The Legacy and Looming Threat of American White Ash

A giant Ash tree, Yggdrasill, was believed in Norse mythology to support the universe. More prosaically, the American White Ash tree is what supported baseball, as for most of baseball history every bat used in the big leagues was an Ash bat. Tough but pliable, hard but light, Ash indeed has been the go-to wood for hockey sticks and tennis racquets, swing seats and bowling alleys, garden tools and furniture. Ash is beautiful in its simplicity and its versatility. It grows easily but requires room and light to flourish. Ash is often crowded out in the forest and thus accounts for only 4% of the tree population. However, given the expanse of North America’s forests, 4% can equal roughly 8 billion Ash trees.

Sadly, all 8 billion North American Ash trees are under an existential threat from the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle native to China that came via a shipping container in the 1980s or 1990s and was first detected outside Detroit in 2002. Larvae grow in the cambium layer under the bark for 1-2 years, gnawing away until they mature, bore a hole in the bark, and fly away to the next tree. Only the size of a grain of rice, but with no natural predators on this continent, the EAB (as it’s known), has killed tens of millions of Ash trees. And while scientists have tried introducing various wasps to cull the population, little progress has been made against the EAB. Thus, the telltale signs of premature Fall color, crown dieback, and bark that peels away at the slightest tug foreshadow the tree’s demise.

Alternate names

American Ash, Biltmore Ash or Cane Ash

Range

West to the Plain states, and North from the Northern Gulf States into Canada

Latin Name

Fraxinus americana

Educational Source

We’d like to credit the book, " A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America," in helping us craft these Specie profiles