End of Ash?

[Treeaddict]

So with the EAB abound, will Fraxinis Americana be eradicated? I ask specifically about the juvenile ash growing all over the county while the only mature species have been killed (minus the very few receiving injections). So the real question is, will these juveniles be able to grow to reproductive age before succumbing to EAB and then start the cycle over again?

 

[Kaveman]

I'm on the other side of the country and don't know enough to hold an opinion on this topic to be honest. I've read a bunch about it. I touched an ash tree once.

I consulted a Magic 8 Ball... Outlook Not Good.

 

[gf beranek]

A lot of tree businesses have done good by EAB, on both sides: removals a injections.

It's a heartbreak to see a native species become disseminated.

 

[flushcut]

Very few ash are still alive by me. I don’t think they will become extinct but that’s one persistent bug.

 

[cory]

It is nice to see shoots and saplings springing up.

 

[Treeaddict]

It is nice to see shoots and saplings springing up.

Our whole backyard wooded area is filled with them- 10-15 saplings up to 6’ tall. I just figured they were a type of hickory as I’ve only seen one very large living ash so it was unexpected. I can identify their corpse 100’ away though. I just hope they can survive long enough to seed! Been clearing out the small Norway maples and Callary’s to give them some room to grow.

 

[stikine]

Does the EAB go after any other native species? I'm too far away to know without researching.

 

[Tree09]

Pretty sure no, hopefully the trees can keep reproducing enough to not become extinct, and eventually evolve some resistance to them. It's a shame too, so many places chose them as the ideal species for different applications, and so the ash borers basically had a buffet set up for them. Whole municipalities used them since they tolerate stuff like pollution and abuse well, and have since had to remove thousands of them.

 

[Treeaddict]

Does the EAB go after any other native species? I'm too far away to know without researching.

Not that I’ve seen or researched

 

[FJR]

What I have learned is that the Ash trees here, specifically Green Ash, is that they are a very resilient species. It seems unlikely that they will go extinct and more likely we will continue to have a smaller population going forward. Now our Oak trees on the other hand... the future looks bleak.

I have not seen EAB cause any significant issues with other species here.

 

[cory]

Now our Oak trees on the other hand... the future looks bleak.

That's awful!

Due to oak wilt? Not in CT yet afaik.

Similar to ash regrowth after extirpation, do oak seedlings pop up in areas oak wilt has killed the mature trees?

 

[FJR]

Oak wilt is the big scary severe issue, but it is not the big problem here. Oak wilt tends to be in isolated pockets, such as just an isolated neighborhood. Most oak trees here are under a lot of stress from the urban environment (soil compaction, limited root zones, poor drainage, most abiotic issues) and environmental extremes (extremely wet springs, extremely dry portions of growing season, increasingly warmer over night lows). The oaks here do not tolerate stress well and it makes them vulnerable to list of potential problems such as: Bur Oak Blight, Two-Lined Chestnut Borer, Bacterial Leaf Scorch, Hypoxylon Canker, Armillaria, and Phytophthora. There are more issues, but those are the most common. Most of these issues will not cause mortality on their own, but the combination of the abiotic issues with the biotic issues can cause quite the downward spiral. I do not foresee the oaks here being as resilient as the ash trees.

 

[cory]

Good (but unfortunate) info, thx.

 

[flushcut]

Lots of oaks are on the way out up here too Fred. Big beautiful oaks biting the dust.

 

[FJR]

Do you see more Oak Wilt up your way?

 

[flushcut]

Oak wilt is here but like you said patchy and obvious. I am not exactly sure what is killing them off because there are so many going down burs, whites, blacks, and reds it doesn’t matter. Gypsy moth is having a field day with them as well in the Lauderdale lakes area, real bad. I have a feeling weather related stress from the past eight years is a major factor.

 

[cory]

Big beautiful oaks biting the dust.

Gawt damn that sucks.

 

[Burnham]

Weather related issues are affecting many of our local native trees here in western Oregon as well.

 

[lxskllr]

MD oaks are getting hit hard too. Mostly blacks it seems, but white oaks are suddenly dying also. I hate it. Oaks are my favorite trees of all.

 

[Treeaddict]

MD also has a lot of bacterial leaf scorch affecting the red oak families.

Just looked at a large patch of mature white oaks that require removal. The county forester said weather related stress lead to their demise.

 

[flushcut]

Gawt damn that sucks.

It does! There is one at my girls school that’s big, probably 60” just above the root flair and holds its taper for forty- five-ish feet. Maybe a sixty foot spread on the canopy up against the church roof. Gorgeous tree! I’ll try and get a pic tomorrow. Crane gig for sure. It’s not dead yet but a third of the canopy died off this summer. I was leaning towards retrenchment from a parking lot replacement but the die off was very gradual with the outer leaves dying back first working it’s way in.

 

[Treeaddict]

“ I was leaning towards retrenchment from a parking lot replacement but the die off was very gradual with the outer leaves dying back first working it’s way in.”

@flushcut Please do some splainin regarding why retrenchment (something I have only a fundamental understanding of) is not an acceptable option due to the nature of the dieback? Because the nature of its predicted disease won’t allow survival?

 

[flushcut]

Retrenchment = mass root loss mostly the little feeder roots in this case. That were up and under the old parking lot plus excavation for the new base rock and concrete.

 

[davidwyby]

There are more dead coastal live oaks in the mountains down here than one can shake a stick at…I cut a few down this summer, up to 6’ dia. :-/ Property owner said he has tried everything.

 

[Kaveman]

We have Gamble Oak here in AZ. From what I understand it's something of an odd species. Seems really prone to heart rot. There's a few big specimens around, but not as many as one would expect. Most are small, maybe 4-6 inch diameter, 12-15 feet tall. Last year, I took something like 15-17 TREES to make a chord. In 20 years, I think I've cut a dozen trees that didn't have a beehive or wasps nest. More than one had some seriously aggressive termites.

All that aside, the burn scar from the Rodeo Chediski fire, a little over 20 years old and over half a million acres, is mostly oak and juniper now. They're a bit more resilient than the pines, and they certainly seem to be the predominance of regrowth. Before the burn it was mostly Ponderosa.