How to protect #AshTrees and preserve a #Wabanaki tradition
October 29, 2024

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 29, 2024

"How to help protect the brown ash tree used in Wabanaki basketry from the invasive emerald ash borer.

• Cut, buy, or burn only local firewood.
• Monitor for telltale signs of infestation.
• If you own land, know if you have brown ash.
• If your ash is healthy, contact a forester or #MaineForestService about how to keep them alive.
• Collect seed pods from healthy brown ash for replanting.
• Consider offering Wabanaki artists access to your brown ash."

https://www.restore.org/maineenvironews/2024/10/29/how-to-protect-ash-trees-and-preserve-a-wabanaki-tradition

Source [may be behind a paywall]:
https://www.pressherald.com/2024/10/29/how-to-protect-ash-trees-and-preserve-a-wabanaki-tradition/
#Maine #MFS #EAB #EmeraldAshBorer #AshTree #AshTrees #APCAW #InvasiveSpecies #Wabanaki #ProtectTheForests #MaineNews #Maine #SaveTheTrees #WabanakiCulture #WabanakiBasketry #WabanakiTradition #Forestry #ProtectTheSacred

“The biggest thing we learned from this is that diversifying from one species — elm in very large numbers — to 3-4 species isn’t diverse enough for an insect pest like this,” explained Jongeward. “It will kill off a third of the forest pretty readily. We are planting far more species now, increasing diversity down to the city block.”

Bill Lindeke: St. Paul marks bittersweet accomplishment in cutting down last of the ash trees
https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2024/09/st-paul-marks-bittersweet-accomplishment-in-cutting-down-last-of-the-ash-trees/

New on Entomology Today: A new study examines how tree diversity and density of ash trees influence the performance of predators and parasitoids of the invasive emerald ash borer. One parasitoid wasp thrived in dense ash stands, while another preferred areas of lower ash density. The findings, though mixed, nonetheless inform fine-tuning biocontrol strategies for the forest pest. #entomology #insects #EmeraldAshBorer https://entomologytoday.org/2024/08/01/emerald-ash-borer-drivers-effective-biological-control-ash-trees-parasitoids/

#icymi I’d like to raise (and boost) awareness about the plight of the black ash tree. As part of the immersion language course in Western Abenaki we learned about the intergenerational tradition of basket making. It’s not just about pretty livelihood, it’s a sacred relationship between the trees, the land, and the people. And the #emeraldashborer threatens to destroy it.

https://www.emeraldashborer.info/blackash

A great day spent hiking and being with friends. It’s time to prep supper and get the grill going. None of which I’ve featured here. I just wanted to show off our #MST3K window decal. They make any vehicle shine above all others. Sadly you can see the damage done in the trees by the Emerald Ash Borer. It’s everywhere across this Preserve, like all of #Illinois.

As insect invaders approach, researchers use a combination of indigenous knowledge and Western forestry science to save a valuable tradition

By Willy Blackmore Nov 25, 2019,

"Suzanne Greenlaw doesn’t like chainsaws. She moves quickly through the chest-high ostrich ferns, frilly leaves heavy with rain, as the orange saw sputters and then chokes. 'She gets all freaked out,' says Gabriel Frey, laughing as he yanks the starting cord again with one heavily muscled arm, the saw whirring to life. Putting the bar to a trunk of shaggy, gray-tinged bark, he begins to cut, the grinding sound of the saw echoing through the damp, green-lit stand.

"The felled tree is one of three that Frey and Greenlaw carefully picked out of the woods on the cool, damp July day in far northern #Maine. Plenty of logs are hauled out of the forest there, in #AroostookCounty, which is home to a chunk of the #NorthMaineWoods, a 3.5 million-acre expanse of commercial timberland. But Frey and Greenlaw, and the stand of gray-barked trees, are part of a tradition that’s far older than any timber camp or lumber mill. The trees are #FraxinusNigra, commonly known as #BlackAsh or #BrownAsh, which have forever been at the hearts of the lives of Maine’s indigenous tribes.

"Greenlaw, a #Maliseet forestry scientist working on her PhD at the University of Maine, is at the forefront of the effort to protect the state’s brown ash. The trees are at risk of being wiped out by the emerald ash borer, an #InvasiveSpecies that has been killing ash trees in North America for the better part of 20 years. With the help of Frey, a renowned #Passamaquoddy basket maker, as well as the broader #Wabanaki basket-making community, the married couple is fighting to preserve the rich tradition the tree supports."

https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/25/20976144/emerald-ash-borer-baskets-wabanaki-invasive-pest-maine-tradition-trees

Groups are working to protect trees — and traditions — from the #EmeraldAshBorer

By Carol Bousquet
Published October 10, 2023

"John Daigle, a citizen of the #PenobscotNation and Forest Resources Professor at UMaine, says his grandparents' baskets provided income for the family and a way to connect one generation of Wabanaki to the next.

"'When I interacted more with basket makers and harvesters I gained a deeper understanding of the cultural significance of brown ash, in terms of its ties to one of the creation stories of the #Wabanaki people, of all four tribes in Maine,' Daigle said.

"In addition to seed collection and propagation, there are other efforts underway to stop the march of the emerald ash borer, which was identified last year in Bridgton. That's one location where a non-native wasp that preys on the beetle is being introduced.

"Maggie Lynn, Development and Outreach Manager at Loon Echo Land Trust, says Bridgton is one of a handful of sites across the state where the wasps, native to Asia and reared at a Midwest facility, are being released.

"'We've been releasing them all summer and will again next year... the state will take some trees to see if the wasps are still there and it's working,' she said."

Read more: https://www.mainepublic.org/news/2023-10-10/groups-are-working-to-protect-trees-and-traditions-from-the-emerald-ash-borer

Here's a local story that is likely playing out in similar ways all over the United States: there are so many dead ash trees at Tyler Arboretum in Media, Pennsylvania, that they have closed most of the trails. I.e. there's a legitimate worry that a hiker will eventually get crushed by a falling tree. This situation is courtesy the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis). The side story here is the expense: the arboretum needs millions of dollars to take the trees down, plus it has the loss of admission revenue because visitation will likely drop. #philadelphia #delco #media #ash #fraxinus #trees #forestry #EmeraldAshBorer #eab #buprestidae #beetles #InvasiveSpecies #insects #nature #entomology https://www.inquirer.com/science/climate/emerald-ash-borer-pennsylvania-tyler-arboretum-trails-20230927.html

Good news for a #tree species that was already thought to be doomed: A glimmer of hope – #ash #genotypes with increased #resistance to #AshDieback pathogen show cross-resistance to #EmeraldAshBorer: https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.19068

New on Entomology Today: One of the best tools to detect emerald ash borer is a wasp that specializes in catching beetles. A new study compares the wasps' mix of prey with the mix of trees in nearby forests to estimate the wasp's foraging range—and thus determine where emerald ash borer may be present when the wasps are found with it. #entomology #insects #wasps #EmeraldAshBorer #CitizenScience https://entomologytoday.org/2023/06/08/how-a-wasp-and-geographic-data-are-improving-surveillance-for-the-emerald-ash-borer/

If you follow this account, you know I love #insects. They are amazing, beautiful creatures worthy of protection and restoration.

But. A very few species, because of us putting them in the wrong place and changing the landscape and climate to suit them, can cause huge damage. The emerald ash borer is one of those few, and it just arrived in Oregon last year.

There's a webinar tomorrow focused on limiting its damage here: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/mg/events/forest-foe-how-you-can-help-slow-emerald-ash-borer-invasion

Huge canes of #invasive #blackberry growing in the trunk of a decrepit Oregon ash. It got this bad because the decades-old, impenetrable #bramble was finally brushhogged last summer.

All cleaned up now. The #EmeraldAshBorer was found in Oregon last year, so who knows what is in store for the ash trees.

The tree removal company arrived today to remove the dead ash trees from our property. The ash trees killed by emerald ash borer (EAB).

Twenty ash trees were removed.

Twenty trees that provided shelter for birds and small mammals, shade, water filtratrion, soil stabilization.

Yes, I am sad. I am angry!

I watched those trees grow from saplings. I nutured them. From the parent tree.

Now they are just debris in our yard. Even the parent.

Traditions are falling from our worlds like leaves from a dying #ash #tree. Beautiful @nytimes piece by Thomas J. Campanella on the shuttering of a #NewEngland #basket company, their stock destroyed by #emeraldashborer. And who is learning the careful art of basket making these days? #MacDowellArt @news.twtr.plus httpster@indieweb.social://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/opinion/basket-ash-insect.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare