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A Special Need: Two Tree Diseases Infect Sylvania Franciscan Campus

  Sister Jeremias Stinson, OSF and Davey Tree Expert Company

personnel stand by an Ash tree marked to be taken down.

The Motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania is now struggling with two tree diseases.  Since 2006 the Emerald Ash Borer has infected half of the 1,804 Ash tree on the 89-acre campus and to compound the problem, Dutch Elm Disease has made a comeback.  Last year 100 Elm trees died from the disease and if the remaining healthy ones aren’t treated more will die this year.

 

To date, 600 dead Ash trees and 900 Ash saplings have been removed, but Sister Jeremias Stinson, Superintendent of Environmental Stewardship, Gardens, Shrines and Woodland Management, said they are only half way through the removal program and have planted 350 trees, only a third of the trees that need to be replaced.

 

"The infected trees are being removed one at a time so as not to disrupt the other tree species in the surrounding area any more than is necessary,” said Sister Jeremias.  “They are being replaced with hardwood trees and Conifers native to the area.  Replacing the infected trees is critical because trees act as a sponge and absorb ground water. 

If you don’t replace them, the runoff water from rain and melting snow will cause flooding and eventually end up in the storm sewers, taxing the drainage system.”

Dutch Elm Disease is a fungal disease spread by the Elm Bark Beetle and was accidentally brought to American in the late 1920’s.  Since then, it has devastated trees throughout the United States, reaching northwest Ohio in the late 1950’s.

 

Sister Jeremias said significant work has been done to replace the dead Ash trees—and now the Elm trees—but there is still a lot of work that has to be done.  She said both of these diseases are seriously impacting the environment of the Sylvania Franciscan campus.  She is constantly seeking support to continue her response program and restore the lost green space. 

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