October 21, 2005, 11:12 AM | Detroit Free Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The Canadian government and some U.S. researchers say there's no way to stop an Asian beetle from steadily spreading to attack and kill all 10 billion ash trees in the United States and Canada.
The emerald ash borer was found in the popular shade trees just three years ago in the Detroit area, but researchers suspect it arrived as much as a decade ago. The U.S. government has stuck with a strategy of cutting down swaths of trees to keep it from spreading, but more researchers are saying that approach will at best slow the insect.
The beetle is concentrated in Michigan, northern Ohio and Indiana, and southern Ontario. Small infestations were found in Maryland and Virginia. If it uses Ohio or Michigan's Upper Peninsula as a bridge, it could devastate dense ash forests from Minnesota to Maine.
Ash makes up 10 percent of Ohio's forests, and the tree is found in forests throughout the eastern United States. Many cities planted ash trees after the devastation of Dutch elm disease, and its strong wood is valued for furniture and baseball bats.
Ohio agriculture officials announced Thursday the beetle has spread farther east in the state, to a golf course and three other scattered properties near the Ohio Turnpike in Erie County. Money came through this fall for crews to attack spot infestations in Delaware County in central Ohio and Auglaize County in western Ohio.
The Canadian government's official position is that the technology and efforts available cannot stop the ash borer's march, a forestry official told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
"It is well-established and is much too difficult to detect at low levels, and pesticides do not work well enough to be used in a quarantine context," said Ken Marchant, a forestry specialist with the Canadian Food Inspection Service, which regulates exotic pests. "It is the general consensus of quarantine experts here that EAB (emerald ash borer) will continue to spread despite past, present and future actions to control it."
Ohio is sticking with the containment strategy and believes it can beat the pest, said Melissa Brewer, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. (*)
