EAB news and info

[Dan F]

This was a message passed on by a forester at a state nursery, so it's geared towards Indiana folks, but still thought I'd pass it along.


Dan
---------------------
Subject: Follow up to EAB in St. Joseph, MI


Everyone,

You can find some additional information on the Michigan Dept. Ag.
Emerald
Ash Borer webpage. The newsrelease is listed on the webpage (look
under
news release). Go to http://www.michigan.gov/mda/ and select Emerald
Ash
Borer.

You will also see that MDA has started the process to declare EAB a
public
nuisance and have public meetings scheduled from now until the end of
the
month on this declaration. Once EAB is declared a public nuisance, MDA
has
the proper authority to take action against EAB.

The location of EAB in St. Joseph, MI is 22 miles due north of the
state
line. This location is closer to Indiana than the other locations near
Tipton, MI which is 40 miles NE of the NE corner of Indiana.

Hicksville, OH is the closest problem. The Winchester, IN site is not
considered an infestation at this time because live life stages and
additional infested trees have not been detected.

The best way to help detect and manage EAB in Indiana is the use of
your
eyes while you shop and eat. It appears that new restaurents, strip
malls,
and retail business such as Home Depot, Lowe, Wall Mart etc. use ash
trees
to landscape. This has helped to spread EAB in Michigan and to Ohio
and
Maryland. So, check the trees for the D shaped exit hole. Remember
the
ash
borer creates an oval hole that you may think is EAB. So look
carefully.

 

[Dan F]

Jan. 13, 2004. 01:00 AM <http://www.thestar.com/images/star/nav/spacer_487.gif>



Anti-beetle chainsaws go into high gear
Crews added to cut up to 10,000 trees

Forest pest set to re-emerge in late May

FRANK CALLEJA
STAFF REPORTER

The hunt to dig out the destructive Asian long-horned beetle is being stepped up to 10 teams, as crews continue to cut trees in the hot zone on the Toronto-Vaughan border before adult beetles emerge in late May.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is leading the seek-and-destroy mission. Spokesperson Howard Stanley said yesterday that four three-member crews are being added to the force that's cutting down potential larvae host trees.

"We've got a time restriction, so we've increased the number of crews," Stanley explained.

More than 800 trees have been removed in the 6-square-kilometre core area and secondary areas on the Vaughan-Toronto boundary. The total is expected to rise to 10,000 trees before operations move to four satellite areas later in the winter.

The core infestation area is roughly diamond-shaped, with Highway 407 to the north, Fenmar Dr. and Signet Dr. to the south, Islington and Steeles Aves. to the west and Steeles Ave. and Jane St. to the east.

Survey teams are hard at work identifying potential host trees and tagging them for removal, with trees being cut at the rate of 50 a day. The extra crews will double that rate.

Targeted species include all birches, maples and willows, plus elm, hackberry, horse chestnut, mountain ash, poplar, sycamore and the less-common silk tree (Albizia).

Nearly 200 hectares of urban forest have been surveyed for evidence of the beetle, which is 2 to 3.5 centimetres long, with distinctive long black-and-white antennae, bluish legs and white spots on a shiny black back.

"We've had instances of folks trying to haul away cut trees in the core infestation area, and we're asking the public to help us by not removing trees and calling us if they suspect infestation," Stanley said. "Public co-operation in this huge operation is vital if we want to protect our forests from this threat."

Yesterday, a crew removed several willows from the Toronto Star's Vaughan production plant in the Highway 407-Weston Rd. area, which is in a secondary zone 400 metres east of the core infestation area.

Information on the beetle and efforts to eradicate it is available on the agency's Web site at http://www.inspection.gc.ca.

 

[Dan F]

Virginia!

Nearly 200 ash trees to be destroyed to blunt beetle's spread

January 26, 2004, 5:48 PM

VIENNA, Va. (AP) -- Fairfax County and federal officials plan to destroy nearly 200 ash trees to prevent the spread of a beetle that has killed millions of trees in the Midwest.

Sixteen trees infested with the emerald ash borer were planted at the new Colvin Run Elementary school in Vienna. Those trees already have been incinerated.

Forestry experts who examined the trees found exit holes in the bark, a strong indication that adult beetles capable of reproducing escaped the immediate area.

A survey by forestry officials found 190 ash trees, including 30 privately owned trees, within a half-mile radius of the school. All will be destroyed.

Troy Shaw, coordinator of the forest pest program for Fairfax County, said he believes the infestation at the school is the first report of the beetle's presence in Virginia.

Ash trees constitute about 4 percent of Fairfax County's tree population and are popular with homeowners as ornamental trees.

The borer had previously been confined to Michigan and Ohio, but a nursery owner in southern Michigan last year violated a quarantine and shipped more than 100 trees to an unwitting nursery in Prince George's County, Md.

Sue DuPont, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, said the state is continuing its survey and eradication efforts.

Larvae of the tree-killing beetle live beneath the bark of ash trees, boring into its tissue until water and nutrients can no longer flow up into the branches and leaves. The first ash borers in Michigan were discovered in May 2002.

The bright green beetle, perhaps a third of an inch in length at adult stage, is native to Asia.

 

[Dan F]

For those interested in curent EAB research the following website link
is
appropriate:

http://www.emeraldashborer.info/Research.cfm

The below are titles of research listed on the above link:

Control of Emerald Ash Borer Adults and Larvae with Insecticides

Dispersal of Emerald Ash Borer: A Case Study at Tipton, Michigan

Emerald Ash Borer Adult Dispersal

Emerald Ash Borer Survival in Firewood

Evaluation of Perma Guard D-20 and Imidacloprid to Control Emerald Ash
Borer

Exploration for Emerald Ash Borer in China

Genetic Analysis of Emerald Ash Borer

Host Range of Emerald Ash Borer

Host Range and Host Preference of Emerald Ash Borer

Improving Survey Methodology for Emerald Ash Borer

Survival of Emerald Ash Borer in Chips


In General www.emeraldashborer.info
is a good site for basic info.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Arborist responds to EAB mania

The Readers' Forum in Jan TCI magazine has a letter form an arborist who raises issues with eradication of all ash trees in certain areas. It reminds me of the citrus scare in FLA, where healthy trees on private property were removed.

There was an important industry to protect w citrus, but not ash. The writer is correct in stating that treatment and control is the way to go, and the govt's assertion of eminent domain in the ash case is excessive. The reaction is like that of a forester in response to a forest fire; wholly inappropriate--one more way the arb industry is dragged down by forestry thinking.

 

[Dan F]

While I see your point, I would tend to argue that there is an industry based on ash. There is a huge industry in Louisville, KY, for instance, as major league baseball relies heavily on ash! There is also a lot of wood flooring made from ash too...

The problem as I can see it is no one is for sure what control measures will work, short of total eradication. As far spread as this beetle is, removal of all infected trees is the only route I think should happen at this point. However, I would leave the door open for treatment of uninfected trees in the future once the bug is more under control than it currently is. The problem is new enough (to the US and Canada, anyway), that we are unsure what chemicals such as Merit will do to the beetle. The beetle was thoroughly researched back in the 1960's in China, but then, wouldn't you know it, they decided to have the Cultural Revolution and all that info was lost! The man that did the research is now very elderly, and we all know how memory fades.

So, for now, I agree with the eradication plan as it stands. Am I happy about the number of trees being lost? Absolutely not. Do I see any other alternative? I'm not smart enough on the subject to say yes. The ALB is nearly wiped out in Chicago, and could be in New York, by a similar plan, so why won't this current plan for the EAB work too? It may be a little more difficult than the plan for the ALB, due to increased distance capabilities of the EAB, but I'd much rather lose a couple of million trees versus ALL of them!

BTW, I haven't seen the TCI article in question, so I can't comment directly on that........

However, Guy, can you elaborate a little more on this statement?

The reaction is like that of a forester in response to a forest fire

I guess I'm not familiar with what you are referring to here. I've been around wildland firefighters on many occasions, I've even been red-carded myself (though I've never been involved with a large scale suppression effort), and I don't understand what you mean by this....

Dan

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Dan F
I don't understand what you mean by this....

What I mean is that pest control can be a comprehensive, IPM/PHC approach or a scorched-earth approach a la foresters fighting fires. Folks close to EAB in MI observe that the Marshall's Seedless are dropping in a hurry, while natives show some resistance. So how can it be right to whack all the natives, given the paucity of info on this pest?

I'm not qualified to comment in detail, but the letter-writer to TCI mag sounds like he is. When you read that write back. Meantime, know that my vantage point is that of a 3-time govt employee who's learned not to trust the govt. NO offense meant to U folks; some of my best friends...

 

[Dan F]

I don't get TCI (yet, I need to sign up for it), so do you have a link, or can you scan it and post it here for all to read?


Dan

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

The EAB can not be contained. It's very likely already here in Wisconsin, as well as other places.

Treatment will be similar to DED, chemical treatments to high value trees (Bidrin, Imidicloprid), and remove others as they die.

Areas where the insect moves in are overcome with a secondary pest, Startupus Treeserviceii. This disease is easily idetified by the presence of rusty 1/2 ton pickup trucks and workers with no safety gear or insurance.

Inventory your forests and make sure you do not have heavy Ash populations. If so, take corrective actions now, don't wait for complete devistation.

Do not plant Ash trees!

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Mike Maas
The EAB can not be contained.
So Mike do you think the eradication effort will not work, and the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ designated to it go to other means of control instead of to Startupus treeserviceii?
Do not plant Ash trees!

I have ~100 in my nursery and live in NC. Do you mean me?
Does anyone know about resistance?

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Originally posted by Guy Meilleur
I have ~100 in my nursery and live in NC. Do you mean me?

If you are asking about the ethics of selling your Ash, I would say if you sell what you have and do not plant more, it would be reasonable.
I see this pest as very similar to DED, only we are at the start of the epidemic. It may be several years before it's in N.C., but that will be the time your nursery trees are just getting to be nice big trees. I would only plant Ash if I were outside the native range of Ash, where an outbreak would be unlikely to occour.

The adults are flying insects, borer damage takes years to show up, larvae and eggs can be moved in firewood, there are already a few outbreaks outside the "hotzone" which has continued to grow exponentially, the logistics of containing this insect are impossible.

The next few years will tell for sure.

 

[DadF]

Don't feel too bad Guy, Because of our screwed up procurement system here at Purdue it takes us 3 years from the time we want trees to line out in our nursery to when we get them. Since we were about out of any kind of ash trees in the nursery a few years back guess what most of our planting order consisted of last year?? YUP Empire ash, Autumn Applause, Cimmeron, and a couple of others. We don't expect to plant any of them on campus (most of them were >1") but haven't given up on them either. Hopefully by the time they are ready to transplant on campus there will be something other than eradication that we can do with them .

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The thing that suprised me at the seminar was that 1 inch trees are viable hosts for the a complete life cycle.

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Dan F
I don't get TCI (yet, I need to sign up for it

Dan have you read it yet?

 

[Dan F]

Not yet, is it online anywhere?


Dan (as I'm getting ready to post another news article)

 

[Dan F]

Published February 01, 2004
Delta Twp. stands to lose 13,000 ash trees
Removal needed to stop spread of Asian beetle

By Sally Trout
Lansing State Journal

DELTA TWP. - Crews expected to find at least 1,000 trees infested with the
emerald ash borer in the half-mile spot they surveyed near Saginaw Highway
and Interstate 96.

They didn't expect to find 13,000.

But that's how many are now marked for destruction as part of the state's
efforts to stop the devastating Asian beetle. The good news is that most
of the 13,000 ash trees are 1 to 10 inches around and located in woodlots,
said James McRay, a Michigan Department of Agriculture spokesman. About 500 of the trees are considered mature.

The crews will move next week to a half-mile site near Potterville at
Lansing Road and Interstate 69, the second Eaton County infestation
site among 12 the state has targeted.

"We expect there will be even more ash trees in the Potterville area,
but almost all are in woodlots and not many are expected to be larger
trees," McRay said.

No trees will be cut in either area until the department holds an informational meeting this month for affected property owners.

The state will pay for the trees to be cut, chipped, ground up and taken
to a Flint plant that will burn them to make electricity.

The ash borer has killed more than 5 million ash trees in southeast Michigan
with small outbreaks in mid-Michigan, Ohio, Maryland and Windsor, Canada.

Eggs laid in ash tree bark become larvae that burrow between the bark
and wood, eating the sap and interrupting the flow of food, which
eventually kills the tree.

James Gherondas lives about two miles from the Delta Township cutting zone
and wonders if his six mature trees will be next.

"I worry this tree cutting is just a stopgap measure that will not stamp
out the beetle's progress," he said. "My trees could be next."

Contact Sally Trout at 377-1040 or [email protected].

 

[Guy Meilleur]

Originally posted by Dan F
Published February 01, 2004
Crews expected to find at least 1,000 trees infested They didn't expect to find 13,000. But that's how many are now marked for destruction

This reporter seems to be twisting the facts and falling for the govt line that the only good ash is a dead ash. NO way do they know all 13, 000 are infested; it's a genocidal campaign doomed to failure. That's bad enough; seeing the media as pawns distorting facts is really ugly.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Guy, what would your plan include?

 

[DadF]

That's what I'm wondering also-it's easy to critisize.........

 

[Dan F]

Guy-
Since you disagree on the total eradication techniques that are being employed for the EAB, you must also disagree on what was/has been done with the ALB in Chicago and New York... What would you change about those strategies also?

Granted they are now using chemical treatments to help control the ALB, but they didn't at first, I'm sure. Hopefully someone in the chemical industry will come up with a systemic that will work on the EAB. But until then, I really don't see an alternative to what is being done currently...


Dan