Bad News - Ash Borer

[guywhofishes]

https://www.ndda.nd.gov/news/emerald-ash-borer-detected-lamoure-county

The dominant tree across much of ND. Oh well - most trees are gone nowadays anyway.

 

[johnr]

Mostly them damn cottonwoods in our area.

 

[Hamm's]

It was inevitable, but damn..................

 

[guywhofishes]

Mostly them damn cottonwoods in our area.

Almost every coulee out west is dominated by ash. Turkeys and other critters really depend on their seeds over winter. Not gonna be good for a wildlife landscape already at the edge of being sufficient.

I am hoping (rather foolishly I suppose) that some of these ash tree dominated coulees are remote enough and so disconnected from each other than the borer won't be able to jump to all of them.

 

[Allen]

Uggh, once that SOB hits the Missouri Coteau, we won't have to shoot the beavers. The native trees on our land have to be about 80+ percent green ash.

 

[guywhofishes]

right? - ash are twisted gnarly prairie-adapted survivors we generally haven't considered valuable

- makes me sick thinking of what's probably gonna happen - almost inevitably?

I imagine the Manitoba Maple (Boxelder) would fill the void to some degree

in case anybody is interested in where the coteau Allen's referencing is

 

[Jiffy]

I HAD two of the nicest green ash trees in West Fargo in front of our place.

Not so much anymore. I'm going to have to cut them down now as they are looking pretty sad.

NOT happy about this.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Has anyone tried planting Burr Oak? Or are there stands of them on the prairie ? They are abundant in my neck of the woods and the toughest , longest living tree on the farm. We have lots of ash but they have a short lifespan when compared to the burr oaks.

 

[Wall-eyes]

Has anyone tried planting Burr Oak? Or are there stands of them on the prairie ? They are abundant in my neck of the woods and the toughest , longest living tree on the farm. We have lots of ash but they have a short lifespan when compared to the burr oaks.

My neighbor did and they are so slow growing been twenty years maybe 6" to 8" trunk and 2O feet tall most are a lot smaller

 

[Lycanthrope]

My neighbor did and they are so slow growing been twenty years maybe 6" to 8" trunk and 2O feet tall most are a lot smaller

Burr oak need more N than is in some soils naturally. I have some on my land and they have REALLY taken off since I started throwing some urea on them every spring, before I was getting maybe 4-6 inches of growth / year, now Im getting a couple feet / year. Im thinking honeylocust might do ok in many areas also, the no seed no thorn types... I have some planted also that are growing pretty well.

 

[Allen]

right? - ash are twisted gnarly prairie-adapted survivors we generally haven't considered valuable

One thing a lot of the old ranchers used them for was fence posts. Trying to pound a fence staple into some of those old gnarly fence posts was a near impossibility unless there was a crack you could wedge a staple into. I can't imagine there are still a lot of them in use, but back in the 70s and 80s...we had them on our pasture fences in spades. Given the type of barbed wire used, they were probably original from the early 1900s up to around 1940.

I wouldn't expect to get 40-70 years of service out of today's green treated fence posts (maybe I'm wrong) but those old ash branches were dang durable. I think a lot of them were treated by letting them soak in used motor oil for a year, or so.

 

[lunkerslayer]

I thought there was a procedure where you drilled a hole though the trunk of tbe ash tree and inserted some kind of plug that would stop the ash tree from getting infected.

 

[Allen]

There are systemic insecticides that can be purchased. All you have to do is pour it on the ground around the tree and the tree takes it from there.

Expensive though. When the birch borers hit Bismarck back in the early 2000s, I planted a birch tree. As it got older and the birch borers were killing trees left and right, I used the systemic a few years (before I moved to my current home). Judging by the label directions, I figured it would cost me $20 (or more) to rent that birch tree as it got older.

Maybe not the end of the world if you have one tree, but one surely can't afford to do a tree row, or a coulee filled with them.

 

[bravo]

I thought there was a procedure where you drilled a hole though the trunk of tbe ash tree and inserted some kind of plug that would stop the ash tree from getting infected.

Oh shit that sounds like a vaccine.

 

[lunkerslayer]

https://arborthrive.com/emerald-ash-borer-treatments-saint-cloud-mn/
This one is much better as one only needs to treat the tree once, I worked for a tree service in 2001 and this is what he used to treat the infected trees after the dead limbs were removed.
The one where you pour it directly on the ground may need to be done multiple times since the solution may not reach the roots especially in heavy soils like the red river valley.

 

[guywhofishes]

I think a lot of them were treated by letting them soak in used motor oil for a year, or so.

LOL

Standard operating procedure on the ranch I worked at in the early 80s.

 

[guywhofishes]

The monster ash in my backyard are getting converted to firewood. No way I'm dealing with long term chemo for those monsters.

 

[riverview]

Ive been cutting and burning ash that have fallen for 30 years wont be good when they are gone like the elm.

 

[lunkerslayer]

Has anyone replaced their old felled trees with the hybrid elm that has gotten more popular and have been cross bred with different types of elms to produce a tree that is resistant to the Dutch elm disease. I believe that also there are scientific testing that's cross breeding Asian with American ash trees to produce a hybrid that is resistant to the emerald ash borer.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Ive been cutting and burning ash that have fallen for 30 years wont be good when they are gone like the elm.

Same here, I quit heating with wood at the wrong time. Neighbors have hauled away about 10 pickup loads a year for the last 5 years. I'm clearing trails and cleaning the dead fall. If they are standing I can push them over with my backhoe and dig out the stumps so easy clean up . You don't do that with Oak trees.