Newspaper Clipping - Newspaper Clipping Scan - Emerald Ash Borer Gregg Hove Forestry Supervisor - 8/16/2012SECTION B THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012
WWW.STARTRIBUNE.COM /LOCAL
Photos byJEFP WHEELER • jwheeler @startribune.com
Emerald ashborers have left their signature at the Fort Snelling Golf Course. Bark pulled away at eye level revealed
the S-shaped galleries made by larva. The hole near the top is from a woodpecker that was feeding on the.bugs.
® The discovery at-Fort.., a� `A lot of us were waiting
W. for
Snelling Golf Course raises . t `,the next infestation, and we're
Emerald ash borers have invad-
+'
y
'-°
from the golf course.
ed the Fort Snelling Golf Course,
the first - reported Hennepin
,'
In Mendota. Heights, directly
"
County infestation outside of
'
across the river, City' Admirustra-
- for Justin Miller said the o utb reak
ak
Minneapolis and one that puts
the ruinous ,insects within sight
_
may prompt the city to take `
"We'll
of Dakota County,
tion. have to ramp up pub -
It's the first new ash borer in-
lie education efforts," he said.
A district forester with the
festation found this year in Min-
.Mark Abrahamson of. the state
Minneapolis Park and Recreation
nesota, which has quarantines in
four counties to restrict the trans-
Agriculture Department said a few
dozen trees on the golf course may
Board, which manages the golf
course,
fer° of ash wood and limit the
be infested.
was checking on _storm
damage-last Thursday when he '
spread of the beetles, They were
first spotted in the state in 2009.
IN,
. ies bracing for'the arrival of the
noticed an ash that looked dead
.on top and:showedsgns ofwood -`;
e discovery, announced ,ash borers and officials trying to pecker activity.
Wednesday by the state Agricul- determine whether to quarantine
ture Department, has nearby cit- Dakotd County. Ash borer continues<on B7 o.
Ash r S A`
® ASH BORER FROM B1 - METRO INFESTATION
Looking closer, he the
telltale.exit holes of adult bor-
ers.
`Like a flu virus'
This year had been quiet in
terms of new. outbreaks. But
Brad Bonham, a national con-
sultant to cities on the ash bor-
er problem, said that a lull is of-
ten followed by a sudden out-
burst of detections._ She said
that's because the beetle is dif-
ficult to spot and may infest the
tree for years before the dam-
age can be readily seen.
"It's like a flu virus. You
don't know you're infested
now," she said.
Although ash borers most
often spread when people
move infested wood, it's pos-
sible for them to fly across the
river, said Mark Abrahamson,
who runs the state Agriculture
Department's emerald ;ash bor-
er program,
"They tend to move along
corridors, but - that .doesn't
prohibit them 'from moving
across, "he said.
Abrahamson said that he
spotted infestation signs —
such as bark cracking. — on
half a dozen trees at the golf
course Monday, and believes
there may be a few dozen more
showing some symptoms. He.
suspects that trees in natural
areas 'just off the course also
might be infested. -
The golf course has 82 ash
trees, along with scores of oth-
er types, he said. The Agricul-
ture Department will work
with the Minneapolis Park.
Board and property owners to
mitigate the problem.
"It's not sometlung you ever
eliminate, but you can manage
the damage so it's not spread-
ing," Abrahamson said,
Emerald ash borers were first
found in St. Paul's St. Anthony
Park neighborhood in 2009 and
have since been spotted in,zones
extending to the Seward
neighborhood of Minneapolis,
other metro =area infestation
locations include Shoreview and
the area around Summit Avenue
and Dale Street in St, Paul,
Emerald ash horer
Infestation zones
wood into small enough pioc-
es to destroy infesting larvae.
And ash trees are disposed of
quickly, forestry- dkector Ralph
Sievert said.
The infested trees on the
golf course wont be removed
until fall or winter to- .avoid
moving active beetles from one
spot to another, he said.
Quarantine in place The golf course is about five
The ash borers on the golf miles south of "the nearest out-
course.. could date back be- break site; it, the;Sewardneigh-
fore,. 2009; when they were ' borhood of "south Minneapo-
Hampden Park in St. Paul. As
a result, ash wood is prohib-
ited from being =hauled out-
I of Ramsey an d Hennepin
counties- as well as Houston
and Winona counties, where
the bug has also been found —
without an agreement with the
state Agriculture Department
and an inspection♦
Some trees don't show signs
of infestation for as long as five
years. And Abrahamson said
it's difficult to pinpoint how
they got to the golf course. . .
The 'Minneapolis Park
Board `owns a wood process-
ing site across the road from
the golf course to make wood
chips and mulch: But the op-
erator -that leases it must fol-
low state guidelines to grind
found in Shoreview, on the
Paul- Falcon Heights ' border,
and 'at` Summit Avenue and
Dale Street m St. Paul:
St. Paul has removed about
3,000 ash trees since May 2009.
Minneapolis has removed about
2,400 infested trees since 2010.
The.- "emerald ash. borer is
believed to have arrived in
United S tates in the Detroit ar-
ea in the 1990s, .although it was
not identified until 2002. Ithas
since been found in '15 states
and two Canadian provinces,
and has killed millions of ash
trees, which in North America
have.no resistance to the bug,
staff writer Bill McAuliffe contributed to
this report.
Kevin Duchschere • 612.673 -4455
Source:ESRI;TeleAtlas StarlYibune