Emerald ash borer found in Iowa

DES MOINES – State officials announced Friday they have found the emerald ash borer, a destructive insect that kills ash trees, in the far northeast corner of the state.

Officials said the insect has been detected in an island in the Mississippi River in Allamakee County, two miles south of the Minnesota border. They said the location is close to an infestation in Wisconsin discovered last year.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said land where the insect was detected is accessible by boat, and that they believe it is a new infestation. He said the insects don't move very far by themselves.

“They can move several miles, but often an infestation will move maybe a mile or two a year,” Northey said.

The states surrounding Iowa that have detected the emerald ash borer include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri, Northey said.

Rich Leopold, director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the news the emerald ash borer was found in Iowa was unwelcome, but not unexpected.

Officials had been looking for the insect in Iowa since 2003, using such things as visuals surveys, trap surveys, and visits to sawmills and wood processing sites.

They have deployed 1,800 traps in the state, most of which are concentrated along the Mississippi River. The traps serve as monitors to see if they detect the insect in other places.

Leopold said the emerald ash borer is “ecologically devastating” when it gets to an area and can also have an economic impact. He pointed to Iowa's forestry industry, which he said generates $1 billion in economic activity each year.

“We have a lot of concern,” Leopold said. “I want to say, though, that we will cope. We'll figure out a way to do this. We had to go through this 30 years ago or so with Dutch elm disease. We will figure out a way.”

Officials are asking Iowans not to move firewood as a way to contain the spread of the pest, and are asking campers to get their firewood at the campsite

A quarantine prohibiting the movement of firewood, ash nursery stock, ash timber or other materials that could spread the emerald ash borer, or EAB, is pending with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

The insect is native to eastern Asia and kills ash trees when larvae burrow under the bark and eat the trees' actively growing layers. Iowa officials say it was detected in the United States in 2002 near Detroit.

Charlotte Eby can be reached at 515-422-9061 or chareby@aol.com.

Dealing with the emerald ash borer

-- Don't move firewood. Officials are asking campers to get their firewood at the campsite.

-- Officials say owners of ash trees should continue to enjoy them and shouldn't immediately cut them down or treat them. They say it could be a long time before it spreads to other parts of the state or migrates out of northeast Iowa.

-- Officials are urging homeowners to think about a diversity of trees and perhaps choosing to plant a type of tree that doesn't already exist in abundance in their neighborhoods.

-- Homeowners do not have to worry about treating ash trees unless they live within 15 miles of a confirmed EAB infestation. Homeowners can treat smaller trees, but larger trees should be left to professionals, officials say.

More information can be found at www.extension.iastate.edu/pme/EmeraldAshBorer.html

Source: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa State University