Interesting link –How death of ash trees is pushing up the death rate of people

This study confirms the many health benefits of Ash trees

What are Ash trees?

The ash tree is a handsome, native, deciduous tree. There are over 60 ash tree species— the white ash being the largest of the family. The ash tree is a strong, medium to very large tree, depending on type, and a relative of the olive tree. Ash trees have an opposite branching structure, with multiple leaflets.  Depending on species, ash tree

leaves are green, turning yellow or purple-burgundy in the fall. Spring flowers are inconspicuous, but the fruit that follows is more noticeable, hanging in clusters of winged seeds which turn light brown and linger on the tree until early winter. The ash tree has a lovely rounded crown and gray diamond-shaped furrowed trunk when mature. An interesting fact about the ash tree is its characteristic agile wood is used to make baseball bats.

How to Grow

Most ash tree varieties grow best in moist, rich soil; require full sun and plenty of space.

Size of Tree

50 to 80 feet high / 50 to 90 foot spread

Uses

Due to their size and foliage, Green Ash tree is commonly used in farms and fields as windbreakers. They are used in the landscaping of highways, both as ornamentals and as windbreakers. The seeds of the Green Ash are eaten by many mammals and birds, and the tree provides protective cover for birds’ nests as well as shade for home landscapes.

The U.S. Forest Service study quoted a variety of earlier findings

• In the Netherlands, people living in areas with more greenery had lower rates of many health problems, especially anxiety in children;

• New York City children who live in areas with more street trees are less likely to have asthma;

• Doctors in Portland, Oregon, found that pregnant women with more tree canopy within 50 meters of their homes, or who live close to open space, are less likely to have an underweight baby.

New Research-When the ash trees die, people do too, study finds

As ash trees died across 15 U.S. states in the past decade, they seem to be pushing up the death rate for people as well. Researchers counted 15,000 more deaths from heart attacks than they would have expected in U.S. counties where ash trees died since 2002, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. There were another 6,100 extra deaths from lower respiratory problems in the same areas, also since 2002. They can’t say what the cause is, but the link is a strong one.

In areas with ash borer, which kills the trees, they found an average of 16.7 “excess deaths” from heart problems each year for every 100,000 adults. In Ottawa, approximately 25 per cent of the trees are ash. They are among our main shade trees. The U.S. Forest Service scientists say the arrival of the ash borer is real-world experiment— accidental, but large-scale — giving strong evidence that a leafy environment is good for our health. It may be because trees cool us in the summer, they wrote. It may be that leaves clean the air of pollutants. It may even be that trees calm us down. Leafy streets make us happier than a concrete jungle.

The United States is ahead of Canada in the emerald ash borer invasion. First detected in Michigan in 2002, the invasive insect probably arrived years earlier. It has killed tens of millions of trees in the 15 states and reached Ottawa by 2008. In the U.S. study, the Forest Service measured death rates in nearly 1,300 counties across 15 states that have ash borer infestations. They called it “an unprecedented opportunity to study the impact of a major change in the natural environment on human health,” after the insect killed some 100 million trees. In county after county, they found the human death rate rose when the trees disappeared. The team kept looking for other explanations. “But we saw the same pattern repeated over and over in counties with very different demographic makeups,” wrote lead researcher Geoffrey Donovan. And they found another trend: The greatest jump in deaths was in communities where people had higher-than-average incomes and more education, which are often the places with the most trees. One Ottawa physician says this is more evidence for protecting the ash trees.

You want them because they are beautiful, natural cleaners (of air) and protectors of us,” said Dr. Curtis Lavoie of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. “I see a lot of asthma, a lot of emphysema, a lot of pneumonia” as an emergency physician, he said. “It’s on the rise, and I think it’s largely related to pollution.

While there has long been evidence that trees filter out pollutants, he believes the new study shows how relevant this is to health. Asthma is the single biggest cause of admitting children to hospital, he said. “It’s only because we’ve got amazing drugs out there that we are able to save lives and stop major disaster. But it’s still a huge load and its parents and kids who suffer.

(Source- American Journal of Preventive Medicine)