Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 28 February 2019
Ash loggers race against time before beetles get them all

By MICHAEL HILL wood exporter Mark Lip-
WALTON, N.Y. (AP) — Log- schitz said he can barely
gers in snowy forests are source ash anymore from
cutting down ash like the southern part of Penn-
there's no tomorrow, seek- sylvania and Maryland.
ing to stay one step ahead "I have a standing order
of a fast-spreading beetle with my sawmill guys," said
killing the tree in dozens of Lipschitz, owner of Nina Co.
states. "I just tell them: I will take
The emerald ash borer every stick of ash that you
has been chewing its way can supply."
through trees from Maine The decline has coincided
to Colorado for about two with reduced demand for
decades, devastating a ash baseball bats as more
species prized for yielding sluggers are swinging with
a light-grained hardwood maple. But the beetle has
attractive enough for fur- been doing its work even as
niture and resilient enough ash wood has caught on in
for baseball bats. Many China, which takes in more
hard-hit areas are east of exported U.S. ash than any
the Mississippi River and other country, according
north of the Mason-Dixon to the American Hardwood
Line. Some fear areas in the Export Council. Ash exports
invasion zone like upstate to China slowed last year
New York might have only amid trade tensions and
five to seven years of ash higher tariffs, though the
logging left. In this Feb. 7, 2019 photo, an ash log at The Wagner Companies' mill in Owego, N.Y. shows evi- United States and China
"Emerald ash borer is prob- dence that a larval emerald ash borer was active in the tree before it was cut. are working to reconcile
ably the most thorough Associated Press their trade differences.
killing machine that we've There are no signs that the
come across in my career covered stateside in 2002 gly scars from a larval tun- felled tree almost knee- emerald ash borer will stop
over the last 35 years," said in Michigan and has since nel were partially exposed high in diameter revealed spreading anytime soon,
Tom Gerow, general man- destroyed tens of millions on a stacked log where the a roughly 80-ring cross sec- with even states in the
ager for The Wagner Com- of ash trees in more than bark came off. The wood tion that looked blonde Northwest on guard.
panies, which specializes in 30 states. It might have un- inside is still good for lum- and healthy. Some see ash following the
furniture-grade lumber. wittingly been bought over ber, but the markings show Still, an ash tree usually fate of the American chest-
Wagner is sawing ash at its from Asia in shipping pal- the tree was on borrowed takes several years to show nut, a once-prolific tree
mills at about double the lets. No one knows for sure. time. obvious signs of deteriora- that was decimated by
rate they used to. And out But it's clear that the em- Winter is a prime time for tion. And Wagner head blight more than a century
in the woods, there's often erald ash borer kills almost logging. The frozen ground forester Eric LaClair noted ago. George Robinson, a
no reason to follow the every tree it attacks, from and leaf-free trees can that the emerald ash borer University at Albany biology
common practice of leav- thick-canopied suburban make it easier to get to and has already hit trees to the professor and a member
ing trees behind to regen- shade trees to tall pockets drag out the logs. south and east. of the state Invasive Spe-
erate the forest. of ash in the woods. Ash trees being cut down "Realistically, when you look cies Advisory Committee,
"When we're harvesting a Females lay eggs on ash by a crew recently on a at this stand here, it could doesn't think the ash will
stand that has ash in it and bark and larval beetles snowy hillside in Walton, be here," LaClair said, look- be entirely wiped out. But
you know it's imminent that bore looping tunnels just west of the Catskill Moun- ing at the towering trees. they'll be greatly reduced.
the ash borer is going to be beneath, cutting the flow tains, still looked good. The "We're just not seeing evi- "The hope," he said, "is by
there, we tend to cut all of of trees' nutrients and wa- thick trees shot straight up dence of it." collecting seeds and some
the ash," Gerow said. ter. At the Wagner mill in for dozens of feet before Farther south, the situation specimens there will be a
The beetle was first dis- Owego, New York, squig- branching out. One freshly is dire. In Maryland, hard- future for the ash."q
Experts report spike in harp seal strandings on East Coast

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Marine Mammals of Maine Lynda Doughty said about
— Experts are trying to reports that it has respond- a third of those seals were
pinpoint the cause of a ed to 63 reports of harp distressed or unhealthy.
sharp increase in harp seal seal strandings so far this The Portland Press Herald
strandings along the East year, compared to six last reports that biologists have
Coast. year. Executive Director not found evidence that
the harp seals are suffer-
ing from the distemper virus
that killed hundreds of har-
bor seals last year in New
England.
Officials say the strandings
are happening as far south
as Virginia. People who
encounter the seals are
encouraged to give them In this March 30, 2008 file photo, a harp seal pauses after being
space.q released in Maine following treatment after being found strand-
ed earlier in the year.