How to Winterize Your Dormant Trees

Trees in fall are in a state of serious change and reorganization. The tree is becoming dormant. A tree heading toward winter will sense the changing temperature and light and obey the dormancy controls built into the leaf. The mechanisms, called senescence, is what tells a tree to close down for coming winter. Tree Activity in Winter Trees may look inactive going into winter but the fact is they continue to regulate their metabolism and only slow down some physiological activities. This decrease in photosynthesis and transpiration begins a trees dormant phase. Trees still continue to slowly grow roots, respire and take in water and nutrients. Winter is a difficult time for a tree. A dormant tree still needs to be protected (winterized) to remain healthy and free from diseases and insects. The bad news is  winter weather encourages destructive pests to snuggle in and wait for spring to revive their destructive lifecycles. Small investments in properly caring for your trees can pay off big come spring. Pruning Prune dead, diseased and overlapping branches in late fall. This will form and strengthen the tree, encourages new strong growth in the spring, minimizes future storm damage and protects against overwintering disease and insects. Remember that dormant pruning has another benefit — it is easier to do during winter dormancy than in spring. Correct structurally weak branches and limbs. Remove all deadwood that is clearly visible. Properly prune branches that can touch the ground when loaded with rain and snow. Foliage and branches that are in contact with soil invite undesirable pests and other problems. Remove damaged and declining twigs, branches, and bark or any new sprouts that have grown at the tree base, or along stems and branches. Mulch and Aerate Young trees are especially vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature and moisture and need mulching protection. Mulch is good insurance that both conditions will be evenly managed during cold and drought. Mulching is a good practice for both dormant and full-growing, vegetative trees. Spread a thin layer of composted organic mulch to cover the soil several inches deep. Cover an area at least as large as the branch spread. In addition to protecting feeder roots, mulch also recycles nutrients directly to these roots. Aerate soils and compacted mulch if they are waterlogged or poorly drained. Saturated and dense soil can suffocate roots. It is critical not to damage tree roots in the soil as you do this, so work only on those few inches at the surface crust. so work only on those few inches at the surface crust. Fertilize and Water Fertilize by top dressing over the mulch with a balanced fertilizer if the essential elements are in short supply within the soil. Be sure to use nitrogen lightly, especially under large, mature trees and around newly planted trees. You do not want a vegetative flush of growth during late fall periods of warming. Large applications of nitrogen cause this growth. Dry spells in winter or hot daytime temperatures will desiccate a tree very quickly. Watering may be needed where soils are cool but not frozen, and there has been little precipitation. Winter droughts need treatment with water the same as summer droughts, except it is much easier to over-water in winter. Dormant Spray A dormant spray may be a good idea for deciduous trees, ornamentals, fruit trees, and shrubs. But remember not to spray until after you prune. Obviously, you will lose much of your effort and expense if you cut off treated limbs. Choice of chemicals is important. Dormant sprays include lime, copper and sulfur combinations to kill overwintering microorganisms. Dormant oil controls insects and their eggs. You just may need several types of sprays and oils to be effective. Avoid spraying any of this material in the hot sun as it can damage dormant buds. Get specific chemical recommendations from your local county extension agent.

Native Americans Talk Back And Looking Towards The Future

Native Americans Talk Back and Looking Towards the Future The interpretation and appropriation of culture within museums came under attack starting in the 1960’s. Native American groups raised questions about the biases and agendas of curators and museums and demanded that their voices be heard in the political arena. Many Native American organizations argued that if Whites are the ones interpreting and appropriating other cultures, then it is actually their culture on exhibition.(King 1998: 96, Stocking Jr. 1985: 88, Patterson 2014: 52). Deidre Sklar, a researcher of Native American artifacts, stated that: â€Å"Time and space in a museum, are defined in terms of the confines of the collection, not of the context from which [the collection is] drawn. Visiting hours from ten to five and the glass exhibit case define EuroAmerican, not Native American time and space† (Weil 2004:3). In response to this outcry, the Museums of the American Indian Act was created and signed on November 28, 1989, enabling the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The NMAI is arguably the most famous native-run institution and acts as a living memorial to Native Americans and their traditions (King 1998: 106). Before the establishment of the NMAI there had been no American or Canadian national institution strictly dedicated to native cultures. Native Americans from all the major tribes of North America collaborated with the museum community in building design, landscaping andShow MoreRelatedThe Indian Act1558 Words   |  7 Pagesproposed in 1876. The Indian Act was mainly used as a way for the federal government to control aspects of Native American lives. During the 1880’s the federal government told Indian families that if they wanted their children to have an education, it was to be done under them. These institutions would be known as Residential Schools. 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Deep ecology is defined as â€Å"an environmentalRead MoreThe Immigration Of Americ The Land Of The Free1611 Words   |  7 Pageshave traveled across the ocean in hope of a new life and future in what is known as â€Å"The Land of the Free.† Just like much of the eastern side of the country, the immigration of Europeans to America played a very important role in the history of Michigan as well. It is through these immigrants that the religion, culture, and economics was changed entirely throughout the state of Michigan. Before Europeans came to present day America, Natives populated the land, and had for at least 14,000 years beforeRead MoreRace, Ethnicity, And Gender783 Words   |  4 Pagesopinion I believe white gaze is a common practice in America and it affects many people who are not part of the â€Å"white race†. White race is looking at the world thought the eyes of white person. One way this affects a nonwhite person is that they face racism, or stereotypes. I chose this idea because I experienced white gaze here at Canisius College. Once, I was looking for a professor, However she was not there but I left a message with another professor who was Caucasian. When I came the next day, I

Balance Score Card Philips free essay sample

Its used to align company vision, focus employees on how they fit into the big picture, and educate them on what drives the business. When a management tool becomes popular, it’s only logical to question whether it’s a fad or the future. One performance measurement tool—the balanced scorecard (BSC)—has broad appeal. Approximately 50% of Fortune 1,000 companies in North America and about 40% in Europe use a version of the BSC, according to a recent survey by Bain Co. The number of software and consulting firms currently providing BSC-related products and services supports these statistics. But do companies think the BSC is here to stay? Philips Electronics does. This worldwide conglomerate has gathered its more than 250,000 employees in 150 countries around the card because it sees this tool as the future—not a trendy tool. The key benefit for Philips: Management can streamline the complicated process of running a complex international company with diverse product lines and divisions. We will write a custom essay sample on Balance Score Card Philips or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Here’s how it cascades throughout the organization. The drive to implement the balanced scorecard at Philips Electronics came from the top down—as a directive from the Board of Management in Europe to all Philips divisions and companies worldwide. The directive went to each of the companies and their quality departments, with the effort in the medical division headed by the Quality Steering Committee that reports to the president of Philips Medical Systems. (Later we’ll look specifically at the experiences of the Philips Medical Systems North America (PMSNA). ) Philips Electronics has used the balanced scorecard to align company vision, focus employees on how they fit into the big picture, and educate them on what drives the business. An essential aid to communicating the business strategy, the BSC works as a vehicle to take key financial indicators and create a quantitative expression of the business strategy. In fact, Philips Electronics’ management team uses it to guide the quarterly business reviews worldwide in order to promote organizational learning and continuous improvement. The Road to Implementation Philips’ underlying belief in creating their balanced scorecard is that understanding what drives present performance is the basis for determining how to achieve future results. With this understanding in mind, Philips designed the scorecard to provide a shared understanding of the organization’s strategic policies and vision of the future. Their operating principle in the design was to determine factors that were critical for achieving the company’s strategic goals. The tool has helped Philips Electronics focus on factors critical for their business success and align hundreds of indicators that measure their markets, operations, and laboratories. The business variables crucial for creating value, which are known as the four critical success factors (CSFs) on the Philips Electronics BSC, are: Competence (knowledge, technology, leadership, and teamwork), Processes (drivers for performance), Customers (value propositions), and Financial (value, growth, and productivity). Here’s how these critical success factors came to life at the company. Top-level scorecard criteria are the driving determinant for lower-level scorecard criteria. Philips wanted to make implicit assumptions about the way the business creates value explicitly through CSFs. In other words, the goal was to translate assumed relationships such as customer satisfaction and product sales into critical success factors to measure performance. To do so, they identified which financial and customer CSFs give a competitive edge, and then they determined the process CSFs that have the greatest impact on the financial and customer CSFs giving the company that edge. Competence CSFs deliver required process, customer, and financial results. To express the strategy in measurable objectives, the team established a performance management system that measures progress toward the corporate vision. This system links short-term actions with long-term strategy so employees understand how their day-to-day activities help achieve the company’s stated goals. In order to focus employees on the few vital goals and business priorities, the BSC cascades down throughout the organization. Top management initially deployed the BSC by setting annual operational targets, which were brought down through organizational layers as goals for the divisions worldwide and objectives at the business unit level. By deploying top-level CSFs throughout the organization, goals can be clearly linked to the business strategy as well as to all employees. The Philips Electronics balanced scorecard has three levels. The highest is the strategy review card, next is the operations review card, and the third is the business unit card. In addition, the plan is to implement another level of the card—the individual employee card—in 2003. The corporate quality department created specific guidelines for metric linkage for the entire company. These guidelines state that all top-level scorecard critical success factors for which the department is responsible must link metrically to lower-level cards. Three criteria were established to accomplish this. The first is inclusion: Top-level CSFs must be addressed by lower-level CSFs to achieve top-level metric goals. The second is continuity: Critical success factors must be connected through all levels, and lower-level measurements shouldn’t have longer cycle times than higher-level measurements. The third criterion is robustness: Meeting lower-level CSF goals must assure that higher-level CSF goals will be met or surpassed. Goals in all card levels align with goals in the next level above, and goals become fewer and less complex as you drill down through the organization. The BSC at Work in the Business Units At the business unit level, critical success factors were developed for each of the four perspectives of the card—competence, processes, customers, and financial. They established guidelines for the deployment of CSFs at lower levels in the company, stating that departments must select CSFs for which the department has a major control responsibility. These CSFs—key BSC indicators—monitor the implementation of the business strategy. The management team of each business unit reached consensus on which CSFs distinguish the business unit from the competition. They used a value map to derive customer critical success factors by analyzing customer survey data that reflected perceived performance relative to the price for competing products. Process CSFs were derived by determining how process improvements can deliver customer requirements. Competence CSFs were identified by determining what human resources and competencies were required to deliver the other three perspectives of the card. Standard financial reporting metrics were used as financial CSFs. The next step was for each business unit to determine key indicators at the business unit level that measure critical success factors. Assumptions about relationships between processes and results were quantified and performance drivers determined. Targets were then set based on the gap between present performance and desired performance for the current year plus two and four years in the future. The criteria: Targets must be specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-phased. Targets are derived from an analysis of market size, customer base, brand equity, innovation capability, and world-class performance. Examples of indicators at the business unit level include: In cascading the card down from the organizational level to the business unit level, six key indicators consistently came to the forefront for all business units: Profitable revenue growth, Customer delight, Employee satisfaction, Drive to operational excellence, Organizational development, IT support. These six key drivers relate to each other as well as to the balanced scorecard’s four critical success factors. Organizational development and IT support drive the competence perspective; customer delight and employee satisfaction drive the customer perspective; operational excellence drives the process perspective; and profitable revenue growth drives the financial perspective. And each quarter the BSC metrics are used as the reporting format for the review of each business unit’s performance. Successes and Challenges Although there are many successful implementations at the Philips companies, let’s look at the implementation of the balanced scorecard at Philips Medical Systems North America (PMSNA). It served as an alignment tool to focus on their strategic intent to become a $1 billion company by the year 2001. It simultaneously guided a cultural change effort to increase accountability for results. Eventually the BSC is expected to replace the monthly accountability calls to the field office where sales are reported against forecasted numbers. Another success for the card within this division is the creation of an operational scorecard for action planning and tracking results in real-time: Data are automatically transferred from internal reporting systems and fed into the online BSC report, which is immediately accessible and contains the new results. An upcoming enhancement to customer service and satisfaction reporting will be the automatic feed of data gathered by the Gallup Organization into the online BSC report in a similar fashion. Finally, implementing the card responded to common questions raised in the annual employee motivation survey, such as â€Å"How does what I do every day fit into the bigger picture of the company? † The balanced scorecard enables employees to understand exactly what they need to do on a daily basis in order to impact results. Chris Farr, former vice president of quality and regulatory at PMSNA and who was responsible for the BSC, says that companies must get buy-in to the metrics and share measures quarterly with all employees in order to succeed. â€Å"Management must give full access to their employees,† Farr says. â€Å"The metrics must be shared and visible. † To share the metrics with employees, Philips Electronics uses traffic-light reporting to indicate how the actual performance compares with the target. Green indicates meeting target, yellow indicates in-line performance, and red warns that performance is below target. The visibility of results using a traffic-light model means ease-of-use with quick, easily recognizable metrics. Farr said the balanced scorecard’s primary strength is gaining the commitment and participation of management and employees regarding company objectives. â€Å"Employees have helped to create measures that are meaningful to customers and to the business,† he says. â€Å"In this process, employees have analyzed what makes the business successful and gained a greater understanding of the business enterprise. † Other strengths include: The BSC promotes the sharing of best practices and creates a communication system worldwide. Each element of the card has an owner whom employees can contact to share success strategies and product fixes. BSC fosters communication, collaboration, and problem solving. The BSC supports a company’s cultural change to a learning organization by creating a common knowledge base. If a metric is in the red zone, the employee can quickly access how to fix potential problems and avoid repeating others’ mistakes, saving time and money in problem solving. The BSC represents an enhancement to the current â€Å"Yellow Pages† in use at Philips. Out of a total workforce of more than 250,000, roughly 22,000 employees have chosen to share project knowledge and interests on a voluntary basis using the Philips Yellow Pages. Employees working on similar projects can communicate successes and pitfalls using the Yellow Pages on the employee intranet. The BSC takes the concept further with a defined owner accountable for each element on the card. Other lessons Philips Electronics learned include: Software for use in capturing and transferring data to a BSC in real time should be selected carefully and researched fully prior to implementing the balanced scorecard. A balance must be reached to maintain visibility for employee access while maintaining confidentiality of company results that are sensitive and proprietary. In trying to determine employee-level performance indicators, the team learned that many critical success factors can’t be directly impacted by employees. Fad or Future The use of a balanced scorecard as a strategic tool represents an opportunity for an executive team to align their company to the strategic intent. Since the BSC represents a fundamental change in how an organization is measured and held accountable for results, it also poses threats to an established corporate culture and has potential weaknesses if it isn’t executed properly. Yet the balanced scorecard is a powerful strategic tool—not the latest management fad—for strategic planning, goal setting, goal alignment, and measurement. No other tool provides the ability to balance all aspects crucial to business performance in 2002 and beyond.