A warming climate is a emerging disaster to our forests
By Andrew Harris, pictured is a victim of oak wilt
I write this from what is classified as a Eastern temperate decidious forest, surrounded by nearly every species of tree found in that sort of ecosystem. I’m staring at trees much older than my almost five decades: Red oaks, black cherry, white pine, beech, hard and soft maple, and many huge white ash trees.
The white ash are all dead. The beech are mangled and stunted from a fungal blight that attacked many years ago. Most of the other hardwoods seem to be doing okay, although I do worry about the red oaks. Their leaves have been under increasing attack from canopy chompers like tent moths and gypsy moths. In 2020 a Kentucky extension office reported about a “red oak borer,” likely a relative to the “emerald ash borer” which has wiped out the white ash tree population.
Today, November 20, 2024 it is about 60 degrees in this little forest. Gnats are hatching, mushrooms are fruiting, and my backyard garden is still growing!! It sure seems nice, especially when it normally is 26 degrees with some snow on the ground. But that is a selfish human thought, ignoring that the trees around me are stressed, maybe even panicked.
In 2023, we experienced similar weather without much snowfall and very few days of consecutive below-freezing temperatures. This mild winter business is allowing both native and invasive pests like the ash borer a major advantage. Simply but, the bugs aren’t freezing to their normal death, and neither are the masses of eggs laying in wait. They cycle of parasite and host is thrown out of balance, new parasites emerge, and trees are overwhelmed.
With the white ash trees now in a stage of decay, we have to wonder: What species is next?
Among our most ubiquitous trees, arborists are concerned with the mighty oak, particularly the white oak and the red oak. These iconic trees are under threat from both insect and fungus, often a combination of the two.
Looking at the landscape of threats to our oak trees, one fungus has the potential to create the next tree pandemic. Oak wilt has already caused widespread damage in the United States and Canada. The fungus was first confirmed in New York State in 2008 and mitigation efforts are underway in the Finger Lakes Region. According the NYS DEC, “Oak wilt quarantine districts have been established in the towns of Middlesex, Bristol, South Bristol, and Italy.”
Our friend Bob Confer, who owns a magical property in Allegany County, has a different concern, the Eastern Hemlock tree. Already the victim of clear cutting and targeted logging for hundreds of years, our remaining stands of hemlock have an emerging enemy: the wolly hemlock adelgid. This little bugger, imported from Asia, has done massive damage to this grand conifer already.
The insect infestations have been in NYS since 1985 and have steadily spread into much of the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier Region. The adelgid literally sucks the life from the hemlock tree, resulting in death within a decade of infection. Confer explains that his worries transcend the tree:
“We have A LOT of hemlocks, which make that forest a different world. It’s almost like a northern/boreal forest in terms of plant, fungal, and bird diversity. If those trees got wiped out, I’d be heartbroken and nature would be all out of sorts. Because of those hemlocks, it’s one of the few places in WNY where Swainson’s thrush nests. They’d be wiped out from the region.”
Read more on the Hemlock Wolly Adelgid from the NYSDEC
The point made by Confer is simple, our trees are pillars of our ecosystem, remove them and a collapse begins. What impact the rapid loss of the ash tree will have is still largely unknown and which species faces destruction next is not certain.
Without the typical winter season with long stretches of below-freezing weather the threats are accelerated and new species are expected to emerge. For my fellow tree lovers/huggers and landowners, we aren’t helpless in this ecological battle. If you suspect a tree has been infected grab that phone and take a picture. The NYS DEC asks that you report the finding with as much information as possible:
Email report and photos to DEC Forest Health at foresthealth@dec.ny.gov. Photos are critical for helping us identify if it is HWA. You may choose to call the Forest Health Information Line at 1-866-640-0652 instead.
