Leora Armstrong

 “The Language of Trees Project”, explores the local topography and landscape to gather found plant material to employ into pigments, inks, and paints to create work unique to this area and further afield.

I first became focused on this issue in early 2023 when many dead Ash Trees appeared; removing a beloved old tree and seeing the damage done under the bark shocked me. While walking in the local woods stripped of Ash trees; it reminded me of both Dutch Elm Disease, which decimated the Elm across the world, and the Chestnut losses across the USA. Ash Borer’s invasion caused Ash Trees to die, killing approximately 8 million trees. Also, in 2023, a spongy moth caterpillar defoliated all the trees in the local tri-state area. In 2015, the Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) loss from Hemlock Woolly Adelgid decimated 90%of the forests in the Northeast as well as the Southern Pine beetle working its way North, devasting protected Pines in Long Island Suffolk County in 2022. Currently, the Spotted Lantern Fly is making its way North from NYC. This attractive fly seen by arborists in 2023, attacks orchard trees, vineyards, and many other forest trees. No spray or insect can yet eradicate that fly.

The Chestnut, the Elm, the Hemlock, the Pine, the Oak, and, most recently, the Ash; their loss of acorns, nuts, and forage foods for local fauna breaks a link in the local ecology, each of those trees anchored natural ecosystems, and human economies and cultures. And while climate change and wildfires grab the headlines, invasive species have proved to be a far greater threat to forest biodiversity in the temperate world.