The Emerald Ash Borer has a greenish metallic coat.
Photo credit for above picture: David Cappaert, Michigan State University Bugwood.org
First discovered in New York in 2009, the Emerald Ash Borer threatens the more than 900 million ash trees in Upstate New York and the timber and lumber business that they support. Eighteen counties have been placed in a quarantine zone due to EAB infestations.
The EAB infests and kills North American ash trees, including green, white, black and blue ash. Ash is a common and important forest species. Ash seeds are a food source for birds and mammals and ash is a commercially-valuable species, used for baseball bats, flooring, furniture, lumber, and pallet manufacture.
“There are approximately 800,000 ash trees in the Lake George watershed,” said Kristen Rohne, the watershed educator for the Lake George Association. “We don’t want to find out what would happen to our watershed and our water quality without these trees,” she said. The larval stage of EAB feeds under the bark of trees, cutting off the flow of water and nutrients. Infested trees always die within two to four years, even if the trees were healthy before being attacked.
Public involvement is key to detecting the EAB. Most common in June and July, the EAB is very small – just 3/8 to 5/8 inches long with metallic green wing covers. Signs of tree infection include: 1/8″ D-shaped holes in the bark; tree canopy dieback; and serpentine galleries — S-shaped feeding tunnels, often with larvae, just under the bark. Sucker sprouts may grow from the base of the tree.
The EAB is now located in Cattaraugus, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Steuben, Ulster and Greene counties. A quarantine affecting the majority of western New York, as well as Greene and Ulster Counties, is restricting the movement of ash trees, ash products and firewood from all wood species in order to limit the potential introduction of EAB to other areas of the state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services, alongside state departments of agriculture, are cooperating partners in an EAB survey effort. The large purple triangular-shaped objects you may see hanging in an area ash trees are important detection tool being used in this effort. These “purple traps” are 24 inches long and covered in glue, and it is important that they not be touched, removed or disturbed.
What Can You Do to Help?
1. Look for signs of infestation and report them immediately by calling the Lake George Association at 518-668-3558.
2. Don’t move firewood. The EAB is commonly transported to new areas on firewood. “Please remember to leave all firewood at home; do not bring it to campgrounds, parks or summer homes,” says Kristen Rohne, the LGA’s watershed educator.
3. Purchase firewood from a local vendor, and ask for a receipt to verify the firewood’s local source. Firewood must remain within 50 miles of its source.
4. Only firewood labeled as meeting New York’s heat-treatment standards to kill pests may be transported further than 50 miles from the firewood’s source.
5. Don’t disturb the purple EAB traps, which you may see hanging from trees this summer.
All trees are important in the ecosystem and logging is important to the local economy. Tree leaves and branches intercept rainfall, reducing its erosive energy and slowing the movement of rain water. Root growth of trees and plant litter improve soil structure and enhance infiltration of rainfall, reducing surface runoff. Trees supply debris to streams, and provide shade to keep the water temperature cool, improving aquatic habitats. Trees even filter contaminants. They keep excess phosphorus and nitrates – found as pollutants in runoff – from entering waters by using them as nutrients for their own growth.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer is a proponent of maintaining current levels of funding for invasive species research.
