Emerald Ash Borer Threatens 8 Billion Trees

I just want to discourage anyone who is considering trying to salvage infested timber.

Not just for guitars; for furniture, and especially firewood.

This bug actually kills the trees dead, as opposed to the Chestnuts that try to come back and die back at around 20 feet in height. We will fix the Chestnut issue, and the Elm one. But this ash borer could render its target species utterly extinct.

 

Lodge pole pines on the West Coast are also being destroyed by a pine bark beetle.

 

And Balsam and Fraser Firs by the Balsam Wooly Adelgid.

 

Boris, why discourage the use of the dead trees? Here the pine beetle kill that Colt referred to is legally harvested, milled and sold for fences, floors, furniture, etc.
I actually just glued up some for my first tele. Is there something I am not understanding?

 

So you don't transport the bugs and make the problem worse. When I lived in Wyoming the wood was harvested, but they discouraged and warned individuals about harvesting the wood and bringing it back to town.

 

Colt. Where I live in Michigan, the emerald ash borer has taken most of our mammoth (and small) ash tree's. It is sad, sad and well sad. Everywhere you look they are being chainsawed up out of family yards where they have stood for many many and being used for firewood. Dead standing is how you'll find em round here, by the millions. If something comes and takes anymore species around here, it's gonna be the apocolypse for these tree apreciating eyes.

 

Of course you're right. I misread Boris' post, he said "salvage." Interesting forestry dilemma, would not want to create a demand for such material, once the bark is stripped the pine the beetles are gone. Wonder where the bark is stripped and how. Leave the trees in the forest? Not sure about the transport of other species.
Michigan, unfortunately, also has zebra mussels which are very hard to manage.

 

Ive seen hundreds of acres of lodge pole pine destroyed from beetles. It sucks! Creates a huge fire hazzard as well. All that firewood laying down over huge expanses of land. A single lightning strike can create a huge fire.

 

A lot of those pine stands were being harvested before they died because of the fire hazard. It also increased the supply, and the demand fell. So lumber companies have to work when mills are buying. So, yes, it is quite the quandary.