Professor, Staff, Undergrad Collaborate on Photo Exhibit Documenting Forests Being Decimated by Beetle
A lush ash forest stands at the confluence of the Nanticoke River and Marshyhope Creek on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Already, however, the trees are being injured by the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle.
Image Credit: Yazan Aboushi
At first glance, it’s a simple photograph of a man resting: Andrew Baldwin stands at the water’s edge surrounded by tall, bare trees and spindly undergrowth that bursts with spring-green leaves. He leans in his brown muck boot suspenders against a thick tree trunk.
But linger over the photo and notice that Baldwin appears weighed down in thought, his expression troubled, his hand tense and crimped by his side. The fleeting moment captures a scientist coming to grips with the destruction of a unique and wild forest.
The image of Baldwin, a wetland ecologist with the University of Maryland’s Department of Environmental Science and Technology (ENST), is featured in an exhibition at nearby Joe’s Movement Emporium that aims to raise awareness of the beauty and fragility of tidal ash forests—wild, inaccessible wetland ecosystems that are being destroyed by a tiny invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer.
“The Ash Forest Project” is the co-creation of photographer Leslie Brice, who is assistant director of UMD’s National Scholarships Office, and science journalist Gabriel Popkin. To capture drone imagery for the exhibit, the team worked with ENST major Yazan Aboushi ’22, a licensed drone pilot who has won awards for his environmental documentaries.
