Dale McFeatters: May our trees survive threats and stand tall

The emerald ash borer, a highly destructive insect that kills ash trees.

Yet, from Dutch elm to the ash borer, the onslaught of peril progresses.

By DALE MCFEATTERS, Scripps Howard News Service

Last update: October 23, 2009 - 7:25 PM

Something is trying to kill the great trees of America.

The latest is the American ash, which has become the prey of the emerald ash borer, which threatens not only a $25 billion industry -- and the source of our baseball bats -- but the existence of the tree as a species. The ash constitutes a measurable percentage of our forests -- up to 60 percent in some parts of North Dakota. There are billions of ash trees at risk in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Mark Wirdlechner, a horticulturist for the U.S. Agriculture Research Service and an Iowa State professor, is leading an effort to save the ash if the worst happens by collecting seeds that must be harvested in the fall and putting them in secure storage after first freezing them. Thus, there would be an ash bank to draw on once we find a way to kill or control the pest.

For some years now, an effort has been underway to reintroduce the elm into American life. Every city of a certain age is almost certain to have an Elm Street. Rows of the huge, vase-shaped trees once defined the American Main Street.

The proximity of the elms to one another allowed Dutch elm disease to spread quickly when it arrived in the 1920s, and by the 1970s well more than half of the elms were gone. Nurseries have had some success in identifying and growing disease-resistant elms, and the trees are slowly making a comeback. They adapt well to cities, are able to withstand extremes of cold and heat, and are resistant to road salt and air pollution.

Similarly, forestry departments and tree nurseries are reviving the American chestnut, nearly wiped out by a blight, first seen in 1902, that in the next several decades killed perhaps 3 billion trees, driving it to near-extinction. It is a matter of some excitement when an original American chestnut is discovered in the wild and at least one forest service keeps the location secret.

As with the elm, the best hope for the chestnut is the development of new, disease-resistant strains.

Sadly, the woes don't stop there. The butternut tree is under serious threat from a fungus and the flowering dogwood from a fungus and a borer.

Something is after our great trees.

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