Elizabeth Community - Charlotte, NC

5 days ago

Woohoo!A local news publication, Axios Charlotte, reports that Charlotte has conquered the cankerworm infestation! Here's the basic story:

Assistant city arborist Laurie Dukes says that in 2015 her team counted 115,433 moths on a group of trees. In 2020, she counted 117 — total — on the same trees.

➡️ Why it matters:
If you're one of the thousands of new residents who didn't live here pre-2015, you may not know what spring could bring. But the rest of us won't forget the inch-long pests.

They dangled from trees by the thousands, little green and brown devils that landed in our coffee, our hair, and our open mouths while we ran or biked.

They were also real trouble for white oaks, munching leaves like they were at the Golden Corral, rendering the century-old trees weak for the strain of summer.

➡️ What's happening:
The city's campaign to wrap sticky bands around all the cankerworms' favorite trees in late fall — so that the wingless female moths would get caught on their way up the trunk to lay eggs each winter — has worked.

The count dropped to 38,948 in 2016, 32,434 in 2017, 4,963 in 2018, and 184 in 2019.

Last fall, the city stopped its tree banding program.

➡️ What's next:
Dukes says the city is moving on to two other tree-killers:

✳️ Emerald ash borer is now in 25 N.C. counties, including Mecklenburg. The city has mapped all the ash trees in town here.

✳️ Crape myrtle bark scale, a pest that attacks crape myrtles, is in Mecklenburg from Davidson to Ballantyne.

✳️ One piece of advice: Don't top cut crape myrtle trees; it destroys the tree's balance. "It’s really not healthy for the tree," Dukes says.

Source: Axios Charlotte; Photo: NCSU ... See MoreSee Less

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Elizabeth Community - Charlotte, NC

6 days ago

Elizabeth 8k Road RaceProceeds from this year’s race go to ElizabethCares, an initiative founded in March 2021 by the Elizabeth Community Association in partnership with the Elizabeth 8K.

ElizabethCares was born as a response to the pain the pandemic caused to our communities, and to date over $26,000 has been donated to local non-profits such as:
Second Harvest Food Bank
Feed the Front Line
Loaves and Fishes
Urban Ministry Center
the Learning Collaborative
Friendship Trays
St. John’s Baptist Church COVID relief fund.

During a time when it’s hard to know where to focus efforts, we’re helping our local community. You can help us by running the Elizabeth 8K this year.

Register through the link in our bio and start planning your signature route!

#e8k #elizabeth8k #elizabethnc #runlocal #supportlocalraces #runCLTrun #charlotterunning #charlotterunners ... See MoreSee Less

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