The ash trees in Michigan are getting wiped out by a bug

[Lefty48197]

The emerald ash borer to be precise. The ugly result of it's infestation are hard to miss.




The beetle was discovered in 2002 near Detroit, and to date, it has killed over six million ash trees in Michigan. The state has responded by trying to quarantine the counties of southeastern Michigan. Unfortunately, they are scrambling to learn more about the beetle, and how it spreads. They are trying to keep residents in the quarantine areas from transporting infested ash firewood to unquarantined counties. I doubt the quarantine will be any more successful than were the attempts to quarantine the zebra mussel, which has now spread to many inland lakes.
The truth is that we've always had trouble controlling invasive species. Our delicate ecosystem is often thrown off whack by invasions of non-native species.
The sea lamprey devastated our lake trout and salmon populations several years ago. They have since made an incomplete recovery, but the tourist and commercial dollars lost to that pest can never be recovered. Nor can the funds now needed to clean up and control the spread of the zebra mussel.
The cost of removing and replacing those dead ash trees is probably over a hundred bucks each.
We've had troubles with other invasive species:
The carp has muddied up many waters in this area, and eliminated other fish from those areas.
Dutch elm disease, the gobi, the river ruffe... the list never seems to end.
Here's a couple of links with more information about the emerald ash borer:

http://www.emeraldashborer.info/

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/EAB_Brochure_FINAL_52111_7.pdf

[JuniperLea]

1. they better get on that NOW!

or they run the risk of fires like at lake arrowhead, ca! the bark beetles there killed so many trees, and they were allowed to stand, just waiting to fuel fire. my sister and my brother both lost their homes during that one! i'd hate to see this happen to anyone else! it is sooooo preventable!!!

[mike_c]

2. this is one of the downsides of global trade agreements...

...that put commerce first and prudence second. WTO agreements make it very difficult to preemptively "restrict commerce" that has a high likelihood of introducing invasive organisms. This is especially true concerning wood/forest products. It was the keynote address topic at the North American Forest Insect Work Conference three or four years ago.