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Forestry chiefs set workshop to monitor pest threatening timber industry

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The EAB, native to Asia, is a highly destructive pest of forest and ornamental ash trees, able to kill a mature tree within just a couple of years of infestation. (Courtesy photo)

LEBANON, Maine - The Maine Forest Service will conduct a workshop in Lebanon on log-peeling for ash trees involved in Maine's trap tree network to monitor for emerald ash borer, a destructive invasive pest that poses a dangerous threat to regional firewood supplies.

Some volunteers have already girdled trap trees on their property, and others are interested in being involved in the log-peeling workshops, according to a statement released on Friday from Maine's Dept. of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Traps in Lebanon, and Acton, Maine, have already been found to have the emerald ash borer. It has also been discovered in much of Strafford County including New Durham, Farmington and Strafford.

Current migrations patterns suggest it will be in Rochester and Barrington in three-to-five years.

The EAB, native to Asia, is a highly destructive pest of forest and ornamental ash trees, able to kill a mature tree within just a couple of years of infestation. Since its initial detection in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002 it has spread rapidly. As of August, it has been found in 35 states and four Canadian provinces.

Its principal destructiveness comes from its decimation of ash trees, coveted for their clean-burning properties and ability to be burn right off the stump, as well as the cost to homeowners to remove rotting trees that could threaten residences if they topple, New Hampshire state entomologist Pierra Siegert said in a Rochester Voice article in September.

Officials say the transportation of EAB - as well as other destructive, invasive pests - in nursery stock or firewood pose an ever-present threat in Maine and New Hampshire, where currently exportation out of county is prohibited.

Much of the migration of the pest is driven by firewood sale and transport. The bug can survive for long periods of time in a downed tree, Siegert said.

It is estimated that the EAB has cost municipalities, property owners, nursery operators and forest products industries hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ash trees comprise 4 percent of New Hampshire and Maine's hardwood forest, are a valuable timber species, and are also an important street tree. EAB threatens all species of ash trees (excepting mountain-ash). So far, there are no practical means to control EAB in forested areas, though pesticide treatments can protect individual trees.

The small beetles lay eggs on ash trees and the hatching larvae then tunnel under the bark.

Besides its wood burning qualities, ash is used to make baseball bats, snowshoes and canoe paddles among many other products.

If anyone thinks they may have EAB infesting trees on their property they should contact state officials through www.nhbugs.org or www.maine.gov.eab.

Wednesday's workshop will be held at the Lebanon Fire Station at the intersection of Upper Cross and Depot roads from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. A snow date has been scheduled for Thursday.

Participants are asked to contact Colleen Teerling, a Maine state entomologist, if you have questions or concerns about the trap process. She can be reached at (207) 287-3096, cell phone: (207) 592-2474, or by email at: colleen.teerling@maine.gov

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