Featured image courtesy: NYSDEC
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — The Emerald Ash Borer has become a huge threat to ash trees in New York State ever since it started spreading back in 2009. Not only has the insect been killing ash trees and making them vulnerable to the elements, but they are also becoming a public safety hazard…
The Emerald Ash Borer has been killing millions of ash trees across North America since they were discovered back in the early 2000s. While they’re most active as adults during the summer, right now they’re tucked away as larvae underneath the bark of the trees and could even be right in your backyard.
Mark Whitmore, Director of the New York State Hemlock Initiative says, “You just drive along the road you see a dead tree here, a dead tree there most people don’t even think about it, and then you get to areas like around Chili and south around the Genesee River where the stem composition is heavy to ash and you see a lot of dead trees.”
Once the insect gets into the bark and is weakened by wood rotting organisms, it becomes much more susceptible to falling over from wind and ice, and is becoming a public safety hazard as the trees eventually die.
“There are many instances where I’ve seen ash trees that actually when they fall they actually break on the main stem near the roots and so that’s a huge chunk of tree coming down all at once… the hazard with trees coming down in big chunks is if they take down infrastructure, they’ll be in the middle of the road, they’ll hit power lines”, Mark says.
Mike says people are working on restoring the ash to the landscape; calling the genes of trees that survive as valuable as gold, and that there are ways you can identify dying ash trees this winter.
“You can actually find an infested tree by watching or looking for woodpeckers foraging on the bark of the trees that’s the best way to tell if you have emerald ash borer in your trees, and woodpeckers will start feeding on them one in the wintertime,” Mark says.
He recommends making plans to deal with the trees now instead of later, because once the tree has been infested it’s already too late to treat them.