Baseball and Climate Change?

The most common major league baseball bat comes from the white ash tree, but that may soon be a thing of the past. The number of ash trees in the U.S. is significantly decreasing mostly because of the winged beetle, the ash borer. This invasive specie comes from Asia and arrived in the United States in the 1990s most likely in wood products. In 2002 scientists found evidence in Michigan that the beetle was responsible for mush of the sufferings of the tree. As well, some scientists believe that a warmer climate may put more stress on the ash, therefore aiding in the borer’s invasion.  A warmer climate may be resulting in a quicker reproductive cycle of the beetle and a more rapid disappearance of the tree. Climate change may also be affecting the ash in the bat, in that the normally dense and flexibly bat might be turning softer because of a longer growing season. Like many other trees in the United States, the ash tree is threatened by habitat changes in part by a warming climate. It seems that maple bats may be the only option in the near future. “We’re watching all this very closely,” said Brian Boltz, the general manager of the Larimer & Norton company, whose Russell mill each day saws, grades and dries scores of billets destined to become Louisville Slugger bats. “Maybe it means more maple bats. Or it may be a matter of using a different species for our bats altogether.” Already, a bat factory in northwestern Pennsylvania has come up with a three to five year plan if the white ash tree disappears, and a plant in Michigan has begun collecting the seeds of ash trees for storage in case the tree is completely wiped out. Many experts think that the extinction of the ash tree is now inevitable.  In the end, baseball players may have fewer kinds of bats to choose from, and it won’t be made of ash.

the becoming rare ash wood being used to make baseball bats

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/us/11ashbat.html?pagewanted=1