Comments on: Facing Environmental Disaster

By: Matt Mattus

Matt Mattus — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:26:23 +0000

LOL, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, so no worries there. These inspectors, though young, were quite educated and polite. Besides, the program has many steps in their process, as they evaluate insect damage – it takes more than one beetle before the cut down the entire yard. If they have to, they have to, this is not something we should treat lightly. Our mature Hemlock grove with more than 20 trees also needs to be cut down, I've been trying to save it from the wooly adelgid, but I am afraid that I am losing the battle without oil spray and insecticides. We've already lost a 220 foot long hemlock hedge to the pest.

By: Kaveh Maguire

Kaveh Maguire — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:16:25 +0000

I will neve forget the class I took with Ralph Snodsmith on basic gardening back in 1999 when he said that the Asian longhorn beetle was the single most important thing he was going to teach us about.

Is there a chance they will come in and cut down all your trees? That would be horrible. On my fathers property in northern NJ we lost about a dozen eastern hemlocks to wooly adelgids. It was so sad as they were absolutely beautiful trees that screened our view of the neighbors backyard.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:35:19 +0000

Id find a lawyer and fast. The government can be very determined and all it could take is one uneducated government employee having a bad day to ruin your carefully planned masterpiece because "they saw a beetle". Trust me they are not here to help…

By: edi gardner

edi gardner — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:30:34 +0000

And I was worried about ticks. Great blog!

By: CissyBlue

CissyBlue — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:45:15 +0000

Nothing could upset me more than the prospect of losing my trees. Looks like you dodged the first bullet… best of luck in your garden!!!

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:10:28 +0000

The Walnut tree is facing the same kinds of threats from the Black Walnut Tree beetle. I actually posted a blog about this over at iboplanet.wordpress.com/2011/12/15/79/ a while back. This needs to be monitored so thanks for writing about this.

My team and I are actually working on a Botany/Horticulture/Environmental Technology project over at i-bo-planet.com to help people around the world – those “less versed” in botany, gardening and horticulture – learn more, in an interactive way, about the wonderful plant and tree life that surrounds us daily. Most know so very little about these things and our goal is to educate so that through awareness, and maybe a little increased knowledge, we can help to save plant and tree species that so desperately need our attention.

Thanks for you posts and I look forward to see more of them as you write them.

Steve
i-bo-planet.com

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:47:18 +0000

Damn. I hate to hear stuff like this. Thank you for sharing though. The more people know, the better the chances of dealing with it properly.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:24:10 +0000

I have been aware of this threat for some time and being reminding of it as well as reading of your personal concern, creates a pain in my stomach… We are of course just north of Illinois… our biggest concern right now is the emerald ash borer and I have been planting for the day when our ash trees could have to go. A very sad state of affairs to say the least… Larry

By: scottweberpdx

scottweberpdx — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:28:40 +0000

Wow…talk about surreal…and scary! It's frightening to see how much they've spread in such a short time 🙁

By: Susan in the Pink hat

Susan in the Pink hat — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:15:17 +0000

Scary stuff. This sounds similar to our city getting quarantined because of Japanese beetle, which hadn't been seen here before. They speculate it showed up from someone bringing it in on a plant shipment. The city government then began an eradication program that mandated spraying who knows what all over everything. If you were at the center of the infestation, you weren't allowed to grow any garden produce for 5 years! Fortunately, we're at the end of it. I hope you don't end up losing even more trees because of this.