LEARN ABOUT CREATURES

At the Indigenous Earth Summit, I heard Kelly Church explain about what the Emerald Ash Borer is...and why it is horrible.

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The Amazing Part - making baskets from trees!

Kelly Church showed us some of her tools for basket making.

Here is a very detailed version of what she said

I didn't know that you could make long strips from trees, but she told us how. Basically, you take bark off a tree, then you do something with the part right below the bark. (I need to read her interview and get the basics right about which part of the tree the strips come from)

The trees have to be long and straight, and really this whole process is a lot of work.

Oh, also, you aren't supposed to collect the trees anymore in certain states, e.g. Michigan, because of this beetle problem. And yes, the beetle is getting in the way of this awesome woman making her baskets and creating new art that comes from a long tradition in her family.

Ok, back to the baskets: so after you get the heartwood, then you have to smash it for ages and ages. You're loosening up the rings of the trees (Trees are made of fibers & tubes running up and down connecting roots to leaves.)

THEN once you can manage to get the rings separated, then you can take the strip and kind of score it and manage to pull it into two pieces. Kelly Church said that she can do this once or twice on a good day. The pieces need to be moist.

And that's just preparing the bark for making baskets. The torn apart tree feels really smooth.

See some of her baskets here.

I think she said that in the past other tribes were able to make baskets from Oak and Maple. Probably a similar process, but I imagine every tree is different and will have lots of tricks you need to know to get it to come out right.

The Tree and the Beetle

The Ash tree, while you might not be able to identify it, is one of those trees that makes up the bulk of the trees of the East Coast. Maybe if you live in the East Coast you already heard something about how that tree is threatened.

There's a noxious, mean little beetle that came over from China in 2001. The beetle can survive the heat treatment of wood pallets (they cook the pallets to 150 degrees F, but the beetles don't mind and live on.)

The beetle starts nibbling at the tops of ash trees (where we can't see) and then keeps going and going until the tree is dead.

Sounded to me like the scientists weren't very optimistic about this problem -- it's possible that the E.A.B. (emerald ash borer) could kill all the ash trees in Michigan, where there are a lot of these trees.

Yo Minnesota

By the way, these horrible bugs might be en route to Minnesota. They *say* they aren't here, but she said that it took 6 years for us to notice them when they arrived in Pennsylvania. I think she's right. She says that NOW is the time to act on this..not later...not waiting. Just imagine all the wriggling little worms at the tops of the trees ready to kill these trees before you even knew what they looked like.

The best way you can help: Save Seeds

Kelly recommends collecting seeds. Really though, collecting the seeds isn't easy. The Black Ash is one species of particular concern to her because that's the one used in the basket-weaving.

The trees that seed are the female trees, but you can't know until they've made seeds. They make seeds every 5 years.

You may need binoculars and/or polarized fishing glasses to see the seeds on the trees.

Oh, also, you should learn how to identify the ash tree. There are a few different kinds, white, blue, black...

What to do if you find a seeding tree

Getting the seeds involves tree-climbing, special tree pruning shears, and also provided the right climate for the seeds before you send them to a seed bank. If you can't do this, you should find some help.

If you see a tree, she recommends GPS'ing it if possible.

To get the seeds (which are up high) - you put a tarp on the ground, go up the tree, snip off a branch. Knock off the seeds, sort them out from the twigs and bugs.

Then, keep the seeds dry and near a dehumidifier. Put them in paper bags. Write down where, when, how many pounds of seeds you have, and GPS location if possible.

She says that then you can send them to the Fort Collins National Seedbank. You can dedicate them to descendants.

The seeds are supposed to stay viable for 25 years. Possibly enough time to reseed and regrow the Ash tree.

Thanks Cultural Revolution in China...

In China, the species is kept in check because the trees developed some resistance. Also, 20-30 years ago some scientists had some luck in studying this problem. BUT then there was the cultural revolution and all the scientists research got burnt. So we're outta luck.

There's some sort of local wasp that might help, by the way.