Treatment options for an Ash Tree

During this post I will discuss various treatments and options on whether you should treat an ash tree.  Because of the expense of yearly treatments, it is important to weigh the decision carefully.  Consider the value of the tree in relation to the costs of the treatment.  You also need to keep in mind the health of the tree before expending costs to save it.

Research suggests that insecticide treatments may be able to save infested ash trees exhibiting low to moderate die back, which is around 20 to 40 percent.  The insecticide product that is most commonly used is Bayer Advanced Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control.  For more severe cases you need to contact your local professional arborist.  The best time to treat this issue is from the months of May to early June.  All you have to do is mix the product with water and drench it around the base of the tree.  Trees that are less than 6 inches in diameter only really require one year of treatment, but larger trees may require two years of treatment before they are protected.  It is also important to keep in mind that you must continue the treatment each year.

So how long will it take to notice if this treatment is taking effect?

At sites where ash trees have been infested and treated with soil drenching for 3 years, about half of the trees survived and appeared to be very healthy.  These trees were heavily infested when the test began, so an early treatment would have yielded better results.  Homeowners need to take action to protect their trees.  They may also contact tree care professionals to treat their trees.  Professionals have access to some additional products that are not available to homeowners.  The best call to action is to always start treatment as soon as possible.

So let’s review what we have discussed:

1.      Once you have identified an ash tree, way out the costs of treatment in relation to the health of the tree.

2.      Purchase products such as, Bayer Advanced Garden, to treat your personal trees.

3.      If you are not able to treat your tree, contact a professional arborist for help.

4.      It is always better to start treatment earlier than later when dealing with an ash tree.  You can always use treatment as a preventative measure to save your tree.

Please help protect our tree population by preventing this insect from killing our trees.  Ash trees are growing at an alarming rate and these four simple steps can help save millions of trees for our future.

Midpoint blog

For the project thus far, my duties have consisted of filming all of the footage for our video.  I have also set up the equipment and managed all of the files for the video project.  I have filmed all of the b-roll at two different locations and filmed both interviews at KIB.  We have all, for the most part, been present for the video shoots and helped with various tasks at hand.  While I was filming others were creating questions, identifying ash trees, recording sound, and setting up lights.  I believe that we have worked very well together thus far.  We have split up the work load pretty mutually so that everyone shares the load of participating on this project.  My personal role has been to film and manage all of the video for this project.  I will also be a major part of the editing process for the final video.  Others will contribute graphics and structure input, but getting the rough edit will be handled by me.  My personal end goal for this project is to structure the edit in a simplified and understandable manner that will meet the needs of our client.  Once my edit is done it will be easy for the rest of the team to polish the video for KIB.  We have all the assets for this project we just need to compile them in a professional manner.

Team Role Blogpost

Our team has gotten together to deliver a video project to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.  We have decided that Blake will be our project manager, Michael will be our Research/Audio, Paige will be our coder, Stephanie will handle our graphics, Nan will work on video editing/coding, and I will be handling the filming and editing of the video.  We have decided on these roles based of the first day of class and what projects and skills each individual is best at.  Personally I havent done very much this far on the project, but I will be filming very soon.  We have a basic story board of our video and are currently deciding on film locations and what we are going to be shooting.

What I learned in the dark

Being blind-folded can prove to be a troubling task for anyone.  It requires you to put trust and faith into your team mates and listen to their directions.  You have to trust that they are making the right decisions and that they are pretty much in control of what you are doing.  This is one thing that I took away from this project.  I feel this demonstration allowed my team to trust each other in making the right directions for everyone.  I believe that our performance as a team was excellent.  There wasn't one second where someone got hurt or really wasn't doing the right thing, aside from one incident of washing the hose.  There also weren't any falls or injuries and nothing was broken.  As far as a group direction goes I believe this demonstration was handled by two people at a time during the process.  Instead of everyone talking over one another, or being pulled out, we took turns communicating with the person who was blind folded to accomplish the task.  I felt like we started to work as a team right from the beginning of the task.  We did have some dominant people take the reigns  a couple of times, but when Beth took them out others had to come in and pick up the slack to accomplish the task. Overall I believe the boys did a little bit better job communicating to one another, just because we arrived there earlier and got to hear the whole task at hand, but the girls did well on the demonstration as well.  At the end of the blind folded demonstration we were asked to finish the rest of the cart, and this is where I believe that we came together as a team without any communication.  Our personalities knew that we had to accomplish the task and had very little time, so we effectively broke into positions and had an assembly line cleaning station going on.  There wasn't one person doing anymore work than the other and we were working efficiently to complete the task.  Overall this assignment has really brought us closer as a group and helped us communicate better as a team.

Deconstruct the kites

Building a kite has proven to be a very tactful, yet fun, task.  Being paired with one another actually worked out very well.  We all met in class Thursday and broke into our pairs to begin the building process.  I believe everyone did a little research on their own, a simple Google search, and came in with an idea of how they wanted to build a kite.  Anne and I first discussed the design and how we were going to create our kite.  We then got to know one another and started discussing interests, such as; color.  We had a few minor flaws with the three kites that we tested, but overall it was a great team building process.  Even though we had really never met, this exercise was a great demonstration on how a team can accomplish a task.  We came in with our own ideas, discussed each others interest, built our model, and tested it.  Although our kite didn't fly as well as others, it did go up in the air and it came out looking exactly as we planned.  I believe that all the teams did very well in this exercise and worked very well together.

Overall I really enjoyed this project and the demonstration of building a small team to accomplish a task.  It really broke down the fundamentals of how an effective team works.  Although this wasn't as transparent during the building process, afterwards I feel enlightened to what I need to work on for the next team project.  I believe that one thing that I need to work on is being more assertive with my ideas.  I also need to invest more time for research to analyze what future team members come up with and decide if its an effective way to go about our project.

Group Development Comparison

Group develop is an interesting study.  After reading and comparing these processes to the processes that our class has undergone there were many similarities on how to create an effective group.  The first one that stuck out to me was Kurt Lewin's Individual change process.  After taking our tests and seeing how our personality works with others, I believe that Kurt's three step process of disabling your defense, changing your mindset, and adapting your comfort level are all effective strategies to create and effective group.  The Next model that stuck out to me was Tuckman's Stages.  This model I believe is what compares directly hand in hand with the tests that our class has undergone. This model really appeals to a group that doesn't know each other very well.  The next effective model is Fisher's theory of decision.  I really like how this model is broken down into the four stages.  Groups members meet each other and get to know one another, then conflict and debate about the task at hand.  Then the next stage the group's social roles become apparent and a conclusion is reached.  Out of all of the models I believe that this one relates to the most realistic "real world scenario."  The next effective model for group development is Gersick's Punctuated equilibrium.  This model establishes a framework of behavioral patterns that allow the group to develop a project.  Then through experience and research it allows the group to come up with ideas that transitions the group to meet satisfied expectations.  Not all of these models go along with the tests that we demonstrated in our class, but these are the models that I believe will create positive group development.  These models are effective with people who don't really know each other very well, but are laid out to accomplish the task at hand.

Best and Worst Experience In a group!

I would have to say that last semester I worked with one of the best groups in my years here at IUPUI.  For my intro to sound class we had to get together as a group of around six to accomplish a final project.  We organized everyone's skill set and utilized it to produce an entire video with sounds we created.  We planned out efficient dates that met everyone's schedule and each person brought something to the group that helped us accomplish the task.

I would have to say that my worst group that I have been in was during my digital story-telling final.  I depended on my partner to edit the video and post it to youtube and everything went south.  I ended up doing all the work, filming and editing, and assumed he could just upload the final piece to youtube.  This was not the case, and I ended up having to speak with the professor because my partner failed to do any work on the project.  He was also extremely bad, even worse than me, at procrastinating and putting off the work.  I believe that most groups fail when one person has to pick up the slack for another person that doesn't bring anything to the table.