerome has a lot more water in that mountain than one would think. Thanks for the great video.
It is also known as the Ghetto Palm , because of its propensity for growing in the inhospitable conditions of urban areas, or on abandoned and poorly maintained properties,
I heard a definition of a weed. ". A plant that's considered to be growing in the wrong place " Another definition - " A plant we don't yet know the correct use of " Your video's inspire me and give me oxygen . 😃
Wow what an interesting video! It took me 3 years to get rid of that tree in my garden in Athens, Greece by cutting it and then pulling every shoot from the roots! It has taken over the city creating a lot of damage since it won't let anything else grow and I pull it out everywhere I find it! So glad to see it does some good somewhere 😅 thank you for this new perspective
Cut the tree at the ground. Cut a cross hatch on the remaining trunk or branch. And inject or pour copper phosphate or nail polish remover at the fresh cut. It will absorb and kill the root without harming other vegetation. It will dry out and shrivel up. And you can pull it out of the ground
Well done Andrew, I Love your channel. Your graphic skills shown in other videos is top notch. Keep it up, you are making us all think in possibilities.
On the note of "heroic invasive species" that can save an ecosystem, it would be interesting to see your take on the Lupine flower that is being used in Iceland to repair the land.
In my area Eurasian milfoil (a type of freshwater seaweed) is a big problem and the only thing that seems to have genuinely fixed the problem (lowered to managable levels) was the introduction of a moth that crawls underwater to eat it) While i think its always best to be wary of introducing new species, it can be what is needed to restore balance to a threatened ecosystem.
If not for Lupine, Iceland would have become like the Sahara only in the north due to wind and deforestation! Considering that this is a ground cover plant and a nitrogen fixer, and the external appearance is magnificent, honey plant! - I think this is a great solution - this plant structures and prepares the ground for shrubs and trees, there are types of lupine with a low alkaloid content suitable for livestock feed! It is on the same principle that I feel very good about paulownia - although some environmentalists are very aggressive towards this tree! For example, compare Ailanthus altissima the highest and Paulownia - he has only minis in front of Paulownia! However, biodiversity helps grow forest plantations even better and more efficiently and more resiliently!
I was wondering what these crazy fast growing trees were on my property. It is nice having a bit of shade. But now I don't feel bad about pulling some of the small ones! 🕊️
@@b_uppy I don't mow, I chop and drop. (Purposefully moved to a rural spot ) This soil has the air pockets squished out easily, and gets compacted fast. People look at me funny for the way I do things, don't care. 🕊️
@@b_uppy I tried those when I first moved in. Wouldn't grow. I just let tumbleweed and whatever other volunteers grow, then chop before going to seed. Those hearty roots rot over the winter, and have brought huge improvement. I also stomp down the tumbleweed that blows in, use it to cover bigger bare spots. The next year, better weeds grow, better grasses grow, and I just help it keep improving by keeping the "undesirables" from reproducing, yet they provide cover so I'm not chewing dirt all spring. Labor intensive but free, and no added pollutants. 🕊️ 🕊️
3:59 Every year I would collect as much wood and leaf material from the invasive plants in the city, and then have a humongous compost pile here and a drop off and pick up points for kitchen/restaurant scraps. It would be like Mt. Trashmore, but with black gold!
It sounds like the invasive Siberian Elm we have here in New Mexico. It puts out millions of seeds that pile up in drifts, and fast growing seedings pop up everywhere.
The drive from Cottonwood up to Jerome then up and over the mountains down to Prescott Valley is amazing and scary. My wife doesn’t like it so we take I 17 from Dewey/ Prescott Valley. Beautiful views
Gday Andrew I love your videos Some of the best large scale permaculture videos on RUclips I’m in Australia and have applied kilometres of water retention swales and dams. We have been very fortunate here after the drought and it’s been very impressive watching the difference made and water retained on the farm. Keep it up Aussie Farm Life….
Probably this town can produce wood pellets for heating and power purpose from those trees. It is also useful for "energy forests" in which the tree is large scale harvested on and on. This way it de-toxifies the soil and therefore ground water, precisions substances can be recovered from ash. Harvest always before seeds fly. Connect us to the major, we set up a business. HELIOFLOAT AUSTRIA
It is a real problem there and if you really feel like you have a solution, you should really try to contact the mayor yourself. That tree , especially with the intensifying heat, is a real danger to the town and people who live in it.
In NYC we used to call them back yard trees, they are everywhere, cracks in sidewalks. There’s a purpose for everything. Good for him, he found a solution to a problem.
I personally love Ailanthus, the Tree from Hell. It will inhabit land that other trees will not. It will rapidly grow after being burned down. It will grow from Ocean level to the highest I've seen at 5000 foot elevation. It competes with other aggressive invasive such as Black Locust (another favorite of mine), Eucalyptus and bamboo. Such a pain to deal with in a a town and around the house, though. Thank for the video.
someone with some sense! I imagine it fits very well into your climate in Oregon... Does too in my oceanic warm summer temperate climate. But growing in such conditions isn't as hard, still Ailanthus altissima is of great benefit here.
Tree is non-native and highly invasive. It crowds out and kills native plants. It belongs only in its original, native ecosystem where it has predators that can check the growth.
Very interesting - I live in the Verde Valley and all of our surrounding towns are filled with these trees. Had no idea they had such a story behind their origin. Guess Jerome's cliffside location really helped those seeds spread.
Had this tree in my backyard my whole childhood. I agree it gives us visions of the future and it’s medicinal properties are amazing. Thank you for this video.
Thanks for putting this out, Andrew. Good to have some recognition that these species are vigorously working to fix the ecological destruction we have wrought. In just about every species I’ve done a deep dive on the benefits and ecosystem connections being made far outweigh perceived harms.
I understood this video as recognizing the ecological damage this plant brings - invasive species are often outcompeting local flora. And in many ways, it brings ecological damage. I'm curious about how your research is proving to be different.
True. I live in AZ and have planted a woodland...oak, cottonwood, mesquite, vitex, desert willow, Goodding willow, cat-claw, fruit trees, pecan, az walnut, catalpa, chitalpa, etc., and ailanthus.
If anyone has read or knows of the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," the tree to which the title refers is a Tree of Heaven. The author uses the tree's invincibility against efforts to cut it down and its ability to break upon even concrete as a symbol of the main character's stalwart courage and pluckiness.
I'm using tagasaste as a biomass producer on my swales. It is considered an invasive species here in Australia but for me it's performing beautifully. Fantastic for soil building with chop and drop but at the moment it is in flower and covered in birds and bees - they love it as much as I do! Thanks for the video Andrew!!
You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in dept St. Peter don't you call me caus I can't go *_I owe my soul to the company store..._*
In Australia, we accidentally over farmed the land the first ~100 years and caused the water table to become very salty, so it took a couple decades of planting non-native plants that are very resilient to salt before we could grow any food
3:20 "You can barely poison it"...Instead of poison, did you try with boiling water poured at the foot of the tree? It's lethal for many plants, it's cheap, and if it doesn't stop urban invasion, at least nothing long term dangerous had been added to the soil
I have thought about using a copper nail. But if it grows in Copper tailings? Can't park my 2004 under it in the driveway. Cabin filter is after the heater / A/C and has plugged it up with those tiny seeds. Taking the dash apart removing the heater and evaporator 16 hours. Replacing the coolant and refrigerant is another 8 hour job.
I found you can girdle the trees (strip all layers of bark down to bare wood in a complete ring, low on the tree.) & it will stop the tree from producing seeds & eventually kill off everything above the cut. It won't kill the tree itself & it takes about one full year to work, but it helps a great deal with controlling the plants.
I have some bamboo to keep my St. Louis region house from sliding down. A neighbor in back had it. It grew into my yard. The new owner (sister of the old owner) removed it from her yard, and told me to remove it (!?!%*) from my yard, so I eventually chopped all of it out of my ground (yes, chopped with an axe), and I replanted the "bricks of roots" in a sliding area near my house, away from neighbors. It gets 10 feet high in the summer, and has brushes on top for a winter landscape, I cut it all down in late winter, and it regrows, providing some privacy and soil stability. Yes, it is invasive, but it works in that one area of my yard. I've heard that bamboo was the first thing to regrow after the atomic bombings in Japan in WW II.
I have this in our farm. Without a lot of active labour, it's not possible to get rid of it. We moved here 3 years ago, with only a few trees like this, but the amount of sprouts from the old trees and also the seeds they produced makes us a lot of work every fall and also in the spring, we are walking around pulling new sprouts. Not only that, it's actually preventing other species to germinate, because their roots produce a poison for other plants. Not a good idea. It's a barren land currently, with the occasional small trees popping up and a few blades of grass. Nothing else would grow in those areas yet. Maybe after a few years of work, the roots will weaken enough to die. And it's a lot of work. No animal goes near it, even our pigs don't disturb the root. Not even a bird would rest on the branches. Apple saplings we bought: died in a few months of spring. Oak: they are smaller than when they were planted. Alfalfa: did not even germinate.
Great video! If you think about it, the most undesirable plants are also the most likely plants to be able to solve big problems like this (due to how vigorous they usually are)
The problem is this tree grows fine in a condition where nothing grows, but what happens when it spreads to areas where things do grow? It out competes everything and good bye native species. Eucalyptus trees are similar in California, it does seem that they have very little cold tolerance and don't do well outside of the foggy coast, but still it changes the chemical composition of the soil and any water near by, not many animals adapted to use it, and the actual purpose of it being put here (railroad ties in the mid 1800s) it turns out it's absolutely unsuitable to do... something about fast growing trees don't exactly make the best structural wood.
Nitrogen fixing would be the reason other plants could start moving in, adding their own regeneration to the soil. Town Council could employ someone/a team to remove saplings growing in inconvenient places and remove dead trees before they become a fire hazard or block the drains. These could all be turned into mulch to regenerate the soil more quickly than letting fallen trees lie. The money saved on damage to infrastructure would cover costs. Extra mulch could also be sold to offset costs.
@@michellebyrom6551 they are called trees of heven because they are godsend, but we dont wana do the labor to manage them and turn them into a blessing. crazy. they are like permaculture dream trees. they can be uprooted by hand when they are like 8ft tall. they grow feet per day, and when you lay them in the soil they are so prone to decomposition it looks as if they are melting. i have been managing them around my tomato production area for years now they are great trees, they dont stink they literally smell like cooked peanuts.
Is this a joke? :-) It's not a legume. Everyone has a different sense of smell, I suppose, but this stuff just stinks to me and I don't believe it fixes nitrogen. At least, not directly. Leave that to Black Locust and Honey Locust trees.
@@hughparker9384 yea i admit i was wrong about that. but i stand by the fact that they smell like peanut butter not piss. i literally chop down hundreds of these things every summer. they are great mulch, break down in like days, and i dont mind the smell. nothing i can do about them being here but try and work with em.
they are not a legume but they do fix nitrogen. i looked that up. its not to the extent of a legume or like alfalfa. and if the soil is low mineral contend they do easily out compete native plants. in high mineral content soil they seem to be effective for guilding as a source of constant chop and drop mulch. cannot let them get to big tho.
I liken the scent of tree of heaven to burning plastic. We have a bad problem with them near the railway lines, where I live, in Ohio. It doesn't stick as firmly on you & it isn't anywhere near as strong as a skunk, but it's still pretty unpleasant to have to deal with. Plus, they stop many other native plants' seeds from sprouting around them, they're nearly impossible to kill & enough of them in one place actually produce a little micro-climate that makes it noticably hotter near them &, on really bad summr days, harder to breathe.
I'd like to see a control zone where we just let invasive species of all kinds go absolutely nuts. We check in year after year and see what it all stabilizes into. Obviously everything needs to feed, so I imagine a new ecology would be created. But we don't know until we try! Kind of like a giant no holds barred fight ring for every plant and animal.
The downside is what do you do with the site afterwards? Some invasive (such as this) will release chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants and decrease biodiversity. to It would be better to use pioneer species that are appropriate to an area as far as addressing food, soil stabilization, etc. Think soil biota degradation plays a part in how invasive a plant is. You'd have to have a bunch of control zones to compare.
Just look at any desert southwest city. There are so many trees, Reno NV is a good example, many areas there are so many trees you can’t even see the buildings between them. Outside the city is dry grass and brush and wildfire scars. Most of the trees with in the city are invasive species, the key players being Siberian elm and tree of heaven.
We've got it too here in Europe. For 3 or 4 years they spread in a huge maneer, but I found to him a vertue: The same reasons that caused it spread in a global way recently caused the huge increasing energy prices. However I discovered that although the branches provide some poor quality, the trunks make very good firing logs! Then, the fact it grows so quickly suddenly turns from curse into blessing.
I grew up in Indiana. It was a Cole mining area. I remember a tree like that growing there and I remember the smell when cut or broken. I am thinking it must like growing around mine tailings. They even called it the Tree of Heaven. Interesting video.
Thank you very much for your clear presentation! Did you see an examples in this town where the Tree of Heaven was providing a substrate for native vegetation to grow? I'm wondering if it could be managed and pruned to build soil and initiate ecological succession for native species. Any thoughts about this?
This tree does the opposite of providing a substrate for native vegetation. Tree of hell possesses negative allelopathic traits which prevent the germination of native plants by exuding chemicals into the soil through their far spreading roots. The chemicals produced during the decomposition of the trees leaf litter also prevent native seed germination. This tree suffocates and destroys all native plant communities, do not try to use it thinking that it will enable ecological succession because it will result in widespread ecological recession.
@@diseasedleginc.6528If it's pruned continuously and soil organic matter builds up, what happens to the allelopathic chemicals in the soils? Do the chemicals breakdown? Do ALL native species respond equally to Tree of Heaven's allelopathy? I'd need to see research that tests all native species with this tree before I accept this claim. I would be curious to know if there are exceptions.
I think the chemicals break down pretty quickly & the trees do produce a lot of dead fall that technically makes the soil very rich, but I have yet to find native plants that sprout well under them. The chemicals come from the roots, though & two things you can do to get around it is putting thick rock barriers between the tree & where you want to plant other stuff, then keeping an eye on the seedlings to manage the tree of Heaven populations & also you can put in live plants instead of seeds & they will settle in & do fine. The chemicals only seem to affect seeds themselves.
Bringing in destructive invasive species sometimes has short-term benefits but often the long-term impact is catastrophic. Sometimes nature wants things to die because it doesn't belong, like this town. It wasn't meant to be there, so maybe just let it run its natural course.
acawap: What a ridiculous idea, to let an entire community go to rubble and ruined peoples homes and the few livelihoods that they have. Because “nature wants things to die“. By that logic, Nothing should be done to help areas after hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and the like. It’s easy to spout platitudes like the one you just spouted, when it’s not your home, life, family, community, livelihood, and future at stake.
@@daphneraven6745 complete nonsense. I'm not saying to let PEOPLE die, just the town - buildings, roads, etc that are sliding down a hill because they shouldn't have been built there to begin with. The people can just... move. It is not even remotely similar to helping people when there is a flood or fire. It's more similar to somebody building a house on a sandy beach and having it fall down and wash away with the tide. The answer is to let that happen, not change the structure of the beach.
Wow, awesome video! Someone I know was recently in Jerome and visited that jail. The town is supposedly haunted. Anyway, interesting video and discussion about an invasive species being a potential solution in this case. I would rather have invasive plant species than a toxic wasteland.
That’s a false choice. Undoubtedly there were native plants that could have been planted. But the lazy idiot introduced an invasive monoculture instead. Is a monoculture a good permaculture practice? No it is not. And now poor Jerome’s infrastructure is being destroyed by the invasive plant (as described in the video).
Mossy Earth just did a video yesterday on the invasive Lupine in Iceland and how it’s actually doing a lot of good for the island. Worth checking out if you haven’t
@@ThreeRunHomer if the local species haven’t taken over it during all this time, then they’re not potent enough to do so. Then ailantus altissima is the right type of tree to survive in these harsh conditions. Jedem das seine
I live in a N. Calif county that is going dry due to drought and AG wells overdrawing the aquifer. All plant life in my yard has died EXCEPT the 6-8 Tree of Heavens. They seem to be thriving! So even though I've been told this tree is invasive it's currently the hero in my yard. It literally is the only green thing I have right now.
If you're having trouble with Ailanthus, use Tordon. It's a brush killer. Simply ring the bark of the main trunk, apply liberally to the cut, and wait for the the tree to die. Ailanthus are tough trees, but one or two applications is usually all it takes, even for mature trees. Before you remove all of them from your property though, try potting a few seedlings in some tubs and take advantage of their ornamental properties. They grow quickly (20 ft in a season, easily) and can take on a lovely palm-like appearance; especially in small groups. Then coppice them back every year or two and they'll pop up again the next year.
There’s a couple of them in my backyard and they’re pretty interesting, when I was a kid I would use its branches to create makeshift bows; not the best material, but it’s what I had available.
Yup, I get that. My local annoyance has similar properties to that tree (though it's a vine). I haaaaate bindweed, but damn if that thing can grow where nothing else will! You gotta respect that sort of vigor for life.
For a while in Toronto I planted trees of heavan but they were all over the place here for generations. They grew in cracks and vacant lots and everywhere else. Across the street from my row house on the lower east side there's a huge male tree. In July it drops a carpet of tiny male flower parts like sawdust for hundreds of feet in all directions. There are still tons of female trees😮 which drop almost as many seeds in the fall and through the winter. Most germinate and rapidly grow, but most females seem to die after 30 or so years. Within two years of dying large limbs start to fall willi nilli. That is where I think they get their name. You are out for a stroll, and bang the tree of heavan falls and you are sent to heavan.
The take home is terrible. Similar story can be told by Australians, their introduction of rabbits for food, their introduction of myxomatosis to control the rabbits, the introduction of a flea to fix the failure of the initial introduction of myxomatosis ... and the story might go on.
In New York City, where I lived in the mid 1970s, Ailanthus began dying out from a Fusarium oxysporum outbreak ca.1978. I had been rearing Cynthia Moth (Samia cynthia) caterpillars through successive years on leaves I collected from Ailanthus trees I passed by when returning home from work, and in that year, many declined and died. What was apparently another strain of F. oxysporum (forma perniciosum) had wiped out most of the Albizia trees in the city and suburbs during the 1960s and early 1970s. (In the latitude of NYC, seedling winter survivorship of A. julibrissin is too poor for the tree to become invasive, and they were much admired and widely planted ornamentals.) Our 'news' media did not note the sudden death and subsequent disappearance of most of NYC's Ailanthus trees until the 1980s, years after this was evident to even casual observers. Both A. julibrissin and A. altissima happen to be among my favorite trees from childhood! The Ailanthus thrives mightily in disturbed and anthropogenic habitats such as heavily urbanized environments, gravel railway embankments, vacant lots, etc., but competes poorly with both native and introduced trees and shrubs in more natural environments. As the Fusarium outbreak made evident, A. altissima is not indestructible. It does not tolerate extremely cold winters, and is intolerant of shade as well. While the foliage is rank when crushed (instant karma for people who unthinkingly and impulsively break foliage off of trees that they pass!), and the flowers (which are visited by many native insects) have an odor that is reminiscent of fermenting melon rinds, it is an attractive tree when not badly crowded by suckers and seedlings, and the bright chartreuse to light green immature samaras, tinted or highlighted with anthocyanins ranging from salmon to red and purple, are very beautiful. NYC still has isolated Ailanthus trees, but most seedlings are killed by Fusarium after they attain a few feet in height. Individual trees isolated by expanses of blacktop seem to be protected against Fusarium; some have continued to thrive and set seed decades after nearby specimens unprotected by blacktop have died. The city's once extensive monocultures of Ailanthus in vacant lots, railroad yards, etc., have been almost entirely replaced by (ugly) monocultures of Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).
The tree is also known in urban areas as the ghetto palm; it can grow two feet in a year and may many times be the only really thriving plant in abandoned lots. The little golden book on trees states that silkworms can feed on mulberry and this trees leaves! Ailanthus is also the tree described in the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
It's all a matter of perspective, and I understand your vision. However, there should be an emphasis on local species, and not imported, since that have happened throughout history and is one of the reasons we have problems with invasive species, like the silver carp.
Exactly. I live in southeast Arizona and my land is covered in invasive species. I'm in the process of waging a war on two fronts. First weaken and (when possible) kill the invasive plants while simultaneously planting fast growing, aggressive native species. So far I've partially reclaimed one acre, but I've learned a lot and that process is going to start moving faster. One issue I have is that I have nothing but invasive trees where I have trees. They need to go, but I can't just cut them down. They're serving the purpose of trees here and we need them to help with erosion, to act as a windbreak, and as a place of shelter for native wildlife. But I can't plant healthy native trees until the invasive ones are gone. The invasive trees are allelopathic. They chemically prevent other trees from growing on this land. As long as they're here, I can't put in good trees. Right now I'm hoping to find a shrub that is capable of competing with the tree and maybe then I can begin the transition. Invasive plants are 'invasive' for a reason. It's not just that they grow well and out compete native plants, it's that they actively harm native plants and prevent them from reestablishing. Sadly, there's a lot we don't know about their chemical warfare. What's the distance from the tree that the chemical do it's work? How long does it last in the soil? Is the chemical carried away by ground water so that the soil is contaminated downstream? We don't know any of that.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 Have you tried heavy pruning or coppicing of the invasive trees and then planting native vegetation or even cover crops? Repeated pruning/chop and drop could build the soil gradually and provide better conditions for native species. A reason that invasives are present is often because of disturbance. Previous disturbance (e.g., deforestation, overgrazing) would have led to erosion and soil loss and these poor conditions may have favored your invasive trees. From this perspective, the invasive could be seen as a pioneer that's doing the work of improving the soil and environment for the next stage of succession.
As someone who lives in NC, I can attest to this - kudzu is no joke here. I've been to places where the ivy has covered entire woods - literal 50ft trees for miles and miles strangled by ivy.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 have you tried planting Ocotillo it is native and grows fast up to 10" a year if you keep it watered. It you want other native trees and if your near a river or stream cottonwood works.
This is like a sumac. You cut it down and it sends out shooters. The leaves look like a sumac as well. It spreads to everywhere. The only way I could eliminate it is by drilling holes in the base and using a root killer. It was weird too, I put the root killer on it and this red stuff came out of the roots. The sumac looked like it was bleeding from the roots.
i just hope they never find the plant that out-competes kudzu..........i cant even imagine what that future would be like. kudzu is already a beast of a reality
I'm glad this worked but I don't understand why we aren't utilizing Bamboo for all the issues we are having including erosion. NO it is not invasive, it's Indigenous to every Continent except Antarctica, it absorbs twice as much CO2 than any other plant and releases 30% more O2. It can be routinely harvested and the canes can be used for a myriad of different things. It's heat and drought tolerant as well and contrary to popular belief, it doesn't need much water.
@@paultmiles Yes, and other species were introduced decades and decades ago. We are running out of time to save the Planet, we need to utilize everything available so it makes zero sense not to use something that's already here.
@@koicaine1230 it does make sense not to use it. Let that erosion happen. It was caused by the hands of man. Why disrupt the natural course further? The introduction of invasive species furthers the detriment to native ecosystems, which have taken millennia to sort themselves out.
The tree might make for some pretty good biomass too. Have it establish in the talings then cut it down and let it decompose while the replacement grows up and so on until the talings have enough organic matter in them that other plants can grow in them too.
Sounds like a ton of maintenance for a tree species. You might be right, but it's probably not worth the time unless you have a way to recoup costs associated with the maintenance. I think you'd be better suited to acquire biomass from mostly outside sources, do the biomass creation off of a single cull of the area as you described, and then hope that native species can win out in that localized environment before the next set of trees grows in and shades it all to death and then proceeds to regress soil composition. A cyclical thing but potentially possible to claim back soil biota and space bit by bit. Invasive species, whether there are any temporary positive effects or not, have significant negative impacts and externalities which in the end earn them their name of invasive.
This solution is almost like pouring hot oil on your skin to alleviate acne. No more blemishes on the new scar tissue. I guess it worked on one aspect of the ecological damage from the mining disturbance (the erosion), but it will have long-term detrimental effects on the landscape that will be hard to remedy. Like other commenters wrote, there are many other native tree species that would have been able to achieve the same result without the unintended consequences of introducing an invasive species.
It is literally the Tree of Heaven. We had them in northern Indiana, they grew very quickly , provide shade in only five years, and lots of leaf litter to recondition and stabilize the soil. In fifteen years they can be 30 feet tall and have a 24 inch diameter trunk. But they are short lived and have soft wood.
the Tamarisk was introduced in Colorado river basin area many years ago to hold soil of the desert. Native to Africa and Middle East it proved to be a grave error. It has spread throughout the Colorado river and its tributaries causing the decline or complete disappearance of the native plants. It has also changed the courses of many of the rivers ass it grows into large areas and holds the silt in place rather than it being swept down river creating blockages. It is never a good idea to introduce an invasive plant or animal for any reason!
The only exception is that occasionally it can be a net benefit. NY state has a major issue with Eurasian milfoil (a freshwater seaweed) and after years of trying to remove it they finally ended up releasing aquatic moths that love to eat the stuff and its finally cleared up most of the crap. However, in general its usually a terrible idea to introduce an invasive species and should only be considered as a last resort. Just look up the Cobra Effect for a list a mile long of all the times it has failed.
This tree grows in the UK in parks and big gardens. It’s not really seen as that invasive over here and gardeners can but them to plant as the flowers are valued. I do see small plants of it growing in old, knocked down buildings (amongst others), but we don’t really have any kind of problem with it. I wonder if that’s down to the different climates and maybe it’s not as rampant here?
ANDREW --Lots of people watched this video and have no idea about the downsides of deliberately planting invasives and are bragging about their introduction of this or other invasive species on their property and elsewhere. You need to do a follow up to stop the cascade of harm. You mentioned 'outcompete' which implies faster, more vigorous growth but fails to mention A. altimissima's allelopathic nature. You can still plant many non native plants and they'll be okay. It is also okay to consider planting 'plants labeled as invasive' by your local extension service* but do research first. Having the Ailanthus altissima establish in the mine talings was super. Fortunately the site also seems to make the spread of ailanthus self limiting due to water constraints (the town roofs providing the needed extra water so that it can survive. This tree can be used in phytoremediation of nickel and lead, wonder what was mined... When were they introduced? Ailanthus is allelopathic. It is hoped a derivative can made from it to inhibit algae blooms in lakes. Wonder if the mayor knew it's reputation for being stinky? Wonder what they could have planted instead that would have been combative with the talings? Did the town population rebound much? *Our local extension service overreacts and has labeled non-invasives as such on the assumption of guilty until proven innocent. Now we have chemical 'experts' idiotically spraying at the river.
Possible downsides of A altissima is that it significantly alters soil biota: effect of varying A. altissima densities in a forest of north-eastern France on soil microbial activity, diversity of various litter and soil invertebrate groups (Arthropoda, Lumbricidae, Gastropoda), diversity of functional groups (predatory, detritivorous, coprophagous, phytophagous), and trophic structure. Our study shows that increasing density of A. altissima is associated to lower soil microbial activity, decreasing abundance of litter detritivores (Acari and Collembola) and aboveground predatory Coleoptera, and decreasing species richness of terrestrial Gastropoda. In contrast, increased A. altissima density corresponded with greater abundances of litter Lumbricidae and aboveground coprophagous Coleoptera. We found an overall impact of A. altissima invasion on the soil food web structure that could accelerate the mineralization of organic matter and potentially favor nitrophilous plant species in understory plant communities.
I’ve seen Ailanthus take over hillsides in various places, though I suspect it wasn’t usually brought in on purpose. I recall a big chunk of Boulder, Colorado claimed by it. In my native Decatur, Illinois, not especially prone to erosion, there are some huge ones in the older parts of town, and small ones show up everywhere from seed or roots. I’ve seen leafy stems of it used outside University of Illinois fraternities to give a vaguely exotic touch to tropical-themed parties. It’s also the tree that grew in Brooklyn back when NYC was full of heavily-polluting industries, used as a metaphor in the famous book.
Hello, Jerome! As the Tree of Heaven serves its purpose, cut them down and use them as organic matter to regenerate the soil. Eventually, with aggressive maintenance, it's feasible to replace more and more of these invasive trees with native trees, bushes, and grasses. Such an interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
Cooperative systems eventually win, after a crisis.
Thanks for sharing, I concur with your thoughts. Multiple eco-restoration systems and more education to general public, can have great impact.
As long as you're financing that project and hiring the labor you might have a good idea. Last I heard there are hundreds of thousands of biologically degraded ecosystems from that tree for you to get started on.
Probably better off removing Tree of Heaven from all the other places its wrecking before turning our attention to the ONE place it's doing something good.
The tree is really good at destroying the infrastructure of buildings and is responsible for a heap of problems that cost the town a whole heap of money. My (step??) uncle used to be the mayor of Jerome and I lived there for around 4 years. That tree can be dangerous for a lot of reasons. Don't ever try to climb one, for instance, as it is not very strong and the largest of branches will just break off like basal wood. The tree solved issues but was also one of the reasons the whole town burnt down 4 or 5 times over. They grow so fast and spread so fast they can create an incredible amount of fuel for fires in a very short amount of time. I miss Jerome sometimes. It is a really fun slice of the west and anyone with the means should strive to visit. It is truly unique.
How cool would it be to take all those dead trees and throw them in that discard pit from the mine? Then collect the yard and kitchen waste from the town and chuck that in there as well. Occasionally throw in some activated char and build the largest terra preta site in the state. Imagine that extending from that area and all the trees that are beneficial that could then be planted. Wouldn't it just be fun to try?
Where do I sign up....????
@@uriamudeltoro5075 ^same
Great idea! The greening of Arizona..... cool.
was just thinking using them for hulgerkulture along river beds to expand water retention
@@chickentender4037 This years record monsoons have already done that, lol
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive species, and love to feed on the tree of heaven. Both are big problems here in Pennsylvania.
Came here to say exactly that…in New Jersey
I wonder if it likes Black Walnut trees? Got one of those Chinese Sumac in the yard. SE Michigan.
Walnut tree not doing so good this year.
I've never seen a spotted lanterns personally, but we have lots of trees of heaven next to some butternuts (aka White Walnut) up in northeast Ohio & they're fine. I am trying to girdle the trees of Heaven, so they stop seeding, though. Hopefully, enough of them will die eventually.
@@warrenpuckett4203 I had a small walnut tree in my yard. It had a bunch on it.
The tree was not in a good spot, so I cut it down.
Walnut trees and Ailanthus look similar, but they have a different odor when the leaves are crushed. I've always thought Ailanthus smelled like rancid peanut butter.
@@warrenpuckett4203 black walnut, mulberry, maple, apple, pear, grape. They destroy all of them.
But they prefer tree of heaven above all the rest.
I've seen people in the Philadelphia area have great success with bait trees. They cut down all but one mature tree of heaven and they poison it. All the spotted lanternfly in the area go to that tree above all else, and they all die.
As an organic gardener who moved from a SLF impacted area to a place where it hasn't reached, yet, I intend to use the bait tree method when they get here. They're such a devastating pest, I'll poison one tree so I don't have to poison my whole garden.
The mayor was like many other municipal authorities of the time doing the same thing with other plants. Sadly there are native trees and shrubs which could have been used to better effect.
Trees like that don't grow in the desert.
I would imagine if native plants could grow... They would.
@@got2kittys ironwood grows fine, they just would have had to do the work of planting it instead of planting an invasive species
I thought it was a high desert landscape there like Bisbee where Emory oak, Ponderosa pine and juniper grow in the hills and mountains. Never been to Jerome.
@@got2kittys - Jerome is not desert. They average 18-25 inches of precipitation depending on the elevation. The original vegetation was grassland and dense chaparral at the lower elevations of the town, intergrading into juniper and pinyon and ponderosa pines higher up on Cleopatra Hill. Some of the causes of the current sparseness of the vegetation are explained in the video. In addition, almost all of the sizeable trees in the near vicinity were cut down for mining timbers and firewood. This combined denuding of the vegetation resulted in much of the topsoil being washed away. It will take centuries for some of the areas to come back.
I live just 10 miles east of Jerome, in Cottonwood. It's a fun and a little crazy town, and I had no idea what that tree was that is all over up there! I have smelled it and it's awful. We are in a very desert area, although Jerome has a lot more water in that mountain than one would think. Thanks for the great video.
My Uncle used to live there and I had/have a cousin there. 👍
In college I met a girl named Sue Farr. I laughed out loud because my name is Steve Close. But she didn't let me near.
Don't live there, but really interesting story. Appreciate it! ♥️👍♥️
@@skcyclist 🤣🤣
It is also known as the Ghetto Palm , because of its propensity for growing in the inhospitable conditions of urban areas, or on abandoned and poorly maintained properties,
I heard a definition of a weed. ". A plant that's considered to be growing in the wrong place "
Another definition - " A plant we don't yet know the correct use of "
Your video's inspire me and give me oxygen . 😃
weed. any plant you dont want and cant kill
My grandma's take on weeds " a flower that you don't want to grow there"
T.O.H. can add aesthetics to a barren yard,I've done this a few times
@@monickalynn4365 Spot on and the Bees love them too ,
Wow what an interesting video! It took me 3 years to get rid of that tree in my garden in Athens, Greece by cutting it and then pulling every shoot from the roots! It has taken over the city creating a lot of damage since it won't let anything else grow and I pull it out everywhere I find it! So glad to see it does some good somewhere 😅 thank you for this new perspective
No matter what it is, man, animal or plant, if it gets too big for its britches, they will rip.
Cut the tree at the ground. Cut a cross hatch on the remaining trunk or branch. And inject or pour copper phosphate or nail polish remover at the fresh cut. It will absorb and kill the root without harming other vegetation. It will dry out and shrivel up. And you can pull it out of the ground
I wonder if Senadro would work on them?
Salt works well.
Well done Andrew, I Love your channel. Your graphic skills shown in other videos is top notch. Keep it up, you are making us all think in possibilities.
Much appreciated!
On the note of "heroic invasive species" that can save an ecosystem, it would be interesting to see your take on the Lupine flower that is being used in Iceland to repair the land.
@zenn virus, here’s a good one to watch on that. ruclips.net/video/pQ-dSxYonog/видео.html
In my area Eurasian milfoil (a type of freshwater seaweed) is a big problem and the only thing that seems to have genuinely fixed the problem (lowered to managable levels) was the introduction of a moth that crawls underwater to eat it)
While i think its always best to be wary of introducing new species, it can be what is needed to restore balance to a threatened ecosystem.
Have you seen the Mossy Earth video about Lupine in Iceland? They had some nuanced thoughts on the matter
? @}•#MissRumphius?
If not for Lupine, Iceland would have become like the Sahara only in the north due to wind and deforestation! Considering that this is a ground cover plant and a nitrogen fixer, and the external appearance is magnificent, honey plant! - I think this is a great solution - this plant structures and prepares the ground for shrubs and trees, there are types of lupine with a low alkaloid content suitable for livestock feed! It is on the same principle that I feel very good about paulownia - although some environmentalists are very aggressive towards this tree! For example, compare Ailanthus altissima the highest and Paulownia - he has only minis in front of Paulownia! However, biodiversity helps grow forest plantations even better and more efficiently and more resiliently!
Remember in Asia, the word for "Heaven" is also Invincible. The Chinese tree of Heaven, may be Chinese tree of Invincibility.
why is it called invincible if i can see it?
@@gillsejusbates6938
@@gillsejusbates6938 👍
It will blow up like a bubble, like all offensive systems.
@@guntherultraboltnovacrunch5248 thank you, its a world of warcraft joke
I was wondering what these crazy fast growing trees were on my property. It is nice having a bit of shade. But now I don't feel bad about pulling some of the small ones!
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@@b_uppy I don't mow, I chop and drop. (Purposefully moved to a rural spot ) This soil has the air pockets squished out easily, and gets compacted fast. People look at me funny for the way I do things, don't care.
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@@b_uppy I tried those when I first moved in. Wouldn't grow. I just let tumbleweed and whatever other volunteers grow, then chop before going to seed. Those hearty roots rot over the winter, and have brought huge improvement. I also stomp down the tumbleweed that blows in, use it to cover bigger bare spots. The next year, better weeds grow, better grasses grow, and I just help it keep improving by keeping the "undesirables" from reproducing, yet they provide cover so I'm not chewing dirt all spring. Labor intensive but free, and no added pollutants.
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@@dorksplorer I've never seen a tumbleweed except in movies
Get something else growing and kill these out if you can.....They'll take over.........
@@anderander5662 I have seen them here in AZ...they, too, are not native to this country.
3:59 Every year I would collect as much wood and leaf material from the invasive plants in the city, and then have a humongous compost pile here and a drop off and pick up points for kitchen/restaurant scraps. It would be like Mt. Trashmore, but with black gold!
It sounds like the invasive Siberian Elm we have here in New Mexico. It puts out millions of seeds that pile up in drifts, and fast growing seedings pop up everywhere.
The drive from Cottonwood up to Jerome then up and over the mountains down to Prescott Valley is amazing and scary. My wife doesn’t like it so we take I 17 from Dewey/ Prescott Valley. Beautiful views
This tree is also the preferred plant for the Spotted Lantern Fly, which is causing a bunch of problems here in Central Pa as an invasive species.
We relaly gotta stop buying shit from china.
What a GREAT Video Andrew!!
Gday Andrew
I love your videos
Some of the best large scale permaculture videos on RUclips
I’m in Australia and have applied kilometres of water retention swales and dams.
We have been very fortunate here after the drought and it’s been very impressive watching the difference made and water retained on the farm.
Keep it up
Aussie Farm Life….
Nice work! I love hearing when people are able to successfully implement permaculture strategies. Thanks for watching and take care :-)
Probably this town can produce wood pellets for heating and power purpose from those trees.
It is also useful for "energy forests" in which the tree is large scale harvested on and on. This way it de-toxifies the soil and therefore ground water, precisions substances can be recovered from ash. Harvest always before seeds fly.
Connect us to the major, we set up a business.
HELIOFLOAT AUSTRIA
🤔
Sounds like a good idea 💡
except it stinks!! didn't you read that? stinky!
Wood pellets for heat / Now thats even Crazier 👌
It is a real problem there and if you really feel like you have a solution, you should really try to contact the mayor yourself. That tree , especially with the intensifying heat, is a real danger to the town and people who live in it.
In NYC we used to call them back yard trees, they are everywhere, cracks in sidewalks. There’s a purpose for everything. Good for him, he found a solution to a problem.
I personally love Ailanthus, the Tree from Hell. It will inhabit land that other trees will not. It will rapidly grow after being burned down. It will grow from Ocean level to the highest I've seen at 5000 foot elevation. It competes with other aggressive invasive such as Black Locust (another favorite of mine), Eucalyptus and bamboo. Such a pain to deal with in a a town and around the house, though. Thank for the video.
Bamboo gives clean air and hold the soil from Slide
oregonecology: I agree.
someone with some sense!
I imagine it fits very well into your climate in Oregon...
Does too in my oceanic warm summer temperate climate.
But growing in such conditions isn't as hard, still Ailanthus altissima is of great benefit here.
Tree is non-native and highly invasive. It crowds out and kills native plants. It belongs only in its original, native ecosystem where it has predators that can check the growth.
Really interesting thanks for sharing
Very interesting - I live in the Verde Valley and all of our surrounding towns are filled with these trees. Had no idea they had such a story behind their origin. Guess Jerome's cliffside location really helped those seeds spread.
Had this tree in my backyard my whole childhood. I agree it gives us visions of the future and it’s medicinal properties are amazing. Thank you for this video.
Thanks for putting this out, Andrew. Good to have some recognition that these species are vigorously working to fix the ecological destruction we have wrought. In just about every species I’ve done a deep dive on the benefits and ecosystem connections being made far outweigh perceived harms.
Well said!
I understood this video as recognizing the ecological damage this plant brings - invasive species are often outcompeting local flora. And in many ways, it brings ecological damage. I'm curious about how your research is proving to be different.
not sure if this could be said about Chinese privet and kudzu in the N. American south east lol
@@kerem7546 Kudzu is a key ingredient in the compost made by Guinness Champion Charles H Wilbur, author of How To Grow World Record Tomatoes.
True. I live in AZ and have planted a woodland...oak, cottonwood, mesquite, vitex, desert willow, Goodding willow, cat-claw, fruit trees, pecan, az walnut, catalpa, chitalpa, etc., and ailanthus.
Wonderfully made video!
Thank you! Cheers
If anyone has read or knows of the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," the tree to which the title refers is a Tree of Heaven. The author uses the tree's invincibility against efforts to cut it down and its ability to break upon even concrete as a symbol of the main character's stalwart courage and pluckiness.
Thank you. Very interesting.
I'm using tagasaste as a biomass producer on my swales. It is considered an invasive species here in Australia but for me it's performing beautifully. Fantastic for soil building with chop and drop but at the moment it is in flower and covered in birds and bees - they love it as much as I do! Thanks for the video Andrew!!
Believe that can be grazed as well.
The real message might be they didn't talk to someone who knew enough to select a native species to do the same job.
Or multi native species, to create biodiversity and interest!
@@VanillaMacaron551 also true
Human Action, Never ever ending Paradox!!
When I heard that the town had 10,000 workers, I don't know why but I started singing in my head, "I owe my soul to the company store."
You load 16 tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in dept
St. Peter don't you call me caus I can't go
*_I owe my soul to the company store..._*
Ah hahaha
Perfect take away...you rock. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed it! Cheers :-)
Thanks for the informative video. I've been to Jerome many times (I lived 30 minutes away) but never knew what the deal was with those trees.
Great info thank you!
best channel on RUclips, amazingly produced videos with even better information and content, always exited when I get the notification of a new video
It is a beautiful place we got to visit that in 2020
In Australia, we accidentally over farmed the land the first ~100 years and caused the water table to become very salty, so it took a couple decades of planting non-native plants that are very resilient to salt before we could grow any food
Great video.
3:20 "You can barely poison it"...Instead of poison, did you try with boiling water poured at the foot of the tree? It's lethal for many plants, it's cheap, and if it doesn't stop urban invasion, at least nothing long term dangerous had been added to the soil
maybe they are stupid
It's a figure of speech. Andrew isn't poisoning anything.
@@jimsmij - I figured he was talking about others who have tried to poison them in the past.
I have thought about using a copper nail. But if it grows in Copper tailings?
Can't park my 2004 under it in the driveway. Cabin filter is after the heater / A/C and has plugged it up with those tiny seeds.
Taking the dash apart removing the heater and evaporator 16 hours. Replacing the coolant and refrigerant is another 8 hour job.
I found you can girdle the trees (strip all layers of bark down to bare wood in a complete ring, low on the tree.) & it will stop the tree from producing seeds & eventually kill off everything above the cut. It won't kill the tree itself & it takes about one full year to work, but it helps a great deal with controlling the plants.
Cool story! 😎📚
I have some bamboo to keep my St. Louis region house from sliding down. A neighbor in back had it. It grew into my yard. The new owner (sister of the old owner) removed it from her yard, and told me to remove it (!?!%*) from my yard, so I eventually chopped all of it out of my ground (yes, chopped with an axe), and I replanted the "bricks of roots" in a sliding area near my house, away from neighbors. It gets 10 feet high in the summer, and has brushes on top for a winter landscape, I cut it all down in late winter, and it regrows, providing some privacy and soil stability. Yes, it is invasive, but it works in that one area of my yard. I've heard that bamboo was the first thing to regrow after the atomic bombings in Japan in WW II.
I have this in our farm. Without a lot of active labour, it's not possible to get rid of it. We moved here 3 years ago, with only a few trees like this, but the amount of sprouts from the old trees and also the seeds they produced makes us a lot of work every fall and also in the spring, we are walking around pulling new sprouts. Not only that, it's actually preventing other species to germinate, because their roots produce a poison for other plants. Not a good idea. It's a barren land currently, with the occasional small trees popping up and a few blades of grass. Nothing else would grow in those areas yet. Maybe after a few years of work, the roots will weaken enough to die. And it's a lot of work. No animal goes near it, even our pigs don't disturb the root. Not even a bird would rest on the branches.
Apple saplings we bought: died in a few months of spring. Oak: they are smaller than when they were planted. Alfalfa: did not even germinate.
Context is everything, always
Great video! If you think about it, the most undesirable plants are also the most likely plants to be able to solve big problems like this (due to how vigorous they usually are)
honestly if people decided it was bad in nature, its probably good:P
The problem is this tree grows fine in a condition where nothing grows, but what happens when it spreads to areas where things do grow? It out competes everything and good bye native species. Eucalyptus trees are similar in California, it does seem that they have very little cold tolerance and don't do well outside of the foggy coast, but still it changes the chemical composition of the soil and any water near by, not many animals adapted to use it, and the actual purpose of it being put here (railroad ties in the mid 1800s) it turns out it's absolutely unsuitable to do... something about fast growing trees don't exactly make the best structural wood.
it doesnt smell bad at all. it smells like peanuts because its a legume. they are nitrogen fixing. cool trees if managed properly.
Nitrogen fixing would be the reason other plants could start moving in, adding their own regeneration to the soil.
Town Council could employ someone/a team to remove saplings growing in inconvenient places and remove dead trees before they become a fire hazard or block the drains. These could all be turned into mulch to regenerate the soil more quickly than letting fallen trees lie. The money saved on damage to infrastructure would cover costs. Extra mulch could also be sold to offset costs.
@@michellebyrom6551 they are called trees of heven because they are godsend, but we dont wana do the labor to manage them and turn them into a blessing. crazy. they are like permaculture dream trees. they can be uprooted by hand when they are like 8ft tall. they grow feet per day, and when you lay them in the soil they are so prone to decomposition it looks as if they are melting. i have been managing them around my tomato production area for years now they are great trees, they dont stink they literally smell like cooked peanuts.
Is this a joke? :-) It's not a legume. Everyone has a different sense of smell, I suppose, but this stuff just stinks to me and I don't believe it fixes nitrogen. At least, not directly. Leave that to Black Locust and Honey Locust trees.
@@hughparker9384 yea i admit i was wrong about that. but i stand by the fact that they smell like peanut butter not piss. i literally chop down hundreds of these things every summer. they are great mulch, break down in like days, and i dont mind the smell. nothing i can do about them being here but try and work with em.
they are not a legume but they do fix nitrogen. i looked that up. its not to the extent of a legume or like alfalfa. and if the soil is low mineral contend they do easily out compete native plants. in high mineral content soil they seem to be effective for guilding as a source of constant chop and drop mulch. cannot let them get to big tho.
I liken the scent of tree of heaven to burning plastic. We have a bad problem with them near the railway lines, where I live, in Ohio. It doesn't stick as firmly on you & it isn't anywhere near as strong as a skunk, but it's still pretty unpleasant to have to deal with. Plus, they stop many other native plants' seeds from sprouting around them, they're nearly impossible to kill & enough of them in one place actually produce a little micro-climate that makes it noticably hotter near them &, on really bad summr days, harder to breathe.
Cool video. Jerome is a 'big' artist town now. Lots of studios of artists to visit
I'd like to see a control zone where we just let invasive species of all kinds go absolutely nuts. We check in year after year and see what it all stabilizes into. Obviously everything needs to feed, so I imagine a new ecology would be created. But we don't know until we try! Kind of like a giant no holds barred fight ring for every plant and animal.
The downside is what do you do with the site afterwards? Some invasive (such as this) will release chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants and decrease biodiversity. to It would be better to use pioneer species that are appropriate to an area as far as addressing food, soil stabilization, etc.
Think soil biota degradation plays a part in how invasive a plant is. You'd have to have a bunch of control zones to compare.
Sounds epic
Just look at any desert southwest city. There are so many trees, Reno NV is a good example, many areas there are so many trees you can’t even see the buildings between them. Outside the city is dry grass and brush and wildfire scars. Most of the trees with in the city are invasive species, the key players being Siberian elm and tree of heaven.
@@b_uppy nuke it.
@Alex B we will call the area The Thunderdome.
We've got it too here in Europe. For 3 or 4 years they spread in a huge maneer, but I found to him a vertue: The same reasons that caused it spread in a global way recently caused the huge increasing energy prices.
However I discovered that although the branches provide some poor quality, the trunks make very good firing logs!
Then, the fact it grows so quickly suddenly turns from curse into blessing.
I grew up in Indiana. It was a Cole mining area. I remember a tree like that growing there and I remember the smell when cut or broken. I am thinking it must like growing around mine tailings. They even called it the Tree of Heaven. Interesting video.
I grew up there. *(in Cottonwood) My Cousin is the Facilities Manager at the old Hotel. :)
Invasives are generally bad for an environment. But anything that can live in the world we are creating will be priceless.
Really awesome. Indeed a very green solution. 🙂
Andrew... You're awesome and Keep doing these awesome videos.
Glad you like them!
Thank you very much for your clear presentation! Did you see an examples in this town where the Tree of Heaven was providing a substrate for native vegetation to grow? I'm wondering if it could be managed and pruned to build soil and initiate ecological succession for native species. Any thoughts about this?
This tree does the opposite of providing a substrate for native vegetation. Tree of hell possesses negative allelopathic traits which prevent the germination of native plants by exuding chemicals into the soil through their far spreading roots. The chemicals produced during the decomposition of the trees leaf litter also prevent native seed germination. This tree suffocates and destroys all native plant communities, do not try to use it thinking that it will enable ecological succession because it will result in widespread ecological recession.
@@diseasedleginc.6528If it's pruned continuously and soil organic matter builds up, what happens to the allelopathic chemicals in the soils? Do the chemicals breakdown? Do ALL native species respond equally to Tree of Heaven's allelopathy? I'd need to see research that tests all native species with this tree before I accept this claim. I would be curious to know if there are exceptions.
I think the chemicals break down pretty quickly & the trees do produce a lot of dead fall that technically makes the soil very rich, but I have yet to find native plants that sprout well under them. The chemicals come from the roots, though & two things you can do to get around it is putting thick rock barriers between the tree & where you want to plant other stuff, then keeping an eye on the seedlings to manage the tree of Heaven populations & also you can put in live plants instead of seeds & they will settle in & do fine. The chemicals only seem to affect seeds themselves.
A bag of seeds and an airplane run seems like a wildly cheap solution to save an entire town
I have this tree growing in pots, it never flowers and is easy to control.
Bringing in destructive invasive species sometimes has short-term benefits but often the long-term impact is catastrophic. Sometimes nature wants things to die because it doesn't belong, like this town. It wasn't meant to be there, so maybe just let it run its natural course.
acawap: What a ridiculous idea, to let an entire community go to rubble and ruined peoples homes and the few livelihoods that they have. Because “nature wants things to die“.
By that logic, Nothing should be done to help areas after hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and the like.
It’s easy to spout platitudes like the one you just spouted, when it’s not your home, life, family, community, livelihood, and future at stake.
@@daphneraven6745 complete nonsense. I'm not saying to let PEOPLE die, just the town - buildings, roads, etc that are sliding down a hill because they shouldn't have been built there to begin with. The people can just... move. It is not even remotely similar to helping people when there is a flood or fire. It's more similar to somebody building a house on a sandy beach and having it fall down and wash away with the tide. The answer is to let that happen, not change the structure of the beach.
@@acawap : You stick with that story.
Nature isn't sentient. It doesn't want anything. Whether people, or plants, or animals die is up to them.
The tree of heaven is named for a reason. It's a resilient plant that will thrive and persevere under difficult environment.
Wow, awesome video! Someone I know was recently in Jerome and visited that jail. The town is supposedly haunted. Anyway, interesting video and discussion about an invasive species being a potential solution in this case. I would rather have invasive plant species than a toxic wasteland.
That’s a false choice. Undoubtedly there were native plants that could have been planted. But the lazy idiot introduced an invasive monoculture instead. Is a monoculture a good permaculture practice? No it is not. And now poor Jerome’s infrastructure is being destroyed by the invasive plant (as described in the video).
Mossy Earth just did a video yesterday on the invasive Lupine in Iceland and how it’s actually doing a lot of good for the island. Worth checking out if you haven’t
@@kristoffermundbjerg6088 Cool, thank you! That video is in my queue already but haven't watched it yet. I'll check it out soon.
@@ThreeRunHomer Good point.
@@ThreeRunHomer if the local species haven’t taken over it during all this time, then they’re not potent enough to do so. Then ailantus altissima is the right type of tree to survive in these harsh conditions. Jedem das seine
Having a Greener Future.
I live in a N. Calif county that is going dry due to drought and AG wells overdrawing the aquifer. All plant life in my yard has died EXCEPT the 6-8 Tree of Heavens. They seem to be thriving! So even though I've been told this tree is invasive it's currently the hero in my yard. It literally is the only green thing I have right now.
I'd love to visit this town, almost reminds me of a village in Italy.
That one scene of the street curving around the mountain made me think of Italy too.
@@Automedon2 it's so pretty, I can "visit Italy" without actually going there.
I learned a long time ago, "it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature"... from a margarine TV commercial. We'll never learn.
If you're having trouble with Ailanthus, use Tordon. It's a brush killer. Simply ring the bark of the main trunk, apply liberally to the cut, and wait for the the tree to die. Ailanthus are tough trees, but one or two applications is usually all it takes, even for mature trees. Before you remove all of them from your property though, try potting a few seedlings in some tubs and take advantage of their ornamental properties. They grow quickly (20 ft in a season, easily) and can take on a lovely palm-like appearance; especially in small groups. Then coppice them back every year or two and they'll pop up again the next year.
There’s a couple of them in my backyard and they’re pretty interesting, when I was a kid I would use its branches to create makeshift bows; not the best material, but it’s what I had available.
Yup, I get that. My local annoyance has similar properties to that tree (though it's a vine). I haaaaate bindweed, but damn if that thing can grow where nothing else will! You gotta respect that sort of vigor for life.
For a while in Toronto I planted trees of heavan but they were all over the place here for generations. They grew in cracks and vacant lots and everywhere else. Across the street from my row house on the lower east side there's a huge male tree. In July it drops a carpet of tiny male flower parts like sawdust for hundreds of feet in all directions. There are still tons of female trees😮 which drop almost as many seeds in the fall and through the winter. Most germinate and rapidly grow, but most females seem to die after 30 or so years. Within two years of dying large limbs start to fall willi nilli. That is where I think they get their name. You are out for a stroll, and bang the tree of heavan falls and you are sent to heavan.
The take home is terrible. Similar story can be told by Australians, their introduction of rabbits for food, their introduction of myxomatosis to control the rabbits, the introduction of a flea to fix the failure of the initial introduction of myxomatosis ... and the story might go on.
In New York City, where I lived in the mid 1970s, Ailanthus began dying out from a Fusarium oxysporum outbreak ca.1978. I had been rearing Cynthia Moth (Samia cynthia) caterpillars through successive years on leaves I collected from Ailanthus trees I passed by when returning home from work, and in that year, many declined and died. What was apparently another strain of F. oxysporum (forma perniciosum) had wiped out most of the Albizia trees in the city and suburbs during the 1960s and early 1970s. (In the latitude of NYC, seedling winter survivorship of A. julibrissin is too poor for the tree to become invasive, and they were much admired and widely planted ornamentals.) Our 'news' media did not note the sudden death and subsequent disappearance of most of NYC's Ailanthus trees until the 1980s, years after this was evident to even casual observers.
Both A. julibrissin and A. altissima happen to be among my favorite trees from childhood! The Ailanthus thrives mightily in disturbed and anthropogenic habitats such as heavily urbanized environments, gravel railway embankments, vacant lots, etc., but competes poorly with both native and introduced trees and shrubs in more natural environments. As the Fusarium outbreak made evident, A. altissima is not indestructible. It does not tolerate extremely cold winters, and is intolerant of shade as well. While the foliage is rank when crushed (instant karma for people who unthinkingly and impulsively break foliage off of trees that they pass!), and the flowers (which are visited by many native insects) have an odor that is reminiscent of fermenting melon rinds, it is an attractive tree when not badly crowded by suckers and seedlings, and the bright chartreuse to light green immature samaras, tinted or highlighted with anthocyanins ranging from salmon to red and purple, are very beautiful.
NYC still has isolated Ailanthus trees, but most seedlings are killed by Fusarium after they attain a few feet in height. Individual trees isolated by expanses of blacktop seem to be protected against Fusarium; some have continued to thrive and set seed decades after nearby specimens unprotected by blacktop have died. The city's once extensive monocultures of Ailanthus in vacant lots, railroad yards, etc., have been almost entirely replaced by (ugly) monocultures of Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris).
In the novel " A Tree grows in Harlem" it was a Tree of Heaven
I visited Jerome and the scars of the city sliding down the mountain is visible and unique.
The tree is also known in urban areas as the ghetto palm; it can grow two feet in a year and may many times be the only really thriving plant in abandoned lots.
The little golden book on trees states that silkworms can feed on mulberry and this trees leaves!
Ailanthus is also the tree described in the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
It's all a matter of perspective, and I understand your vision. However, there should be an emphasis on local species, and not imported, since that have happened throughout history and is one of the reasons we have problems with invasive species, like the silver carp.
Exactly. I live in southeast Arizona and my land is covered in invasive species. I'm in the process of waging a war on two fronts. First weaken and (when possible) kill the invasive plants while simultaneously planting fast growing, aggressive native species. So far I've partially reclaimed one acre, but I've learned a lot and that process is going to start moving faster.
One issue I have is that I have nothing but invasive trees where I have trees. They need to go, but I can't just cut them down. They're serving the purpose of trees here and we need them to help with erosion, to act as a windbreak, and as a place of shelter for native wildlife.
But I can't plant healthy native trees until the invasive ones are gone. The invasive trees are allelopathic. They chemically prevent other trees from growing on this land. As long as they're here, I can't put in good trees.
Right now I'm hoping to find a shrub that is capable of competing with the tree and maybe then I can begin the transition.
Invasive plants are 'invasive' for a reason. It's not just that they grow well and out compete native plants, it's that they actively harm native plants and prevent them from reestablishing. Sadly, there's a lot we don't know about their chemical warfare. What's the distance from the tree that the chemical do it's work? How long does it last in the soil? Is the chemical carried away by ground water so that the soil is contaminated downstream? We don't know any of that.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 Have you tried heavy pruning or coppicing of the invasive trees and then planting native vegetation or even cover crops? Repeated pruning/chop and drop could build the soil gradually and provide better conditions for native species. A reason that invasives are present is often because of disturbance. Previous disturbance (e.g., deforestation, overgrazing) would have led to erosion and soil loss and these poor conditions may have favored your invasive trees. From this perspective, the invasive could be seen as a pioneer that's doing the work of improving the soil and environment for the next stage of succession.
People shouldn't live in Arizona tbh
As someone who lives in NC, I can attest to this - kudzu is no joke here. I've been to places where the ivy has covered entire woods - literal 50ft trees for miles and miles strangled by ivy.
@@vociferonheraldofthewinter2284 have you tried planting Ocotillo it is native and grows fast up to 10" a year if you keep it watered. It you want other native trees and if your near a river or stream cottonwood works.
This is like a sumac. You cut it down and it sends out shooters. The leaves look like a sumac as well. It spreads to everywhere. The only way I could eliminate it is by drilling holes in the base and using a root killer. It was weird too, I put the root killer on it and this red stuff came out of the roots. The sumac looked like it was bleeding from the roots.
Remedy works on poison sumac. Just ring the base where it comes out of the ground and voila, dead in a month.
I've been to Jerome, a very cool little town!
i just hope they never find the plant that out-competes kudzu..........i cant even imagine what that future would be like. kudzu is already a beast of a reality
Always remember, when you are feeling good about TCM. It gives the highest value, to all rare and endangered species.
Thanks for a really informative video! If not for the RUclips algorithm I’d never have seen this.
I'm glad this worked but I don't understand why we aren't utilizing Bamboo for all the issues we are having including erosion. NO it is not invasive, it's Indigenous to every Continent except Antarctica, it absorbs twice as much CO2 than any other plant and releases 30% more O2. It can be routinely harvested and the canes can be used for a myriad of different things. It's heat and drought tolerant as well and contrary to popular belief, it doesn't need much water.
There's only one species of bamboo native to north America and it doesn't grow in the desert.
@@paultmiles Yes, and other species were introduced decades and decades ago. We are running out of time to save the Planet, we need to utilize everything available so it makes zero sense not to use something that's already here.
@@koicaine1230 it does make sense not to use it. Let that erosion happen. It was caused by the hands of man. Why disrupt the natural course further? The introduction of invasive species furthers the detriment to native ecosystems, which have taken millennia to sort themselves out.
@@paultmiles It's already here and it's not going to disrupt the ecosystem, it will save it and us.
@@koicaine1230 ok, boss
The tree might make for some pretty good biomass too. Have it establish in the talings then cut it down and let it decompose while the replacement grows up and so on until the talings have enough organic matter in them that other plants can grow in them too.
It actually has several medicinal properties though product might be adversely affected by A altissima's ability to take up lead...
Sounds like a ton of maintenance for a tree species. You might be right, but it's probably not worth the time unless you have a way to recoup costs associated with the maintenance. I think you'd be better suited to acquire biomass from mostly outside sources, do the biomass creation off of a single cull of the area as you described, and then hope that native species can win out in that localized environment before the next set of trees grows in and shades it all to death and then proceeds to regress soil composition. A cyclical thing but potentially possible to claim back soil biota and space bit by bit. Invasive species, whether there are any temporary positive effects or not, have significant negative impacts and externalities which in the end earn them their name of invasive.
Additionally A altissima is allelopathic.
@@b_uppy oh rip. But that probably shouldn't matter once it's broken down into soil.
@@beskamir5977
Depends on relative persistence. If may last a while...
This must be what Disneyland for spotted lantern flies looks like.
You should have asked: Is this town worth saving at that cost?
This solution is almost like pouring hot oil on your skin to alleviate acne. No more blemishes on the new scar tissue. I guess it worked on one aspect of the ecological damage from the mining disturbance (the erosion), but it will have long-term detrimental effects on the landscape that will be hard to remedy.
Like other commenters wrote, there are many other native tree species that would have been able to achieve the same result without the unintended consequences of introducing an invasive species.
Andrew, can you do a video on invasive buffelgrass in Arizona? We now have fires in Sonoran desert due to this invasive grass.
Agreed! Though I'm not sure if any positives other than providing feed for livestock can be attributed to it.
And creosote.
Thank you, Andrew!
It's also the preferred food of another invasive species, the spotted lanternfly
I love Proven Winners ads‼️🥰
This is the tree referred to in the novel ‘A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.’
It is literally the Tree of Heaven. We had them in northern Indiana, they grew very quickly , provide shade in only five years, and lots of leaf litter to recondition and stabilize the soil. In fifteen years they can be 30 feet tall and have a 24 inch diameter trunk. But they are short lived and have soft wood.
the Tamarisk was introduced in Colorado river basin area many years ago to hold soil of the desert. Native to Africa and Middle East it proved to be a grave error. It has spread throughout the Colorado river and its tributaries causing the decline or complete disappearance of the native plants. It has also changed the courses of many of the rivers ass it grows into large areas and holds the silt in place rather than it being swept down river creating blockages. It is never a good idea to introduce an invasive plant or animal for any reason!
The only exception is that occasionally it can be a net benefit. NY state has a major issue with Eurasian milfoil (a freshwater seaweed) and after years of trying to remove it they finally ended up releasing aquatic moths that love to eat the stuff and its finally cleared up most of the crap.
However, in general its usually a terrible idea to introduce an invasive species and should only be considered as a last resort. Just look up the Cobra Effect for a list a mile long of all the times it has failed.
This tree is all over Clifton Arizona too.
This tree grows in the UK in parks and big gardens. It’s not really seen as that invasive over here and gardeners can but them to plant as the flowers are valued. I do see small plants of it growing in old, knocked down buildings (amongst others), but we don’t really have any kind of problem with it. I wonder if that’s down to the different climates and maybe it’s not as rampant here?
ANDREW --Lots of people watched this video and have no idea about the downsides of deliberately planting invasives and are bragging about their introduction of this or other invasive species on their property and elsewhere. You need to do a follow up to stop the cascade of harm. You mentioned 'outcompete' which implies faster, more vigorous growth but fails to mention A. altimissima's allelopathic nature.
You can still plant many non native plants and they'll be okay. It is also okay to consider planting 'plants labeled as invasive' by your local extension service* but do research first.
Having the Ailanthus altissima establish in the mine talings was super. Fortunately the site also seems to make the spread of ailanthus self limiting due to water constraints (the town roofs providing the needed extra water so that it can survive.
This tree can be used in phytoremediation of nickel and lead, wonder what was mined... When were they introduced? Ailanthus is allelopathic. It is hoped a derivative can made from it to inhibit algae blooms in lakes.
Wonder if the mayor knew it's reputation for being stinky? Wonder what they could have planted instead that would have been combative with the talings? Did the town population rebound much?
*Our local extension service overreacts and has labeled non-invasives as such on the assumption of guilty until proven innocent. Now we have chemical 'experts' idiotically spraying at the river.
I don't think he cared just needed to stop the slide. Kudzu is an invasive vine that takes over, might've worked.
Looks like it did, over time.
@@donnaleveron6511
Kudzu likes more moisture than this site has.
Possible downsides of A altissima is that it significantly alters soil biota:
effect of varying A. altissima densities in a forest of north-eastern France on soil microbial activity, diversity of various litter and soil invertebrate groups (Arthropoda, Lumbricidae, Gastropoda), diversity of functional groups (predatory, detritivorous, coprophagous, phytophagous), and trophic structure. Our study shows that increasing density of A. altissima is associated to lower soil microbial activity, decreasing abundance of litter detritivores (Acari and Collembola) and aboveground predatory Coleoptera, and decreasing species richness of terrestrial Gastropoda. In contrast, increased A. altissima density corresponded with greater abundances of litter Lumbricidae and aboveground coprophagous Coleoptera. We found an overall impact of A. altissima invasion on the soil food web structure that could accelerate the mineralization of organic matter and potentially favor nitrophilous plant species in understory plant communities.
I’ve seen Ailanthus take over hillsides in various places, though I suspect it wasn’t usually brought in on purpose. I recall a big chunk of Boulder, Colorado claimed by it. In my native Decatur, Illinois, not especially prone to erosion, there are some huge ones in the older parts of town, and small ones show up everywhere from seed or roots. I’ve seen leafy stems of it used outside University of Illinois fraternities to give a vaguely exotic touch to tropical-themed parties. It’s also the tree that grew in Brooklyn back when NYC was full of heavily-polluting industries, used as a metaphor in the famous book.
Diversity is our strenth ☝️🤤
They are all over Albuquerque, been here since the 50's
Any plant smelling too sweet or awful is surely a medicinal plant. We just need to discover its uses.