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Course Description

Summary

The ash trees on campus are dying from an introduced beetle. Ash trees make up about 8% of Vermont’s forests and their foliage contributes to our iconic fall colors. They are culturally important trees with deep connections to art from Indigenous basket making to Beyonce’s Louisville slugger in Lemonade. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) beetle arrived in North America in Michigan in 2002; it was first confirmed on the Bennington campus in late 2024. The mortality rate of EAB-infested ash trees is 99.97%. This pop-up class celebrates ash trees, mourns the arrival of EAB, and explores the ash's human and non-human relationships in the northern forest. We will consider EAB in the context of other “invasive” forest pests and pathogens, study the ecological and cultural impacts of losing ash trees from our local forests, and reflect on how science and art mark this loss. We will learn from science faculty and Buildings & Grounds at Bennington about our local ash and ash borer ecology, then the course will shift to a seminar series of professional entomologists, foresters, ecologists, and artists who will visit campus to share their knowledge and expertise with us. Together, we will bear witness to this loss and contend with the question of what it means to say goodbye to a tree.