The Green Man is gonna be PISSED...

[N/A]

...when he finds out that all the ash trees in the tri-state area and New England are going to die in the next few years, thanks to a mass infestation of the Asian Emerald Ash Borer beetle.

 

Emerald ash borers do their damage as larvae, eating into the bark and burrowing deep into the trunk to insulate themselves against the cold. In the process, they cut off access to the nutrients and water that the tree needs to survive; it is like severing a human’s network of veins and arteries.

 

After surviving the unusually cold winter, the beetles emerged in spring as adults. Now they are mating and laying eggs, leaving the next generation of larvae to tunnel through the trees’ internal organs. They can kill an ash tree in as little as two years.

 

A 2009 study in the journal Biological Invasions listed 43 native insect species that rely on ash trees for food or breeding. Those insects are the food supply for birds, including woodpeckers.

 

The entire eco-system of the forests around Freedom City are about to change in a major way.

 

[Raveled]

Well that's... kind of apocalyptic.

[The Sailor]

Always has to be bugs...

Then again the brain trust of Freedom City could come up with something... I hope.

[horngeek]

I sense a plooooooooot...