Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Where Are the Ash Trees?
Two weeks ago, Gossips reported the approach of the emerald ash borer, the insect that brings almost certain death to ash trees. At the time, we reported that there were twenty-six ash trees in Hudson, but we didn't know for sure where they were. Last night, at the Arts, Entertainment & Tourism Committee meeting, Alderman David Marston (First Ward), who chairs the committee, distributed a list—taken from a tree inventory done in 2007—that revealed the location of all twenty-six trees.
The bad news is that, with the exception of one tree on Fairview Avenue and another on Glenwood Boulevard, all the ash trees in Hudson—the majority of which are green ash—are found in the Second Ward and along Front Street, and they are pretty much the only species found there. Obviously the ash tree, which was considered the perfect street tree to replace the American elms lost to Dutch elm disease a few decades before, was the tree of choice to enhance the new neighborhoods created during Urban Renewal in the early 1970s.
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You never know if these ash trees might be the ones that survive.
ReplyDeleteOf course the state isn't endorsing the planting of ashes right now (much less giving grants to plant ash), but elms are back on the list.
It was one hearty and disease-resistant elm from a cemetery in Princeton, New Jersey that led to the whole new generation of disease-resistant varieties. That means that Hudson can have its elms again.
Over a century ago the American Chestnut nearly succumbed to a different disease, but disease-resistant trees have sprung up in recent decades in odd places. For the longest time whatever made those individual trees resistant couldn't be isolated, but it's only a matter of time until we'll be able to plant native chestnuts too.
For a lot of people, that will be a dream come true.
People should also know that the 2007 inventory was "an inventory of trees within the right-of-ways along city streets," and not all of the trees in the city.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the 1st Ward has its share of ash trees on private property. Naturally, all of these trees are vulnerable too.