Ash Treepocolypse

[Phil Thien]

They are really removing quite a few ash trees in the neighborhood.

I'm pretty concerned about "thousand Cankers disease" attacking walnuts.

What is going on with the trees in your neck of the woods?

[Silas Smith]

Ash trees are all either dead or dying. I have three that have to come down ��. I haven't heard anything about the Walnuts yet.

[Jamie Buxton]

In California we've been losing oak trees to Sudden Oak Death. However, the one good thing about our big drought is that it seems to have slowed the disease.

But there are lots of tree diseases out there. The chestnut blight took out America's chestnuts early in the twentieth century. Dutch Elm disease took out America's elms in the middle of the century. Emerald ash borers are decimating American ash trees now. Just yesterday I read a story about some disease that is taking out all of Italy's olive trees, which is a big deal for them.

[Ethan Melad]

Asian longhorn beetles have done a number on ash trees around here. Even a major lumberyard I use is not selling ash unless ordered by the unit.

[Stan Calow]

EAB just starting to be found here in KC area. Probably most popular shade tree here for many years. They've been warning people for a long time but not much awareness. We also have many black walnut around -one of the predominant native trees in this area, so very worried about that.

[Jeff Ramsey]

The ash borer has found its way to Pennsylvania and is ravaging ash trees. I thought the gypsy moth infestation was damaging. The EAB is now called the most destructive insect for trees in the history of the US, although the chestnut and elm blights also eradicated entire species.


http://www.emeraldashborer.info/

[Phil Thien]

One of the surprising things to me is that they seem to be replacing so many ash trees with maple trees.

Maybe the maple trees are cheap and the local village cannot afford more expensive trees with having to incur the cost to replace so many of them.

Or maybe I'm wrong and there aren't that many maples around. But I don't think that is it, there are a ton of new maples.

But I'm a bit concerned that we don't have enough tree diversity. Although maybe there aren't enough species of trees left that are suitable. I guess they don't want any fruit-bearing threes (too close to the street).

I did read that there is a Chinese elm tree that grows very quickly and is disease resistant. Wouldn't mind seeing some of those. I loved the elm we still had when we moved into this house.

[Grant Wilkinson]

In my city alone, we are cutting tens of thousands of ash trees to prevent spread of the borer. WE are not allowed to take any of it for firewood since we may take some out of the "infected area" and spread the infection to parks for example. It really makes Dutch Elm look like a picnic. On my street, we have a small park with a play set for kids. All the ash trees - 140 of them - are marked for cutting.

Like in your area, Phil, many of the replacement are maple. Here, they are native and inexpensive.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Ash borer has taken it's toll here too. We only have a few species of trees, the predominate one, ponderosa pine, is getting attacked by pine bark beetles that come off the government lands where they ignore them. Terrible to see.

[Jim Andrew]

We have ash borers in Kansas, not sure if they are the emerald ash borer, or some other. I sawed a nice ash tree down a few years ago, sawed and stacked it with stickers, went back in a year and the lumber looked like it was just drilled. It was no good.

[Larry Edgerton]

We have ash borers in Kansas, not sure if they are the emerald ash borer, or some other. I sawed a nice ash tree down a few years ago, sawed and stacked it with stickers, went back in a year and the lumber looked like it was just drilled. It was no good.

Powder post beetles love ash, most likely your culprit. EAB do not actually bore into the tree, they just girdle the tree in the layer that carries the water between the bark and the wood.

We no longer have any ash trees here, last ones died a couple of years ago.

[Mark Blatter]

Whole forests are dead or dying from the pine beetles in the west. They take a while, but pretty soon entire mountain sides are nothing but reddish brown from dead pine trees. All it takes is one lightening strike or unwatched campfire, and the area goes up in flames.

http://steamboathomesales.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/lodgepole-pine-red-trees.jpg

[Larry Frank]

I hated losing my nature ash trees and also the $$$$$$ it cost to have them removed. It really hurts when you have to take down a tree which you have planted and grown for 30+ years.

It is a good idea when replacing the ash trees to plant a variety of trees and not just one type. Maples grow fast but with so many what happens when the next bug attacks them. I have put in several different varieties of maples,oaks pines,spruce and decorative varieties.

[Phil Thien]

How many of these maladies are the result of foreign disease?

Anyone know?

Are we going to have to plant rubberwood here because foreign diseases kill our native species?

[Keith Weber]

Two years ago, I was unaware of the Emerald Ash Borer. That is, until I noticed that one of my two big ash trees in the yard had shed half of its leaves in July. The tree was split vertically, right down the middle -- the left half still had leaves, but the right half had shed all of its leaves. I called in an expert, who told me that I had the Emerald Ash Borer. They bore into the bark to lay their eggs, and the larvae chow down on the vascular layer just under the bark, killing the tree.

They were able to treat the bigger tree by drilling into the trunk and injecting a chemical. It has some significant damage, but seems to be making a valiant effort to survive. Some of the smaller branches are dead, but others are sprouting new buds. Treatments are done every two years to the tune of $180. I'm not sure how effective the treatments will be in the long term. The company won't guarantee anything.

[Cody Colston]

I have a friend who has a 182 acre farm. There are quite a few Walnut trees on his place and they seem to be dying out. He lets me cut the trees and saw into lumber...even helps and uses his tractors for log and lumber handling. About three weeks ago we sawed some large Ash logs from two trees that died last summer.

I haven't seen any cankers on the Walnut trees and wouldn't recognize an EAB if one lit on my nose but I don't think either has made it to East Texas yet. There are also a bunch of dead oaks on his place from the severe drought conditions a couple of years ago. This year we are having record rainfall so far...go figure.

The Southern Pine Beetle has long been killing Pine trees all across the South, including here. A friend of my friend gave us 28 x 8.5' Pine logs that came from beetle killed trees he was removing and he has another 26 logs from a deer plot he cleared off. For payment, I sawed some big Sweetgum logs that he wanted to use for feed troughs. My friend and I shared the 1200 bf of Pine lumber we sawed. He used his to cover the inside walls of an old barn and I'll use mine to panel the inside of my "shed" I built from lumber I sawed.

[Kent A Bathurst]

The EAB has been wreaking havoc in many areas - for everyone else it is just a matter of time.

One thing that has really made it a big impact is that there were many areas that were landscaped solely with the ash. It is comfortable in high-traffic areas, grows quickly, etc. There are many subdivisions in SE MIch, for example, built 30 - 40 years ago, where that is the only thing the developers planted. Looked great - until all hell broke loose and huge tracts were clear cut in a vain attempt to stop or slow it.

SOme treatments have, apparently shown potential, but no silver bullet has been found - all the ash trees are coming down, sooner or later.

Lesson learned - if you are planting only one species, you are susceptible. Whether trees, or potatoes or corn or whatever.

[Robert LaPlaca]

One of the local arborist companies in Charlotte sends a quarterly newsletter to customers, in the last news letter the company was warning about the pending encroachment of the emerald ash boarer to the area.. So I guess for the most part we have been spared by distance..

[Jaromir Svoboda]

We had our ash tree threaded last year,it still look good.

[Tom Howarth]

I planted 2 Ash trees in my back yard a couple of years ago, for much needed shade,here in New Mexico. I sure hope I can get many years out of them. I'd hate to lose the others in the yard.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I planted 2 Ash trees in my back yard a couple of years ago, for much needed shade,here in New Mexico. I sure hope I can get many years out of them. I'd hate to lose the others in the yard.

You might want to consider planting a some of a different species, to get them started. I don't want to rain on your parade, Tom, but IMO it is simply a matter of time - depending on how fast the EAB travels.

Kinda like admiring your chestnut trees back in the day.........when they were 25% of the eastern hardwood forests.

[Jim Becker]

Honestly, I'm losing both ash and walnut on my property over the past couple of years...some due to changes in ground water patterns, but I suspect that the ash borer and other factors are involved, too. I lost a cherry, too, but it was taken out by a walnut falling when its roots lost, um...rooting...with the wet ground.

[Jim Laumann]

I am located in SE MN. I was recently contacted by the MN Dept of Agriculture (via the member list of the Turning club I belong to).
They are looking for landowners who will allow them to put traps up to evaluate the presence of the "Walnut twig beetle" which is
killing black walnuts.

Gave them permission and a map of where the walnuts (all planted by my wife and I) are on my property. The traps go up tomorrow.

We also have EAB on the march in this corner of the state - so far, mine haven't been effected.

Jim

[Jeff Ramsey]

I am located in SE MN. I was recently contacted by the MN Dept of Agriculture (via the member list of the Turning club I belong to).
They are looking for landowners who will allow them to put traps up to evaluate the presence of the "Walnut twig beetle" which is
killing black walnuts.

Gave them permission and a map of where the walnuts (all planted by my wife and I) are on my property. The traps go up tomorrow.

We also have EAB on the march in this corner of the state - so far, mine haven't been effected.

Jim

There is a model for the EAB here http://www.firewood.ca.gov/docs/annotations/emerald_ash_2.pdf that shows average female EAB's travel up to a mile in their lifetime (a year, typically). One very disturbing table shows the number of larvae required to kill an ash tree of certain age; the needed lethal numbers don't appear to be that large. One positive is that without the assistance of humans (us), the EAB spreads very slowly. If regionally contained, it appears as though they can be forced to kill themselves off by running out of their food source.

[Mark Blatter]

There is a model for the EAB here http://www.firewood.ca.gov/docs/annotations/emerald_ash_2.pdf that shows average female EAB's travel up to a mile in their lifetime (a year, typically). One very disturbing table shows the number of larvae required to kill an ash tree of certain age; the needed lethal numbers don't appear to be that large. One positive is that without the assistance of humans (us), the EAB spreads very slowly. If regionally contained, it appears as though they can be forced to kill themselves off by running out of their food source.

Well, in that case we are doomed. In the west, and I am guessing many other locations deal with this as well, we have problems with invasive aquatic bugs. We have a number of lakes quarantined and all boaters are supposed to carefully clean off their boats and motors, etc. before entering or leaving any lakes. Yet the bugs march on, I believe due in part to people being too lazy to properly clean as they should. I can see the day when wood is 10 x the price it is today because of the kill-off of the species.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Mark - the EAB travels in wood. Arrived in pallets/crates/dunnage from the far east.

FOr the past 10 years or so, all import/export wood has to be certified as HT - heat treated - which means, IIRC, getting the wood to 145* for 60 minutes. It may have expanded to domestic trade also - not sure.....

Not to say other critters cannot come in the way you describe, but that sounds more like trying to keep invasive aquatic critters out.

Rotsa Ruck there too. See Great Lakes: alewives, zebra mussels, asian carp.

[Mark Patoka]

I don't know if the 1000 Cankers has contributed to this but the walnut at my hardwood supplier is now all considered Premium with no discounts provided and the price seems to have gone up. They used to sell 4-6' shorts for a discount but that became scarce this past year and now I don't think they even offer them. Apparently supply is becoming a problem.

[Jon Nuckles]

There is a model for the EAB here http://www.firewood.ca.gov/docs/annotations/emerald_ash_2.pdf that shows average female EAB's travel up to a mile in their lifetime (a year, typically). One very disturbing table shows the number of larvae required to kill an ash tree of certain age; the needed lethal numbers don't appear to be that large. One positive is that without the assistance of humans (us), the EAB spreads very slowly. If regionally contained, it appears as though they can be forced to kill themselves off by running out of their food source.

Ash trees are dying all around the Chicago area, and we are in a quarantine zone. Nevertheless, if you search the local Craigslist for free firewood, you see ash trees being advertised all the time. Some homeowners may not know any better, but there are some professionals that post ash firewood all the time, and have for more than a year now. They clearly just don't care. I sometimes reply to the ads to let them know about the quarantine, but the worst offenders don't have contact information or the ability to send a reply.