The Department of Agriculture warns about the emerald ash borer infestation in Illinois and Nebraska.
The emerald ash borer destroyed more than 1,000 trees in Champaign County, Illinois, and now the authorities need to come up with a plan to move the trees.
The project proved to be extremely expensive for the local community, reaching a total price of thousands of dollars. Almost 600 trees had been already removed, and there is still much work left to be done. The total cost is estimated to be around $1 million.
“The priority for us is the public safety, so we need to respond to the tree removals as necessary,” said the Champaign County officials.
The bug attacked almost every ash tree in town, and the authorities continue to move the trees. The most dangerous one have priority.
The experts discovered in 2012 that the emerald ash borer was killing their trees. Since then, they set up a plan to fight the pest and save their ash trees.
Aside from the 600 trees that had been already removed, there are other 1,500 which need to be taken out of the town. The experts take into account that other 21,000 trees have to be verified in order to make sure that the pest is eliminated.
The trees must be removed because the issue became a matter of public safety, even if the project is costly and the experts must make room for the new problem and cancel other issues from their agenda.
The trees that are infected start to rot, which makes them prone to fall and cause accidents. The city has more than 21,000 ash trees, representing 7% of the total forests in the town.
The emerald ash borer appeared in the state of Illinois in 2006 and lead to the destruction of tens of millions of ash trees.
In Nebraska, the National Department of Agriculture confirmed the infestation in June this year. The first region was Pulaski Park, and the second one came from Cass County.
The local experts organized a seminar intended to inform the community about the dangers of the bug spread, in order to help them take care of their ash trees. The presenters will include forest health specialists, entomologists, and horticulture educators.
The insect affects not only the wild ash trees, but also the popular cultivars such as Marshall’s Seedless, Skyline, Summit and Patmore, and the Autumn Purple.
The authorities want the community to learn how to determine which trees need treatment and which have to be left to die, especially if they are already sick, they have a poor location, and they are fragile.
However, the treatment is not recommendable if the infestation was not confirmed within 15 miles.
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