Emerald Ash borer

DiscoInferno said:

I was glad not to have any ash on our upper MI property, which is now quarantined. Since Alger county is surrounded by non-quarantined counties, it was most likely from trolls (those who live below the bridge, for you non-Michiganders) bringing firewood north. Anyway, now beech bark disease is moving through the UP and they are starting to all die off. They make up a large number of my bigger trees, thankfully not near the house. It's a bad time to be a tree...

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Hey Disco, we haven't seen much activity from you lately. Hope all is well. I was not aware that Alger county had any ash. As for the beech, lots and lots of it has died already and they say it will all go. That will hurt the UP a lot.

mtneer said:

Do EABs only feed on ash and move on to a new area or do they stick around and hit other species? I've noticed a lot of ash saplings in my wood lot. It got me thinking that an area could maybe recover down the road if EAB moves on to greener pastures and the saplings mature.

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I've read that it is only the ash they attack, which is good.

We have lots of very young ash trees still standing......but they are all dead.

DiscoInferno said:

I was glad not to have any ash on our upper MI property, which is now quarantined. Since Alger county is surrounded by non-quarantined counties, it was most likely from trolls (those who live below the bridge, for you non-Michiganders) bringing firewood north. Anyway, now beech bark disease is moving through the UP and they are starting to all die off. They make up a large number of my bigger trees, thankfully not near the house. It's a bad time to be a tree...

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Ok, not to totally divert/hijack this threadm but the mention of the Beech bark disease strikes me for a couple of reasons. One, I have some nice Beech mixed in my woods (big buggers too), and second, just yesterday I was chatting with an old timer (older than me anyway) up in Cross Village and he showed me some Beech trees that were dying from a white spotty fungus like stuff on the bark. Is that the same as what you are talking about?

AJ, I'm told that most of the western LP is dead or dying from this and yes, it is no doubt the same thing.

Backwoods Savage said:

AJ, I'm told that most of the western LP is dead or dying from this and yes, it is no doubt the same thing.

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Bummer.

There was a newspaper article here in Chicago a few weeks ago that had a lengthy explanation of the problem and the treatments. http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120819/news/708199922/ I have no hope that the Ash trees will make it here in Chicago. Thankfully, I have no ash on my property.

To the original poster's question... I don't think it matters if you bring ash to your property. If there are other ash trees, they'll eventually die. However, don't get caught doing something illegal. I doubt you'd get away with a slap on the wrist.

mtneer said:

Do EABs only feed on ash and move on to a new area or do they stick around and hit other species? I've noticed a lot of ash saplings in my wood lot. It got me thinking that an area could maybe recover down the road if EAB moves on to greener pastures and the saplings mature.

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I asked the same thing of the USDA APHIS folks currently in my area working on the infestation of Asian longhorned beetles. In summary, the head guy of this local operation told me that EAB is extraordinarily selective. They have found EAB in other species but it is extremely rare. He said we shouldn't have too much expectation to save any mature ashes in the path of the borer but that 2-3 years after it has moved on they should be fine.

"....there's nothing that will stop it short of a massive insecticide program (which is what we need to control the out-of-control invasive bug population)..."

This is wrong. The only real hopes to limit the damage from emerald ash borer (and other tree pests) are:
-find a biological control (a disease, predator or parasite that specifically attacks the borer), or
-breed ash trees that are resistant (I think there is some hope on this front for Dutch Elm disease and Chestnut blight).

On a specimen tree basis one might keep a particular tree alive with pesticides, but there is no way that pesticide treatments, no matter how massive, will ever control invasive tree pests on a landscape basis in a mixed forest.

The quarantine measures are largely tokenism by governments pretending to do something.
Once the pest reaches the continental landmass, the insect pests will spread until they reach their climatic or host range limits.
A serious mountain, desert or other habitat barrier might be a site for a feasible quarantine control.
As we are finding with the pine beetle, the climatic limits are changing.

I am seriously concerned about the future of the North American forest. We forget how much we have already lost/are loosing.
Chestnut, Elm, Beech, Ash, pine going soon, ...
These were/are major forest components.
Around my little town there is a Beech Hill with no Beech, a Hemlock brook, with no Hemlock etc.

What's happening with the pines? What did I miss?

Pine beetle is moving north through interior BC and starting to get across the Rockies into Alberta.
Until recently it was blocked by periods of sustained cold during the winters, but now the cold periods are milder and shorter so it is expanding its range.
If it succeeds in hopping the Rockies, it can spread in the Jack Pine across the boreal zone

dougstove said:

What's happening with the pines? What did I miss?

Pine beetle is moving north through interior BC and starting to get across the Rockies into Alberta.
Until recently it was blocked by periods of sustained cold during the winters, but now the cold periods are milder and shorter so it is expanding its range.
If it succeeds in hopping the Rockies, it can spread in the Jack Pine across the boreal zone

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Not sure if it's pine beetle or not but I have something destroying my pines.(I'm in Michigan) I have a bunch of scotch pines which aren't native that are dying and it's even getting into my white pines. Not good!

Is there any research to support that the ash will be ale to make a comeback once the EAB has moved on?
Is saving saplings inside worth the effort? I have a half dozen mature ash on my small lot have not been infected yet but will inevitably be inthe path of the pests.

I'm surprised that none of your ash has been affected yet. I have yet to see one in the city of Cbus that doesn't have early leaf loss or standing dead. Maybe yours will be spared.

They are still looking healthy so maybe I got lucky but im not holding my breath on it. Those bugs are everywhere.

rdust said:

Not sure if it's pine beetle or not but I have something destroying my pines.(I'm in Michigan) I have a bunch of scotch pines which aren't native that are dying and it's even getting into my white pines. Not good!

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rdust, our place will not look the same to you. The reason is most of those pines you saw are gone. Over the past several years we've had more and more of them dieing. Last winter we had most of them cut. Found out it was rust gall mainly causing the death of the pines. Then some of the white pines were getting lots of white mold so we cut those too.