Chais Kam

Black locust isn't native to every state, but it's found there as an introduced species. Since plants native to the same continent and also have similar wildlife value to true natives, they're just called native ehwerever they;re found even in the same continent. Here is a county by county US occurrence of locusts (8 are native to the US, and are the only worldwide):

http://bonap.net/NAPA/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Robinia

Green: Present in state
Cyan: Native but adventive (my explanation above)
Purple: Noxious weed
Yellow: Rare
Blue: Non-US native

I also don't think all North American ash will go extinct, about 10% of green, black & white ashes don't die from emerald ash borer, and 90% of blue ashes don't die either. Just 10% of Manchurian ashes die because they are native to china and have a genetic resistance to emerald ash borer. Should they actually go extinct, then it would be best to plant Manchurian ashes since they will replace all the wildlife that use the native ashes. Only time will tell but what will happen to those ashes native to the west where emerald ash borer has not been found (due to the continental divide). Manchurian ashes themselves have a neat balance of insectisides from what I've read that ward off EAB in china. All NA ashes have them, but not in the correct balance. EAB in china typically attacks stressed trees from drought. I heard there's a relative of ash trees (white fringe tree) that is also becoming a victim of EAB. Also EAB is just mainly a problem in the Ohio area.

http://bonap.net/NAPA/TaxonMaps/Genus/County/Fraxinus

About 3 months ago I stumbled upon an unusual ash tree while hiking along a creek in Salt Lake City Utah. It looks like no other ash I've encountered before. Its leaves are semi-rounded with lobes, light green leaves, the seeds are smaller than green ash, and leafs out way late. The location was right at the edge of the riparian forest which is very dry, not next to the streambed. It was growing next to some Utah junipers, tree of heaven, honey locusts, black locusts, Gambel oak, Norway maple, narrowleaf ash, and green ash. The closest native ash is Fraxinus anomala (Single-leaf ash), and even then it's not native to northern Utah. Still amazing how these trees survive in less than 13 inches of precipitation. I'm assuming it's either a rare mutation, a hybrid, or it's an isolated native species. I did collect some seeds of the tree so now they're in stratification and hopefully they'll germinate next spring. Any help identifying is appreciated.

http://imgur.com/a/pSCQV

Today I was walking along a honey locust tree that shows similar damage to that of an emerald ash borer insect. So far is "hasn't" been reported here yet, but only when is the question. Ash trees here are mostly located in the older neighborhoods and such. Now this honey locust seemed to have the "D" shaped holes and the inner cambium beneath the bark look gobbled (exactly in "S" shapes like the emerald borer) up by some critter. I've googled so far and no similar results have shown. So maybe it's adapted to locusts now?

Yes, that's what I've been finding out that you can prolong or extend the stratification period. In fact, I read that stratifying tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) for 140 days at 36 degrees Fahrenheit yields a satisfying 90% germination vs the quicker 30-90 days at 36-50 degrees which results in 5-20% germination. I'll follow up with my results later on in the spring when I sow them.

I just collected some seeds from tulip poplar, acorns from 2 unknown oaks (one was very upright like a Lombardy poplar with small long seeds, and another one with branches from the bottom, more wide like a pine with big 1 inch seeds), big-tooth maple, box-elder and green ash. I need these seedlings for a restoration project on my land, a ton of invasive trees like Siberian & wych elms were removed from my property because they were damaging 2 old metal irrigation pipes which are 2 springs that ran adjacent to both banks of a creek on my new property. Thankfully, those trees have been removed along with the irrigation pipes because now they're emptying upstream as they should and water is diverted downstream instead. The last time a water rights user used it was about a year ago, but now they've switched to a different company. The banks were highly eroded, scalloping and the water had high nitrates & nitrogen from upstream cows (I've encouraged them to leave a NATIVE river buffer!), now the pollutants are lower but still there. Also the 2 irrigation pipes carried about 50-100 cfs each, and in 2011 they were done, they had to have sediments removed and most of the water upstream ended up in the creek and even then the water was filthy. Now that they're gone, and there'll be an extra 100-200 cfs in the spring and maybe 10-15 cfs more in the summer. Next year's spring runoff will be much greater without diverted water, and land owners have to have the creek widened or else it'll just erode & erode. SO now that I have these seeds, I'm hoping to STORE them (I'm not sure how) and then stratify them & plant them in small 3x2 in or 3x1 in pots IN MARCH-APRIL!!! Then I'd move them over to bigger 12 in diameter pots (in 1-2 years). Because if I sowed them today, they'd be eroded in the spring! I want to plant them in pots by MARCH or APRIL, but stratifying them NOW would leave the 90 days of stratification in EARLY February which is FREEZING COLD. I don't want to invest in a cold frame or greenhouse until next fall maybe when I can get some additional coconut fiber or temporary rip rap to prevent erosion. SO THIS IS WHY I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO STORE THEM & THEN STRATIFY THEM TO BE SOWN IN POTS BY MARCH-APRIL! I know, this will pay off far in the future, far in the future maybe in 18 years when the trees are fully mature & give a nice view. I want native/beneficial trees which will attract wildlife to my creek! By the way, my cabin is located in Cache County, UTAH, United States of America.

AND, these are the seeds I'm planning to plant:

1. Water Birch (betula occidentalis)
2. Pin Oak (I know, the only oak native to my region is the gambel oak.)
3. Oak 1 (Long, smaller acorns, smooth) (tall upright tree, like a Lombardy poplar)
4. Oak 2 (Big 1 in acorns, texture & size almost exact to a "date", except it with vertical streaks) (wider tree, with branches starting at the bottom like a pine)
5. Tulip Poplar/Tulip Tree
6. Boxelder Maple
7. Bigtooth Maple
8. Green Ash (fraxinus pennsylvanica)
9. Willow (salix exigua, montocola, peachleaf, bebb) SUMMER SEED
10. Fremont Cottonwood SUMMER SEED
11. Eastern Cottonwood SUMMER SEED
11. Narrowleaf Cottonwood SUMMER SEED
13. Lanceleaf Cottonwood SUMMER SEED
14. Redoiser dogwood (unsure)
15. Western service-berry (unsure)

Hi, so I noticed there's several boxelder, gambel oak, and ash trees near my house and I'd like to germinate the seeds but I see that I need to cold stratify them. Its recommended to do it for 60-90 days from what I've seen, but if seeds fall on November 1-10, then the seeds would need to be planted/sown on February of next year which is still icy and far from spring. I'm wondering how I should go about STORING the seeds. Would I just need to extend the stratification length or store them in a refrigerator in a dry jar then stratify them in the refrigerator with moist vermiculite? Also I'm unsure whether the seeds germinate while in the bag in the fridge while stratifying. My target month for planting them in trays will be around March 5th and anytime after that since I noticed this is the peak stream-flow in my area and seedlings/buds start emerging from trees. I've heard that gambel oaks have 2 variants: the clonal colony typically found in browsing areas which grows 5-10 ft, and the true single trunk tree which can reach 30+ ft. I'm also wondering if gambel oaks will reach a good 30+ ft height from normal clonal type oaks as I've heard elsewhere.