Wildlands Forest Management Plans
Ash/Brown Ash Management in the Wildlands
Three species of ash trees occur naturally in Maine: white (F. americana), green (F. pennsylvanica), and brown or black (F. nigra). Together they comprise about 4% of our hardwood forests. All three are threatened by the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB). EAB feeds on the inner bark and phloem of ash trees during its larval stage, disrupting its ability to move nutrients, water, and carbohydrates and typically causing death within 2-5 years of infestation, without intervention. Left unchecked, EAB causes upwards of 99% mortality in all three species.
EAB likely came to the US via shipping pallets from Asia to Michigan in the 1990s. Over the last 20+ years, EAB spread across North America, mostly by human transport, decimating trees across the midwest, New York, Vermont and, since 2018, Maine. Now, EAB has been detected in 14 of the 16 counties. It has not yet reached Hancock county, but it is in neighboring Penobscot and Waldo Counties. This underscores the importance of sourcing firewood hyper-locally, because movement of firewood within Maine could make or break whether EAB arrives in Hancock county. At this point, merely bringing firewood across the Verona Narrows bridge, could introduce it here.
Ash grows on a gradient of soil moisture, with white ash growing on upland sites; green ash in soils with increased moisture; and brown ash being most competitive in both riparian areas and the saturated soils of forested wetlands. All ash serve major ecological functions: for example, their bark is slightly less acidic than other trees, and supports an array of fungal biodiversity. Additionally, there are 98 herbivorous species specialized in feeding on the leaves of North American ash that are threatened by the expansion of EAB. Brown ash plays a major role in water levels and aquatic food webs; its leaf litter is nutrient-rich and preferred by many invertebrate species in riparian forests; lack of brown ash leaves significantly slows an ecosystem’s decomposition rates.
White and green ash are important economically and aesthetically to Maine, as valuable timber species and common municipal street trees. Their loss will change the landscape of these places and create major costs for cities and towns.
Brown ash is of particular cultural significance to Wabanaki people who have been living in the region for thousands of years. Gluskabe, a mythical demigod immortalized through the cultural traditions of the Wabanaki, appears as an integral component of each tribe’s variation of the Creation Myth, as well as numerous other tales and stories. The Wabanaki were created when he fired an arrow into a brown ash tree,and the people emerged from its bark.
In addition to its role in creation, brown ash is used as a primary material in Wabanaki basketry, because its growth rings possess ideal structural qualities for pounding, splitting, and weaving. Basketmaking is currently practiced by about 200 Wabanaki artisans in Maine alone. This continues an ancient cultural practice, and also provides income to support their families .
It is a shared priority of Wabanaki Tribal Nations, basketmakers, the Maine Forest Service, conservation organizations, including 23 committed Land Trusts, and University of Maine researchers, to take actions to protect ash. These groups have been organizing together through the Brown Ash Task Force for nearly 20 years, and have now broadened the work of outreach and education through the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) to empower people across Maine to safeguard ash.
Recognizing that 94% of Maine is privately owned, APCAW seeks to organize citizen scientists, private landowners, and conservation groups across Maine to engage in monitoring trees and seed collection. As of 2024, most ash in Maine has not been impacted by EAB and our state has the last healthy population in the country. Thus we are in a critical period before overstory ash is lost to EAB during which we can inventory and collect seed for long-term preservation of ash genetic diversity. In Summer 2024, GPMCT began to inventory its ash and found that all three species are present on their properties. In the future there is great potential to contribute to APCAW’s efforts to protect ash by monitoring for EAB and collecting seed on GPMCT lands.
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Francis, Emily. “Ash Seed Collection Manual.” 2023. https://umaine.edu/apcaw/wp-content/uploads/sites/668/2023/03/Ash-Seed-Collection-Manual_Version2-2_Feb2023-1-compressed.pdf
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Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation, & Forestry 2024: https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/invasive_threats/eab/index.shtml
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