Local areas to be part of ash borer quarantine

MANISTIQUE - Approval is being sought for new emerald ash borer quarantine measures in parts of Delta and Schoolcraft counties where the insect pest was discovered in recent weeks.

Last week, Michigan Department of Agriculture officials announced the exotic beetle was found in Schoolcraft County near Cooks.

The infestation was discovered near another area where the ash borer was found in neighboring Delta County. Officials theorize the two discoveries are related. Officials did not know how the insects got there or how long they have been there.

In response, officials with the MDA's Pesticide and Plant Management Division are proposing new quarantine designations for three townships in Delta County and two in Schoolcraft County.

The recommendations will likely be presented to MDA Director Don Koivisto. If approved, the designations would go into effect immediately, according to Jim Bowes, acting emerald ash borer program manager in Lansing.

"It's been run through a number of sources and it's all being finalized," Bowes said.

The insect has now been found in five counties in the Upper Peninsula. Last year, it was found at a camp near Moran in Mackinac County and, before that, in Chippewa County. There were additional discoveries in Delta, Schoolcraft and houghton counties this year.

The wood-boring beetles native to Asia were first discovered in Michigan downstate near Detroit six years ago. The exotic species is responsible for killing more than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone and tens of millions more in Ohio and Indiana, according to the MDA.

Only ash trees are affected by the beetles.

Much of the U.P. is currently non-quarantined and would remain so under the newly-proposed quarantine measures.

In Delta County, Garden, Fairbanks and Nahma townships and Inwood and Thompson townships in Schoolcraft County would be designated Level II quarantine areas.

The rest of Delta and Schoolcraft counties would be designated Level III quarantine areas. The lower the quarantine number, the higher the infestation level, or the closer to the place the emerald ash borer was located.

Currently, there are other parts of three U.P. counties with Level II or III quarantine areas.

Level II areas include the city of St Ignace and Moran, Brevort, and St Ignace townships in Mackinac County; the area near Brimley State Park in Chippewa County and in Houghton County, the city of hancock and Torch Lake, Schoolcraft, Calumet, Osceola, Franklin, hancock, and Quincy townships.

Level III areas currently include all of Keweenaw County and the remaining portions of Mackinac and houghton counties not designated Level II.

Items regulated by the MDA in quarantine areas include all hardwood firewood - not just ash wood - ash logs with bark, ash lumber with bark, hardwood wood chips greater than one-inch, ash limbs, ash branches, and ash stumps. The movement of regulated articles is not allowed into the U.P., Canada or other states. Moving regulated articles out of Level II and Level III areas of the U.P. is prohibited without a special agreement.

Currently, the sale or movement of all ash nursery stock within, out of or into Michigan is prohibited under all conditions.

There are 21 counties in southeast Michigan designated as Level I quarantine areas. The new guidelines being proposed would move the entire Lower Peninsula to Level I.

This past summer, hundreds of purple traps were placed in ash trees across the U.P. in hopes of gaining a better idea of the spread of the ash borer.

Bowes said more areas of infestation may be discovered as researchers are currently inspecting trees in many areas and results of the trapping efforts are being analyzed.

For more information, visit: www.michigan.gov/eab