‘MORE THAN JUST A TREE’

A deadly insect threatens New England’s ash trees and a centuries-old Native American tradition— the weaving of beautiful ash baskets.

BY SARA ANNE DONNELLY

IT’S A PARTICULARLY BUGGY JUNE MORNING IN THE WOODS NORTH OF CARIBOU as Eldon Hanning, Maine’s most prolific ash harvester, stomps through the dense brush looking as though he got lost on the way to the biker bar. Over the multiple layers of DEET he’s doused himself with, Hanning wards off the blackflies with a fraying gray flannel ripped wide over one elbow, faded black jeans, and a black cowboy hat pressed low over his wiry salt-