Tiny insect is big problem for Louisville Slugger

Ash baseball bats threatened by emerald ash borer

The Louisville Slugger is a baseball bat that has been manufactured in Louisville, KY, since 1884. Though also available in aluminum and maple, the traditional Louisville Slugger is made of white ash -- and not just any white ash.

The process of making a Louisville Slugger begins with selecting the timber itself. Although maple is rapidly gaining in popularity among today’s pros, the majority of bats are made from white ash. However, not just any white ash can become a Louisville Slugger. In fact, the only ash up to Louisville Slugger standards grows along a 200-mile stretch of land on the New York-Pennsylvania border. The soil, rain, sun – everything is just right there. That’s where the best bats in the world, Louisville Slugger bats, come from.

Source: Slugger Magazine

As you might imagine, the Louisville Slugger Company is concerned about the emerald ash borer, an Asian insect that has been wreaking havoc among North America ash trees. The emerald ash borer has spread through parts of Canada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, llinois, Michigan, and Indiana. As of yet, the insect has not reached the area where the ash timber for Louisville Sluggers is produced.

Emerald ash borer tunnels under an ash tree's bark. Photo by National Park Service

The Louisville Slugger company is bracing itself for the possibility that the emerald ash borer will reach and destroy the ash forests that produce Slugger lumber. Company labs are conducting research on other woods for bats, especially beech.

In a press release about the Emerald Ash, the Louisville Slugger company urges the public to avoid transporting firewood. When firewood is moved out of the area where it was cut, the emerald ash borer may ride along, expanding its range far more rapidly than the insect could do without human assistance.

Only time can tell what will happen to America's ash trees. We certainly hope for a solution to the emerald ash borer problem, but you might want to buy an ash Louisville Slugger bat (link opens a PDF) while you still can.

Technorati tags: Louisville Slugger, emerald ash borer, white ash

Trees with fine foliage

Trees with small leaves or leaflets

Why choose a tree with fine foliage rather than coarse foliage? One reason is to create an optical illusion. You can make a small yard appear longer by using plants and shrubs with large leaves in the foreground and trees with small leaves in the background.

Trees with fine foliage don't make as much of a mess when the leaves drop in autumn. The leaves break down faster and blow away easier. Thus, less raking is required. A few passes with the lawn mower may eliminate the need to rake at all.

Most trees with finer foliage don't create dense shade. Grass and many plants, flowers, and shrubs do better in dappled shade than in dense shade.

I've listed a few native trees below that have small or fine foliage. There are others, but I've limited the list to some that come through most ice/wind events without severe damage.

Of course, there are other factors to consider as well, such as the type of soil and the amount of moisture that will be available to the tree. Links will open an information page about the species at the USDA Plants database.

Amelanchier canadensis -- Canadian serviceberry
Carpinus caroliniana -- American hornbeam
Crataegus -- Hawthorn species
Gymnocladus dioicus -- Kentucky coffeetree
Malus ioensis -- Prairie crabapple
Ptelea trifoliata -- Common hoptree
Quercus palustris -- Pin oak
Viburnum prunifolium -- Blackhaw viburnum
Viburnum rufidulum -- Rusty blackhaw viburnum

Technorati tags: fine foliage, small leaves

Tall trees that resist wind and ice damage

24 tall-growing native trees that resist wind and ice damage

Updated, 2/8/08.

All of these trees can reach 75-100 feet in height or more when mature. All are native trees of North America with moderate to good resistance to damage by wind and ice.

Trees marked with an asterisk below should be considered moderately resistant. A general rule to remember is that strong evergreens are not as resistant to wind and ice damage as strong deciduous trees. Because of their foliage, they tend to catch more winter wind, snow, and ice.

1. Acer nigrum -- Black maple
2. Acer saccharum -- Sugar maple*
3. Carya cordiformis -- Bitternut hickory
4. Carya glabra -- Pignut hickory
5. Carya illinoensis -- Pecan
6. Carya ovata -- Shagbark hickory
7. Carya tomentosa -- Mockernut hickory
8. Fagus grandifolia -- American beech
9. Gymnocladus dioicus -- Kentucky coffeetree
10. Juglans nigra -- Eastern black walnut
11. Liquidambar styraciflua -- American Sweetgum
12. Magnolia acuminata -- Cucumbertree magnolia
13. Picea pungens -- Colorado spruce
14. Pinus ponderosa -- Ponderosa pine*
15. Pinus resinosa -- Red pine*
16. Pinus strobus -- Eastern white pine*
17. Platanus occidentalis -- Sycamore, American planetree*
18. Quercus alba -- White oak
19. Quercus bicolor -- Swamp white oak
20. Quercus borealis -- Northern red oak
21. Quercus macrocarpa -- Bur oak*
22. Quercus velutina -- Black oak
23. Taxodium distichum -- Common baldcypress
24. Tsuga canadensis -- Canada hemlock

Sources for the above list include:

Native Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for Urban and Rural America: A Planting Design Manual for Environmental Designers by Gary L. Hightshoe, published in 1988 by Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.

Ice Storm Damage to Urban Trees, an article in the appendix of Storms Over the Urban Forest, a publication of the USDA Forest Service. (This article's table, "Ice storm susceptibility of tree species commonly planted in urban areas" is reprinted in many reputable articles about ice damage susceptibility on the internet.)

Trees For Nebraska Ice Storm Recovery and Susceptibility of Trees to Ice Storm Damage in the Great Plains, publications of the Nebraska Statewide Arboreum

NOTE:
I was called to task about this list by arborist Donald W. Bush, who sent an e-mail saying that Eastern white pines had suffered a great deal of damage in recent Pennsylvania ice storms. He suggested that I remove the Eastern white pine from the list.

After some additional research on Pinus strobus, I've decided to leave it in the list, but to mark it and a few other species as less resistant than the best. In my opinion, when one considers the full spectrum of weather-damage susceptibility in trees, the Eastern white pine's rating of moderately-resistant is justified. (It isn't as strong as a white oak, but it's certainly much stronger than a Bradford pear.)

When I originally wrote this post, I thought about separating the deciduous trees from the evergreens and making two lists -- and I probably should have done that. Evergreen trees are naturally more prone to catching winter winds, snow, and ice. (That's why they're often planted in windbreaks!)

Preventing Wind Damage to Trees

A big tree brought down by a violent windstorm

Violent winds (up to 70 mph) swept through southern Kentucky on the afternoon and evening of January 29, 2008, leaving behind many broken trees and damaged structures. The above photo is a dramatic example of a tree that didn't survive the storm.

This tree is on city property (between the Municipal Building and the Police Department) near Little River in Hopkinsville, KY. I doubt if it was planted by the city. It is probably just a tree that happened to be growing there. I'd be very surprised if it's received any sort of special care or attention over the years.

It appears that the top of this tree broke in the wind, and as it fell, the heavy branches ripped off the branches below it. The tree is beyond salvage.

What can be done to reduce the chances of damage like this?

1. Choose wind-resistant, appropriately-sized species of trees.

2. As the tree grows, practice good pruning techniques. Eliminate the following as they occur:
-- one branch wherever the stem splits into a "Y" that has two equal branches directly across from each other
-- branches that cross over or rub against another branch
-- any side branch that is taller than the main stem of the tree
-- one branch wherever the crotch is weak (narrow).
-- dead or broken branches

3. Keep the crown of the tree symmetrical. Don't allow the tree to become lopsided.

4. Reduce the density of a large tree's crown so it has less wind-resistance (so the wind can blow through the tree.)

5. Keep the tree in good health by controlling insects and disease.

6. Avoid injury to the tree's trunk and roots.

7. Do not cut large branches back to stubs. New branches that shoot out from the stubs will be extremely vulnerable to weather damage due to their weak attachment.

A Reader Asks for Tree Identification

Mysterious trees on Oak Island

I've always said that one of the most interesting things about blogging is the comments, both on the blog and via e-mail. Here's one I received a few days ago.

Dear Genevieve,

I am studying a species of Oak which is non-native to Eastern Canada. To date, my colleagues and I have been unable to identify which species of Quercus it is. The last tree disappeared sometime in the late 1960's, so all that we have to work with is the pictures of these trees. Do you think that you could take a look and render an opinion for us?

Robert

I wrote back:

I will be glad to look, but please keep in mind that I am just an interested amateur, not a trained professional!


Robert sent the following image and a little more information about it:

Many thanks, Genevieve. These Oak trees were found on Oak Island, off of the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. They are not native to the region and are not found anywhere else, but on this island up to about 1969 or so, when the last ones disappeared. I suspect that they were planted there specifically by early visitors, perhaps between 1560 and 1670. They are unusual because of their broad canopies. Image attached. Thanks again and I surely hope that you recognize them!



I didn't recognize the trees, and I wrote back:

I am not able to identify them, I regret to say. Their shape is curious, not so much because of the broad canopy, but because of the apparent lack of foliage below the canopy. I wonder if that might have been a phenomenon caused by the stress of growing in an environment that wasn't its natural home?

If you'd like, I can post the image on the blog and see if anyone else has any comments.


Robert replied:

Many thanks for taking a look, Genevieve. I would be grateful to learn anything else about them, so a post on your blog would be great. We thought that we had a sample of the trees from a log found on the island. I sent a sample for analysis to the Center for Wood Analysis Research and it came back as a species of Maple. I suspect that we had the wrong stump, as the common belief was and is that they are a species of Oak...

Your insight regarding the environment is probably correct. The unusual shape of the canopy, etc. is likely the result of the North Atlantic seaboard environment, which is known to be harsh as a result of the Nor'easters, as well as perhaps the soil and other conditions. In any event, they apparently thrived there for a number of centuries and of course, is why Oak Island is so named. We believe that they were planted there specifically for timber used in the repair (careening) of ships, but this is just a theory. Hopefully, someone will recognize them from the image, so I will keep my fingers crossed!

Robert is a member of an Oak Island research group. If you're not familiar with the story of Oak Island, it is fascinating. The story was new to me, but my son was well-informed about the mysterious treasure hole and the many attempts that have been made to explore it, having read about it in his some of his "mysteries of the unexplained" books.

Readers, do you recognize the tall trees in the image above, or do you have any comments about them? If so, please post them, or let me know by e-mail. Thanks.