A collaborative project making artwork about regional extinction to build relationships between communities and forests in public libraries.

Public libraries are interconnected, a community services system that meets a multitude of needs at the local, regional, and national level. One could think of libraries as an ecosystem, as mycorrhizal, connected by unseen networks that function like a forest.

Each individual library is like a tree.  Each of these trees archives its surrounding environment and shares in an ongoing exchange of vital, life giving services for its community. 

The lines on this map are roads that connect public library locations in our region. Spaces between the lines reveal geographical features, like the Hudson River, which can be tracked up the middle-right side of the map, or the Catskills, where mountains leave huge gaps between gathering places on the upper left.

In 2009, the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a beetle native to Northeast Asia, was first detected in Ulster County, New York. Since that time, it has decimated 99% of the ash population in parts of our region, wiping out 7% of the existing hardwood forests. A New York State regulation prohibits the movement of ash wood over 50 miles from where it was felled to prevent the spread of EAB. 

At the center of our map is a small forested plot in Accord, NY.  It was here that we first took notice of this unfolding tragedy, and began tracking, through daily observations in a familiar and loved forest, what is likely unfolding into a functional extinction of the Fraxinus genus.  Our map extends 50 miles around the starting point in Accord, reaching into five states, 17 counties, 9 library systems, and 135 public libraries.

During the Summer of 2024 we traveled many of these roads, visiting the libraries on this map and observing varying stages of the infestation and ash decline.  Our hope is to work with some of these libraries to produce and even celebrate objects made from the precious remains of this fallen forest. In each location, a relationship with ash can be forged by way of local history, character of the community, or perhaps some novel preoccupation. Our work makes palpable connections to a very present extinction event that is happening in our region, in our communities, around our homes, and in this moment.