Basketmakers' tradition of storing black ash logs in water effective in killing EAB

Tina Ciaramitaro, USDA Forest Service Technician, and Tom Baweja,
USDA Forest Service Biological Aide,  toss logs into the Red Cedar River
 near Okemos, Michigan.  Image Courtesy of Phys.org.

July, 17, 2015.

Phys.org, has written an interesting article about a partnership between artisans from the Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Potawatomi Indians, the USDA Forest Service, and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in testing the traditional practice of submerging black ash logs against the emerald ash borer (EAB) and its larvae with the goal of
preserving the wood for future basketmaking.

"Black ash has been prized for centuries by traditional basketmakers for its ring-porous wood, which allows layers of xylem - the cells and vessels that transport water up a tree and creates tree rings - to be easily separated. The loss of black ash to the emerald ash borer has sparked concern about preserving black ash for use in basketmaking as well as the potential for spreading EAB by transporting untreated logs from forests to locations where they are pounded and split and ultimately used for basketmaking."

-Phys.org.

To read the full article, click here.

For more information,

Visit:

• Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Potawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe)
• USDA Forest Service
• USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)
• Submergence of black ash logs to control emerald ash borer and preserve wood for American Indian basketmaking (ePDF)
• Therese M. Poland, Tina M. Ciaramitaro, Maria R. Emery, Damon J. Crook, Ed Pigeon, and Angie Pigeon. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 2015.
• Great Lakes Lifeways Institute
• Black Ash Basketry: A Story of Cultural Resistance
• Learn About the Film
• Watch the Trailer
• The Ohio State University Emerald Ash Borer Team
• Ash Alert Photo Gallery
• Emerald Ash Borer Adults and Larvae
• Emerald Ash Borer Signs and Symptoms
• Prevention and Eradication
• Emerald Ash Borer-Plant health Division
• Ohio Department of Agriculture
• emerald ash borer.info
• What's Being Done
• What to Know
• Contact Info
• Mackosi'kwe's Baskets: Marking Relationships & Potato Stamps and Ash Splints
• May 13, 2015.
• Three Women, Three Artists, Three Paths toward One Goal: To Keep Their Culture Alive
• April 13, 2015.
• Weaving and Protecting a History: A Conversation with Basket-Maker Kelly Church (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Ojibwe)
• April 17, 2014.