doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT- BUT...Butternut tree endangered..........??

Folks- Sorry for being OT on this, but I know all of you are interested in the Flora(and the hardwood)that we all enjoy... Here's something that I uncovered while looking for some Butternut trees in our area.... Very surprising.....-Doug

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1016/is_n7-8_v99/ai_14378233

Thanks for the article. I know the farm around the corner that has a few on it. I tried to take a small sapling and transplant it, didn't make it the second year. Farm across the road has a beautiful English Walnut, and an Apricot tree, they are ready right now to eat.

Butternut and Black Walnut are in the same genus-first cousins, so to speak! Is our source of gunstock material at risk? I wonder!

Unfortunately it isn't only the Butternut that is endangered. We all know about the American Chestnut being totally wiped out by an introduced fungus, and now we have several more tree species that are in danger of being totally destroyed as a species. Example:

An introduced insect from Asia, the Woolly Adelgid, may well put Eastern and Carolina Hemlocks on the "extinct" list! Hemlocks are dying off totally in many parts of the Southern Mountains. Last week I was in Pennsylvania attending the Kentucky Rifle Assoc.meeting, and noticed that Hemlocks are rapidly dying there also.

Here in the Deep South we have Red Bay trees that are most probably doomed to extinction due to an insect introduced from China in wooden shipping pallets. Actually it's a fungus disease living in the mouths of the insects that kills and not the insect itsself. This disease also threatens to wipe out every single Sassafras tree and all avocado trees, and this is a significant business in South Florida. What's next?

Its nature at work, over 90% of all of the species of everything that has ever lived on earth is extinct.
Like the man said can't slow down progress.

The government has introduced all kinds of, in their terms, "helpful" alien species. In the 1890's it was the European Starling and House Sparrow, later the Gypsy moth, then it was some type of fly to kill the larvae. Birds, fish, nothing eats them. Then Japanese Beetles, killed hundreds Sunday with Sevin on my Weeping Cheery. Plus countless others.
In some years driving along Rt 80 in Pa, there was nothing left on the tops of the trees for miles and miles.

I have about 2 dozen large butternuts on my property. Most (all?) are affectd by the canker, but appear to be doing ok...but there are very few younger trees around so when these die who knows what will happen. Hopefully I'll be pushing up daisies by then...(I know, careful what you wish for)

I read it takes couple of decades from a sapling to butternut collection time. Shaft that. I have some fig trees and it took only 3 or 4 years to get some tasty morsels.

Mr Furman-
Have you considered contacting this guy?...:

DO YOU HAVE A HEALTHY BUTTERNUT?

Researcher Mike Ostry would like to hear from anyone owning healthy butternuts that have the following criteria:

* The tree should be near canker-ridden trees so it can be assumed that it has had heavy exposure to the disease.

* Tree appears to be free of cankers or has successfully overgrown them.

* Tree has a diameter at breast height of at least 10 inches.

* Owner will allow researchers to collect scion wood and nuts for several years.

If you know of a butternut that fits these criteria, please contact Michael E. Ostry, Research Plant Pathologist, U.S. Forest Service, 1992 Folwell Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108.

Trees everywhere are in danger for one reason or another. Millions of Alaskan pine trees are dying from the pine bark beetles/global warming. Ash trees in the midwest are in danger from ash beetles. Trees in this area are dying more than people can remember from last year's drought. Mudslides, California forest fires, floods. What else is new?

Since it was documented that the 7 glaciers on mt. Shasta, in California, the heart of global warming central, are actually ADVANCING, the global warming bit has been a little tough for me to swallow.

It wasn't front page news (hey, those carbon payments haven't even begun yet) but, the information is out there.
Best,
Ted