Writing in Response to Article on Beech Leaf Disease in Princeton
To the Editor:
The article published Wednesday, June 12 entitled “Beech Leaf Disease Poses Threat to Town’s Beleaguered Trees” [page 1] was quite disheartening, with its projection that most or all of our beautiful, big old beeches will die within four to 10 years. One sentence in the article struck me even more forcefully than that dire projection, though: “The nematodes [that cause the disease] are not thought to be native to North America.” It highlights the tragic consequences of continued importation and use of non-native, often-invasive species, which bring with them plagues like the beech leaf disease, the emerald ash borer, and the chestnut blight (estimated to have killed 4 billion chestnut trees in our eastern forests). And it highlights the tragic consequences of our governor’s veto of the invasive species legislation passed unanimously by the legislature last year, and of the Department of Environmental Protection’s inexplicable failure to quickly move to resolve whatever problems it has with the legislation (cited as the reason for the veto).
Many readers will question whether “tragic” is too strong a word. But is it? We are relying on our trees to counter the devastating impacts of climate change, including increased flooding, violent storms, and the unprecedented heat wave we are experiencing. We rely on our time in green, beautiful spaces to sooth the multiplying stresses and incessant challenges of living in this particular time in our history. As sad and disturbing as it is to lose our beech trees, it will have a cost to the quality and duration of human life that is indeed tragic. And ironically, the desire for imported plants to create novel and dramatic effects in our gardens, or to resist browsing by the excessive deer population, is having an incalculable negative ecological and aesthetic effect.
Please contact the sponsors of the legislation that would ban or limit the importation of invasive species: Clinton Calabrese, Herb Conaway Jr. (a Princeton graduate currently running for Congress), and Reginald Atkins for Assembly Bill A4137; and Linda Greenstein, Bob Smith, Shirley Turner, Patrick Diegnan, and our own Andrew Zwicker for Senate Bill S1029. Tell them how much you appreciate their work on this issue, and that more is needed to get the invasive species legislation out of some kind of administrative quagmire and into effect. Every day of delay means that much more time for the sale of non-native plants that bring with them horrific unintended consequences.