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Ash-borer quarantine adds Geauga County
(by Joseph Koziol Jr. - January 28, 2010)
Ash-borer quarantine adds Geauga County
By JOSEPH KOZIOL JR.
Geauga County has been added to the growing list of counties on the front battle lines against one of the most destructive pests.
The county is one of 14 in the state to be listed under a quarantine for moving firewood. The quarantine is part of an effort to fight against the emerald ash borer, a pest that has been responsible for the death of tens of millions of ash trees throughout the Midwest.
Because the pest only flies between a half-mile and a mile per year, the biggest threat comes from people who transport firewood into an area which the bugs hitch a ride on. State officials are cautioning people to buy firewood in the area where they plan their campouts, rather than hauling it in from faraway places.
Alan Siewert, an urban forester with the Ohio Division of Forestry in Middlefield, said the exotic beetle was first found in southeast Michigan in the summer of 2002. He said it is believed to have come to this country on shipping crates from China. He said it is possible the beetle may have been in the state for as many as 10 years before the destruction was noticed.
Now, the pest has spread along the Ohio Turnpike, Mr. Siewert said, and 48 of Ohio's 88 counties are considered infested. No infestations have been found in Geauga County, he said, but Cuyahoga County is listed among the counties infested.
The dark, metallic green beetle is one-half-inch long and about one-eighth-inch wide and can kill an ash tree within three to five years.
Although North America has its own ash borer beetles, the trees here have evolved with them and developed their own defenses, Mr. Siewert said. He said natural predators also kept the native borers in check.
Unlike the invasive beetle, he said, native borers only attacked distressed trees. Now, he said, every ash tree is under attack.
He said scientists went to China in 2004 to study the emerald ash borer and had a hard time finding it. He said the trees' natural defenses and predators had made the beetle a innocuous pest there. "But, when the 95-pound weakling moved to new quarters, it began wreaking havoc," Mr. Siewert said.
White and green ash trees are the most common in Northeast Ohio. Black, blue and pumpkin ash are more commonly found north, south and west of northern Ohio. But, all are in danger from the beetle, he said.
Mr. Siewert said part of the problem in detecting the beetle is that it often first infests 2- to 4-inch diameter branches, which tend to be higher up in older trees. That makes it more difficult to detect, he said.
Most often, infestation is seen when the larva have finished eating the tree from the inside and make a D-shaped exit wound in the tree. He said the tree also may show signs of splitting.
Another sign, he said, may be seeing early fall color in ashes. Typically, fall color occurs around mid-October, but early fall coloring in early September could be one of the signs of infestation.
Water sprouts, or many shoots from the base of the tree, is another indicator the tree is in trouble, he said.
Unless officials, with the public's cooperation, can stop the pest, every one of the state's estimated 3.8 billion ash trees is in danger.
Losing the ash could have a dramatic impact on the landscape, its flora and fauna, and even sporting events. The wood is the choice of most of baseball's major-league batters, who choose ash bats for its strong wood. Bowling alleys also choose ash for its strength.
Some fear that ash, which line streams, could change the ecology there when their shading branches no longer provide the cold water needed for much of the life there. And deer browse the ash branches and cardinals and finches savor the seeds as do many other birds.
Mr. Siewert said one only has to look at the recent reintroduction of turkeys back into the area as an example of what the loss of a tree can mean.
In the early turn of the 20th century American chestnut trees were virtually wiped out by a blight that spread rapidly. That loss of chestnuts spelled the extinction of turkeys in this area, which relied on the nuts for sustenance, he said.
Mr. Siewert said oaks eventually replaced the chestnuts and allowed turkeys to return with a new food source. But he said there is question whether the loss of the ash will mean similar upheavals for the environment.
He said there is even the question of whether it will be native plants to replace the ash or whether invasive species will dominate the landscape.
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