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TreeNote
Fridays at 6:42 a.m. and 8:42 a.m.

TreeNote is a two minute weekly feature from renowned ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni and KUER. Listen on podcast or on YouTube.

Episode List
  • Skateboards and trees may not have an obvious connection, but many skateboard decks are made from layers of wood. So the next time you see a skater carving through a turn, keep in mind that it all starts in the forest.
  • The black walnut pulpit at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City has a personal history with the man who conceived of the building.
  • If you walk through a recently-logged forest, you might see fresh green shoots growing out from a tree’s trunk. These epicormic shoots come from dormant buds hidden beneath the bark, ready to spring to life after disturbance.
  • Some of our favorite trees have strange and often fascinating stories behind their names.
  • Redwood forests have been named one of the Seven Natural Wonders of America. Once you learn a little about them, its easy to see why.
  • If you've ever experienced a bamboo forest, then you know that it is serene and elegant. But what it isn't is a group of trees.
  • Smoky the Bear is probably the best-known animal firefighter, but the North American beaver is the one doing the heavy lifting.
  • A tree stump might look like the sad ending of a tree’s story. But to a sharp-eyed observer, that remnant can be the beginning of one.
  • When I walk through an evergreen forest, I like to keep track of which way the trees twist. Many conifers have a spiral grain in their wood, meaning the fibers run in a gentle helix around the trunk rather than straight up and down.
  • It's that time of year when many of our sidewalks are stained dark purple with the fruit of the Mulberry tree, whose history is long and complicated.