05/13/2009

EAB Awareness Week Highlights Environmental Threat, Role of Firewood

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio and other states throughout the Midwest and eastern United States have joined to declare May 17-23 “Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Awareness Week” in an effort to get the word out about this exotic insect pest, which has already destroyed millions of native ashes and has the potential to completely erase these valuable hardwood and landscape trees from North America.

In the Buckeye state — where ashes comprise 10 percent of all trees — Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) are joining the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in raising awareness about EAB and providing citizens with the knowledge they need to manage this invasive pest and limit its spread.

By promoting the “Burn It Where You Buy It” message, this year’s EAB Awareness Week focuses on the role of firewood in spreading this destructive beetle. EAB larvae can hitch a ride in firewood transported by campers and other outdoor enthusiasts across Ohio or throughout the country, emerging later on and infesting nearby ash trees.

Officials recommend buying firewood locally. But if firewood has been brought from elsewhere, citizens are being asked to make sure it’s completely burned.

“Although education about emerald ash borer happens year round, EAB Awareness Week is a concerted effort to raise awareness about the insect and halt its artificial spread by the movement of firewood and other ash materials,” said Amy Stone, coordinator of the Ohio State University EAB Outreach Team. “Since EAB was detected in Ohio in 2003, we have had a large number of dead and dying trees. Ohioans need to act responsibly and not spread the pest any further, buying firewood where they intend to burn it and not hauling it outside of the area.”

Activities slated during EAB Awareness Week include placement of “Burn It Where You Buy It” yard signs by volunteers throughout Ohio; an educational program offered by OSU Extension at the Toledo Zoo (Sunday, May 17); issuing of a proclamation by Gov. Ted Strickland and community officials (May 18); and an event at Dempsey Middle School in Delaware, where Agriculture Director Robert Boggs will recognize students’ research on EAB being conducted with the U.S. Forest Service (May 19, noon-2:30 p.m.).

A native of northeast Asia, EAB has been found in almost 40 Ohio counties, as well as in parts of Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Canada. A state quarantine in Ohio makes it illegal to move all hardwood firewood, ash trees and parts of ash trees out of 44 counties (see www.agri.ohio.gov/divs/plant/eab/eab-index.aspx for details). Ohio is also under a federal quarantine that prohibits the movement of ash tree materials and hardwood firewood out of the Buckeye state without federal certification.

USDA estimates that if EAB is not contained or eradicated, it has the potential to cost state and local governments $7 billion over the next 25 years to remove and replace dead and dying ash trees that pose a safety hazard in urban and suburban areas.

“Citizens can help spread the word about EAB by putting a ‘Burn It Where You Buy It’ sign in their yard,” Stone said. “This message needs to be seen across Ohio.”

For more information about EAB, log on to ashalert.osu.edu. To inquire about yard signs, call (888) OHIO-EAB.

OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

Writer:

Mauricio Espinoza
espinoza.15@osu.edu
(330) 202-3550

Source:

Amy Stone, OSU Extension, Lucas Co.
stone.91@cfaes.osu.edu
(419) 578-6783