Today is the summer/fall equinox, and even with the beautiful due-east sunrises, there's trouble in this paradise. The invasive and destructive emerald ash borer has attacked. This bug was first discovered in my old hood of Windsor/Detroit in 2002. Since then it has been chomping north, killing every ash tree in its path. The most visible symptom is a thinning crown of the tree, death from the top down. The trouble is, our property has about 80-85% ash trees. Originally I couldn't tell my ash from a hole in the ground, but now I know the tall, leafy canopy will be reduced to a thin scraggly mix of feral pear, hawthorn, hornbeam, etc. Here are some of the "before" pictures of our lush ash trees.
So we have begun what will be many seasons of taking down ash trees. They will be chipped up for the garden paths, and the views will be "improved" with the tallest trees gone. But it's a bittersweet chore. I haven't run a chain saw for years and there's some re-learning, such as don't smash a tree into the split rail fence! The ash wood is very hard and dense (used in baseball bats and flooring) and the 18" chain saw is maxed out on the biggest trees so far. Even the clumps of branches create a real cardio workout when they're dragged away.
There's ladder work which is not recommended in the safety rules, but the ash have grown into every nook and corner. They have to come down now, or later. Am I making an ash of myself?
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