White ash (Fraxinus americana)

…is most abundant where the forest has been removed altogether, such as along roadsides, fence rows, abandoned pastures, and flood plains— i.e. in the valley bottoms and lower slopes where most people live and work.

Dr. Michael Kudish

2009

Ash trees on Clove Rd, Ulster County, NY. Images from Google Streetview.

In 2015, nearly half of the trees visible from my porch were dying. I didn’t know it yet, but the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) was sweeping through my region. It would eventually kill all of the mature ash trees in my area.

This massive loss was a catalyst for noticing a species we have lived with for years. Suddenly, we began to see characteristics of collapse like borer markings and canopy dieback. Trees were standing dead until storms uprooted them, leaving them suspended in the branches of others. We saw shoots sprouting from the stumps of trees that had succumbed to the borer. We paid attention to special qualities of the ash itself, like trident shaped branches and elegant samaras (seed pods). We are mystified, still by the differences between white and green ash. Humility and awe lead us through a slow study of a dying forest.

Although white ash is native to the northeast, its presence as a roadside, backyard, and keystone forest tree is a result of land disturbance. By reshaping the environment, humans opened a niche for something fast growing, sunloving, and strong. A pioneer in the clearings, ash helped establish a modern forest. We cannot let this complicated, storied tree disappear unnoticed.

Field Notes

Emerald ash borer (EAB) has wiped out 99% of the mature ash trees in the Hudson Valley over the past decade.

EAB larvae eat away at the tree’s cambium, just beneath the bark, where nutrients are transported between the leaves and roots. The characteristic winding galleries they leave behind as they feed can be seen on the bare trunks of dead ash trees throughout our region.

Stump sprouts are new shoots that grow from the living roots of a tree, emerging even after the trunk has died.

As EAB kills an ash, sprouts frequently appear up and down the tree, and may persist and proliferate long after collapse.

The sprouts can become mature trees themselves in some cases, but predation by deer populations is intense.