Fender will no longer use ash bodies for production-line guitars

I also posted the link to this article in the AMT global warming thread but thought it would get some interest here in the Gearheads thread as it relates to the quality (or potential degrading of quality) on Fender instruments. This is not an encouraging change and does not bode well for Fender guitars and the affordability of the ash guitars will remain in production.
"Don't give in to the lies. Don't give in to the fear. Hold on to the truth. And to hope."
-Jim Acosta
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it sounds like they are looking at different types of ash that would be heavier and needing to be chambered. this could be interesting. can you imagine a 12 pound tele? would be like playing a 70s les paul, lol.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Yeah, it's a shame these woods are getting scarce. If I were younger and an arborist I would be looking into places and ways to put in some healthy ash and alders. I just can't imagine a tele made out of pine- it's such a weak type of wood.
Baseball bats were always made of Ash up until a few years ago when the trees stocks were decimated.
Find a way to abolish the invasive Beetle and you can have your ash trees back.
A few years ago there was a cork shortage too and many wine companies went to twist off caps and synthetic corks.
A different species of beetles is causing much tree death out here in the west as well, especially on some species of pine and cedars. The question is, are beetles the problem, or are they a symptom of much larger problems? I would venture to guess the latter and that those problems include climate change, loss of diversity of species, and human intrusion on habitat. As long as humans continue to skew the balances in nature, and as long as we continue to focus on eradication rather than restoring natural balances, these kinds of problems will continue. I'm a bit cynical about all this. I don't think humans are going to do what is necessary to restore those balances. I think nature will do that by eradication the source of the problems.
As far as climate change? I absolutely agree that it doesn't help.
Not surprised. So many invasive species travel around the world these days. The south has it's kudzu to deal with. Here in California we have water hyacinth and zebra mussels choking waterways. Many areas around the U.S. with invasive beetles in trees. Pretty much all those kinds of problems are attributable to human activity and humans messing with nature.