A writer and a photographer from Mount Rainier are drawing attention to the ongoing devastation of the area’s ash trees.

For the last three years, science writer Gabe Popkin and photographer Leslie Brice have visited ash tree groves stretching from the Route 1 corridor to the Eastern Shore to document trees dying from the emerald ash borer.

A native of Asia, the ash borer first came to Michigan in 2002 and then spread to Maryland through an illegal shipment of infested trees sent to a Brandywine nursery. Their larvae damage ash trees by digging tunnels that disrupt the flow of nutrients.

Popkin and Brice have compiled their words and images on the Ash Forest Project, which was on display at Joe’s Movement Emporium earlier this year and featured recently on NPR’s “Here and Now.”

Ash tree groves have long been sprinkled along the Anacostia River, where they help maintain forested swamps, a unique ecosystem. They are one reason why Hyattsville’s tree canopy declined by a third from 2009 to 2018.

“To see these places start to get wiped out, it really felt like we were losing something important, and something that most people aren’t even aware of,” Popkin said recently.

Because ash borer infestations has a 99% mortality rate, groups like the Anacostia Watershed Society are attempting to restore the ash tree groves in places like Bladensburg Waterfront Park by planting as many as a dozen different varieties of tree to see which ones might succeed.

You can support the Ash Forest Project online here or subscribe to Popkin’s nature writing Substack here.

Support the Wire and Community Journalism
Make a one-time donation or become a regular supporter here.