mid Atlantic fungal epidemic. Anyone else seeing this?

[GGB]

I just found out about boxwood blight the other day. When I noticed my boxwood was dying. Don’t think I have a healthy tree in my yard currently. Sounds worse than I thought. I thought everything was doing better to the north of me but some of those diseases pests listed are news to me

 

[Orion_metalhead]

So are these funguses new? Did sudden oak death just recently blip into existence? Is the emerald ash borer an evolutionary skip that happened just these past few years?

Im pretty sure all these fungii, diseases, and insects existed before we were all here, and there are still oaks out there, still ash trees, still everything..

You need these diseases to kill off some species to make room for others which in turn die off and make room for others... so on and so forth.

I feel like we dont have to protect nature from itself... just from us interfering with the natural tendencies and cycles of the planet and these ecosystems.

 

[JudyB]

So are these funguses new? Did sudden oak death just recently blip into existence? Is the emerald ash borer an evolutionary skip that happened just these past few years?

Im pretty sure all these fungii, diseases, and insects existed before we were all here, and there are still oaks out there, still ash trees, still everything..

You need these diseases to kill off some species to make room for others which in turn die off and make room for others... so on and so forth.

I feel like we dont have to protect nature from itself... just from us interfering with the natural tendencies and cycles of the planet and these ecosystems.

You are wrong about at least one point, there are NO MORE ASH TREES. Only the single few that may be in peoples yards that have enough money to chemically treat them each year. All other ash trees are gone, or will be in the next few years as the spread keeps growing.

As far as fungus, it's getting progressively worse with the change of climate, and many trees that used to live happily in my area are all gone. Dogwood, hawthorn to name a couple. Lots of pine deaths as well, pines and spruces.

 

[coh]

So are these funguses new? Did sudden oak death just recently blip into existence? Is the emerald ash borer an evolutionary skip that happened just these past few years?

Im pretty sure all these fungii, diseases, and insects existed before we were all here, and there are still oaks out there, still ash trees, still everything..

You need these diseases to kill off some species to make room for others which in turn die off and make room for others... so on and so forth.

Emerald ash borer was imported from Asia. Over there, ash trees have evolved defensive measures and there are predators that have also evolved with the beetle. Both allow an equilibrium, much as we have in North America with our native pests. However, here there are no ash trees (or few) that have resistance to emerald ash borer, nor are there predators so the beetle is basically destroying every ash tree as it spreads. Perhaps there are a few ash trees here and there that have some natural resistance and they will survive and repopulate the forests over time, but that will take a long time.

Of course, you could find all this out by using google or whatever search engine you prefer. I don't know the origin of the oak death or boxwood blight but I'm sure you can find out easily enough.

I feel like we dont have to protect nature from itself... just from us interfering with the natural tendencies and cycles of the planet and these ecosystems.

I would say that transporting non-native pest species from one continent to another constitutes "us interfering with the natural tendencies and cycles of the planet and these ecosystems", wouldn't you agree? Who/what protects nature from that?

 

[KillerButts]

The weather is changing and nature will have to change with it to survive. Doesn't matter if you want to blame China for altering the rotation of the earth by pouring more concrete in 20 years than all the concrete ever poured in the history of the US. Or blue dogs in Bangladesh, and the global emissions of everyone combined. Even those terrible Americans who have seemed to take every step possible to avoid pollution (still fail on many fronts) and lead the world in plastic recycling. Don't worry I know our manure sticks too. Like sorce I am concerned that it just seems inevitable.

There is hope in horticulture, genetics, and diligent upkeep of your own castle. From the movement of species forced or planned, environmental impacts on wildlife are being addressed for the first time in human history, and a general "awareness" that things are foul, there is time to adjust to these threats. When I grew up in the eighties these were thoughts that left our heads like a 18 wheelers unleaded fart in the wind. We had John Candy dumping a refrigerator in the ocean to win a boat race. Think that would fly by the movie critics and viewers today? The progress is slow but the will is stronger than its ever been. Biology should be a mandatory class from 16-18 and more scholarships should be offered to biology majors over who can get the ball in the hoop better. That's something we are missing, more eyes.

If you missed this documentary I hope that you will watch this masterpiece. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/livinginthefuturespast

Trailer

 

[Doug J]

SHHH. Speak in whispers. I can hear our resident 'climate change deniers' starting to stir. I can see this thread devolving quickly. Just saying.

 

[Orion_metalhead]

I would say that transporting non-native pest species from one continent to another constitutes "us interfering with the natural tendencies and cycles of the planet and these ecosystems", wouldn't you agree? Who/what protects nature from that?

Thank you for the response with some backstory and information.

I entirely agree with the question posited towards the end of your post which I quoted. That specifically is what I am talking about when i talked about our responsibility.

My post was not meant to be anything other than my partly-darwinist perspective on most matters of environmenal changes. Do not confuse this with climate change denial, of which I don't count myself nor share similar views.

 

[GGB]

The weather is changing and nature will have to change with it to survive. Doesn't matter if you want to blame China for altering the rotation of the earth by pouring more concrete in 20 years than all the concrete ever poured in the history of the US. Or blue dogs in Bangladesh, and the global emissions of everyone combined. Even those terrible Americans who have seemed to take every step possible to avoid pollution (still fail on many fronts) and lead the world in plastic recycling. Don't worry I know our manure sticks too. Like sorce I am concerned that it just seems inevitable.

There is hope in horticulture, genetics, and diligent upkeep of your own castle. From the movement of species forced or planned, environmental impacts on wildlife are being addressed for the first time in human history, and a general "awareness" that things are foul, there is time to adjust to these threats. When I grew up in the eighties these were thoughts that left our heads like a 18 wheelers unleaded fart in the wind. We had John Candy dumping a refrigerator in the ocean to win a boat race. Think that would fly by the movie critics and viewers today? The progress is slow but the will is stronger than its ever been. Biology should be a mandatory class from 16-18 and more scholarships should be offered to biology majors over who can get the ball in the hoop better. That's something we are missing, more eyes.

If you missed this documentary I hope that you will watch this masterpiece. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/livinginthefuturespast

Trailer

will watch that doc tonight thanks for posting.

As far as climate deniers, I don't think there are a whole lot of them on this botany/art based forum haha. Plus it doesn't matter what anyone thinks about the climate's future, the current weather in PA is shattering records and killing off droves of trees. You can say the climate isn't changing permanently (it's ever changing regardless) and it was an isolated freak thing that just lasted the last five years, fine, I'm not here to argue that. But we got 60% more rain this year than ever before in recorded history and the trees are very ill. Just a fact that no amount of denial or lobbyists can rewrite. Hoping for drier years ahead

 

[Jzack605]

Seems native maples here all have black spot.
The "cultivars" don't.

So our natives will die.

Meanwhile these "cultivars" that don't seed true can be considered sterile, since their offspring will be susceptible.

So our natives die.
The cultivars die.

Then we die!

You think it will get that far?

I heard the human population is going to max out and stabilize soon.
Thoughts?

Sorce

Our native Dogwoods are susceptible and die due to a type of anthracnose introduced by kousa dogwood.

The American chestnut is all but gone due to blight.

At a recent company wide meeting we’ve essentially accepted we are preserving the remaining ash trees essentially as museum pieces as we can only prevent EAB for so long.

A huge portion of the main disease and pest problems I mitigate in my profession do not belong here. Stuff our native populations don’t have the defenses for; unless evolution wants to speed up a little.

Pessimist out!

 

[Jzack605]

You are wrong about at least one point, there are NO MORE ASH TREES. Only the single few that may be in peoples yards that have enough money to chemically treat them each year. All other ash trees are gone, or will be in the next few years as the spread keeps growing.

As far as fungus, it's getting progressively worse with the change of climate, and many trees that used to live happily in my area are all gone. Dogwood, hawthorn to name a couple. Lots of pine deaths as well, pines and spruces.

Many cities and municipalities are making strong efforts to treat ash under their jurisdiction before EAB gets them. They are not just remaining in private collections.

Would love to see an effort made to our forests as well.

 

[GGB]

Makes me kinda interested in doing a shohin ash.

 

[Jzack605]

Makes me kinda interested in doing a shohin ash.

You should. I want to do a straight American Chestnut, no hybrids, for the sole purpose of continuing to preserve that species.

 

[Forsoothe!]

The climate is changing, because it never stays the same, it is always evolving one way or the other, cooling just now in spite of the warming of the southern hemisphere due to the earth's wobble. It changed when we weren't here, and the dinosaurs couldn't stop it either. And look what happened to them! Dinosaur farts did them in. The asteroid just put the cherry on top.

There are two major factors in the diseases destroying species: the un-natural grouping of trees as in lining avenues with the same species, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness as in cities that only approve a handful of species as street trees. This creates a pantry of hosts for any organism that uses them to death. The parasites only have to move a few feet to the next host and build up to outrageous levels. And remember, everything is always evolving, mankind has only survived because we live in artificially clean environments (some cities are exceptions) and have learned to kill pathogens before they wipe us out. The second factor is worldwide trade. Invasive species of everything eventually get from hither to yon and that's not likely to stop. Maybe if it gets cold enough...

 

[KillerButts]

#Dinofarts

 

[Smoke]

We had John Candy dumping a refrigerator in the ocean to win a boat race. Think that would fly by the movie critics and viewers today?

Fukushima Owner Says It'll Dump Nuclear Waste Into Sea

How much harm could 777,000 tons of water laced with tritium, a nuclear byproduct, do to the environment?

www.newsweek.com

 

[Forsoothe!]

Mankind is an upstream kind of critter. It was OK until someone else lived upstream. Now, we all live downstream of someone else.

 

[KillerButts]

Fukushima Owner Says It'll Dump Nuclear Waste Into Sea

How much harm could 777,000 tons of water laced with tritium, a nuclear byproduct, do to the environment?

www.newsweek.com

"According to Reuters, this is a common practice at functioning nuclear plants"

So disgusting, nice to see the UN eating popcorn on this one... promising that it's actually being published. I would imagine this is nothing new. Exactly the kind of blatant disregard for biology that must end.

 

[PABonsai]

Left work to pick up lunch downtown. Only walked two two blocks and passed 5 genus and 6 species of trees. Some honey locust thing appeared un-funged. Two were too tall for a decent pick oak and sycamore, but they were badly infected. The other three with leaves at photo height are shown. That’s an infected rate just south of 90%. And now I’m hearing ewp might be dying too. I’m totally done funding the IRA, back to the dive bars and punk shows I go. Been real

That first picture looks like exactly whatever it is my one blueberry bush is going through. All the leaves are blackening on the edges and a lot of the branches turned brown and shriveled from the tip backwards. It happened right after a dry spell where I neglected to water so I assumed it was watering issues. The entire bush defoliated itself and then that blackening began. I take off any blackened leaves I see and any of the browned branches, and it has seemed to slow down as the heat subsided (or maybe my intervention?)

 

[PABonsai]

I know this will get me completely pilloried but I generally don't buy into the concept that nature needs us to baby and coddle it. While I think everyone agrees it's not good practice to kill it or help it's murder along, the simple fact is that nature contains an infinite amount of actions and reactions. A fungus or pest killing off a species is part of that ongoing struggle of life. It has happened for millions of years and will for millions more.

Human intervention is actually the cause of many of our forests' problems. We have had governments arrogantly and incorrectly thinking for over 100 years that, if they can just preserve every organism in a certain forest, like it's some nature diorama then everything will work out. But it's this human intervention that disallows the change and renewal of forests that nature needs. Nature never stands still, as much as we delude ourselves into thinking it should. We need to get over this idea that we are The God of nature and we can control it all. Don't even bother with the stupid attacks claiming I promote pollution or importing invasive species. That's utterly false. The point is, if every tre species dies in your forest but one, why is that a problem? I don't think anyone could articulate why that would be a problem other than their PERCEPTION that it is a problem. You can argue that the forest is out of balance. Ok, once nature is unbalanced then the pendulum will swing. Predator/prey populations are never static, and neither are disease/host relationships. Imbalances in nature are perpetual, it is just the nature of the imbalance that changes. Heck, nevermind the fact that every 50 years we find out in most fields of science that our previous "knowledge" was completely wrong. Natural processes chase dynamic equilibrium, not static equilibrium. Stop hand wringing, protect the trees you own and watch nature do it's thing. We have more forest in the US than we did 100 years ago and to hear you folks talk it seems you think we're going to end up with nothing but desert in 3 years. Stop living in this perpetual fear that our society has created. Just enjoy nature, she can take care of herself. She doesn't need us to "fix" what we often ignorantly perceive as "problems". Now go calm down, have a beer and smash some spotted lantern flies.

 

[PABonsai]

.