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A lecture at the Page Farm and Home Museum discussed the circumstances surrounding the domino effect that certain factors have on the increased death rate of Maine’s trees.
Disease, pests and unique weather are harming Maine’s trees. Dr. William Livingston, an associate professor in forest resources, has been researching the cause behind dieback in tree species such as, Spruce, White Pine, Brown Ash and Beech.
In the case of White Pines, growing in old fields results in shallow rooting, predisposing them to severe droughts, disease and fungi.
“Fungi coming in, and insects coming into the stem of the tree and actually end up killing the tree but we call them secondary,” Livingston said. “The drought is what really incited the disease.”
This pattern seems to continue for the other species as well. The Balsam Fir shares the Woolly Adelgid insect with the Hemlock and others.
According to the Maine Forest Service page on the www.maine.gov Web site, “While Balsam Woolly Adelgid is frequently limited by cold winter temperatures, the mild winters of the 1990s and early 2000s allowed this pest to attain damaging levels. Entire stands of mature Balsam as well as under story Fir have been killed in many areas of the state.”
Beech Bark Disease is wreaking havoc on the Beech trees of Maine. “Since 1993 in Aroostook County, half the strands of Beech are dying off,” Livingston said.
“They’re just not as abundant as they used to be,” said Patricia Henner, director of the Page Farm and Home Museum.
The tree decline may be due to the climate change. Henner has actually proven that some of the decline in the trees is because of the warming trend.
Harmful insects, such as the Woolly Adelgid, are killed by cold temperatures.
“Pests, insects establish a population, and then changes in the climate; warmer winters favoring the insects, weakening the trees and then a drought occurring and the combination of the two is just too much for the trees,” Livingston said.
A significant part of Maine’s economy includes the lumber, pulp and paper industries, which rely heavily on a healthy tree population.
The Page Farm and Home Museum located on campus holds lectures and events, such as the Brown Bag Lunch Lecture Series. The purpose of the series and other events is “part of our educational mission. A lot of the time we use it to disseminate current research to the public; we use it as a form to discuss agricultural issues,” Henner said.
