We took our first step toward having individual pages for 50 Pennsylvania tree species by the end of the year. Although we are not ready to have our grand unvailing of the website, we thought you might enjoy taking a peak. The first featured tree, as we work on threatened species, is the White Ash.
We hope you enjoy the page – let us know what you think! Email Trees of PA
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Butler county – In a hedgerow behind an elementary school, state entomologist Sven-Erik Spichiger works a screwdriver into the trunk of a dying ash tree, peels away a foot-long strip of bark and reveals something oddly beautiful yet ultimately horrific in the wood beneath: a network of S-shaped galleries, representing the years-long progress of innumerable gnawing larvae.
Trunks like this one are the nurseries of the emerald ash borer beetle, an accidental import from Asia that threatens the very existence of North America’s five varieties of ash and may, experts fear, already be inhabiting other parts of Pennsylvania, including the Lehigh Valley. full story
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) – Ash trees are being turned into park benches, baby furniture and baseball bats for Little Leaguers as cities around the Midwest try to get rid of millions of trees killed by a paper clip-size beetle.
The emerald ash borer has killed or prompted state officials to cut down about 25 million infested trees in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania since it first was discovered in the United States five years ago. And it’s on the move, with federal agriculture officials predicting it could spread to the east-central United States within the next two decades.
“We wanted to get value out of them before we lost them,” said Steve Gruner, director of the Sandusky County Park District in Ohio where ash trees were used to renovate a historic barn.
Workers in Monroe, Mich., built park benches, picnic tables and sign posts and ash floors and panelling are being installed in a library in Ann Arbor. read more
The newest serious threat to our forests in Pennsylvania is the emerald ash borer. Some experts believe it could wipe out our white ash trees in the next ten years. The following is from the PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry on invasive species:
The emerald ash borer was first identified in North America in southeastern Michigan in 2002. Larvae of the beetle feed in the tissues under the bark of ash trees ( Fraxinus spp.) causing the girdling and death of branches and entire trees. Adults of the species are active from mid-May until September. read more
Another website, Emerald Ash Borer, is dedicated entirely to this invasive pest and provides even more information.
