Trees

There was an unsuccessful attempted armed robbery Friday morning outside of the Dollar Tree store in Bel Air, the Harford County Sheriff's Office reported. At about 8:11 a.m. Friday, Harford County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Dollar Tree Store in the 200 block of BrierHill Drive for an attempted armed robbery call. Upon arriving at the scene, deputies found that a Dollar Store employee had stepped outside in the rear of the store to empty trash when he was approached by a white male who demanded his wallet.

My trees look ratty. Can I prune now before the leaves come out? Should I put that black gunk on the cuts? I've never done this before. March is an excellent time to prune trees. Without leaves, you have a much better view of what needs to be done. Altogether, don't remove more than one-fourth of the tree canopy in one year. First remove dead limbs. Where two branches rub across each other creating an entry wound for disease, remove one of the branches. Young trees need to be trained to one trunk, unless it's a multi-trunk species such as river birch.

A Baltimore County police officer was injured after crashing a patrol car into a tree in Catonsville late Wednesday night, according to county police. Shortly before midnight, Officer Tia Bynum, 28, of Catonsville, was traveling westbound on Route 40 with her patrol vehicle's lights and sirens activated, responding to a call for assistance from another officer, said Louise Rogers-Feher, a police spokeswoman. As Bynum, a six-year veteran of the force, began entering the intersection of Route 40 and Coleridge Road against a red traffic light, another vehicle heading south on Coleridge which had a green light entered the intersection, Rogers-Feher said.

We have a treasure that some may not appreciate. There are very few remaining stands of old trees, not only in Columbia but in the whole state of Maryland. We once took a special trip to northern Michigan to visit a virgin forest. We are so fortunate to have such a stand of trees in the middle of Columbia and should be thankful to those that had the foresight to preserve it for us and future generations. It should be left in its natural state. Business ventures should be up to those risking their capital and have knowledge of what potential may be derived from that investment.

CA needs to think through the proposed elevated tree canopy walk for the Inner Arbor Plan. The reality is that during construction the contractor will clear cut trees for a 25- to 50-foot right-of-way along the walkway route for construction vehicle access and delivery of materials and for underground utilities (electric power, fire plugs water line, sewer line). Then a 25-foot-wide permanent paved or gravel emergency and maintenance access road will need to be built along the cleared right-of-way.

The Olive Tree is not the Olive Garden. But you would be forgiven for mixing them up. Both outside and in, the two restaurants look quite similar; they share a "rustic Italian" vibe and their logos are nearly identical. Both are reasonably priced, with menus offering a broad selection of popular Italian-American meals. The similarities between the two restaurants are obvious. But the Olive Tree, locally owned with locations in Glen Burnie and Aberdeen, differentiates itself from the mega-chain Olive Garden with an emphasis on what Maryland restaurants do best: seafood.

The plink, plink, plink of sap hitting the bottom of a metal bucket is music to Sheryl Pedrick's ears, she says. That means there will be a symphony in the woods around Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton in the weeks ahead. The education coordinator at the gardens has been tapping the maple trees the old-fashioned way - with a hand drill and metal spouts and stainless steel buckets that she's collected from farm sales - and before the season ends in March, she will have collected 30 or 40 gallons of sap and boiled it down until it becomes the delicious amber-colored syrup that puts Aunt Jemima to shame.

There is a Maryland foundation whose purpose is to fund sacred places, green spaces that celebrate nature by creating verdant calm refuges tucked away from urban chaos. It seems CA proposes to do the opposite.  Our Symphony Woods is already a sacred place. So we have a responsibility to tread lightly, with small footprints, when we make it a public place. The last plan to create walkways through the trees, "Columbia's Central Park with a fountain," seemed to be an unobtrusive way to enjoy SW's exquisite trees.

Harford Road in the Glen Arm area is closed between Hartley Mill and Glen Arm roads because of downed trees and wires following storms and heavy winds that swept through the region last night, according to Baltimore County police. Authorities have received no reports of major flooding in the county, Cpl. John Wachter said.

After the recent hurricanes, I'm worried about a tree by my house. Should I get it topped so it's shorter and less prone to fall over? Tree topping (which is like a buzz cut) is never recommended, for several reasons. Trees are programmed through their DNA to grow to a particular height. If chopped back, they will grow tall again. Add to this that pruning stimulates growth. Consequently, whacking the top off a tree produces lots of rapidly growing suckers and unfortunately this new growth is weakly attached to the tree.