Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Very recent; Jan I believe
EAB news and info
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DadF
ArboristSite Operative
Guy- I found the TCI article and have read it. I've got a few comments about it.
Chris says basically that the cost outlay doesn't justify the eradication because he doesn't think that the EAB can be contained because of the foothold it already has. His last paragraph kind of sums it up and says that we should just roll over and play dead, then help the few remaining brothers to the few remaining elms.
Sorry but I don't go along with that line. We have no idea how long the Asian longhorned beetle was in country either, but by taking the drastic steps that we did we have managed to greatly curtail its' foothold. AND it was definately using more than one species as a host. Researchers are coming up with more ways of controlling ALB that have apparently been used with some success in recent times but imagine what the ALB would have done if we had rolled over and played dead when it was first identified hoping and waiting for the chemical and biological controls that are now being started.
I don't relish the thought of having to remove all of the ash trees from our campus or the woods in the back of my house but I also believe in being a good neighbor, no matter if it means next door, next county or next state. I would not want my problem to become someone else's problem.
Maybe it's my military and fire service background showing through but if there is a fire then you do everything you can with what you have on hand to put the fire out. Maybe not the best analogy but it's how I'm looking at it. Until scientific research can come up with a more effective method for dealing with EAB then the only PROVEN method at this point is eradication of host species that are in danger. Again look at how ALB was dealt with and tell me that it could have been contained any other way knowing what was known then and with the hindsight that we have now??
I'll copy this article and send it to Dan. I'm sure that he will have something to add when he has time.
Chris says basically that the cost outlay doesn't justify the eradication because he doesn't think that the EAB can be contained because of the foothold it already has. His last paragraph kind of sums it up and says that we should just roll over and play dead, then help the few remaining brothers to the few remaining elms.
Sorry but I don't go along with that line. We have no idea how long the Asian longhorned beetle was in country either, but by taking the drastic steps that we did we have managed to greatly curtail its' foothold. AND it was definately using more than one species as a host. Researchers are coming up with more ways of controlling ALB that have apparently been used with some success in recent times but imagine what the ALB would have done if we had rolled over and played dead when it was first identified hoping and waiting for the chemical and biological controls that are now being started.
I don't relish the thought of having to remove all of the ash trees from our campus or the woods in the back of my house but I also believe in being a good neighbor, no matter if it means next door, next county or next state. I would not want my problem to become someone else's problem.
Maybe it's my military and fire service background showing through but if there is a fire then you do everything you can with what you have on hand to put the fire out. Maybe not the best analogy but it's how I'm looking at it. Until scientific research can come up with a more effective method for dealing with EAB then the only PROVEN method at this point is eradication of host species that are in danger. Again look at how ALB was dealt with and tell me that it could have been contained any other way knowing what was known then and with the hindsight that we have now??
I'll copy this article and send it to Dan. I'm sure that he will have something to add when he has time.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
DadF, I'm just wondering if there is already some scientific evidence of effective control. There are chemicals adverised in Arborist News that are said to control EAB--if they didn't, they couldn't be advertised as such, right? How much research has to be done by whom before a comprehensive approach to control is considered?
Our viewpoints no doubt differ because our backgrounds do; I've been handson involved with tree care all my working life, and steered as far from the military as I could. I worked for governmental bureaucracies and learned to distrust their approaches to most problems as tending toward blindness and extremism, typified by some of the quotes in the articles Dan has so kindly taken the time to post.
I want to be a good neighbor too, but if I owned ashes in the zone I would sure try to make a case for intensive control and close monitoring rather than removal. Eradication may slow the spread but it's doubtful it can stop it, and at such a huge cost!
DadF
ArboristSite Operative
No comment on how ALB was handled?? That's only recent case that can be used as a model as far as I'm concerned.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
No comment due to lack of familiarity, sorry. I'm more familiar with citrus canker in FL. And DED--imagine if elm eradication was ordered when that hit! Eradication sure would have crashed the numbers of the elm beetle vector, and done away with the rootgraft problem!
My main comments on EAB are that we hear little about natural predators(Chinese politics aside, there must be something to try), or the efficacy of chemical controls. News reports are skewed toward the forest-fire approach.
So my difficulty from my distant vantage point is more with how it's covered. I'm not condemning the eradication approach; I just want to know more about the alternatives.
DadF
ArboristSite Operative
I would imagine that any alternatives are still in research and that those won't be made available until fully tested. It's been how long since ALB was positively identified-3or4 years and scientifically sound chemical and biological alternatives are just now hitting the market. EAB wasn't positively identified until mid '02 if I remember right. It takes time for testing and until that is done the forest fire approach IS the only sure way.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
So the only way to save some of the trees in IN is to kill the ones in MI. We definitely differ on what constitutes scientific soundness, but that's a whole other story, one that doesn't lend itself to resolution online. Back to the chipper truck thread; they'll need lots more of those now.
DadF
ArboristSite Operative
I never said that I was jumping with joy about the whole need for eradication either
Kneejerk Bombas
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My impression is that the EAB is a flat headed borer, as such there are many chemical controls that are labeled and have been in use for years. Anybody who has treated borers knows what a difficult and expensive task it is, as well as how strong (hot) the chemicals are.
Merit (imidacloprid) has to be the most commonly thought of treatment, ever buy this stuff? It ain't cheap.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Mike you're right, but how cheap is the removal and replacement of canopy-sized ash trees?
John Paul Sanborn
Above average climber
From what I've read/ heard if EAB gets into your area you will have to do preventative treatments.
Bidren or metasystox to knock them down and then merit every 2 years for preventative care.
From what the people from MI said at the WAA convention. If EAB is active two years in the tree, it is toast.
Bidren or metasystox to knock them down and then merit every 2 years for preventative care.
From what the people from MI said at the WAA convention. If EAB is active two years in the tree, it is toast.
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
In the February issue of TCI is an article on the results of testing chemical treatments. Is that enough to stop the forest fire? Or are so many people fanning the flames it can't go out yet?
Dan F
ArboristSite Operative
Interesting point of view
Found this article to be interesting, even if it did contain facts I've probably posted numerous times.
Dan
------------------------------------
The shape of things to come?
SHAWN JEFFORD, Special to The Free Press
2004-02-21 03:29:28
WESTLAND, MICH. -- Tucked away in a sleepy Detroit suburb, battle scars of a 10-year turf war line the streets in what could be a horrifying glimpse into London's future. Westland, a city of 87,000 northwest of Detroit, is Ground Zero in the battle against the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle that threatens to wipe out North America's ash trees.
On this day, a blue SUV glides slowly along Westland's long, winding streets. The driver, Tom Wilson, Westland's director of public services, waves back to a few school kids walking home and slows to let them cross the road.
He turns a corner and we've abruptly come upon it -- the first of many treeless boulevards in the suburb.
The snow-covered ground punctuates the bitter loss. On a street that once had 96 ash trees, only two remain. Even they seem out of place, looking like they want to duck behind one of the homes to hide from the ash borer.
On a sunny summer day, the only thing left to provide shade are those few trees and Old Glory, proudly blowing in the wind from a half-dozen flagpoles in the subdivision.
Wilson stops the SUV and turns to face me.
"You're looking four years into the future of your city," he says.
Efforts to contain the emerald ash borer have failed, leaving officials and Westland residents scrambling to cut down scores of dead and dying trees.
The beetle -- which has a beach head in Essex County and threatens to move east -- has no natural predator, is immune to conventional pesticides and can't be removed from the trees because of its numbers during an infestation.
The only effective form of extermination is to cut down a diseased tree and grind it into bits, one inch by inch square.
Only a centimetre long, the borer has killed six million ash trees in Michigan and shows no signs of slowing.
***
In Ontario, federal officials have begun a massive ash-tree-chopping campaign in Chatham-Kent, hoping to create a 10-kilometre wide barrier to halt the bug's eastern advance.
More than 60,000 ash trees are to be axed, theoretically depriving the destructive bug of the food it prefers and needs to continue its eastward invasion.
If the bug moves east, the first big city in its path would be London, the Forest City, where ash makes up about six per cent of the tree population.
If London had to remove and replace its nearly 9,600 ash trees, a figure that doesn't include forested areas or the Thames River valley, the fallout could cost about $3 million, warns Bruce McGauley, the city's urban forester. The province has pledged $1 million to replace trees destroyed by the ash borer in this area and the Asian long-horned beetle in Toronto.
***
In Westland, Wilson, the city's director of public services, spends a lot of time these days picking up the pieces left in the wake of the ash borer.
He tours the city streets once a week to make sure the dying ash trees that pose the biggest threats to safety are removed before they can hurt anyone and potentially cost the city millions in a lawsuit.
He knows eventually the city's remaining 3,217 ash trees will have to be cut down.
But with a limited public works budget -- items such as tree trimming and snow removal have been cut back or eliminated -- only the most pressing cases are dealt with.
It's an ongoing battle, he concedes -- one being lost.
"We always take out the most dangerous trees first," he says. "When they finally drop to the road they just explode."
"They're widow makers," Brian Sullivan, a plant protection and quarantine officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), says of the falling trees.
He takes me to a woodlot infested with the borer and shows me the distinct "tag" left after the insect has killed its prey -- a maze of vein-like trails burrowed into the tree, that grabs it by the heart and squeezes the life out of it.
***
Just how the tiny beetle made it to North America is shrouded in mystery. Scientists only confirmed its true identity in 2002. The theory is that almost eight years ago a few of the hardy insects hitched a trans-Atlantic ride in a packing crate to an auto parts plant in Westland.
The borer apparently crept out of the crate, liked what it saw and over the next decade proceeded to kill almost every tree in the city.
***
The next stop with Sullivan is a marshalling yard in Westland, one of six sites where the ash wood is collected and chopped in an effort to slow the spread of the borer. Sullivan bends down and looks at a log ready to be chopped. He gathers something in his hand and motions for me to hold out mine. He puts three ash borer larvae in my hand. The white, grub-looking worms lie motionless in my hands.
"I can't let you take those back to Canada," he says. "Come springtime, they'll be ready to eat."
***
The marshalling yard -- financed by the federal, state and civic governments -- is a sign of just how serious the ash borer crisis has become. Lot foreperson Derek Hawkins is in charge of making sure the tonnes of wood delivered are properly disposed of, but he's also on the front line in the fight to protect the citizens of Michigan from themselves. He says despite the risk the beetle poses to northern Michigan's beautiful forests, cottagers eager for cheap firewood still try to scavenge in the lot.
"I've had a guy offer me $800 to let him fill up his truck with firewood," says Hawkins, shaking his head. "I just tell people like that you can do time if you get caught moving this stuff. It's just not worth it. This bug is so smart, it'll find a way to spread if we don't stop it."
***
There isn't much room to fool around, says James Zablotney, an entomologist with the USDA. The emerald ash borer is a resilient species, he says, pointing to their Westland population explosion as proof.
"They have done exceptionally well in the eight or so years they've been here. They've ensured that the days of the big ash tree in this area are over."
The alarming thing is, the science is nowhere near catching up with the borer.
"As the problem becomes more well known and grant money becomes available they are going to become much more popular to study," Zablotney says.
The most revealing find Zablotney has come across is the bug's effect on the public.
"When you've got trees dying that have been in a family's backyard for years, you find they're much more fond of them than you think. There is a real emotional effect and that has been surprising."
Undoing the borer's damage will be long and painful, acknowledges Katie Armstrong of the USDA forest service.
Armstrong oversees a grant program that helps communities hit hard to re-establish tree-lined boulevards. The program awards up to $20,000 in matching funds to re-forest a city. Armstrong says the program has been well received but admits it won't be enough.
"There just isn't enough money to go around," she says.
***
Wilson is completely behind Levin's efforts to capture more recovery funds.
"If a hurricane blew through here and took down all of these trees, you can bet we'd have that money," he says. "But because they're all dying slowly, it's a different case."
Wilson will continue his sad, slow drives up and down Westland streets for years, cutting down ash trees. He offers a few words of advice to Londoners.
"No cost is too great. Spend whatever you have to, take whatever precautions you can to prevent the bug from spreading. I would spend every dime I could to not end up like Westland. It's money well spent."
BORER BY THE NUMBERS
Facts and figures about the destructive emerald ash borer:
1996:
Year borer is thought to have arrived in Westland, Mich., in Asian shipping crate.
28 million:
Number of ash trees infested in Michigan, with 70 million untouched.
6 million:
Number of ash trees cut and chopped up in Michigan to halt bug's spread.
$12 million:
Estimated cost of ash-tree-cutting program in Chatham-Kent to create a barrier against the borer's spread.
60,000:
Minimum number of ash trees being chopped down in the Chatham-Kent barrier.
1 to 2:
Length, in centimetres, the beetle grows.
0.5:
Distance, in miles, borer is known to fly from its hatching point, endangering every ash tree in the area.
MICHIGAN
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Found this article to be interesting, even if it did contain facts I've probably posted numerous times.
Dan
------------------------------------
The shape of things to come?
SHAWN JEFFORD, Special to The Free Press
2004-02-21 03:29:28
WESTLAND, MICH. -- Tucked away in a sleepy Detroit suburb, battle scars of a 10-year turf war line the streets in what could be a horrifying glimpse into London's future. Westland, a city of 87,000 northwest of Detroit, is Ground Zero in the battle against the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle that threatens to wipe out North America's ash trees.
On this day, a blue SUV glides slowly along Westland's long, winding streets. The driver, Tom Wilson, Westland's director of public services, waves back to a few school kids walking home and slows to let them cross the road.
He turns a corner and we've abruptly come upon it -- the first of many treeless boulevards in the suburb.
The snow-covered ground punctuates the bitter loss. On a street that once had 96 ash trees, only two remain. Even they seem out of place, looking like they want to duck behind one of the homes to hide from the ash borer.
On a sunny summer day, the only thing left to provide shade are those few trees and Old Glory, proudly blowing in the wind from a half-dozen flagpoles in the subdivision.
Wilson stops the SUV and turns to face me.
"You're looking four years into the future of your city," he says.
Efforts to contain the emerald ash borer have failed, leaving officials and Westland residents scrambling to cut down scores of dead and dying trees.
The beetle -- which has a beach head in Essex County and threatens to move east -- has no natural predator, is immune to conventional pesticides and can't be removed from the trees because of its numbers during an infestation.
The only effective form of extermination is to cut down a diseased tree and grind it into bits, one inch by inch square.
Only a centimetre long, the borer has killed six million ash trees in Michigan and shows no signs of slowing.
***
In Ontario, federal officials have begun a massive ash-tree-chopping campaign in Chatham-Kent, hoping to create a 10-kilometre wide barrier to halt the bug's eastern advance.
More than 60,000 ash trees are to be axed, theoretically depriving the destructive bug of the food it prefers and needs to continue its eastward invasion.
If the bug moves east, the first big city in its path would be London, the Forest City, where ash makes up about six per cent of the tree population.
If London had to remove and replace its nearly 9,600 ash trees, a figure that doesn't include forested areas or the Thames River valley, the fallout could cost about $3 million, warns Bruce McGauley, the city's urban forester. The province has pledged $1 million to replace trees destroyed by the ash borer in this area and the Asian long-horned beetle in Toronto.
***
In Westland, Wilson, the city's director of public services, spends a lot of time these days picking up the pieces left in the wake of the ash borer.
He tours the city streets once a week to make sure the dying ash trees that pose the biggest threats to safety are removed before they can hurt anyone and potentially cost the city millions in a lawsuit.
He knows eventually the city's remaining 3,217 ash trees will have to be cut down.
But with a limited public works budget -- items such as tree trimming and snow removal have been cut back or eliminated -- only the most pressing cases are dealt with.
It's an ongoing battle, he concedes -- one being lost.
"We always take out the most dangerous trees first," he says. "When they finally drop to the road they just explode."
"They're widow makers," Brian Sullivan, a plant protection and quarantine officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), says of the falling trees.
He takes me to a woodlot infested with the borer and shows me the distinct "tag" left after the insect has killed its prey -- a maze of vein-like trails burrowed into the tree, that grabs it by the heart and squeezes the life out of it.
***
Just how the tiny beetle made it to North America is shrouded in mystery. Scientists only confirmed its true identity in 2002. The theory is that almost eight years ago a few of the hardy insects hitched a trans-Atlantic ride in a packing crate to an auto parts plant in Westland.
The borer apparently crept out of the crate, liked what it saw and over the next decade proceeded to kill almost every tree in the city.
***
The next stop with Sullivan is a marshalling yard in Westland, one of six sites where the ash wood is collected and chopped in an effort to slow the spread of the borer. Sullivan bends down and looks at a log ready to be chopped. He gathers something in his hand and motions for me to hold out mine. He puts three ash borer larvae in my hand. The white, grub-looking worms lie motionless in my hands.
"I can't let you take those back to Canada," he says. "Come springtime, they'll be ready to eat."
***
The marshalling yard -- financed by the federal, state and civic governments -- is a sign of just how serious the ash borer crisis has become. Lot foreperson Derek Hawkins is in charge of making sure the tonnes of wood delivered are properly disposed of, but he's also on the front line in the fight to protect the citizens of Michigan from themselves. He says despite the risk the beetle poses to northern Michigan's beautiful forests, cottagers eager for cheap firewood still try to scavenge in the lot.
"I've had a guy offer me $800 to let him fill up his truck with firewood," says Hawkins, shaking his head. "I just tell people like that you can do time if you get caught moving this stuff. It's just not worth it. This bug is so smart, it'll find a way to spread if we don't stop it."
***
There isn't much room to fool around, says James Zablotney, an entomologist with the USDA. The emerald ash borer is a resilient species, he says, pointing to their Westland population explosion as proof.
"They have done exceptionally well in the eight or so years they've been here. They've ensured that the days of the big ash tree in this area are over."
The alarming thing is, the science is nowhere near catching up with the borer.
"As the problem becomes more well known and grant money becomes available they are going to become much more popular to study," Zablotney says.
The most revealing find Zablotney has come across is the bug's effect on the public.
"When you've got trees dying that have been in a family's backyard for years, you find they're much more fond of them than you think. There is a real emotional effect and that has been surprising."
Undoing the borer's damage will be long and painful, acknowledges Katie Armstrong of the USDA forest service.
Armstrong oversees a grant program that helps communities hit hard to re-establish tree-lined boulevards. The program awards up to $20,000 in matching funds to re-forest a city. Armstrong says the program has been well received but admits it won't be enough.
"There just isn't enough money to go around," she says.
***
Wilson is completely behind Levin's efforts to capture more recovery funds.
"If a hurricane blew through here and took down all of these trees, you can bet we'd have that money," he says. "But because they're all dying slowly, it's a different case."
Wilson will continue his sad, slow drives up and down Westland streets for years, cutting down ash trees. He offers a few words of advice to Londoners.
"No cost is too great. Spend whatever you have to, take whatever precautions you can to prevent the bug from spreading. I would spend every dime I could to not end up like Westland. It's money well spent."
BORER BY THE NUMBERS
Facts and figures about the destructive emerald ash borer:
1996:
Year borer is thought to have arrived in Westland, Mich., in Asian shipping crate.
28 million:
Number of ash trees infested in Michigan, with 70 million untouched.
6 million:
Number of ash trees cut and chopped up in Michigan to halt bug's spread.
$12 million:
Estimated cost of ash-tree-cutting program in Chatham-Kent to create a barrier against the borer's spread.
60,000:
Minimum number of ash trees being chopped down in the Chatham-Kent barrier.
1 to 2:
Length, in centimetres, the beetle grows.
0.5:
Distance, in miles, borer is known to fly from its hatching point, endangering every ash tree in the area.
MICHIGAN
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Re: Interesting point of view
Originally posted by Dan F
The beetle is immune to conventional pesticides
Dan, not everything in that article is "facts".
Yet more media mis(dis?)information.
The Michigan State University study in Feb TCI mag showed that conventional pesticides dependably kill this pest. Or am I misreading it??
DadF
ArboristSite Operative
Guy- I haven't had a chance to get the Jan ish of TCI down to Dan now it sounds like I might as well make it a little more worth the trip and take the Feb ish too. I haven't even read that yet. Besides that I think I hear my granddaughter calling for me :angel:
Dan F
ArboristSite Operative
As long as Grandpa is quiet while Mommy has a migraine, I wouldn't mind an extra set of hands right now. She's a handfull to say the least. I'll post a pic, to get off topic for a second. She's 10 months old and just tall enough to reach the edges of the keyboard while I'm at the computer....
I don't know when the reporter actually drove around with the guy, but it's possible that the ride-along was before that research was finalized and released.
Here's one of the little stinker and grandpa (DadF).
Back to the nasty bug.
Dan
She's a handfull to say the least. I'll post a pic, to get off topic for a second. She's 10 months old and just tall enough to reach the edges of the keyboard while I'm at the computer....I don't know when the reporter actually drove around with the guy, but it's possible that the ride-along was before that research was finalized and released.
Here's one of the little stinker and grandpa (DadF).
Back to the nasty bug.
Dan
Guy Meilleur
Addicted to ArboristSite
Little stinker has foot on grandpa's throat! Hope that's not a sign of things to come.
Dan F
ArboristSite Operative
For those that don't know it, the nasty bug is now in Indiana. It was found a while back, I just didn't get a chance to post the article before I deleted it from my inbox....
Now a couple more articles I've gotten recently. This one doesn't surprise me, I think I've voiced concern over a mere 1/2 mile radius before......
---------------------------------------------------
Sacrificial cull of ash trees all for naught
DEBORA VAN BRENK, Free Press Regional Reporter 2004-07-12 02:10:29
A $12-million project to sacrifice 100,000 healthy ash trees near Tilbury was an exercise in futility because a voracious bug has already spread beyond the zone's borders, say angry residents. Property owners were told the unprecedented federal program, which ended in April, would stop or slow the emerald ash borer's invasion of eastern Canada.
But now the insect has been found eating trees in four areas east of the ash-free zone.
"It was all for naught," said Miriam Ivison, who lives near Merlin. "I'm afraid the bug has won."
About 1,000 ash trees -- and, in error, several old walnut trees -- were cut from her and her father's properties.
She was one of several property owners who maintained the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was wrong to think felling ash trees in a 300-square-kilometre swath of land would halt the insects' progress.
"I'm angrier than I was before," Ivison said.
That's a sentiment a lot of people share, said Chatham-Kent Coun. Bryon Fluker, who represents residents around Tilbury.
"There are a lot of people in the (area) saying, 'I told you so.' "
The ash borer, believed to have hitchhiked to North America in wooden packing crates from Asia, has no known enemies.
The idea of the program was to starve the bugs to a halt by by creating an ash-free zone -- a sort of insect firebreak -- that eliminated their only food source.
Residents were told the good of the many in the rest of Canada outweighed the wishes of the few near Tilbury.
"I think they hoped the holding pattern would be more than a couple of months," Fluker said.
MP Jerry Pickard (Chatham-Kent-Essex -- L) has said the other two options -- do nothing, or use a pesticide that would cause more ecosystem harm than benefit -- were unacceptable.
"I believe if left unchecked, it would have moved into Chatham this season," Pickard said yesterday.
From there, it would have continued at a furious pace, "devastating not only millions but billions of trees in Eastern Canada."
He likened the strategy to removing healthy tissue around a cancer to to prevent the disease from spreading throughout a human body.
West of the zone, tens of thousands of trees in Essex County have withered and died because of the ash borer; millions of ashes have died in seven Michigan counties.
Pickard said if scientists were to make a good case to widen the ash-free zone, he would support that too.
"If we have to move beyond where we're at to control this insect, then we have a responsibility to try to do that."
It's an idea that sends shudders through area residents.
"I hope -- oh, I pray -- that they don't decide to create another 10 to 12-kilometre zone," Fluker said.
Meanwhile, federal money promised to residents to help them replant other tree species still hasn't made its way to residents.
Pickard hopes the process to ensure replanting can be completed by the end of this year and the money will flow after that.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Now a couple more articles I've gotten recently. This one doesn't surprise me, I think I've voiced concern over a mere 1/2 mile radius before......
---------------------------------------------------
Sacrificial cull of ash trees all for naught
DEBORA VAN BRENK, Free Press Regional Reporter 2004-07-12 02:10:29
A $12-million project to sacrifice 100,000 healthy ash trees near Tilbury was an exercise in futility because a voracious bug has already spread beyond the zone's borders, say angry residents. Property owners were told the unprecedented federal program, which ended in April, would stop or slow the emerald ash borer's invasion of eastern Canada.
But now the insect has been found eating trees in four areas east of the ash-free zone.
"It was all for naught," said Miriam Ivison, who lives near Merlin. "I'm afraid the bug has won."
About 1,000 ash trees -- and, in error, several old walnut trees -- were cut from her and her father's properties.
She was one of several property owners who maintained the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was wrong to think felling ash trees in a 300-square-kilometre swath of land would halt the insects' progress.
"I'm angrier than I was before," Ivison said.
That's a sentiment a lot of people share, said Chatham-Kent Coun. Bryon Fluker, who represents residents around Tilbury.
"There are a lot of people in the (area) saying, 'I told you so.' "
The ash borer, believed to have hitchhiked to North America in wooden packing crates from Asia, has no known enemies.
The idea of the program was to starve the bugs to a halt by by creating an ash-free zone -- a sort of insect firebreak -- that eliminated their only food source.
Residents were told the good of the many in the rest of Canada outweighed the wishes of the few near Tilbury.
"I think they hoped the holding pattern would be more than a couple of months," Fluker said.
MP Jerry Pickard (Chatham-Kent-Essex -- L) has said the other two options -- do nothing, or use a pesticide that would cause more ecosystem harm than benefit -- were unacceptable.
"I believe if left unchecked, it would have moved into Chatham this season," Pickard said yesterday.
From there, it would have continued at a furious pace, "devastating not only millions but billions of trees in Eastern Canada."
He likened the strategy to removing healthy tissue around a cancer to to prevent the disease from spreading throughout a human body.
West of the zone, tens of thousands of trees in Essex County have withered and died because of the ash borer; millions of ashes have died in seven Michigan counties.
Pickard said if scientists were to make a good case to widen the ash-free zone, he would support that too.
"If we have to move beyond where we're at to control this insect, then we have a responsibility to try to do that."
It's an idea that sends shudders through area residents.
"I hope -- oh, I pray -- that they don't decide to create another 10 to 12-kilometre zone," Fluker said.
Meanwhile, federal money promised to residents to help them replant other tree species still hasn't made its way to residents.
Pickard hopes the process to ensure replanting can be completed by the end of this year and the money will flow after that.
Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003
Dan F
ArboristSite Operative
PERSPECTIVE: Tree traps expected to be key to fighting ash pest
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Researchers are setting traps amid trees in northwest and central Ohio for a tiny beetle that has the potential to kill millions of ash trees in Ohio and do millions of dollars in damage throughout the Midwest.
Beginning this week and over the next two months, surveyors will examine the cluster of "trap trees" for the emerald ash borer. Researchers hope that what they find shows how far the beetles have spread and helps determine what the state must do next to try to stop them.
The extent of infiltration has been only a guess so far.
The ash pest was first discovered in the United States near Detroit in 2002 and then in northwest Ohio a year later.
"We'll be able to figure out what route this bug is taking south," said Lucia Hunt, who is leading a surveying team. "That's the big question we're trying to answer."
In recent weeks workers with the Ohio Department of Agriculture have been removing sections of bark from ash trees and coating them with a sticky substance that catches insects.
Damaging the trees should make them easier to infest and more attractive to the beetle.
Surveyors have been visually checking trees, but the signs of damage were easy to miss because the infestation starts at the top of the tree.
"By the time they get to where we can see them, it's too late," Hunt said. "This basically brings the bugs down to eye level."
Michigan also is setting tree traps. The ash pest has destroyed millions of trees in the Detroit area and surrounding counties.
Clues of an infestation are large, dead branches and a D-shaped hole on the tree trunk. But often those signs are not apparent until there is already enough damage to kill the tree.
Ohio has been trying to stop the pest by cutting down ash trees in a half-mile circle around infestation sites. The state also restricted the movement of ash trees, branches and firewood from sites where the beetle has been found and banned anyone from bringing ash trees into the state from Michigan.
State workers were finishing cutting down trees this spring when they were surprised by a new outbreak near Toledo Express Airport.
"That was a little bit frustrating," said Dan Herms, an entomologist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. "We were hoping to be able to tell people that they could relax.
"These infestations were there long before they were discovered," he said.
The tree traps should help determine whether infestations near the airport are part of a large outbreak or just a couple of clusters, said Melanie Wilt, a spokeswoman for Ohio's agriculture department.
"Undoubtedly it's out there in places we haven't pinpointed yet," she said.
___
On the Net:
Ohio Department of Agriculture: http://www.ohioagriculture.gov
U.S. Forest Service: http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/4501/eab/
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
All content © Copyright 2004, WorldNow and Dispatch Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.It is the policy of The Dispatch Broadcast Group to provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, disability, military status, citizenship or any other legally-protected status in accordance with applicable local, state and federal law. Jobs at ONN.
TOLEDO, Ohio -- Researchers are setting traps amid trees in northwest and central Ohio for a tiny beetle that has the potential to kill millions of ash trees in Ohio and do millions of dollars in damage throughout the Midwest.
Beginning this week and over the next two months, surveyors will examine the cluster of "trap trees" for the emerald ash borer. Researchers hope that what they find shows how far the beetles have spread and helps determine what the state must do next to try to stop them.
The extent of infiltration has been only a guess so far.
The ash pest was first discovered in the United States near Detroit in 2002 and then in northwest Ohio a year later.
"We'll be able to figure out what route this bug is taking south," said Lucia Hunt, who is leading a surveying team. "That's the big question we're trying to answer."
In recent weeks workers with the Ohio Department of Agriculture have been removing sections of bark from ash trees and coating them with a sticky substance that catches insects.
Damaging the trees should make them easier to infest and more attractive to the beetle.
Surveyors have been visually checking trees, but the signs of damage were easy to miss because the infestation starts at the top of the tree.
"By the time they get to where we can see them, it's too late," Hunt said. "This basically brings the bugs down to eye level."
Michigan also is setting tree traps. The ash pest has destroyed millions of trees in the Detroit area and surrounding counties.
Clues of an infestation are large, dead branches and a D-shaped hole on the tree trunk. But often those signs are not apparent until there is already enough damage to kill the tree.
Ohio has been trying to stop the pest by cutting down ash trees in a half-mile circle around infestation sites. The state also restricted the movement of ash trees, branches and firewood from sites where the beetle has been found and banned anyone from bringing ash trees into the state from Michigan.
State workers were finishing cutting down trees this spring when they were surprised by a new outbreak near Toledo Express Airport.
"That was a little bit frustrating," said Dan Herms, an entomologist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. "We were hoping to be able to tell people that they could relax.
"These infestations were there long before they were discovered," he said.
The tree traps should help determine whether infestations near the airport are part of a large outbreak or just a couple of clusters, said Melanie Wilt, a spokeswoman for Ohio's agriculture department.
"Undoubtedly it's out there in places we haven't pinpointed yet," she said.
___
On the Net:
Ohio Department of Agriculture: http://www.ohioagriculture.gov
U.S. Forest Service: http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/4501/eab/
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
All content © Copyright 2004, WorldNow and Dispatch Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.It is the policy of The Dispatch Broadcast Group to provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified individuals without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, disability, military status, citizenship or any other legally-protected status in accordance with applicable local, state and federal law. Jobs at ONN.
Dan F
ArboristSite Operative
06/11/2004 04:03:43
Dog being trained to help in search for destructive beetle
BC-IN--Beetle Bloodhound,0371
Dog being trained to help in search for destructive beetle
waysghcad
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) _ A beetle-sniffing bloodhound is
pioneering a new effort against the destructive emerald ash borer.
Sir James Edgar Bond, a 5-year-old chestnut-haired pooch, already has helped his owner, a biology and geology student at Indiana-Purdue of Fort Wayne, get an A on a research project. Now, state forestry officials want to find out if the dog can reliably detect the ash borer in time to slow the spread of its infestation.
Dawn Bale, who also is a surveyor for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, began tests last year to see whether her bloodhound named Eddie could detect the odor of the shiny, green beetle that destroys ash trees by eating the layers under the bark.
She said she discovered Eddie could pick up the borer's scent 80 percent of the time.
Her research became part of an independent studies biology project and drew the interest of state forestry officials.
The ash borer was first detected in Michigan in 2002 and in Ohio last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, the bug has infested other parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
More than 1,100 trees have been removed in an area near Fremont in Steuben County in the northeastern corner of the state, and an undetermined number of trees will have to be taken out in nearby LaGrange County. Other areas are being monitored in Winchester, South Bend and Porter County in northern Indiana, said Philip Marshall, DNR forest health specialist.
Officials are optimistic that Eddie, and perhaps other trained dogs, will be able to detect the borer in healthy-looking trees. The infestation would be caught sooner, which could reduce the number of trees that have to be killed.
Bale said Eddie is not ready to participate in the surveying this year but should be trained well enough for next year's efforts.
Dog being trained to help in search for destructive beetle
BC-IN--Beetle Bloodhound,0371
Dog being trained to help in search for destructive beetle
waysghcad
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) _ A beetle-sniffing bloodhound is
pioneering a new effort against the destructive emerald ash borer.
Sir James Edgar Bond, a 5-year-old chestnut-haired pooch, already has helped his owner, a biology and geology student at Indiana-Purdue of Fort Wayne, get an A on a research project. Now, state forestry officials want to find out if the dog can reliably detect the ash borer in time to slow the spread of its infestation.
Dawn Bale, who also is a surveyor for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, began tests last year to see whether her bloodhound named Eddie could detect the odor of the shiny, green beetle that destroys ash trees by eating the layers under the bark.
She said she discovered Eddie could pick up the borer's scent 80 percent of the time.
Her research became part of an independent studies biology project and drew the interest of state forestry officials.
The ash borer was first detected in Michigan in 2002 and in Ohio last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since then, the bug has infested other parts of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
More than 1,100 trees have been removed in an area near Fremont in Steuben County in the northeastern corner of the state, and an undetermined number of trees will have to be taken out in nearby LaGrange County. Other areas are being monitored in Winchester, South Bend and Porter County in northern Indiana, said Philip Marshall, DNR forest health specialist.
Officials are optimistic that Eddie, and perhaps other trained dogs, will be able to detect the borer in healthy-looking trees. The infestation would be caught sooner, which could reduce the number of trees that have to be killed.
Bale said Eddie is not ready to participate in the surveying this year but should be trained well enough for next year's efforts.
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