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2-7-2008

AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES PUBLIC MEETING ON EMERALD ASH BORER

The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) will conduct a public meeting on the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) quarantine in Fayette County. The meeting will be held at Midland Trail High School at Hico, Thursday, February 21, at 6:30 p.m.
    
Presenters from the state and federal government will discuss the biology of EAB, details of the quarantine, and possible future actions by WVDA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service (USDA-FS) and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Plant Protection and Quarantine (USDA-APHIS-PPQ).
    
EAB is a non-native insect first documented in West Virginia last October. It is believed to have been introduced into the U.S. in wood packing material from China. It was first identified in Michigan and has since spread to Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Only species of ash are hosts for the beetle, which usually kill infested trees within a couple of years. The movement of EAB-infested firewood is an important pathway for moving the beetle and is believed to be how the insect found its way to Fayette County.
    
For more information about the meeting, EAB, or other invasive pests, visit www.wvagriculture.org, or phone WVDA’s Plant Industries Division at 304-558-2212.

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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