Top 25 things vanishing from America: #17 -- The ash tree
Filed under: Extracurriculars
This series explores aspects of America that may soon be just a memory -- some to be missed, some gladly left behind. From the least impactful to the most, here are 25 bits of vanishing America.
When the collateral costs of an increasingly global marketplace are counted, it is usually the image of the displaced factory worker that comes to mind. But not all the casualties have human faces. Some seven billion ash trees stand to go the way of the American elm and American chestnut, victims of living weapons of mass destruction dispatched unintentionally on the contrails of globalization.
In the early decades of the twentieth century, the American chestnut was practically eradicated by chestnut blight, caused by fungus from imported Asiatic chestnut trees. In the 1960s and 70s, hundreds of millions of elms were lost to Dutch Elm disease, a fungus accidentally imported to North America in logs shipped from the Netherlands for use in furniture.
In the late 1990s, a pretty, irridescent green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the midwest, and continue to spread. The destruction of a native species is an environmental disaster, of course, with far-reaching effects on the entire ecosystem. But the emerald ash borer is also boring into a significant economic and industrial resource, for the U.S. Ash is a strong and highly resilient hardwood, used for tool handles and sports equipment. Snooker players and guitar heroes will also be affected if the preferred wood for their respective instruments becomes extinct. Ash also has extensive application as veneer for office furniture.
In areas of the country at risk for infestation, public awareness programs, such as http://www.emeraldashborer.info tell people how to identify the pest, report it, and help slow its spread. Let's hope the ash doesn't go the way of the chestnut and elm.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2008 @ 1:47PM
Troy said...
It doesn't help that Major League Baseball players are using ash trees as their source for their baseball bats either. If this does go extinct, that tree would the baseball players use, and reversely how would that affect our environment.
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7-15-2008 @ 4:22PM
Brian said...
Now, after reading this story, I understand why MLB players have been using maple bats instead. But, some player is going to get hurt if the maple bats keep shattering the way they have. Can't and won"t use aluminum in the big leagues, so what else can be used?
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7-15-2008 @ 8:57PM
FRANK said...
STEEERRRICCKKK THREE
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7-19-2008 @ 3:37PM
Judy said...
The story doesn't mention that there IS a preventative treatment for the ash trees that will save them from the emerald ash borer and it involves injecting the ash tree with a pest repellent and depending on the application, it can last for 1-3 years of protection. Arborjet provides this service and we have had our ash trees treated in Ohio. So we can save the ash trees!!!
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7-21-2008 @ 11:26PM
Meg said...
How much does the treatment cost for this?
7-19-2008 @ 12:42PM
geogal said...
I wonder how and why these trees suddenly became so non-resilient to these insects. I don't believe it was just because of the Emerald Ash Borer. I think human (pollution, toxins, global warming) activity in the world has weakened the immunity of these trees. What if this could also explain the loss of so many bee communities. I think there are cases in history of more easily compromised systems, such as the elm trees and the American Chestnut. We seem to be truly reaping what we sow.
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7-21-2008 @ 6:46PM
Tom said...
I appreciate' the author's historical perspective, which give you an idea of the cumulative losses to American forests. The potential impact of EAB is even greater than chestnut blight and dutch elm, though, in 2 respects. First, EAB is always fatal to all untreated ash that become infested. Second, there are approximately 20 species of ash in North America. Every species exposed to EAB so far has been found susceptible. So we're facing extirpation of and entire genus of trees, not "just" one species.
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7-21-2008 @ 11:31PM
Chris said...
It's just a thought, but couldn't they just harvest whatever seeds/nuts these trees use to reproduce, store them and then replant? With proper storage most seeds/nuts can have a very long life. I dunno, it's just a thought. As for someones comment that the trees have suddenly lost their resilience to insects, it's easy. The beetles came from Asia, the trees from North America. There was no resilience to the beetles to begin with, so there can't be one now.
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8-04-2008 @ 10:41AM
sabs said...
I get my lone surving ash tree injected by a tree service yearly. This year they came out with a new chemical that only has to be applied once every two years. The cost $100.
The product is called Tree-äge™ (pronounced "triage")
Emamectin benzoate is the chemical in the product.
In preliminary studies conducted by Michigan State University the pesticide killed more than 99 percent of ash borer larvae in treated trees and 100 percent of the adult beetles that nibbled on their leaves.
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9-15-2008 @ 1:34PM
Greg said...
Urban forests are disappearing as well. IT only takes a day to wipe out 7 acres and scrap the earth clean. Here in Missouri we are trying to save 7.3 acres of urban forest permanently. If you are the kind that cares about saving trees now is your chance to act. graceyfoundation.org.
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9-15-2008 @ 1:37PM
Greg said...
Urban forests are disappearing as well. IT only takes a day to wipe
out 7 acres and scrap the earth clean. Here in Missouri we are trying
to save 7.3 acres of urban forest permanently. If you are the kind
that cares about saving trees now is your chance to act.
www.graceyfoundation.org
Reply