by David Flint
How did all those purple box kites get caught up in the trees? Well actually they are not box kites but Purple Prism Traps. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been placing them in ash trees in eastern Rensselaer County and elsewhere as part of their early detection and response effort in combatting the infestation of the emerald ash borer.
This little insect, about a half inch long, deposits its eggs in summer in crevices on the bark of ash trees. The eggs hatch in a couple of weeks and begin tunnelling through the bark into the tree where they feed on tissue that conducts water and nutrients
throughout the tree. The larvae may feed for two years, in effect blocking and destroying the tree’s own feeding system causing it to starve to death. Eventually they morph into beetles and emerge in May and June boring out from the bark though their characteristic D-shaped holes. Then they feed on the leaves in the upper branches, taking time out to mate and so starting the process all over again.
The beetles are believed to have entered the United States from China hitchhiking on wooden pallets and other wood packing materials. In New York State they were first detected in 2009 in Cattaraugus County in southwestern part of the State. By that time they had already killed over 50 million North American ash tree species in other states. New York is now the 13th state known to host the EAB. The infestation is a serious threat to the economy. According to DEC, ash trees make up 7 to 8% of the State forest, or some 1.3 billion trees. The wood is prized for baseball bats and furniture and the employment of about 50,000 people is in some way tied to it. Stumpage value alone is worth up to $15 million annually.
There’s a deja-vu aspect to this plague. Years ago the elm was a familiar shade tree adornment of town squares and city streets. You don’t have to be ancient to remember the elms lining North Street in Pittsfield. Then the Dutch Elm Disease struck and pretty much wiped out most of the elms across the country. Towns and cities and individual homeowners bore the great expense of removing the dead trees before they caused property damage. And many of these trees were replaced, also at great expense, with – yes, ash trees.
The purple traps are not intended to control the beetle population. Their purpose is to detect as early as possible the spread of the infestation. The beetles, attracted by the color and by a lure that smells like a stressed ash tree,
get themselves stuck on the flypaper like surface. The traps are periodically inspected to see if in fact any EAB’s have appeared. DEC is collaborating in this effort with the US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and Animal and Plant Inspection Service as well as with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, other government agencies and universities. More than 8,000 traps were set out in New York State in 2010 and more have been added this year as the infestation increases and the campaign against it heats up.
According to DEC Regional Forester Bill Schongar, about 350 of the traps have been installed in various spots around Rensselaer County. They are inspected every 4 to 6 weeks. So far, he said, no EABs have been found here. Schongar said that ash makes up about 5% of the trees in this area and is distributed fairly evenly throughout the County. It is not a large component but still important.
Sixteen counties in the western part of the state are now under a quarantine order intended to slow down the spread of the EAB. Closer to home, Ulster and Greene Counties comprised another quarantine area, but Orange County has just now been added to that area after the EAB was found recently in a purple trap on the grounds of West Point. The quarantine order restricts the movement of ash trees, ash products and firewood from all wood species. In addition a statewide regulation now in effect prohibits bringing firewood into New York unless it has been heat treated to at least 160 degrees F. The regulation also limits the transportation of untreated firewood within the state to less than 50 miles from its source.
Signalling DEC’s intention to aggressively enforce these rules, the Department announced just this past week that three business owners have been charged with illegally shipping ash logs from Greene County to Rensselaer and Columbia Counties. The three men charged are Jeff Meltz, Vice President of Meltz Lumber Company in Hudson, Forest Mayer, President of Forest Mayer Log & Timber Company in Bennington, VT, and Paul Kelly from Paul Kelly Trucking in Catskill. The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned August 18 in Catskill Town Court. Each defendant faces up to a $1,000 fine with the possibility of additional civil penalties and up to 60 days in jail.
The USDA and forest management agencies such as DEC hope that with early detection and judicious restrictions on movement of timber they can at least slow the spread of the disease, buying time for research to develop new methods to control the EAB population.
DEC is asking people to help by not moving untreated firewood, learning to identify ash trees and looking for signs of infestation. EAB information and an early detection brochure and report form are available at the DEC website at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7253.html.
