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?
