Emerald Ash Borer: Tiny Beetle With Huge Appetite Rapidly Destroying Midwest And Great Lakes Ash Trees
http://www.golftribune.com/articles/11/1/Emerald-Ash-Borer-Tiny-Beetle-With-Huge-Appetite-Rapidly-Destroying-Midwest-And-Great-Lakes-Ash-Trees/Page1.html
James Raia
By James Raia
Published on 09/30/2007
A small, green insect with an insatiable appetite for bark tissue has impacted two of the country's most popular recreations.
The culprit is the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle whose short tenure in the United States has resulted in the death of an estimated 25 million ash trees across several states, most in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions.
For baseball players who prefer wooden bats, it's likely they swing Louisville Sluggers made with ash from forests on the Pennsylvania-New York border.
For golfers in those states as well as in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois who enjoy the shade and majesty of treelined courses, it's likely they view ash trees on many of their favorite layouts.
And it's equally likely the view could dramatically change because of an approximately 1/2-inch by 1/6-inch creature sometimes called the Green Menace.
The culprit is the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle whose short tenure in the United States has resulted in the death of an estimated 25 million ash trees across several states, most in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions.
For baseball players who prefer wooden bats, it's likely they swing Louisville Sluggers made with ash from forests on the Pennsylvania-New York border.
For golfers in those states as well as in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois who enjoy the shade and majesty of treelined courses, it's likely they view ash trees on many of their favorite layouts.
And it's equally likely the view could dramatically change because of an approximately 1/2-inch by 1/6-inch creature sometimes called the Green Menace.
(This article originally appeared in the September-October 2007 issue of Chicago District Golfer.)
A small, green insect with an insatiable appetite for bark tissue has impacted two of the country's most popular recreations.
The culprit is the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle whose short tenure in the United States has resulted in the death of an estimated 25 million ash trees across several states, most in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions.
For baseball players who prefer wooden bats, it's likely they swing Louisville Sluggers made with ash from forests on the Pennsylvania-New York border.
For golfers in those states as well as in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois who enjoy the shade and majesty of treelined courses, it's likely they view ash trees on many of their favorite layouts.
And it's equally likely the view could dramatically change because of an approximately 1/2-inch by 1/6-inch creature sometimes called the Green Menace.
Most Illinois golf courses haven't yet had issue with their ash tree issue. Nearly a dozen golf courses officials in various parts of the state contacted by Chicago District Golfer reported no beetle damage, while others expressed little concern.
Yet other course officials stressed the problem is imminent. Cook and DuPage counties, the first and second-largest in the state, as well as other counties are currently under quarantine.
"It's here," said Brian Green, golf course superintendent at Sunset Valley Golf Club in Highland Park. "We identified about 200-300 trees in the spring, including some off-course trees still on the property. We've treated about 10 percent of trees in certain areas we're hoping to save. But it's an ever-changing situation and hard to 100 percent detect. Unfortunately, we expect to lose the rest of them."
Natives to China, Japan, Korea and parts of Russia, emerald ash borers are thought to have been accidentally transported to the United States in the mid-1990s aboard cargo ships using the Great Lakes as shipping ports.
The insects eat vast amounts of vascular tissue just under the bark. As a result, the infected trees can't receive and properly process nutrients.
Ash trees can be infested for a year before symptoms are evident. Early infestation signs are thin and or yellow leaves and D-shaped holes in the bark or branches. Small bore holes are also common.
Since the beetles sometimes can't eat all of the bark at the base of a tree, new shoots sometimes grow. An infested ash tree usually dies within three years, and even after infected ash trees are cut down, the new shoots often still grow.
The first U.S. emerald ash borer infestation was discovery in Canton, Michigan in June 2002, and the problem has since increased exponentially.
"This invasive insect does not care whether it eats a very healthy ash tree or or an ash tree that was already stressed and in decline," said Richard Hentschel, a green industry program specialist at the University of Illinois Extension. "If you have a native pest and a native ash tree, over generation and hundreds and hundreds of years, the ash tree builds up a resistance. It gets to the point where the insect invades the tree, but it doesn't kill the tree.
"But this insect doesn't care. It has a ravenous appetite and in a few, short months it will kill an entire tree, a very large tree."
According to Luke Cella, executive director of the Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents, ash trees represent about 20 percent of Illinois' golf course trees. In all, more than 130 million trees exist in the state. Ash trees were a popular replacement for the trees destroyed by Dutch elm disease.
If other states' tragedies continue in Illinois, Green's assessment of his golf courses' likely issues would represent only a small portion of another potential catastrophe.
Consider:
* In 2004, the beetle was confirmed in Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. The later two states received contaminated trees from a Michigan nursery.
* In September 2005, officials in Michigan announced the beetles' infestation extended past the Straits of Mackinac, the area between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and had spread from the state's Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula.
* In June 2006, the ash borer was discovered in a home near Lake Lilly, Ill., and a month later, infestations were confirmed in Wilmette, Evanston and Winnetka, Ill.
* In June, 2007, the insect was discovered in Cranberry Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa., and near Youngstown, Ohio, according to U.S. and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials.
"They're devastating," Melissa Brewer, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It really only takes one piece of infested firewood to kill millions of ash trees."
Numerous national and interstate governmental agency programs have been implemented to help deter and hopefully eliminate further devastation which could spread throughout North America. But it's frustrating, complicated, costly and not easily defeated.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) committed $40 million for eradication in 2004 after the insect was discovered early the year in Indiana. Another $350 million is expected to be spent on the issue through 2016
"The only way to control this insect is to essentially to remove the tree an burn it or chip it up into pieces that are so small, the larvae can't survive," said Hentschel. "It involves specialist equipment and arborists, so it's not inexpensive to have that done."
According to Hentschel and USDA officials, one unusual method utilized to combat the problem is to also destroy unaffected ash trees located within a half-mile radius of infested trees.
Paul Voykin, the long-time superintendent of golf at Briarwood Country Clubs in Deerfield, Ill., spoke emotionally about the insect devastation.
"We just got the trees tested and there's not a problem," said Voykin. "We only have about 12 ash trees on the course, including two majestic trees behind the ninth hole. I remember planting them when they were about six feet tall, and I don't know what we would do without them."
A small, green insect with an insatiable appetite for bark tissue has impacted two of the country's most popular recreations.
The culprit is the Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle whose short tenure in the United States has resulted in the death of an estimated 25 million ash trees across several states, most in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions.
For baseball players who prefer wooden bats, it's likely they swing Louisville Sluggers made with ash from forests on the Pennsylvania-New York border.
For golfers in those states as well as in Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, Indiana, Virginia, Wisconsin and Illinois who enjoy the shade and majesty of treelined courses, it's likely they view ash trees on many of their favorite layouts.
And it's equally likely the view could dramatically change because of an approximately 1/2-inch by 1/6-inch creature sometimes called the Green Menace.
Most Illinois golf courses haven't yet had issue with their ash tree issue. Nearly a dozen golf courses officials in various parts of the state contacted by Chicago District Golfer reported no beetle damage, while others expressed little concern.
Yet other course officials stressed the problem is imminent. Cook and DuPage counties, the first and second-largest in the state, as well as other counties are currently under quarantine.
"It's here," said Brian Green, golf course superintendent at Sunset Valley Golf Club in Highland Park. "We identified about 200-300 trees in the spring, including some off-course trees still on the property. We've treated about 10 percent of trees in certain areas we're hoping to save. But it's an ever-changing situation and hard to 100 percent detect. Unfortunately, we expect to lose the rest of them."
Natives to China, Japan, Korea and parts of Russia, emerald ash borers are thought to have been accidentally transported to the United States in the mid-1990s aboard cargo ships using the Great Lakes as shipping ports.
The insects eat vast amounts of vascular tissue just under the bark. As a result, the infected trees can't receive and properly process nutrients.
Ash trees can be infested for a year before symptoms are evident. Early infestation signs are thin and or yellow leaves and D-shaped holes in the bark or branches. Small bore holes are also common.
Since the beetles sometimes can't eat all of the bark at the base of a tree, new shoots sometimes grow. An infested ash tree usually dies within three years, and even after infected ash trees are cut down, the new shoots often still grow.
The first U.S. emerald ash borer infestation was discovery in Canton, Michigan in June 2002, and the problem has since increased exponentially.
"This invasive insect does not care whether it eats a very healthy ash tree or or an ash tree that was already stressed and in decline," said Richard Hentschel, a green industry program specialist at the University of Illinois Extension. "If you have a native pest and a native ash tree, over generation and hundreds and hundreds of years, the ash tree builds up a resistance. It gets to the point where the insect invades the tree, but it doesn't kill the tree.
"But this insect doesn't care. It has a ravenous appetite and in a few, short months it will kill an entire tree, a very large tree."
According to Luke Cella, executive director of the Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents, ash trees represent about 20 percent of Illinois' golf course trees. In all, more than 130 million trees exist in the state. Ash trees were a popular replacement for the trees destroyed by Dutch elm disease.
If other states' tragedies continue in Illinois, Green's assessment of his golf courses' likely issues would represent only a small portion of another potential catastrophe.
Consider:
* In 2004, the beetle was confirmed in Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. The later two states received contaminated trees from a Michigan nursery.
* In September 2005, officials in Michigan announced the beetles' infestation extended past the Straits of Mackinac, the area between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and had spread from the state's Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula.
* In June 2006, the ash borer was discovered in a home near Lake Lilly, Ill., and a month later, infestations were confirmed in Wilmette, Evanston and Winnetka, Ill.
* In June, 2007, the insect was discovered in Cranberry Township, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pa., and near Youngstown, Ohio, according to U.S. and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture officials.
"They're devastating," Melissa Brewer, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It really only takes one piece of infested firewood to kill millions of ash trees."
Numerous national and interstate governmental agency programs have been implemented to help deter and hopefully eliminate further devastation which could spread throughout North America. But it's frustrating, complicated, costly and not easily defeated.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) committed $40 million for eradication in 2004 after the insect was discovered early the year in Indiana. Another $350 million is expected to be spent on the issue through 2016
"The only way to control this insect is to essentially to remove the tree an burn it or chip it up into pieces that are so small, the larvae can't survive," said Hentschel. "It involves specialist equipment and arborists, so it's not inexpensive to have that done."
According to Hentschel and USDA officials, one unusual method utilized to combat the problem is to also destroy unaffected ash trees located within a half-mile radius of infested trees.
Paul Voykin, the long-time superintendent of golf at Briarwood Country Clubs in Deerfield, Ill., spoke emotionally about the insect devastation.
"We just got the trees tested and there's not a problem," said Voykin. "We only have about 12 ash trees on the course, including two majestic trees behind the ninth hole. I remember planting them when they were about six feet tall, and I don't know what we would do without them."