THE DYING OF THE TREES

BY JEFF FRANK
     
      On most of our public and private golf courses trees make up a large part of our playing field. I’m sure most of us have hit a tree with the golf ball or had a lie behind one that created a difficult shot. We have cursed some and thought others were absolutely beautiful. We tee off and we see a broad expanse of grass bordered by trees as reference points. As we walk around we notice the pines and deciduous trees because they give us shade from the sun and breaks the winds  as they pass over the golf course. Trees that are specimen, meaning they are special trees of a certain  variety, stand out because  they are planted for the effect they would give us. Some courses have only a few types of trees to almost none as Shinnecock and the National do  or have huge old ones as Old Westbury and Huntington Crescent do. Every course is different however. It’s the position, type and size of the trees that give our landscapes that beautiful look of a park. We also take for granted the trees that are around us, however that is rapidly changing.
      Mr. Charles E. Little has written a book that everyone in the world should read entitled ‘ THE DYING OF THE TREES’. As a horticulturist over the years I have known of the demise of certain trees. The Elm to Dutch Elm Dis-ease,  The Suharo cactus in the southwest to ultra-violet light from too much pollution. The death of the beautiful Mimosa to a deadly virus, the demise of the eastern flowering Dogwood to a previously unknown fungus called “Disoula Destructive” and Dogwoods  on the west coast. I wondered about the blights affecting these trees at the time but did not know or understand  the scope of the destruction of our forest trees nor the speed in which a dis-ease can travel in a day, month or year.
      Our trees are dying everywhere including the United States of America. Trees are dying on the ridges of the Appalachian and in the sugar  bush of Vermont ( maple syrup will only be a note in food history). Trees are dying in the mixed  mesophytic forests of the mid-south border states, in the thick forests of Central Michigan, on the mountainsides of Colorado and California, on the Gulf of Mexico and in the deserts of the southwest. They are dying in the northwest too, even before they are cut down.
      Forests are in decline in Brazil where they felled by the buzz saws of international greed, local poverty and ecological ignorance. Forests are in decline in Europe where the death of the Black Forest is called “Waldsterben” or forest death. Russia and China are cutting down their forests for fuel. The habitat for billions of birds, animals and insects are being destroyed at the rate never before known to man.
     What does it all mean to us, living on Long Island? Our trees in our yard look fine, we do not notice the decline here and what could we do about it anyway? The recent weather changes affecting our ,planet are the most difficult in the century. This ties into the loss of our forest worldwide. The forests are the lungs of our planet and their loss plus everything that lives in them and under the soil is creating changes more rapidly then anytime in history. One of the factors involved in this loss is the greater build up of carbon dioxide gases inour atmosphere and soil.