Sadly we lost our x3 beautiful spruce trees last year. They died one after the other. X2 of our big oaks have now died, too. I thought initially it was maybe the installation of 5G towers, but then we were told about the Chinese bugs that seem unstoppable! They have killed huge sections of forest already in Europe! We live on a little farm in south west France. Our winter is still here with icy wind!
My in laws bought a property in WI 20 years ago because it had mostly matured ash trees. My youngest last year cut down the last dead one. Thankfully they had thought to plant maples and oak and spruce or they'd have an empty yard. Sad indeed.
I liked this article a lot. I am in the same process in northwestern Ontario. Climate change and bark beetles are killing off a lot of our existing forest and once we have a large population of standing dead trees, forest fires will ultimately take them all, and those of us who live amongst them as well. I am therefore proactively cutting down much of my forest and replanting with a wide variety of fruiting and other trees. Full time work that will pay off in decades but is absolutely necessary in my view.
You are right, all ash trees are dead now here in New York, no remedy was found. As well I been shocked to see how white tailed deer eat my only one Thuja occidentalis this January. never happened for 3 years , so I thought it is resistant. My mistake.
Same time my 6 varieties of Cornus Mas already showed fruiting buds.
This is a beautiful way to look at it, and I appreciate your perspective. It's so easy to get caught up in the death and destructive aspects, so it's nice to have the reminder that it's part of the longer, deeper cycle.
It is not just persistence but having a long term perspective about what permanence actually means.
Very interesting long term succession of the forests that you have noted.
We need to have the perspective of a society, not just those in living memory, to be able to see the long term cycles of nature.
The native people of Australia have oral legends that have been passed down from generations back, some of which eventually come true many years after the last person who saw these events died. These people were part of the landscape and used their collective memory to inform the future generations of what is to come.
Many trees are hundreds of years old, and the soil seed back could also be that old, and the mycorrhizal fungi and other microscopic networks no doubt are much older. All of these can be seriously disturbed, but they also have some serious long term timetable for regeneration.
The big picture over hundreds of years is what a forest lives in, not just the last 90 or so.
I didn't know about the problem with the ash tree and the beetles. That's super sad.. trees take so many years to grow and die from this problem soo fast.
Here in the South of Portugal, where I live we also have a similar problem with a type of invasive beetle too but it kills one of our endemic palm trees.
"The forest eats itself and lives forever." -Barbara Kingsolver
This highlights why it is so important to grow trees from seed!
Far too many nurseries grow genetically identical trees that pests/diseases can wipe out with ease.
Sadly we lost our x3 beautiful spruce trees last year. They died one after the other. X2 of our big oaks have now died, too. I thought initially it was maybe the installation of 5G towers, but then we were told about the Chinese bugs that seem unstoppable! They have killed huge sections of forest already in Europe! We live on a little farm in south west France. Our winter is still here with icy wind!
My in laws bought a property in WI 20 years ago because it had mostly matured ash trees. My youngest last year cut down the last dead one. Thankfully they had thought to plant maples and oak and spruce or they'd have an empty yard. Sad indeed.
You have my sympathy for the loss of those trees. Thanks for speaking for them. 🫢
Has anyone there tried the raw garlic injected into the ash trees. Worth a try.
I liked this article a lot. I am in the same process in northwestern Ontario. Climate change and bark beetles are killing off a lot of our existing forest and once we have a large population of standing dead trees, forest fires will ultimately take them all, and those of us who live amongst them as well. I am therefore proactively cutting down much of my forest and replanting with a wide variety of fruiting and other trees. Full time work that will pay off in decades but is absolutely necessary in my view.
You are right, all ash trees are dead now here in New York, no remedy was found. As well I been shocked to see how white tailed deer eat my only one Thuja occidentalis this January. never happened for 3 years , so I thought it is resistant. My mistake.
Same time my 6 varieties of Cornus Mas already showed fruiting buds.
This is a beautiful way to look at it, and I appreciate your perspective. It's so easy to get caught up in the death and destructive aspects, so it's nice to have the reminder that it's part of the longer, deeper cycle.
It is not just persistence but having a long term perspective about what permanence actually means.
Very interesting long term succession of the forests that you have noted.
We need to have the perspective of a society, not just those in living memory, to be able to see the long term cycles of nature.
The native people of Australia have oral legends that have been passed down from generations back, some of which eventually come true many years after the last person who saw these events died. These people were part of the landscape and used their collective memory to inform the future generations of what is to come.
Many trees are hundreds of years old, and the soil seed back could also be that old, and the mycorrhizal fungi and other microscopic networks no doubt are much older. All of these can be seriously disturbed, but they also have some serious long term timetable for regeneration.
The big picture over hundreds of years is what a forest lives in, not just the last 90 or so.
I didn't know about the problem with the ash tree and the beetles. That's super sad.. trees take so many years to grow and die from this problem soo fast.
Here in the South of Portugal, where I live we also have a similar problem with a type of invasive beetle too but it kills one of our endemic palm trees.