Dan Fineberg

November 4, 2011

Those purple boxes hanging from trees along the roadside may become necessary a lot sooner than originally anticipated. The boxes are designed to capture emerald ash borers, an invasive species that lays its eggs in eggs in ash trees. As the larvae hatch, they burrow under the bark, disrupt nutrient flow, and often kill the tree in which they hatched. The ash borer has been moving up through New York towards New England since the first New York colony was discovered in 2009.

Last week, a new colony of ash borers was detected in Saugerties, NY. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation has isolated a 225 square mile area in New York with trees affected by the ash borer. But, the DEC is quick to note that despite its best efforts, the ash borer will continue to spread and it may reach New England sooner than expected. The DEC's priority right now is protecting New England from infestation by sacrificing some trees in western NY.

The NY DEC's approach has two prongs. The first step is to "girdle" trees, a process that makes certain trees more attractive to the ash borer to encourage the insects to lay their eggs in specific trees. During the winter months, after the trees have been impregnated with ash borer larvae, the DEC will cut down the contaminated trees killing thousands of unborn ash borers.

By halting the growth of the species temporarily, the DEC will allow for the second prong of its plan to take effect. The second prong is to introduce a predatory wasp into the area to feed on and control the population of the ash borer. The key to the effectiveness of the plan is to allow the wasp population time to establish itself so that it can effectively control the ash borer's spread.

The good news for New England is that right now its safety is the NY DEC's top priority, but unfortunately, certain things are beyond the DEC's control. Hopefully, girdling and wasps will help to slow the migration of the ash borer into New England, but unless a more final solution is discovered, the population's arrival is inevitable. Given the surprising arrival of the ash borer in Saugerties, New England needs to prepare itself for the arrival of the ash borer because apparently even the best efforts to monitor, predict, and prevent the spread of the ash borer are somewhat inadequate.

Associated Press, Attack on Ash Borer Includes Predatory Wasps, Saws, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 30, 2011, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/AP40d5ac3f11e24e7f83c78b9bb56e18fc.html.

Jane Park, Invasive Ash Borer Moves East, WENY-TV News, Oct. 31, 2011, available at http://www.weny.com/News-Regional.asp?ARTICLE3890=9162269.