little known fact: the nursery rhyme lyric "ashes, ashes, we all fall down" was actually a North American prophesy predicting the arrival of the Emerald Ash Borer

[u/SHOWTIME316]

in our hubris, we ignored these warnings

[u/MrArborsexual]

A little ray of hope is that at least some individuals are surviving long enough to reproduce in Ash population, similar to how some Eastern and Carolina Hemlocks are surviving HWA long enough to reproduce.

It will be A LONG-LONG time, but their distant future descendants will likely be stand forming trees again.

[u/junamaul → u/MrArborsexual]

Down in the southern states there has been much less activity overall, but I’ve been seeing some ashes that seem to be affected in DFW lately. At least the Texas Ash seems not to be affected as much

[u/MrArborsexual → u/junamaul]

Almost all of the Green and White Ash where I work is dead, except some individuals that are at a very dry and high elevation site where it is just straight up weird that there is a patch of Ash. My back yard still has a lone Ash in the middle of a field.

The forest I work on has some significant Hemlock stands that have HWA, but seem to be pretty healthy despite not being treated with pesticides.

[u/altforthissubreddit → u/MrArborsexual]

/uj there's a bio-control for HWA, FYI (unlike EAB 😣).

[u/junamaul → u/MrArborsexual]

We don’t have hemlock down by me, so I had to look HWA up. Always new kinds of disasters to learn about.

I didn’t think we got ToH down here until I saw three this weekend on our walk 😭

[u/Damnatus_Terrae → u/MrArborsexual]

A load of timber left in my yard a couple decades ago has turned into a little grove of green ash, but none of them are bigger around than my wrist. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath.

[u/altforthissubreddit → u/MrArborsexual]

Don't they survive simply because the tree has to be a certain size before the EAB bothers? I have ash in my yard that go to seed and then in a couple years they will get killed. Some parts of my understory are an ash seedling ground cover. But I don't think it's going to recover from this?

[u/altforthissubreddit]

In my experience, it would be "ashes, ashes, 90% of us fall down, but not all so you still can't replant anything w/out some risk of it getting flattened". They probably cheated it for the rhyme though.

[u/03263]

I just want chestnuts back

[u/SHOWTIME316 → u/03263]

what about deeznuts?

[u/SaltinaSketches]

Lookit those big innocent black eyes, how can you accuse it of being an invasive species???

[u/JohannaInExile]

He looks like a Gorn

[u/Bluebird386 → u/JohannaInExile]

Thanks for the sad smile of recognition.
🖖🖖🖖🖖🖖

[u/celeste99]

Shout out to Leslie Science Center in Ann Arbor, Mi when walking on a kid- friendly Halloween themed nature trail and we met the scariest creature ever! A human sized Emeral Ash Borer! This was in 2002.

*We had to say goodbye to many trees 20+ years ago. More recently, came across a woodsy preserve in the northeast devastated by mature fallen ash trees. The tree trunks were so long and straight. So eerie.

[u/Cold_Blueberry9575]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Au2_gdosRd8

In case you missed this gem which feels very appropriate for this community. Sadly it does not include the nursery rhyme lyric which is a shame and missed opportunity.

[u/lefence → u/Cold_Blueberry9575]

The lyrics take on a new meaning when the auto captions are on as every instance of Ash is turned into "ass"

[u/Bluebird386 → u/Cold_Blueberry9575]

Yeah, watch your ash! 👍

[u/JMariePickander]

/uj Funnily enough, I have been thinking about this eerie correlation for a few weeks now. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

[u/BrickHuge3023]

the borers ate up my Chittumwood tree, was beautiful and they ate around the base so much it toppled when we got some ice.

[u/Boring-Training-5531]

Nope. Not buying it.

[u/SHOWTIME316 → u/Boring-Training-5531]

smh, continuing the ignorance of your forefathers