Was goning to post this but bama beat me to it. This is the text to make it easier to read.
Philbert
ST. PAUL — Millions of Minnesota ash trees are at risk after the long-anticipated discovery of the destructive emerald ash borer in the state.
The infestation of the tree pest was discovered in a line of trees outside a row of St. Paul town homes, state agriculture officials said Thursday. State officials got a preliminary confirmation from a federal entomologist who viewed a digital picture. Final confirmation was expected Friday from a sample sent to Washington.
"It's pretty clear this is the emerald ash borer, and it's the first discovered in the state," said Minnesota Department of Agriculture spokesman Mike Schommer. "It's obviously bad news."
In response, the department plans to prohibit the movement of firewood, ash nursery stock, ash timber, or any other article that could spread the insect in Ramsey and Hennepin counties. Last month the state issued a quarantine for Houston County in southeastern Minnesota due to an infestation just across the border in Wisconsin.
Since the invasive beetle's accidental introduction into North America, it has killed millions of ash trees in 10 eastern states. With an estimated 900 million ash trees, Minnesota is seen as a prime target.
"We'd hoped this day would be delayed two years or more," said Bob Fitch, executive director of the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association. "But honestly, I'm not surprised that it's here."
Minnesota has the second-highest number of ash trees in the nation after Maine. Many of them were planted to replace trees lost to Dutch elm disease a generation ago, when streets in many neighborhoods lost their shade.
Chris Naselli, an arborist conducting a pruning estimate on the St. Paul property, noticed a suspicious grouping of woodpecker holes on a young ash tree — and tiny branches sprouting from its base. He peeled away some bark to discover rows of tunnels. Further inspection turned up five ash borer larvae and the shell of an adult. The tree's foliage was already thinning.
Across the street, homeowner Paul Johnston's ash tree was in even worse shape, its massive branches sprouting only a few dozen leaves and its bark in tatters.
"It's not going to get better," he said, noting the cost to remove the dead tree will run from $1,000 to $3,000.
The emerald ash borer — named for its metallic green color and taste for ash wood — typically will kill an adult tree within three to five years. The larvae will create tunnels just under the bark, disrupting the flow of nutrients.
There now are three trees confirmed to be infested, all in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood. Many more in the area show symptoms of the beetle's presence, state officials said.
An official quarantine of Ramsey and Hennepin counties — preventing the transport of wood outside county lines — likely will come within the next day or two, said Mark Abrahamson, program coordinator of the state Department of Agriculture's ash borer program.
"The big thing now is just not to move it," Abrahamson said.
The beetle was first seen in Michigan in 2002. It is believed to have been shipped into Detroit in the 1990s aboard wooden cargo crates from Asia.
When asked whether Minnesota might consider clear-cutting ash trees around confirmed infestations, Geir Friisoe, director of the Agriculture Department's plant protection division, said, "There have been very few successful eradications."
But if an infestation were discovered in its initial stages, he said, the state "will likely pursue that option."
However, "There is (currently) no funding for removal," Friisoe said. "Everybody is aware of the budget situation in this state."
Rep. Alice Hausman, who represents St. Paul's south St. Anthony Park area, said she is calling on lawmakers to respond to the ash borer threat before the legislative session ends.
if you have 1 bad peace it all gos $$$$ tom trees
tom trees
