But I am not unsure of what this accidental import from Asia has done to our Ash trees. They've killed them off. There is a treatment that can be applied, but it is very expensive so most people have just let their trees die. Our town is taking care of the Ash trees on the local boulevards, so the species won't be gone completely. But the Ash tree used to be a very common tree here.
We were warned about 10 years ago that the Ash Borer had arrived in our area. And now every day for the last 3 years or more you hear chain saws going and tree branches being put through a giant wood chipper somewhere in the neighbourhood or just next door to us. One day last month I saw about six trucks each pulling a wood chipper and all of them were from the same company, moving in a convoy through the downtown main drag. People are getting rich from this natural disaster.
There was some mention someplace that once the Emerald Ash Borer moves through the area and goes on to the next, the Ash trees might be able to make a come back. I'm not holding my breath. I'll bet they just turn around and head back once they run out of trees. Or they'll attack a less desireable species.
In the last 100 years we in this part of North America have lost three species of trees. We lost the sweet chestnut to a blight in the 1930's. We lost most of our Elm trees to the Dutch Elm disease in the early '60's. I watched that one march through here when I was a kid. And now this new blight. Bah!!
One good thing, the Ash trees make a lot of seeds. So did the Elms. Every once in a while a very old seed from an Elm germinates and you get a young elm tree. Sadly they don't usually get very large before they're infected and die.
A seed from an Ash tree has germinated in my flower bed in the front yard. I am planning to leave it there for two years and then transplant it onto the boulevard beside my house. Some day it will make nice summer shade for the north wall of my place. And hopefully the town will take care of the tree, as it will be on the boulevard.
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