If Dr. Seuss’s Lorax who “speaks for the trees,” could visit Camp Chautauqua, he would be sad because so many of the trees there are dying.

Like so many areas of Chautauqua County, the trees of Camp Chautauqua have been devastated by the emerald ash borer.

“It’s bad,” said camp co-owner Matt Anderson. “We had a lot of ash trees and now there are almost none.”

When the emerald ash borer was first recognized at Camp Chautauqua, a woman who works with the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy came and hung purple traps throughout the trees, but it did not stop the onslaught, Anderson said.

“We had a tree guy come out a year ago who said he could treat the trees, but his price was way too much for us,” Anderson said.

Throughout the camp, there are small signs near dying trees, which say “Help Replace our Trees Lost to Invasive Species.” The signs include a QR scan code for those who wish to donate.

“Those signs were put here by Chautauqua County,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the camp spends approximately $2,500 a year, replacing 20 to 25 trees.

“The problem with replacing the trees is that there is no guarantee they are going to grow,” he said. “That’s the hard thing we have to deal with in planting the new trees.”

Anderson said that he has been told there are also different types of invasive species that are affecting pines and maple trees. A walk through the camp quickly confirms this, as many evergreens are dying and many deciduous trees are covered with leaf galls. Leaf galls are growths in plant tissue that are caused by mites or insects feeding on the leaves.

According to the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy, the county, as well as all of Western New York, has been hard hit by the emerald ash borer, and by other invasive species, such as the hemlock wooly adelgid beetle and beech leaf disease. ‘The need to plant and replace these infected trees with healthy, new native ones has never been greater,’ according to the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy.

Anderson said this problem, along with rapidly shifting weather patterns caused by climate change has put a great stress on the camp.

“It’s hard, as a small business, to keep ahead of global warming,” he said.