Leora Armstrong

The Language of Trees Project

The Language of Trees explores the local topography and landscape through the collection of found plant material, which is then transformed into pigments, inks, and paints. By grounding materials in their specific sites of origin, the project builds a visual and material “language of place,” one that reflects both the ecological character and the environmental stresses of the region.

My focus on this issue began in early 2022, when the sudden appearance of numerous dead Ash trees—and the removal of a beloved old specimen—brought the devastation of the Emerald Ash Borer into sharp relief. Peeling back the bark to see the damage left behind was shocking, and walking through woodlands stripped of Ash trees evoked memories of earlier ecological losses: Dutch Elm Disease, which decimated Elms worldwide, and the American Chestnut blight, which transformed forests across the United States.

The scale of these losses is sobering. The Emerald Ash Borer alone has killed an estimated 8 million Ash trees. In 2023, spongy moth caterpillars defoliated vast expanses of trees across the tri-state region. The Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), once dominant in the Northeast, has been reduced by approximately 90% due to the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. Similarly, the Southern Pine Beetle has advanced northward, devastating protected pines in Long Island’s Suffolk County as recently as 2022. Most recently, the Spotted Lanternfly—first detected by arborists in 2023—is spreading northward from New York City, threatening vineyards, orchards, and a wide range of forest species, with no effective eradication method currently available.

The cumulative effect of these invasions is profound. The Chestnut, Elm, Hemlock, Pine, Oak, and now the Ash have each served as ecological anchors, providing acorns, nuts, and forage for countless species. Their decline represents not only a disruption of local ecosystems but also the erosion of cultural and economic relationships rooted in these trees. While climate change and wildfires dominate public discourse, invasive species now represent an equally urgent—and in temperate regions, perhaps even greater—threat to forest biodiversity.