Urban Forestry Research Update: Virginia Tech
by Michelle Sutton, City Trees Editor
Virginia Tech students and administrators pause for a photo with University President Charles Steger (at right holding shovel) and Virginia Secretary
of Natural Resources Doug Demenech (left of Steger) during an Arbor Day celebration in 2011. Photo courtesy Virginia Tech University Relations
Dr. Eric Wiseman and Dr. Susan Day
lead Virginia Tech's (VT) urban forestry research program out of the VT Department of Forest Resources &
Environmental Conservation. Just for starters, Wiseman
is a specialist in urban forest analysis and management, while Day runs the VT Urban Horticulture Center.
Dr. John McGee of the Virginia Geospatial Extension
Program, State Master Gardener Coordinator Dave
Close, Dr. J. Roger Harris, and Dr. Laurie Fox of the VT
Horticulture Department are close collaborators.
The four areas of major interest for Drs. Wiseman and
Day and their collaborators are: Applied Arboriculture,
Urban Forest Ecophysiology, Urban Soil & Rhizosphere,
and Urban Forest Inventory & Analysis.
The Urban Forestry Gateway (urbanforestry.frec.vt.edu)
is the hub for research information and all things urban
forestry at Virginia Tech (a Tree Campus USA since
2008). Here are snapshots of just some of the recently
completed and ongoing research of particular interest
to urban foresters.
20
Urban Soil Rehabilitation Study and Soil Profile
Rebuilding Specs
(http://urbanforestry.frec.vt.edu/SRES/results.html;
http://urbanforestry.frec.vt.edu/SRES/specification.html)
Since 2007, Dr. Day has led this ongoing research at
the Soil Rehabilitation Experiment Site (SRES) looking
at how soils can be rehabilitated after being graded
and compacted in the course of development. The work
was initiated with graduate student Rachel Layman.
More recently, Ph.D. candidate Yujuan Chen has collected extensive data for the project. The research first
compared untreated soils to ones that received various
levels of remediation. The most successful treatment,
dubbed "Soil Profile Rebuilding (SPR)," showed improvement both of soil characteristics and tree growth. It is a
subsoiling technique that introduces compost deep into
the soil profile, to at least 2 feet (.6 m).
According to the SRES site, "Preliminary results demonstrate that Soil Profile Rebuilding can improve tree
establishment and growth during the first five years
City Trees
