Some of the dead lay felled and sectioned. Others stood leafless, lifeless, contrasted against the vibrant blue that is the Huntingdon County sky in early morning. Together they serve as too-real props in the tragedy that is playing out in stands of trees across Pennsylvania.

“I’m sure most of you noticed the downed ash trees as you drove into the office parking lot this morning,” said Greenwood Furnace State Park Manager Michael Dinsmore, “and you can’t miss the cut, stacked wood throughout the park grounds. This is just one way we’re dealing with the emerald ash borer.”

His audience was a diverse gathering, indeed—foresters, state park managers, arborists, municipal officials, homeowners—all drawn together to take stock of the massive damage one very small invasive insect has wrought.

They crowded into a park building for Act Two of a Bureau of Forestry production that is playing to packed houses across the state. They came to hear what they can do—or, as some speakers emphasized, must do—when the emerald ash borer targets trees close to home.

“Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan for Pennsylvania Communities” was the title of the day-long workshop hosted April 16 at Greenwood Furnace State Park. There were no empty seats. Same topic, same interest a month earlier in West Chester, Chester County. Similar interest already has been generated in Tioga and Allegheny counties where future workshops will be held.

And that’s not surprising, workshop organizers say, when one considers costly treatment options, dangers posed by borer-killed trees, and the insect’s rapid spread eastward and north across the state. Indeed, since the Greenwood Furnace meeting, three counties—Susquehanna, Berks and Lebanon— reported first-time emerald ash borer infestations. It now is found in 51 of the state’s 67 counties.

“It could very well be in every county now, but we have not yet had it reported,” bureau Forest Entomologist Dr. Houping Liu told his workshop listeners. “One thing is certain, if you have a lot of ash trees, you will have a lot of issues.”

And with those issues comes a need for preparedness, said the man spearheading the bureau’s emerald ash borer education effort. Whether a small golf course or a sprawling municipality, Liu said, dead and dying ash trees will pose problems for those who own them, try to treat them, or are forced to take them down.

“What options do we have to remove the emerald ash borer?” asked the entomologist spearheading the workshop series. “For a problem of this size, not very many, really.”

That’s why Liu and other bureau Forest Pest Management staff have been working closely with municipalities to encourage inventorying of ash trees, weighing of options, and consideration of safety and costs concerns. The Bureau of State Parks has been heeding that call for years now, since the emerald ash borer first reared its deadly head in 2007 in Cranberry Township, Butler County.

“As you have seen and heard here today, the Bureau of State Parks is trying to go at this with a selective pace,” said Park Manager Rachel Wagoner. “We certainly are not going to be able to save every tree, nor are we going to remove everything that’s dead, or dies in the future.”

Instead, all state parks are taking inventory of their ash trees, said Wagoner, a parks resource manager responsible for forest health and plant communities. Also, they are identifying what trees should come down, others that should—and can be—treated by injection with minimal cost.

“This is an evolving but uniform process that is constantly undergoing a process of evaluation,” the park manager said.

And what fills the future void of dead ash? Guest speaker Dr. James Finley, a Penn State University forestry professor urged his listeners to think ahead toward viable replacement species and possible retention of ash tree seed sources:

“If you are a forest owner or landowner and you love your forest, start thinking now how you can best take care of it,” Finley said. “Take care of it now so that it will be there for those who come after you.”

Think ash trees are important to the diversity of Penn’s Woods? They may rank No. 8 in number across the state—about 304 million trees—said the Bureau of Forestry’s Shawn Lehman, but they are No. 1 when it comes to the manufacturing of baseball bats. And that’s not all. Pennsylvania ash is used for flooring, molding, and in the manufacture of pallets, tool handles, drum shells, canoe paddles, even snowshoes. Lehman’s utilization list goes on and on.

His hope for the species’ future does not:

“We know that ash trees across the state are regenerating but we are not sure what’s going to happen after that.”

And what does the dead or dying ash tree mean to the passing park visitor, golfer or motorist? Or the working tree surgeon? Sometimes, a safety threat, said Dr. Anand Persad of The Davey Tree Expert Co., who detailed how an ash borer-targeted tree is a much weakened tree—that does very unusual things when rocked by wind or being felled by a tree surgeon or arborist.

“Bad breaks,” including the infamous “widow makers,” or dropping overhead limbs, and dead trees “popping at the base,” all have accounted for a spike in injuries to workmen in infected trees, Persaid noted. Still, he urged restraint in felling any ash tree that may not be dead or dying:

“Let’s not chase the ambulance yet,” the Davey representative said. “Do not let fear manage what you cut. I have seen instances where perfectly healthy trees were felled.”

And the silver lining—if any?

To the man managing a park where 85 ash dead ash trees were taken out in 2013; 25 so far this year “with many more expected,” there is a unique teaching tool that enables park staffers to better overcome public perception that is not always positive.

“It’s not easy for park visitors to see a tree taken down that they were married under 20 years ago,” said Dinsmore, Greenwood Furnace’s manager, “but when we explain the scientific reasoning and the safety factors, they usually understand.”

And, perhaps see and hear new sights during park visits:

“I can’t go a day around here without seeing a pileated woodpecker,” Dinsmore said, noting the winged visitors fondness for borer larva in the dead ash. “Wood ducks are drawn to them, too, and, of course, the salamanders utilize the cover of fallen limbs.

“There is a public perception that a dead tree, a fallen tree, is a wasted species and that really is not the case.”

Two More Workshops

Two remaining workshops addressing an “Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan for Pa. Communities” are planned in May and June. Admission to the day-long sessions is free, but pre-registration is required.

“Attendees will leave these workshops with a wealth of newfound knowledge on what they can do personally to challenge the emerald ash borer’s spread,” said DCNR Secretary Ellen Ferretti. “Do you have ash trees in your community? Is the emerald ash borer in your area or nearby? Do you want to save your ash trees? These are among the many questions experts and tree-care professionals will be asking and answering.”

Panels will focus on the biology of the ash tree and its insect enemy; damage detection and control; and ash tree inventories and management strategies.

Attendees also will be introduced to urban tree benefits; insect management tools; utilization of dead ash trees; costs of management options; and species selection to replace dead ash trees. Field trips to local management areas and chemical treatment demonstrations are planned.

Municipal officials, urban foresters, arborists, conservationists, pesticide applicators, tree-care professionals, landscapers and home and woodlot owners are expected to attend. Scheduled between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., workshops are planned:

-- May 14, North Park Lodge, North Park, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County; and

-- June 18, Allen Hall 104, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, Mansfield, Tioga County.

Reservations must be made five days in advance of the workshops by telephoning 717-783-2066 or sending email to: cshafer@pa.gov. Workshops will be held regardless of weather; refreshments will be provided at the sessions.

Training is funded by the USDA Forest Service through a grant to the Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Council. Other supporters include DCNR, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, the Pa. Horticulture Society, Pennsylvania State University, The Nature Conservancy, Allegheny County Department of Parks, Tree Pittsburgh and Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.

Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer first was detected in the United States in Michigan in 2002. Beetle larvae bore through ash trees, disrupting flow of water and nutrients through the tree, and eventually killing it. Tree owners fearing infestation should be alert for the May and early June emergence of adult insects through D-shaped exit holes in the bark.

Details on the emerald ash borer and other Pennsylvania forest pests can be found online.

(Reprinted from the April 30 Resource newsletter from DCNR.)

5/5/2014