EMERALD ASH BORER Impacts All Ohioans
Nurseries Stuck with Thousands of Trees. Woodland Owners at Risk of Losing Timber Investment. Heating and Cooling Costs on the Rise. These headlines may sound like the effects of a dwindling economy, but all of this is occurring because of a little green insect called Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).
EAB’s impact, both environmental and economic, is being felt all over Ohio. In fact, nearly one out of every 10 trees in Ohio is an ash, making the species an important component in Ohioans’ yards, parks, tree-lined streets, and rural forests.
Ash is a major wetland and waterway tree, keeping our streams and rivers cool and clean. Tourist areas, campgrounds, parks, and schoolyards all are facing the loss of the shade and character visitors love. Ash offers forest diversity, valuable hardwood lumber, and protection for a number of other forest plants and animals. Not to mention, ash is a popular landscape tree. Community streets, parks, and yards all over Ohio planted with ash trees are facing the loss of property value, summer cooling effects, and massive removal costs as a result of EAB.
Estimated costs to Ohio residents and businesses for removal, disposal, and replacement of ash trees is in the billions of dollars over the next decades. Individuals need to keep a close eye on their trees and take the best action for the situation.
Ash is a tricky species due to its structural nature: as it declines and dies, large branches break or the entire tree topples over soon after death. Therefore, the safety hazard created by EAB in communities littered with dead ash trees creates a costly and dangerous problem for municipal leaders and homeowners. Removing dead and dying trees cost significantly more to remove because of the unpredictable nature of the wood. Safely removing trees around homes, buildings, and backyards compounds the cost of dead tree removal. To head off these concerns, several Ohio communities are working to systematically remove ash trees ahead of the borer.
 Respect the Quarantines- Don’t Move Firewood
Ohio Department of Agriculture’s (ODA) quarantine prohibits the movement of all non-coniferous firewood, ash trees and all parts of ash trees from being moved out of quarantined areas. At the time this article was written, Williams, Fulton, Lucas, Ottawa, Defiance, Henry, Wood, Sandusky, Delaware, Miami, Marion, Cuyahoga, Seneca, Warren, Wyandot, Medina, Lorain, and Erie counties and townships in Huron, Hancock, Auglaize, and Franklin counties are quarantined. ODA also has quarantined the entire State of Michigan and nine EAB-infested counties in Indiana.
Moving non-coniferous firewood or any ash tree material out of an EAB quarantined area may result in fines up to $4,000. The Emerald Ash Borer Task Force encourages everyone to buy firewood locally and burn what you buy. |