The infestation, reported by a forestry employee of the Minnesota Parks and Recreation Board, is the first new infestation of the year, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The damage is extensive- officials believe they will have to cut down over 100 trees in the area- the course could lose over a fourth of its trees. In the words of Ralph Sievert, the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board's Director of Forestry, “We haven’t had any tree look this bad in the areas where we’ve been dealing it with so far.”Hennepin County, where the infestation was found, is one of four counties already under quarantine, with exports of firewood and ash tree limbs forbidden. However, because the infested trees are close to the border of Dakota County, the Department of Agriculture will conduct a survey to determine if the infestation has spread there, as well. The Department has determined that the infestation at the golf club started some five years ago.
The emerald ash borer arrived in the United States through Detroit in the 1990s and has since spread to fifteen states and two Canadian provinces. North America's ash trees have no resistance to the pest, and millions of trees have already succumbed. In the Minneapolis and Saint Paul together, over 5,000 infested trees have already been culled. Hoping to avoid a repeat of the devastation from previous tree epidemics such as Dutch elm disease, the state has explored avenues ranging from bug-detecting dogs to predatory wasps.
Information on recognizing an infestation can be found at the DNR website. Anyone who suspects their trees are infested is asked to contact the Department of Agriculture. The email address is arrest.the.pest@state.mn.us
Image Source: NYS DEC and Emerald Ash Borer Info
Wait, how did the golf club go five years without noticing an infestation of ash borers? Do they just not hurt the trees for the first few years?
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