Say goodbye to the white ash tree

[ParadiseRoad]

Lost my beautiful Mountain Ash last spring. No berries for the Cedar Waxwings when they come through on their migration.

I cut it down and saved some of the limbs to make Walking sticks. There are some cool legends about the mystical powers of the Ash.

Unlike the White Ash, the Mountain Ash isn't susceptible to the Emerald Ash Borer but has it's own list of enemies.

...had to look up Cedar Waxwing...nice looking bird...

 

[H Richard]

It has reached IL. Our community has been cutting down some mature trees, and treating a lot of smaller and medium size trees. I have a young (11 year) old in my side yard and in my back yard. About all I can do is watch and see what happens.

 

[hitower]

I work for a municipality in SE Wisconsin and was cutting down ash trees today actually. If the budget allowed I could cut infected ash trees on city property for a long time...

 

[mr.jbk79]

Over the last few years I've removed all the ash tress in my yard. Most of my neighbors also have done the same. The ash borer will already be present some time before the tree shows signs of distress. The emerald ash bore was likely here 10yrs ago. It was ugly what they did.

 

[gman51]

I was recently told there is some type of bug killing avocado trees and they are hoping the blight doesn't get into Mexico where most avacados come from to the US. Tree-killing bug invades Southern California, with no answer in sight - LA Times

Here in Texas huge areas of pine trees have died from pine beetles in just a few years. I thought draught was killing them but found out it was pine beetles. 100 foot healthy pine trees are dead in just a few years.

Hate to say it but this is what we get from so much importation of goods.

 

[Model 19 6"]

I think losing the ash trees hurt the baseball bat industry.

 

[rburg]

7 or 8 years ago there was a town meeting about it. At the time I had 2 ash trees. We had a city commissioner who was an enviro crazy. She saw my wood pile had white wood and about threw a rod. So she comes along with her "urban forrester" buddy to raise more "stuff". Something about it being illegal to "move" firewood. Didn't matter what kind. And my response that "you folks are crazy" didn't help matters much. So she was near blowing a gasket and hissing and stuff. To which I pointed out she may be a biggie for the city, but I didn't think they had the power to instate back door bans on fireplaces. Wow, that really her her going. So I pointed out that I'll be moving firewood again, right from my wood pile into the fireplace. By then she was threatening to call the police. For whatever reason the forrester guy had calmed down.

He became kind of polite and asked where I'd bought the firewood. It was a confusing concept for me. Ya don't buy firewood, you cut it. He asked to see the stumps, which required a short walk. He was a little impressed and decided they'd wasted a bit of their and my time. So as they were leaving, I told him there was dark wood in the pile, too. Cherry even. And I asked if he was as concerned with the maricshino Cherry borrer as the emerald ash borer. He didn't think it was funny. Go figure.

 

[rwsmith]

Clingman's Dome in the Smokies......

When I was young our family climbed the tower at Clingman's Dome in the Smokies and we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the green trees. A few years later, I went back and the Wooly Adelgid had attacked and killed all of the hemlock and Balsam fir trees. Nothing but dead, grey, lichen covered wood for miles around. That was a very sad sight. I feel your pain.

 

[armadillo]

Maybe you can teach those bugs to eat ash juniper (locally known as mountain cedar). Nobody would miss those trees here in the Texas hill country.

 

[paplinker]

Hi:
In nw Connecticut the emerald ash borer has not really hit us yet but it will. I am taking down the ash trees on my woodlot now and feeding them into the wood stove. Our hemlock trees in most of the state have been hit hard by the woolly adelgid. Once the woolly adelgid gets in a stand of hemlocks you are looking at 3 years and all the hemlocks in the stand are dead. The one insect that has a lot of people concerned is the asian longhorned beetle. This beetle really impacts maple trees and most other hardwoods. Fortunately, the asian longhorned beetle spreads slowly and so far, has been contained by cutting down every tree in an infected area, running them through a chipper and then taking the chips to a biofuel plant. This is what was done to most of the trees in the city of Worester, Mass.

I have not seen how the hemlocks are dying. Do they turn light green,loose nettles then go or does the tree died from the top?

 

[kozmic]

I'm in the middle of cutting over 100 ash trees in my yard.

You must have a B I G yard

It's a B I G problem. I will go from living in the woods to living in the center of a large field. Last year the line of affected trees was basically across my front yard. The ash borer hadn't yet gotten heavily to my back yard. Now I'm seeing some damage deeper into the woods on my south property line. I imagine I will have very few ash left after this spring. A local golf course 2 miles away cut down approx 2500 trees year before last. Some infected, some in anticipation.

The infestation has generally been around bigger cities and spread outwards. Our county is one big hot spot. I'm on the southern tip of the county. We can not transport any wood outside the DEC "hot zone". It's a futile attempt to stop the progression.

In a cruel twist of fate, one of the few "off species" of trees is a splendid maple. It's about 60 feet tall (25" girth) It sits fairly close to my house and shades my bedroom. I noticed a large crack in a major branch over the weekend. I'm hoping I can just remove the damaged branch and not the entire tree. That would be a big blow if that tree had to come down too.

 

[sjc1]

I have not seen how the hemlocks are dying. Do they turn light green,loose nettles then go or does the tree died from the top?

Hi:
The woolly adelgid attaches itself to the base of the hemlock needle and feeds on the nutrients going to the needle. The needle goes from green, to a grey green and then brown ie: dead needle. Dead needles lead to a dead tree. This happens very quickly. When the woolly adelgid attaches to the base of the needle it produces a waxy white substances to protect itself. This waxy white substance looks like wool or cotton. To me it looks like a white foam.
In the northeast, the hemlock is a major component of the forest. Hemlock stands provide shelter for numerous species of wildlife in the winter and hemlock stands along a brook greatly reduce the water temperature of the brook during the summer. Brook trout depend on those cooler waters of a brook going through a hemlock swamp.

 

[walkin jack]

Well this is a sad situation. I can't say that I've ever seen a white ash tree when I knew what I was looking at. But in my area we have a lot of Arizona ash. The builders that built my neighborhood in the mid 70s put these in every yard and a lot of them that didn't get torn up in hurricanes are not only still here but have gotten huge and must be periodically trimmed back to keep them out of the power lines.

 

[Rustyt1953]

The baseball bat and solid body guitar industries have been threatened by this for some time now.

Northern Ash, because of it's density vs weight and resistance to shattering, is the lifeblood of bat manufacturers.

Southern or "Swamp Ash" is prized for it's resonance, light weight and workability in solid body electric guitars. Alder, Poplar and Basswood are being used more but Ash is still in demand as a tone-wood.

That little beetle is costing these two industries a lot of money.

 

[44wheelman]

I've got 2 ash trees, luckily they're on the property border. 2 ash trees died before we moved in last year. Ohio's been hit for a couple years now.

I've joked with the guy at work. He lives 4 blocks away, between us is the county line. Would be illegal for me to give him any of my firewood.

 

[eveled]

I have 2 American chestnut trees. They grow to about 4" diameter and die, and a new shoot grows in its place.

Looks like a huge dead bush with one or two live branches in the middle.

The way things are going, all that we'll have left is kudzu and poison ivy.

 

[sjc1]

I have 2 American chestnut trees. They grow to about 4" diameter and die, and a new shoot grows in its place.

Looks like a huge dead bush with one or two live branches in the middle.

The way things are going, all that we'll have left is kudzu and poison ivy.

What I have seen over the last 40+ years is that the American Chestnut trees in my area seem to be larger in dbh before the blight hits them. Forty years ago they would get to be 4" dbh or so, then the blight would hit them. Exactly what you are observing. Now they get to 6"- 8" dbh before the blight hits them. I think, and this is strictly my opinion, that they are slowly building up resistance to the blight. I would assume, and again this is just my opinion, that the Chinese and Japanese Chestnuts may have slowly built up resistance to the blight in a similar manner.

 

[Abbynormal]

The only bright side of the Emerald Ash borer is that Ash is one of the best firewood available. It and Locust put out more heat than any other domestic woods.

I took 12 pick up loads to my 90 year old Uncle 2 years ago. Cut and split the wood and let it season. He's burned 3 of the 5 ricks I cut in the past 2 years in his fireplace.

 

[Fishslayer]

I think losing the ash trees hurt the baseball bat industry.

Yup. They've been using maple which makes for the spectacular explosions we've been seeing in recent years. It doesn't have the flex of ash.

At least that's what I've read...

 

[rosefarm]

My lawn care guy comes out and sprays some kind of insecticide in a 15' circle around the tree and six feet up the trunk once a year. Not cheap, but my ash trees are doing great. He does entire towns including Gilman, Il. They have not lost one to my knowledge.