Joe Aliff's informal museum of tree disease: an assemblage of trunks, cross-sections, stumps, and branches collected over the past twenty years on his property

"Joe Aliff's observations of symptoms of forest decline over a twenty-year period provided some of the impetus for the formation of the Lucy Braun Association for the Mixed Mesophytic Forest, and the Appalachian Forest Action Project, a multi-year, multi-state effort to measure increasing mortality rates throughout the mixed mesophytic forest.
Joe Aliff writes, "These examples of 'the dying of the trees' were gathered and brought to this location to accommodate the physically impaired who had expressed a desire to see what was happening on the mountains."
"The rock in the left foreground was used by Native Americans and is a very large example of what is commonly called a 'nutting stone.' Behind the stone and from the left are a 'Yellow Locust,' 'Yellow Poplar,' 'White Oak,' and 'Shagbark Hickory.' Laying on the porch landing is the remains of a diseased 'American Basswood' that snapped off at ground level (while still green) and killed a passing motorist from Rock Creek. The large example of tree bark is from a 'Yellow Locust' -- a tree whose very existence was denied by scientists and foresters alike, but through much persistence by Joe, the tree has now been accepted as a 'missed' species. To the right of the porch landing are three examples of diseased 'Northern Red Oaks' that clearly show the deformity and root rot that causes the trees to die and, sometimes, to topple down while still green. Sitting atop the last 'Red Oak' specimen is a cross section from an 87 year old, 3 ft. diameter specimen of the newly accepted 'Yellow Locust.'"