The Back Fence
The Back Fence: News from HortScience
March 2010
Welcome Ruth Pineo and Carol Randisi!
Preparing for irrigation with recycled water
An engagement at HortScience
When in Hong Kong…..watch the Sichuan-style cooking!
CalTrans Doyle Drive Replacement Project
Jim Clark joins the Board of Directors for the American Society of Consulting Arborists
Who’s reading what…
Photo of the moment
HortScience recently welcomed two new employees.
Carol Randisi joins us following a career as a municipal arborist with the City of Milpitas. Her area of consulting responsibility is water conservation and use of recycled water in the landscape.
Ruth Pineo joins us in the role of office manager, responsible for bookkeeping and all things administrative. Ruth is our resident expert on American Idol and all things Adam Lambert.
Both Ruth and Carol can be reached at 925-484-0211, or ruth@hortscience.com and carol@hortscience.com.
Preparing for irrigation with recycled water
Nelda and Carol, along with Larry Costello, UC Cooperative Extension, and David Kelley, KAES Inc, have been evaluating sites in Redwood City and Mountain View (for the City of Palo Alto) that will be converted from potable (drinking) water to irrigation with recycled water. Recycled water contains higher concentrations of salt than potable water, and can cause damage to sensitive plants such as redwood, Heavenly bamboo, and ginkgo.
The team has developed a protocol for soil investigation, landscape species inventory, irrigation and water quality assessment to determine likely outcomes when recycled water is introduced to the landscape. Part of that work has been to establish locations where plant condition, soil moisture and soil chemical changes are monitored. We are also developing landscape management techniques to manage the salts.
Michael Santos has been working with the City of Santa Clara on recycled water issues as well. He has developed a monitoring protocol for redwoods that were irrigated with recycled water for many years but have now been switched back to potable water.
Nelda & Jim travelled east – Far East that is - in November, providing training workshops in Hong Kong and Melbourne. 
One of the highlights was our visit to the HK Botanical Garden which included a lunch of Sichuan style food. Huge serving dishes arrived at the table. But 75% of the volume was little red peppers! Our host Joe Lau (far left) ordered “moderate” heat. Thank goodness.
After a week in Hong Kong, we welcomed Melbourne’s cuisine as a nice change. Thanks to Doug and Christine Sharp for firing up the BBQ for us. And we almost had a close encounter with a territorial kangaroo on one of our hikes.
Tree risk assessment was our main theme in both locations. Arborists were very interested in learning HortScience’s procedures for inspection and evaluation. We used a number of case studies to illustrate how we use our assessments to help our clients manage tree risk.
CalTrans Doyle Drive Replacement Project
Earlier in the fall, HortScience was selected as the project arborist for CalTrans Doyle Drive replacement project. Located in the Presidio in SF, the project involves constructing new access to the Golden Gate Bridge. We first identified trees to be removed, developed tree protection guidelines and work procedures for tree removal. Our work currently focuses on tree management and monitoring, all related to creating the space for temporary roads. John Leffingwell has been the consultant most involved in the effort. He and Jane Whitcomb have inspected and evaluated all the trees in the project area.
Here’s the first tree removal. Highway 1 is just out of the photo to the right.
The American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA) is the professional organization for arboricultural consultants in North America. Jim was recently elected to serve on its Board. For more info: www.asca-consultants.org.
Who’s reading what…
Jim recommends both Longitude, Dava Sobel’s story of how science and art combined to make it possible for ships to determine their location, pre-GPS, and Anathem by Neil Stephensen. Ruth loves Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. Nelda continues to devour mysteries in bunches. Plus she listens to books while hiking and doing chores. A current favorite is Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, which is read by the author.
Jim’s iPhone picture from the Moab Century bike ride. A sweet, sweet downhill.
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