Just wondering if there are any arborist on the site. I have a ash tree that is having some branches that are dying and wondering if I take most of the large branch off if it is the best thing to do. Maybe new growth will shoot out new branches. The tree s 40 years old this last spring.

Here, all our ash have died from the emerald ash border beetle. Don't know if you have them in your state or not. If you do it's a death sentence

My ash trees are dying. These are yard trees . I cut them off close to the ground. Most of them are throwing off suckers. Some of them are 6 feet high. Hope they keep growing. At some point ,I will have to select a strong one and hope we don't have a second round of ash borer . A few years ago , I purchased , a soil drench from Do your own pest control, in the US. I think it delayed , the borer. However, now it can't be shipped and sold to Canada, except to a proffesional . .old243

Not sure if the Emerald Ash Borer is confirmed in MT but it is in the Dakotas. Ash are almost wiped out in NY.

Nebraska as well.

WOW! I must not have been paying attention to has been happening to the Ash Trees. It sure could be it I will have to see what happens and if the case I would know them down this wintah.

Snowy, I have a Forestry degree from Michigan State. Detroit is the first location of Emerald Ash Borer in the U.S., likely due to Asian imports, so we talked extensively about EAB in school.

Identification is fairly simple if you suspect your tree is declining. Look very closely at the main stem of your Ash. If you see a bunch of small holes in the bark(just smaller in circumference than a pencil eraser) that look D-shaped then your tree is likely infected with Emerald Ash Borer.

If infected, you could get a local arborist to treat them with chemical injections. Otherwise, you can keep pruning and hoping until it’s entirely dead.

Dying from the top down seems a classic sign the ash borer has done its damage. It will die in a few short years.

https://eab.russell.wisc.edu/signs-and-symptoms/

look for the "D" shaped exit holes.

Thank You for your expert help!

That was a very good tutorial and Thank You.

If you can, have all your ash trees logged off now before the local glut in the market. I lost around 350 large ash trees. When they were dying, they produced huge amounts of seeds. The resulting trees are all of large enough size to be predated on now and are starting to die too. I should cut about 1000 ash poles.

Keith