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AGENCIES START FIGHT AGAINST EMERALD ASH BORER IN WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass has announced that the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) has placed a quarantine on a variety of forest-related articles from Fayette County, and will create a new position within the WVDA in an effort to combat the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a forest pest that has already killed some 20 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The quarantine prohibits the movement of any firewood – as well as ash logs, ash timber scraps and other regulated articles – from Fayette County to other West Virginia counties. A similar federal quarantine prohibits the movement of regulated articles from Fayette County to other states.
Anyone with questions about the details of the quarantine should call the WVDA’s Plant Industries Division (PID) at 304-558-2212.
The new EAB regulatory officer position will be funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) and housed within WVDA-PID. The mission of the new employee will be to continue surveillance for the insect and to conduct public outreach to educate state residents and visitors about the problems associated with EAB and what can be done to minimize the threat to West Virginia’s forests.
“This is another example of invasive species and the damage they can cause,” said Commissioner Douglass. “The speed of global travel and commerce has potential drawbacks. We had been dealing with gypsy moths, we now need to deal with EAB, and we need to continue to prepare for the next threat, even though we don’t yet know what it is.”
Although ash species make up a small percentage of West Virginia’s forests, the goal now, said Commissioner Douglass, is to prevent the Fayette County infestation from spreading within West Virginia or elsewhere.
Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is a non-native beetle that was discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The adult beetles nibble on ash foliage but cause little damage. The larvae (the immature stage) feed on the inner bark of ash trees, disrupting the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients.
EAB probably arrived in the United States on solid wood packing material carried in cargo ships or airplanes originating in its native Asia. It is also established in Windsor, Ontario, was found in Ohio in 2003, northern Indiana in 2004, northern Illinois in 2006 and western Pennsylvania in 2007. It has also been documented in Maryland. Only species of ash, which is used to make baseball bats, are hosts for the beetle, which usually kill infested trees within a couple of years.
In November 2007, an EAB larva was discovered in a “trap tree” that had been prepared by the WVDA-PID to survey for the beetle. Trap trees are intentionally damaged to provide an attractive tree for the beetles to inhabit, if they are present. Because the discovery was made so far from the West Virginia border, experts believe the beetle entered the state by hitching a ride on firewood brought into West Virginia by campers from an area already infested and under quarantine.
Continued surveillance has not turned up evidence of EAB elsewhere in West Virginia, but travelers may soon see purple box traps set out for the insect. Emerald Ash Borer Week will be observed in infested states May 18-24 to raise awareness about the pest.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture protects plant, animal and human health through a variety of scientific, regulatory and consumer protection programs, as mandated by state law. The Commissioner of Agriculture is one of six statewide elected officials in West Virginia. Currently, Commissioner Gus R. Douglass is the longest-serving agriculture commissioner in the nation. For more information, visit www.wvagriculture.org.
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