dead trees everywhere

[3rdgen.maple]

Anybody got any insight into why there are dead or dying trees everywhere around me. I had a big hardmaple die that appeared to be really healthy the season before. Well it died over the winter. I cut it down yesterday. The tree was solid and showed no signs off any infestation. Driving around over the weekend I noticed alot of roadside maples in the 30 miles that I drove. Most of them where trees that were never tapped. Took a walk through the woods and counted 14 dead oak trees and 21 dead cherrys. Ages of trees seem to not matter much some are a few inches in diameter up to a few feet. What gives? Anyone else seeing the same?

[jdj]

Yep. Same thing up here in my area. I live near the canadian border in NY. We got hit hard by the ice storm in '98 but some trees that had hardly any damage from the ice storm are dying while others that got stripped bad from the ice are still alive. I have trees that I tap one year that look healthy, yield lots of sap and then a year later they are dead or close to it. I have no answers. I hate to see hard maples die but I guess all you can say is the strong will survive and the weak will die?????

[KenWP]

I have a lot of dead elms around here. There are not many maples on my property as they either died or in the past somebody cut them for firewood.

[DanE.]

If I remember right a few years back you had a bad infestation on caterpillars in your area. strip the leaves clean off. Friends in Red Field lost a lot of their trees. It was weird going up 81 and seeing spots where there were no leaves in the middle of summer. may be they never fully recovered.

I have been out cutting them out on my trees for the last two weeks and burning them.

dane.


Anybody got any insight into why there are dead or dying trees everywhere around me. I had a big hardmaple die that appeared to be really healthy the season before. Well it died over the winter. I cut it down yesterday. The tree was solid and showed no signs off any infestation. Driving around over the weekend I noticed alot of roadside maples in the 30 miles that I drove. Most of them where trees that were never tapped. Took a walk through the woods and counted 14 dead oak trees and 21 dead cherrys. Ages of trees seem to not matter much some are a few inches in diameter up to a few feet. What gives? Anyone else seeing the same?

[sapman]

Dan, we're almost neighbors! I know what you mean about the bare trees. Last summer I was driving along one of the finger lakes, Owasco, maybe, and it was amazing to see the lack of canopy overhead. First time I'd seen it.

Tim

[KenWP]

We had tent caterpillars back in the late 80's in Northern Alberta and Sask. They were so bad in places they would die against the side of houses and we were hauling them away with the frontend loader of the tractor. Only thing that slowed them down was hail storms. Killed a lot of poplars.

[Tug Hill]

Yes, northern NY has had several cycles of Forest Tent Caterpillars during the last several years. The Forest Tent Caterpillar does not make a tent. It's the Eastern Tent Caterpillar that does that in pin cherry and other hardwood trees. But it's the Forest Tent Cat. that is the worst for Hard Maples.
During the 90's over 100,000 acres of timberland was defoliated on NY's Tug Hill Plateau, and there were so many Forest Tent Caterpillars you could literally hear them munching the leaves. So many cat. were smushed on some county rds to the point the roads were slippery.

The infestations usually last 2-3 years, it stresses the trees to the point where some will die, othere will have severe crown damage.
You need to monitor your sugarbush. Before leaf out if you cut any sugar maples, B Cherry, or W Ash for firewood look at the very end of the branches where last years growth is to see if you have any egg clusters. There may be egg clusters from the year before, but new clusters will be out on the end of the newest growth.

You can aireal spray but it is very expensive.

[KenWP]

Another problem could be acid rain.

[3rdgen.maple]

I forgot about the tent catipilars. We have not had them for 2 years now and We monitored the trees After the first year and did not tap any that got hit hard and limited our taps on the ones that were barely touched. There were some trees that you could not even see the trunk of the trees there were so many of them. Local dec told us to wrap siran wrap around the bases of the trees and cover that with a thin film of vasoline. Said they could not climb up that. Anyways our old senator Barclay had the area sprayed to help protect his trees and they were gone the following year. I remember hearing the chewing and if you even came near a tree you had catipilar crap in your hair. You could mow the lawn in the morning and the ground was covered with it by the end of the day. I remember after they sprayed you could take a shovel and with one swipe the shovel was full. I hope to never see that again. Funny thing is the birds would not even eat the **** things.

[Tweegs]

You said there didn't appear to be any infestations, but you don't see any of these around do you?

733


More info for your area here:

http://www.uvm.edu/albeetle/infestation/index.html

[3rdgen.maple]

Tweegs nay on the asian longhorn. I gotta caugh it up to the tentworms. I was talking to dad tonight and he says the maples just cant get a break. Acid rain problems in the 70' and 80's and then he recalled some sort of infestation but cant remember what it was and then the tentworms.