The fact that these weeds keep their leaves so long is their only saving
grace: About mid-October I used to send my crews out to "...cut down all the
trees that still had their leaves on". Makes restoration ecology a tad
easier.

In all seriousness, the dense, shallow root mat does serve a decent soil
conservation function, but especially in Sussex Co. this could be as well
achieved with Sugar maple.
Go figure...

ML

--
Mike LaMana, MS CTE
Heartwood Consulting Services, LLC
Toms River, NJ
www.HeartwoodConsulting.net


"Dan" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 10:59:53 -0500, "Mike LaMana"
fake@MikeatHeartwoodConsultingdotnet wrote:

By all means, in every case, lose the damned Norway maple! This tree adds
nothing to the urban or suburban forest, and is nothing but a noxious
invader. I have never seen a Norway that could not have been replaced with
a
better (usually native) species.

Our local community college (up here in Sussex County) has tons of
the damn things on the property. Some of the ones closer to the
academic halls STILL HAVE THEIR (partially) GREEN LEAVES (most native
trees lost their leaves around here over four WEEKS ago). I'm going
to recommend the school try & remove them, I don't think anyone's
brought it to their attention just yet.

The only major problem with removal would be erosion. The school is
built on a steep hill, and much of that is being held back by maple
roots.

Dan
nw NJ