ash tree devestation

[Dclarke]

I was at my parents house yesterday afternoon and went "outback" into the woods to search for some wood to harvest as staves.
little background I am first generation off the dairy farm and grew up on about 70 acres of farmland and woods, in Central NY in a little village of Parish.
I was looking for HHB, hickory, and lastly ash.
I did see some nice yellow Birch which I might take some of and I think I saw some HHB.
need to get my identification skills better....
anyway, every ash tree that I saw was dead. Every single one
I am thinking it was ash borer beetles. Very sad!   

[cowboy]

I hear ya Dclarke! I ran into that in WV one time. Every single elm tree out there was dead - some kind of bug, lots of cherry though.. Just recently i noticed tree trimmers clearing for a new gas station. Having scouted and cut a nice osage in those woods years ago, i knew there were some more premo sage trees in there yet. Left him my number and instructions to leave the trunks and i'd pick em up. He never called and now there's a real purty pile of yella chips laying out there  .