Ashless Forests

Nope. This isn't a kite that got caught in the tree. It's an emerald ash borer trap.

The NY Department of Environmental Conservation stopped by a couple of weeks ago and asked permission to place a trap. As it turned out, it was Joel Fisk who I worked with one summer at Camp Oswegotchie back in the college years. But that's another story.

The ash borer has decimated the ash trees in other States and efforts are being made to control it by removing ash trees for a number of miles around any infestation. It had not yet reached NY but has made its damaging presence known in PA and the Province of Ontario. The traps are designed to alert us when it has arrived in NY.

Sadly, this week it was announced that an infestation as been discovered in Cattaraugus County, just a 100 miles west of Biscuit Hollow.