Woodland Mystery

There is a small wooded area near our house where I like to take the kids for walks. This week we noticed some rather mysterious happenings in our little forest. Follow the clues with us and see if you come to the same conclusions.

Clue #1 First we have some of the trees painted with orange dots near the base of the tree. Perhaps it is some graffiti, although why anyone wants to paint one orange dot at the base of some of the trees is odd.

Clue #2 Then we have a log that has been burnt. Explaining this was easier, the wood is located next to two high schools, I'm sure that the students might occasionally build a small fire in the woods. Except the ground around the log was not burnt at all...hmm.

There were lots of burnt logs in the forest. A fire by high school students could be explained by one log, but many logs all through the forest? Again, there is no trace of the fire on the ground, and only the bark has been burnt off.

Clue #3 Another tree with the orange dot on the bottom. Notice the odd angle of the trunk, it has a slight lean to it.

Clue #4 More graffiti. This is on the trunk of the leaning tree.

Clue #5 Many of the trees in the forest have been cut down with chainsaws. This trunk has been eaten through by an insect infestation.

Clue #6 Here's a freshly felled tree. They've stripped of the bark but haven't had a chance to burn it yet.

You can see the damage caused by the insects just underneath the bark.

We figure that the forest has been infected by either the Emerald Ash Borer or the Asian Longhorn Beetle. The parks and forestry department must be cutting down and burning the trees in an attempt to contain the insects. I had my suspicions in March when so many trees seemed to be damaged. The orange dots mark the infected trees. The "BTU" probably means that they will burn that tree. We still haven't figured out how they burn the trees without catching the rest of the forest on fire.