Grove becomes living laboratory to research trees' weather resistance

Per a story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Schenley Park grove will become a living laboratory to research trees' resistance to various climate changes.

The story below:

With snow blowing sideways Tuesday morning, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy horticulturists Jaci Bruschi and Angela Yuele and intern Emily Cumpston set about planting 100 yellowwood saplings along a hillside in Schenley Park off Frew Street.

Now dormant, these tiny specimens will become a living laboratory in the spring as the pilot species in the Schenley Park Tree Research Grove.

The American yellowwood is an enigmatic species to be testing out in this climate zone. It isn’t common this far north, but there are about 10 known specimens that are mature and healthy right in Oakland, including Schenley Park, said Phil Gruszka, the conservancy’s director of horticulture and forestry.

They are proof the yellowwood could flourish here, because within the genetic makeup of the species, some specimens leaf out later and have withstood northern weather, he said.

Continue to full article here.