It seems the grandest of our native trees are painted with a big, red bulls-eye. Chestnut Blight wiped out most of Arkansas' chinquapin trees in the 1950s. Dutch Elm Disease was first noted in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1930 and reached the Pacific Coast in 1973, killing millions of elms as it travelled across the country. Now entomologists are warning the emerald ash borer has potential to erase ash trees from much of eastern United States forest ecosystems. More depressing news for tree lovers.
Susceptible Arkansas species include white ash (Fraxinus americana) and green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica). These trees are similar in appearance and growth habit. Their winged seeds are used by wildlife, and both species are common in Ozarks forest ecosystems. Green ash is valuable as a landscape tree due to its ability to grow well on a variety of soil types. Lumber from white ash is tough and strong, and is useful for tool handles, baseball bats, cabinetry, and hardwood flooring. Ashes are therefore ecologically and economically important trees.
The emerald ash borer is a pest of Chinese origin, first documented in North America in 2002, and is the larval stage of a bullet-shaped, green beetle. Emerald ash borer larvae live just beneath the bark and tunnel through sapwood, cutting off sap flow from leaves to roots. Infested trees often die within 2 to 5 years.
Millions of ash trees have already been killed in the northeastern and mid-western United States. Emerald ash borer was previously confirmed in Missouri and Tennessee, and in six Arkansas counties this summer (Clark, Columbia, Dallas, Hot Spring, Nevada, and Ouachita). Twenty-five southern counties are now under a quarantine prohibiting movement of all firewood and ash timber products outside the quarantine area.
Human transport of firewood is the most likely means of moving the beetles to new locations. Additionally, any portion of ash trees (wood chips, green lumber, nursery stock) originating in an infested area should be viewed as suspect and never transported outside a quarantined county or state. Because mature beetles are moving targets and larvae are protected within the tree, broad-scale control is difficult or impossible. Efforts to prevent spread of the emerald ash borer throughout Arkansas' forests are vitally important.
Human travel and commerce move insect and disease pests to a far greater extent than Mother Nature usually allows. Before hauling a chunk of Aunt Verna's gardenia across two state (or county lines), we do well to consider the hitchhikers we may accidentally bring along. Invasive pests are rarely controlled quickly or easily or without considerable inconvenience, if they are controlled at all.
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Editorial on 12/10/2014