Sadly the EAB is killing it. Gladly I happen to have a sawmill in my back yard and it will live on. Gave it the chop. About 20" at the stump.
You got a bug up your ash? Don't think I have them yet, I'm hoping they don't find me. I'm wondering if it's over hyped though, like the southern pine beetle that came and went and was supposed to take all the pine trees with it, yet, they're all still here. I hope eab is just as lazy.
I wish you the best of luck. I was hoping for the same thing, and I think I've been in denial for over a year about it being in my woods. Found a confirmed EAB kill early this summer and now everywhere I look I'm seeing more dead and dying ones. It looks like the entire eastern portion of your state is in quarantine. We've been in one here since 2013, but this is the first summer that I've started seeing some serious decline. They said on the news they estimate 1 in 5 trees in WNY is an ash, and I'd call that a conservative estimate for my property. I've got acres of the stuff. So, part of this is an attempt to stay on top of it. I considered selling some saw logs but I think I'm just going to hoard as much lumber from them as I can instead. I do plan to start selling some firewood though.
I'm wishing you luck. Supposedly there's a wasp that preys specifically on the eab. I have a lot of ash, but definitely most of what I have is black walnut. I think black walnut gives off a toxin to other weaker plants but not sure if bugs detect it . It seems like nothing really messes with black walnut, bugs, deer, other plants, etc so I'm hoping the ash scattered amongst it is safe...
My neighbor directly across the street has 2 ash showing distress but when I looked closely at the bark around eye level last night I didn't see the tell-tale D openings. Another neighbor on the corner at the end of the street has definite damage and only has about half of his top still alive. The rest is leafless. I need to park and inspect that trunk but have no doubt about what is causing it. My own ash was taken down about 6 years ago for house insurance reasons, it was too close to the house. Although it was a vigorously growing tree at about 30 inches dbh and only 30 years old, when I started to split the rounds from its trunk more recently I was surprised to see extensive galleries under the loose bark from an EAB infestation. I doubt it would have any leaves by now if I had not had it removed. The tunnels under the bark are so extreme that I am surprised it had any leaves when it was first removed.
