5 ms·

I bought a house in the northeast last winter with 2 huge ash trees in the backyard. Come early spring I noticed a woodpecker would go to town on them every mor

by vrc 5y ago

I bought a house in the northeast last winter with 2 huge ash trees in the backyard. Come early spring I noticed a woodpecker would go to town on them every morning. Closer inspection showed tons of tiny little holes throughout from Emerald Ash Borers and the trees had to come down to the tune of $7k. Bonus costs because the woodpecker returned in the fall and decided the next best thing to the now-missing trees was my house’s wood siding… Turns out lots of new home buyers and realtors are bringing arborists along for home inspections because this is so common here (especially for winter purchase where you can’t tell if the tree has leaves). Will definitely do that next time!

snarf21 5y ago
Yeah, it is sad and an unintended consequence of a global economy. My girlfriend has 17 acres in upstate NY with 300+ ash. They are all slowly dying, losing their bark and blowing down in storms. Most are standing dead and don't even have much value as timber.
- evandev 5y ago
  I live in southern Vermont and have a lot of dead ash trees. Interesting enough, while there is emerald ash borer 5 miles away from me, it hasn't made it to my property. I had a state forester who specializes in EAB come and take a look and found no evidence of it. Apparently around 2017 there was a drought that affected a lot of the ash trees near me and most have died from that. None of the trees had signs of flecking which is key and he took a look at the firewood and found no evidence. He said that if one ash tree has EAB, all ash trees around it will also be affected. And there are a few very healthy ash trees.
  - SuoDuanDao 5y ago
    Maybe those genetics have an immunity? That's the case with beech trees where I live, they have a tough time but a few survived the plague that swept through them. I wonder how one could test if it's something special about the trees.
  - nkurz 5y ago
    > I live in southern Vermont and have a lot of dead ash trees. I'm also in Southern Vermont (Readsboro) and have mostly healthy ash trees. Emerald ash borer is presumed to be in the area, but no observed evidence yet right where I am. The foresters we spoke to told us that since it takes several years for trees to show symptoms, we should probably assume that our trees are already infested. We do have some trees that seem to be suffering from another ash disease which is present here: https://www.vtinvasives.org/invasive/ash-yellows https://www.vtinvasives.org/invasive/ash-yellows. It's probably worth noting that there are effective treatments if you have individual trees that you want to save. I've been doing a preventative treatment on the trees near with house for the last couple year with Dinotefuran (Safari). It can be applied on the bark (basal trunk spray) in late spring, after the leaves start coming out. It costs about $10 per medium sized tree per year if you do it yourself. It won't save a tree that has already been too damaged, but is believed effective if applied before major signs appear.
- hinkley 5y ago
  The sad thing too is that in many forests it’s hemlock that grows over fallen trees, paving the way for apex trees to follow behind them, and the hemlock is also under threat by the hemlock woolly adelgid. With elm and chestnut also gone, our list of allies grows thin. I don’t know if tulip poplar is native to your area but that also used to be part of the apex canopy and we hardly even talk about them. Ridiculously massive trees. Normal trees don’t come up to the lowest branch on a mature tulip poplar.
- Alex3917 5y ago
  Try putting lime around them and maybe you'll get morels.
drewzero1 5y ago
Our yard has about a dozen trees and shortly after we moved in we hired an arborist to inspect them and advise us on how to keep them healthy. We ended up having to take down a dying ash that was leaning over our house and our neighbor's house. They also told us that one of our neighbors' ash trees is also on the way out, so we can plan ahead for shade for when they eventually take that down. The tree removal was relatively inexpensive compared to worrying about falling deadwood.
bokohut 5y ago
I live in North Eastern Maryland USA and two years ago I noticed bark laying symmetrically encircled around a tree. I asked around and an arborist informed me of our unfortunate situation to come which the State of Maryland had been trying to get in front of for years. After my property was visited by an State of Maryland arborist per their request I was informed I had to rectify this issue by felling my trees as soon as possible to prevent more spreading however my efforts were pointless since there are hundreds of infected Ash trees in and around me of which my neighbors have no idea nor any interest in their trees. Now in present time there are many hundreds of dead Ash trees around my area and the recent bomb cyclone wind we had caused those dead Ash trees branches to fall and some were widow makers for sure. I have proactively contacted my Home Owners Association, Town, County and State as it relates to these dead trees as the human threat impact is extremely high since some of these large trees are over property, yes homes, and those residents have zero knowledge about the threat these “fast dying” trees bring to them with each passing day. The invasive species are getting worse year over year as the price of globalization comes into clearer focus as years ago it was the brown marmorated stink bug yet in more recent years it has been the spotted lantern fly and now it is the emerald ash worm.

by vrc 5y ago

snarf21 5y ago

Yeah, it is sad and an unintended consequence of a global economy. My girlfriend has 17 acres in upstate NY with 300+ ash. They are all slowly dying, losing their bark and blowing down in storms. Most are standing dead and don't even have much value as timber.

evandev 5y ago
I live in southern Vermont and have a lot of dead ash trees. Interesting enough, while there is emerald ash borer 5 miles away from me, it hasn't made it to my property. I had a state forester who specializes in EAB come and take a look and found no evidence of it. Apparently around 2017 there was a drought that affected a lot of the ash trees near me and most have died from that. None of the trees had signs of flecking which is key and he took a look at the firewood and found no evidence. He said that if one ash tree has EAB, all ash trees around it will also be affected. And there are a few very healthy ash trees.
- SuoDuanDao 5y ago
  Maybe those genetics have an immunity? That's the case with beech trees where I live, they have a tough time but a few survived the plague that swept through them. I wonder how one could test if it's something special about the trees.
- nkurz 5y ago
  > I live in southern Vermont and have a lot of dead ash trees. I'm also in Southern Vermont (Readsboro) and have mostly healthy ash trees. Emerald ash borer is presumed to be in the area, but no observed evidence yet right where I am. The foresters we spoke to told us that since it takes several years for trees to show symptoms, we should probably assume that our trees are already infested. We do have some trees that seem to be suffering from another ash disease which is present here: https://www.vtinvasives.org/invasive/ash-yellows https://www.vtinvasives.org/invasive/ash-yellows. It's probably worth noting that there are effective treatments if you have individual trees that you want to save. I've been doing a preventative treatment on the trees near with house for the last couple year with Dinotefuran (Safari). It can be applied on the bark (basal trunk spray) in late spring, after the leaves start coming out. It costs about $10 per medium sized tree per year if you do it yourself. It won't save a tree that has already been too damaged, but is believed effective if applied before major signs appear.
hinkley 5y ago
The sad thing too is that in many forests it’s hemlock that grows over fallen trees, paving the way for apex trees to follow behind them, and the hemlock is also under threat by the hemlock woolly adelgid. With elm and chestnut also gone, our list of allies grows thin. I don’t know if tulip poplar is native to your area but that also used to be part of the apex canopy and we hardly even talk about them. Ridiculously massive trees. Normal trees don’t come up to the lowest branch on a mature tulip poplar.
Alex3917 5y ago
Try putting lime around them and maybe you'll get morels.

drewzero1 5y ago

Our yard has about a dozen trees and shortly after we moved in we hired an arborist to inspect them and advise us on how to keep them healthy. We ended up having to take down a dying ash that was leaning over our house and our neighbor's house. They also told us that one of our neighbors' ash trees is also on the way out, so we can plan ahead for shade for when they eventually take that down. The tree removal was relatively inexpensive compared to worrying about falling deadwood.

bokohut 5y ago

I live in North Eastern Maryland USA and two years ago I noticed bark laying symmetrically encircled around a tree. I asked around and an arborist informed me of our unfortunate situation to come which the State of Maryland had been trying to get in front of for years. After my property was visited by an State of Maryland arborist per their request I was informed I had to rectify this issue by felling my trees as soon as possible to prevent more spreading however my efforts were pointless since there are hundreds of infected Ash trees in and around me of which my neighbors have no idea nor any interest in their trees. Now in present time there are many hundreds of dead Ash trees around my area and the recent bomb cyclone wind we had caused those dead Ash trees branches to fall and some were widow makers for sure. I have proactively contacted my Home Owners Association, Town, County and State as it relates to these dead trees as the human threat impact is extremely high since some of these large trees are over property, yes homes, and those residents have zero knowledge about the threat these “fast dying” trees bring to them with each passing day. The invasive species are getting worse year over year as the price of globalization comes into clearer focus as years ago it was the brown marmorated stink bug yet in more recent years it has been the spotted lantern fly and now it is the emerald ash worm.