SNOW! Overnight I got six big inches of snow here at my cabin. Snow to me means photographs. Nature all dressed up in fancy sparkly dress.
This afternoon my camera and I got our hiking boots on and went up the mountain. It has been much too long since we’ve been out to take in the charm beyond my gardens and my yard.
I was in for a reality check. I wasn’t noticing, “Nature all dressed up in fancy sparkly dress.” But I was noticing something very heartbreaking.
I knew that Emerald Ash Borer had been attacking trees here on the mountain but to see so many in such a state of decline was a shock.
The Emerald Ash Borer is a native of north-eastern Asia. The first introduction of EAB to the US probably was to Michigan in the early to mid-1990s. Since then EAB has been found in 35 states.
What you are seeing in all these images, that lighter color of the bark. It’s called “blonding” and is a sign that the tree has been attacked by the EAB.
A sign that the tree is going to die. Soon there will be no Ash trees here in the mountains. This afternoon was indeed quite the reality check.
