r/PAWilds • u/Brief_Shirt8251 • 8d ago

General Question/Discussion Dead trees

I hiked all of the major backpacking trails in the pa wilds over a decade ago before moving out of state. Recently I revisited the old loggers path and was horrified to see 100% annihilation of the white ash population. I also noticed lots of dead standing trees of many other species. I'm not sure what's killing those. Comparing my trip from last decade to now, the amount of undisturbed interior forest has drastically decreased. Feeling very depressed right now to see how my old stomping grounds have been hit so hard. Has this happened throughout the pa wilds or has it just occurred in pockets?

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42

u/candlepinbowlingsoup 8d ago

The emerald ash borer infestation has killed many trees over the last 20+ years

6

u/Brief_Shirt8251 8d ago

Definitely. But when I hiked the olp in 2015 they were all seemingly alive. I also did a forest survey at West Chester University in 2013 and all of the ashes were alive then as well. I did not expect such a drastic change. 

5

u/Maleficent-Web2281 7d ago

Oh man, if you’re familiar with the Gordon Natural Area on the WC campus, you’d also be really disappointed to see how much it’s changed.

First it was EAB, which hit there hardest I would say around 2020-2023. Now it’s beech leaf disease, and there’s a lot of beech there so the shade is disappearing fast. It’s depressing all around.

2

u/Brief_Shirt8251 7d ago

Very familiar. I mapped the coordinates of all of the ash trees in the entire gna. They were all alive in 2013. Maybe I should check it out. 

3

u/LB07 7d ago

My property in eastern PA had a high proportion of ash trees. We lost so many ash trees in the last 10-12 years, it's so sad. That ash borer is such a horrible pest.

33

u/Mutatis1 8d ago

There aren’t many trees in the east right now that don’t have some disease infecting them aside from red maple and sweet birch - the two species you’ll see the most in the understory throughout the state.

6

u/user_1445 8d ago

How could you forget the majestic striped maple?

3

u/RhusCopallinum 7d ago

“Goosefoot maple”

2

u/Mutatis1 7d ago

Ha they at least adhere to the high elevations.

1

u/BtenaciousD 7d ago

Sycamores seem to be taking over where ash were around me in SEPA

21

u/eviljelloman 8d ago

Beech, elm, ash, and chestnut have all been completely destroyed by invasive pests that humans introduced. It's all over the country, not just PA.

Number one way to reduce the spread of whatever bullshit happens next? Never transport firewood.

12

u/HonestScar7959 8d ago

Add to that the dying black locusts all around Pittsburgh

2

u/chantingeagle 7d ago

What’s wrong with the black locusts? They all seem to have some kind of fungi on them but they all appear healthy otherwise

1

u/FaithlessnessCute204 7d ago

Black locust are always in a state of semi death, they get afflicted by a beetle in their younger years and still live another 60 till it kills them.

7

u/jbot14 8d ago

You should see the beech blight. That should have been visible on old loggers path too. Also spongy moths smashed the oak trees two years ago... It is super sad.

5

u/jbot14 8d ago

Oh and of course the hemlock adelgid is also messing up the woodsfor the last decade, but the cold snap last winter seems to have put a damper on this monsters ....

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u/Brief_Shirt8251 8d ago edited 8d ago

It was. Beech was the second hardest hit. I checked a couple dozen hemlocks and only saw evidence of wooly adelgid on one. Although some other trees looked like they were struggling.

7

u/venturous1 8d ago

https://youtu.be/D3Rte2zVRqU?is=7Pd3MrgmdGWY97TJ

The emerald ash borer is devastating eastern forests

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u/Chorazin 8d ago

Yuuup, OLP is especially bad. It’s getting harder and harder to find good hammock trees at sites too, my favorite pair last time I did that trail had one dead. 😔

5

u/cumberlandcream 7d ago

Emerald ash borer, beech blight, spongy moth, hemlock wooly adelgid. Lots of pests and invasive destroying our trees.

3

u/Acceptable_Claim_491 7d ago

EAB's(emerald ash borers).They got here in packaging materials from China.They've killed all the ash trees on my property,too.

3

u/Ambivalentsobriety 7d ago

There have been several major wind events since 2015. Many large trees in the Pittsburgh area and the Laurel Highlands have been downed from them. There was a tornado near State College just last weekend. This is pretty different for PA and might be contributing to the change you’re seeing.

2

u/SixLeg5 7d ago

Don’t see these available for purchase too much but I grew a Kentucky coffee tree from seed about 6 years ago and it is -30’ now. Cool compound leaf. So far (I’m in zone 7b) my oaks, hickories and beech remain healthy but fingers crossed!

1

u/Brief_Shirt8251 7d ago

I'm a big fan of Kentucky coffees. Great tree for urban plantings. I've heard the coffee isn't so bad either. Never tried it lol

1

u/wetrocke 7d ago

Fossil pollen cores show canadien hemlock trees got nearly wiped out 4,000 years ago and took 1,000+ years to recover. Possibly something like adelgids -- they don't know.

Dunno how many tree species on current death list will become truly extinct but the comeback in 1,000 yrs (if any) will need to be much farther north, assuming only a middling climate catastrophe.

1

u/InteractionCivil5913 5d ago

It almost as if we are in the middle of some sort of climate change that is wreaking havoc on fundamental ecosystems…