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(AP) - An exotic beetle that destroys ash trees
could spread from the Great Lakes states across the east-central
United States within the next two decades, federal agriculture
officials said Tuesday.

      The emerald ash borer already has infested trees in more than
1,200 cities and townships in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio,
said Philip Bell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service regional manager for the beetle.

      If no action is taken to stop it, the beetle could infest more
than 12,000 municipalities from Minnesota to North Carolina by
2027, he told the Wisconsin Senate environmental and Assembly forestry
committees during a joint hearing.

      The UDSA hopes to contain the beetle in the Great Lake states
and eventually wipe it out, Bell said. 

Wisconsin remains
beetle-free but has been testing for the creature and preparing
responses, making the state a great place to make a stand, Bell
said.

      "We have a grand opportunity to push this thing back," Bell
said.

      But the committees greeted Bell with skepticism.

      State Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, a forestry committee member,
said it's inevitable the borer will invade Wisconsin. He wondered
whether loggers and landowners should start cutting down their ash
trees now and sell them while they're still worth something.

      "Get what you can now, because the bugs, they be comin',"
Boyle told the committees.

      The emerald ash borer is a tiny, metallic green beetle that
feeds on the layer of wood just beneath the bark of the ash tree,
cutting off water and nutrients and killing the tree.

      The bug, native to Asia, was first discovered in the Detroit
area in 2002. Authorities say it probably arrived in wood packing
crates.

      The beetle could destroy the 717 million ash trees in
Wisconsin's rural forests and 5.4 million ash trees along streets,
resulting in a loss of up to $4 billion, said Jane Cummings
Carlson, the state Department of Natural Resources' forest health
protection coordinator.

      The USDA has imposed a quarantine in states with the beetle that
prevents host materials such as firewood, bark and wood chips from
crossing state lines. The Wisconsin DNR adopted an emergency rule
last year that forces campers at state parks to use firewood
obtained in Wisconsin.

      Cummings Carlson outlined several additional facets in the
state's plan to combat the beetle, including:

      -Warning people who live in Minneapolis and Chicago and own
cabins in Wisconsin not to bring in firewood from out-of-state.

      -Encouraging landowners to think about thinning their ash trees
when pruning.

      -Monitoring research on the beetle and looking for any ash
species that might prove resistant to the beetle.

      -Preserving ash tree seeds for replanting if the beetle wipes
out large numbers of trees.

      The hearing comes after word broke that government inspectors
found two Menards home improvement stores in southern Wisconsin
didn't immediately comply with a recall order to return thousands
of bundles of firewood from an Illinois supplier in keeping with
the federal quarantine. Bell called the incident a wake-up called
but said "we got it stopped."

      Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn, said he's "sickened" by the
thought of losing Wisconsin's ash trees, but doubts the state can
stop the beetle.

      He questioned spending money to combat it and whether the state
should instead "prepare for surrender."

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Environmental News

An exotic beetle that destroys ash trees
could spread from the Great Lakes states across the east-central
United States within the next two decades, federal agriculture officials say.

Destructive tree beetle could spread across eastern U.S.

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