Photo by Anita Firebaugh
By Anita Firebaugh
Contributing writer
An insect that’s decimating ash trees throughout the nation is near its peak in Botetourt County, where most ash trees on farms and in forests have either perished or are beyond saving.
The emerald ash borer, an invasive species that the Virginia Department of Forestry first noted in Botetourt in 2015, has been chewing away at the native trees for some time, and the dying trees are becoming more noticeable.
“You guys are seeing the worst at this point,” Meredith Bean, Emerald Ash Borer Program Coordinator at Virginia Department of Forestry in Charlottesville, said. “All the ash trees should be either dead or dying.”
A few of the county’s ash trees, particularly the two large trees in front of the Old Jail in Fincastle and others at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield, should survive because the county has implemented treatment, according to Kate Lawrence, a Botetourt County 4-H Extension Agent.
Ash trees are beautiful native deciduous hardwood trees. The white ash is the best known of the 60 different species native to North America. Ash trees have green leaves and turn yellow or purplish colored in the fall. Ash trees have lovely rounded crowns when mature.
Most people either were unaware of the infestation or did not treat trees, so the loss of ash trees in the county is extensive. Bean and Lawrence both compared the loss of the trees to a similar event that happened in the early 1900s, when the American chestnut tree died off from blight. That species never recovered.
The emerald ash borer was first discovered in the United States in 2002 in Nebraska. The pest has since spread to at least 35 states. Ash wood is used to make baseball bats, bows, tool handles, electric guitar bodies, and some acoustic instruments.
The native trees are also a food source for frogs, beetles, birds, and mammals. Some animal species may be affected by the loss of natural habitat.
Lawrence was unsure if the ash trees would return. “There should be a seed bank in the soil of young ones,” she said. “If the borer moves on, we could potentially see a resurgence of ash trees, but if the pest doesn’t move on, they will continue to eat anything that germinates.”
Loren Bruffey Jr., who owns property off Breckinridge Mill Road, said his ash trees are dead. One at the bottom of his driveway is a hazard that he will need to cut down. He also said the ash trees at his place of employment in Roanoke City had to be removed after they died.
“I don’t like to see any trees die. We’ve got blight and other borers in other trees. I just let them go,” he said of the trees on his Botetourt property. “They’re dying everywhere you look.”
Some ash trees may still be treatable, but Bean said Botetourt is likely past the time when lingering trees are still healthy enough to treat. The main problem now is removal of the dead wood, which can be hazardous if it is near a public right of away, home, or other location frequented by people.
People who may want to have ash trees examined for either treatment or removal should use a bonded and insured arborist, Bean added.
Photo by Anita Firebaugh
Photo by Anita Firebaugh
