Why Dead Trees Make Great Homes

This morning, the staff working hard down at the Horticulture Center on Bloomfield Farm were lucky to be joined by a pileated woodpecker, who was also working hard at a stump twenty feet from our window.

At the Morris Arboretum, dead trees are usually completely removed to reduce the hazards they pose to passersby.  However, dead wood can serve as food and habitat for all sorts of organisms – from insects and fungi, to squirrels and birds!  The Morris Arboretum Urban Forestry Consultants advocate leaving standing deadwood as “wildlife trees”, where it is safe and appropriate, because they add enormous ecological value to a landscape.  Because this stump outside of the Horticulture Center was purposefully cut to a safe height, it can be enjoyed by this handsome pileated woodpecker.

Contributed by Corey Bassett, the Martha S. Miller Urban Forestry Intern,

Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania

The Swan Pond

The Swan Pond at Morris Arboretum is one of our members' favorite places in the Arboretum. The Swan Pond is in a central location at the Arboretum (see map), very close to the Japanese Hill Garden. Some of our "Great Trees" are located right here - a Dwarf eastern white pine (Pinus strobus 'Nana), Weeping Canada hemlock (Tsuga canadensis f. pendula) and a Cilician fir (Aibes cilicica). There are also some beautiful ferns growing around the Swan Pond right now.

There is also a lot of wildlife that can be seen at the Swan Pond, including our new Mute Swans, Flora and Fauna. Enjoy these pictures, all taken in the last three days, starting with a pileated woodpecker one of our birding instructors spotted over the weekend.  This is a very large North American woodpecker almost crow-sized. Adults are 16 to 19 in long.

Flora and Fauna (the new Mute Swans), American Robin, Mallard, Canada Goose and its gosling all pose for a picture.

Snakes.

A gosling.