![]() "If you look on the hills you can see pockets of brown. "We saw those young leaves die or be damaged," Tapper said. "Right now, until we get rainfall, (for) people seeing yard trees with this (frost damage) going on, watering trees is a good idea." Luckily, forest trees are robustĮthan Tapper, country forester for Chittenden County, added Staghorn sumac − a very common sight around Vermont − to the oak and beech impacted by the hard freeze. "I don't think we're in a drought, but we haven't had a lot of rainfall, which is another stress on trees," Halman said. ![]() Halman also worries about how dry it has been. "It is possible that some of those trees may not recover if they were subject to frost damage this year after repeated years of insect defoliation." "Many of our oaks in some areas of the state have been impacted in the last couple of years by spongy moth," she wrote. ![]() Most trees can withstand one to three years of early defoliation, as they will re-foliate and photosynthesize for the rest of the summer, replenishing the loss of carbohydrates."Īfter that third year of defoliation, however, all bets are off, according to Patch. "As a standalone event this is not too concerning. "There has been extensive frost damage to newly emerged leaves on oak and understory beech," Patch wrote in an email. Nancy Patch, county forester for Franklin and Grand Isle counties, echoed Halman's concern. "The trees of most concern are those that had health issues going into this season, or were defoliated by spongy mother caterpillars when they were going gangbusters the last couple of seasons." Insect damage followed by freeze damage is problematic "For forest-grown trees I'm not overly concerned they will be able to recover," Halman said. Halman worries about the damage done by the spongy moth caterpillar to Vermont trees over the past two years, making some trees even more vulnerable. The good news, Halman said, is that forest trees have dormant buds that will get activated in response to the damage, if it's a healthy tree. The timing of the May freeze was just right − or just wrong − to do the most damage, when small, tender leaves were just coming out on these late blooming trees. Halman singled out oak, ash and beech trees − and some ornamental trees found around houses − as particularly vulnerable because they are late to leaf out.
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