Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week is May 22-28

ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 26, 2011) – Maryland is joining the national recognition of Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week May 22-28, 2011. This is part of an ongoing effort to inform residents about ways to help stop the spread of the emerald ash borer, a destructive pest that kills ash trees.  The focus of the campaign is to encourage campers, anglers, scouts, and other outdoor enthusiasts to leave firewood at home, buy it at their destination and burn it completely.

“With the beginning of the summer vacation season upon us, we remind residents that they can do their part to help stop the spread of the emerald ash borer by leaving their firewood at home,” said Governor Martin O’Malley.  “Ash trees are important to our environment by shading and cooling our neighborhoods in the summer, by providing buffers along our streams, and as part of our timber industry, so we need to do what we can to stop this destructive beetle in its tracks.”

Since ash is used to make baseball bats, part of the awareness effort will be a fun summer-long campaign with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs and Bowie Baysox. The campaign also includes “Don’t move firewood! It Bugs Me!” bumper magnets; yard signs; billboards, and outreach to private campgrounds.

As part of the state’s effort to stop the spread of the pest, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is prohibiting campers and other visitors from bringing outside firewood onto its properties.  DNR staff will be notifying campers of the restriction when reservations are made and by notices posted at the properties. Personnel will be able to direct visitors to local sources of firewood and require campers to burn all firewood transported to a DNR property.

Surveys, which are continuous and ongoing, are crucial to understanding the emerald ash borer’s impact in Maryland and determining the best course of action.  MDA is deploying up to 2,600 purple triangular purple insect traps in trees statewide to determine the presence of EAB. In Prince George’s County, MDA will be also hanging 20 new green traps where we expect to collect beetles as part of the national “trap trial” study. The traps have a special bait to lure the borer and are extremely sticky on the outside so the beetle can’t fly away once it lands. This year, the battle to stop the spread of the emerald ash borer includes more intensive surveys in Western Maryland and on the Eastern Shore including Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset counties for the first time as part of the national 2011 EAB survey. Additionally, MDA is using systemic insecticides to treat selected trees in and around the known infested area and releasing three biocontrol agents (beneficial insects) at selected sites.

“Because the emerald ash borer has spread through parts of Prince George’s and Charles counties, quarantines are effect,” said Agriculture Secretary Earl F. Hance.  “In order to keep the rest of the state safe from these pests, it is illegal to move all forms of ash trees and wood.  The beetle can only move a short distance on its own but it and others like it can move hundreds of miles on infested firewood.”

The emerald ash borer was transported to Prince George’s County, Maryland on an illegal shipment of ash trees from Michigan in 2003.  Thousands of ash trees have been destroyed in Prince George’s and Charles counties to eradicate the problem. The insect, an exotic pest from Asia, feeds on and kills ash trees in one to three years after infestation.
The emerald ash borer is responsible for the loss of tens of millions of trees in 15 states nationwide.  USDA has estimated that losses could reach almost $300 million in the Baltimore area alone if the beetle were left unchecked.   In Maryland, ash is the most common street tree in Baltimore, making up about 10 percent of total trees.  Ash accounts for more than three percent of trees in naturally wooded area in Baltimore and surrounding counties. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources also estimates that about 20 percent of our streamside trees, vital to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, are ash trees.

Log onto www.stopthebeetle.info/ to learn more about the emerald ash borer and ways that everyone can help stop its spread. Maryland residents and property owners can call the University of Maryland Home and Garden Information center toll-free at 800-342-2507 or the MDA at 410-841-5920 to report dying ash trees or for help identifying a possible emerald ash borer. Anyone can report suspect EAB through the Maryland Home and Garden Information Center’s reporting form.