Ash trees to be devastated

After the trees disappear... Scientists expect Emerald Ash Borer to kill 99% of the ash trees in American forests


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/s...borers-destroy-them.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

Scary. Traveling in the black hills and parts of Colorado I saw devastation, leading to increased fire issues. Here in Massachusetts, hemlock bug has lead to clear cutting in a park that I run in, quite sad.

When growing up I saw the affects of dutch elm disease as Elms were the preferred landscaping tree in Portland Maine. In some areas, ashes trees were planted to replace the elms.

EAB spreads naturally but traveling firewood is another vector. I expect once the ashes start dying, that a lot of firewood is going to get moved out of contaminated areas. Most foresters have told landowners to plan on removing all ash trees once EAB shows up nearby as one its in the area, the trees are un-merchantable almost immediately. Apparently the first sign is the bark coming off in sheets.

Here in CO, EAB is still quite isolated (Boulder mostly) and they are working hard to keep it that way. Fortunately it's not a native tree to our forests, so most ashes are in areas where they could be cut down or potentially treated to limit spread. There are treatments, but they are per tree and pretty expensive.
We have two big ones, hopefully it will be a while before it gets to our area. We might have more fires in our fireplace one of these winters... ash does burn pretty well in any case. Unfortunately, unlike beetle-kill pine, which is probably mostly what MikePS saw and what is widely used for some beautiful construction now around here (a few newer buildings have their entire interiors made with it), trees are contagious when dead, so using the wood for lumber is not a good idea.