Granite Geek - Latest Comments in Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?

Re: Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?

DaveBrooks — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:36:28 -0000

And, of course, the American chestnut and American elm died off decades ago.

Sometimes I'm surprised there are any trees left ....

Re: Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?

Herb — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:39:41 -0000

Many people do not realize there was a big die off of all the green ash trees in the area a few years back. Try to find a mature ash tree in the forest. I read an article written for the state of Iowa awhile ago. It said that the ash tree has a number of natural diseases such as anthranose that usually infect the tree during the warm weather. However the ash trees normally coexist with these diseases which die off during the cold winter months when the tree is dormant. The following year the tree has to "catch" these diseases all over again. Now comes Gobal Warming. No longer is it normal for the temperatures to fall below 0 deg in the winter months. The diseases no longer die but just stay dormant in the tree. Come spring when the tree comes out of its dormancy, and at its weakest, its faced with already being sick with these diseases causing the tree tow weaken more and more each spring until it dies.

So we already have a forest that has lost its ash trees and many of its sugar mapels and is now facing the loss of oaks and hemlock....scary

Re: Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?

Tschmidt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:52:14 -0000

That is bad news. I knew Maples in the region were at risk due to climate change but didn't think Oaks were also in danger. We heat with wood so have a practical stake in this. Plus as mrwg posted Oaks are beautiful trees.

Not looking forward to the day when our 13 acres goes back to what it looked like 150 years ago - open fields.

Re: Martha’s Vineyard oak die-off - a sign of things to come?

mrwg — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:25:06 -0000

Lose the oaks, lose the heating bio-mass. More BTUs in oak than in a whole bunch of the fast growing poplar / birch pulpwood scrub.

Besides... the shade of rusty oak is soooo much better than the ubiquitious yellow of the generic decidious tree. (Do wish blogs had imbedded spell checkers!)