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Invasive Species attacking the trees on the AT.

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    • Invasive Species attacking the trees on the AT.

      DNCR

      Well I have seen over the last 40+years devastation from invasive species. I think the first one I saw as a kid was the Japanese Beetle brought into the country with the Japanese Cherry Trees that surround the DC area. They were everywhere destroying my moms roses and other trees.


      Since then the Gypsy Moth hit PA and wow did they kill off the Oaks...I remember the tunnel on the northeast turnpike stripped of dead trees on the mountain. Once the Oaks died - so did the deer, there were not enough acorns to eat. It took a long time to recover from this.


      After that is was the Emerald Ash Borer Killing off all the old growth forests here in PA. Whole trunks of trees turned red.


      Top ten insect and arthropod pests that threaten or damage landscape plants in the northeastern United States:

      1. Hemlock wooly adelgid
      2. Winter moths
      3. Japanese beetles
      4. Asian long-horned beetles
      5. Ambrosia beetles
      6. Southern pine beetles
      7. Emerald ash borer and other flat-headed borers including bronze birch borer and two-lined chestnut borer
      8. Weevils
      9. Spider mites
      10. Scale insects
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

      The post was edited 3 times, last by Wise Old Owl ().

    • I would have loved to have seen the Appalachians when they were covered with majestic American Chestnuts. Such an important mast producer now almost entirely gone. The Chestnuts still send up young saplings from old rootstock that live a few years before they succumb to the blight.

      The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid is killing most of the Hemlocks here in the Northeast. Hemlocks provide important habitat for several species and winter denning areas for deer.

      The Appalachian forests are/will not be the same in the future due to invasive species and climate change.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • Well here is what shocked me, I tune in to a old AM radio station a few days ago, WEEU from Reading PA and Mighty Mike is the host and was discussing an insect that has been brought to Pennsylvania in the last 8 years. "spotted lantern fly" For those that do not know I am in pest control, nah, I am in Pest SOLUTIONS. Some old guy living up there in central PA verbalized on a call into the show how each insect knocked out various trees over the years. So the tree space has clearly changed over the years as each tree group has been wiped out.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Have not seen that one up here yet, thankfully, but our forests are not what they once were and will be even further degraded for our grandkids I am afraid.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • There was one devastation that happened while I spent time in Illinois. There was a die off of all the Birch Bark trees in the lower altitudes. Some how the Birch was planted to hide the slag heaps in the Bethlehem area and they survived. It is rare now to see living Birch in this area.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • IMScotty wrote:

      I would have loved to have seen the Appalachians when they were covered with majestic American Chestnuts. Such an important mast producer now almost entirely gone. The Chestnuts still send up young saplings from old rootstock that live a few years before they succumb to the blight.

      The Hemlock Wooly Adelgid is killing most of the Hemlocks here in the Northeast. Hemlocks provide important habitat for several species and winter denning areas for deer.

      The Appalachian forests are/will not be the same in the future due to invasive species and climate change.
      ohio.com/akron/news/rare-ameri…covered-in-sandusky-marsh
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • What a great find WOO. It would be interesting to learn is that tree is truly resistant, or just lucky and isolated. Hopefully our grandkids will be able to enjoy this magnificent tree once again.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier
    • IMScotty wrote:

      What a great find WOO. It would be interesting to learn is that tree is truly resistant, or just lucky and isolated. Hopefully our grandkids will be able to enjoy this magnificent tree once again.
      Yea its one of three left for different reasons. 3 isn't enough diversity for reproduction... just wish they would try harder. There are more than twenty shoots growing down at the arboretum near my home.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:
    • Thanks to a local maintainer giving me the head's up last year, I finally found two sizable American Chestnut trees a short walk from my house. Check out all the shoots coming up from the root structure at the bottom of the established trunks.
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      Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
    • That is as big of a Chestnut as I have seen. Most the ones near me get no more than a dozen feet tall before they die back from the blight and then start all over again.
      “Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
      the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”


      John Greenleaf Whittier