NY Times on shortage of good ash trees for basenall bats

[mar13]

Baseball History Is No Longer Written With Ash Bats https://nyti.ms/3TExqTV

 

[johneh]

The New Standard

SAM BAT WAS THE FIRST PROFESSIONALLY APPROVED MAPLE BAT - ACCEPT NO IM

THE ORIGINAL MAPLE BAT was introduced to professional play in 1997 by Sam Holman. The company is often referred to by the name of its record setting product, “SAM BAT”. SETTING THE STANDARD: Prior to Sam’s introduction of the Original Maple Bat, the vast majority of wooden baseball bats were...

canada.sambat.com

 

[Simonkenton]

NY Times won't let me read it. I remember playing Little League in Atlanta, and on every bat it was stamped MADE WITH NORTHERN WHITE ASH.

 

[Max W]

Scientific American won’t charge you to read what is likely the same basic info on ash baseball bats as the Times story

Baseball Bats Made from Ash May Fall Victim of Climate Change

Thriving in warmer winters, a beetle threatens a key source of Major League's cherished wood bats: The white ash forests of Pennsylvania and New York

www.scientificamerican.com

There are bat makers in Maine who supply major league players but those I have heard of are smaller operations.

White Ash is a wonderful wood as the article says. It is strong with some flexibility. Besides bats that makes makes great paddles and oars. Brown ash is unique in that it can be pounded to separate layers for basket making. Loss of the ash would be more than very sad.

Many years back a prof at U Maine came up with an inocculation for Dutch Elm disease and was able to save some of the remaining. Must be some research happening on fighting the ash borer.

.

 

[Simonkenton]

Scientific American is blaming it on Climate Change. If it is proven that Climate Change is a hoax, will that make the emerald ash borer go away?

Scientific American: Science, with politics. There's a lot of that going around these days. I'd hate to read what the NY Times says.

 

[stoveliker]

I thought the EAB was a consequence of intercontinental transport (i.e. it's nonnative, and our ecosystem has no defense (yet?) against it).
While climate change could, in principle, allow for a livable habitat for the EAB where otherwise there would not have been one, the spread of the EAB over the different climate zones we see in the US tells me that indeed climate change has not much to do with the EAB.

 

[Max W]

The title to the article was not well chosen. No one in it is saying the outbreak is the consequence of climate change. As far as the spread of EAB one quote in the article states “But climate change isn't the main driver in the spread of the borer.“ It does say that extreme cold weather which can help with the spread occurs less than it did in the past. Our climate right here has become welcoming to newer pests like the lyme carrying deer tick.

 

[peakbagger]

Unfortunately, ash is the primary wood for canoe gunnels, seats and paddles. There are inoculations for EAB but nothing that can be done in the woods on landscape level. Existing yard trees could be kept alive as long as the treatment is kept up. There is an attempt to collect samples from Ash trees that have shown resistance to the EAB in hopes of cross breeding them to a EAB resistant variety. No doubt the controversial method of inserting genes from other plants into Chestnut trees for blight resistance could be attempted on Ash trees. Some groups are looking at the long term and are just going to save good specimens by treating them for decades in hopes that the EAB will die off once they have wiped out the untreated ash trees.

 

[mar13]

NY Times won't let me read it. I remember playing Little League in Atlanta, and on every bat it was stamped MADE WITH NORTHERN WHITE ASH.

You probably hit your limit of free articles
Clear your browser's cookies or try a different browser.

 

[mar13]

Scientific American is blaming it on Climate Change. If it is proven that Climate Change is a hoax, will that make the emerald ash borer go away?

Scientific American: Science, with politics. There's a lot of that going around these days. I'd hate to read what the NY Times says.

I don't think the NY Times article said anything about climate change. Just a pest that hitched a ride to North America. It also talked about the newer preferences for maple bats.