What’s new with emerald ash borer?

By Angela Gupta, UMN Extension Forester, agupta@umn.edu

Emerald ash borer, EAB, is still causing problems for community and forest ash trees and the people that care about those trees. As always, there’s a lot of good EAB information at the University of Minnesota Extension EAB webpage. Below are a few EAB updates.

Photo credit: flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/25575650601

EAB found in 7 new counties

EAB is new in Faribault, Lyon, southern Isanti, northeastern Kandiyohi, western Clay, north eastern Carlton and south eastern Lake counties. Both the public and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture continue to look for, and find, new locations of EAB. 

The year the ash tree died

In addition to finding EAB in new counties, ash mortality finally hit in-mass this spring as many ash trees in southeastern Minnesota and the Metro did not leaf out. This level of high ash mortality in untreated ash trees was not a surprise, but was still a stark contrast to previous years of declining ash tree health. 

The University of Minnesota Extension is working on an unrelated but complimentary project called Rewilding Your Backyard Woods that can help homeowners and land stewards dealing with ash tree mortality consider native, climate resilient, charismatic microfauna friendly trees and plants. To learn more about this project sign up for the My Minnesota Woods newsletter. 

Herd immunity can protect community ash trees

University of Extension Entomology Professor Brian Aukema and a team of scientists published a paper this March that showed that communities that treated 50% of their ash trees with emamectin benzoate or azadirachtin helped preserve the crown condition of nearby untreated ash trees. This finding may not change the decision making process for any individual homeowner treating their ash tree, but by treating that ash tree they are contributing to a possible overall improved crown health of neighboring ash trees. This finding could be very important for community forestry programs thinking about the costs and benefits of treating street and community ash trees. 

EAB communication matters

University of Minnesota Professor Ingrid Schneider led a group of scientists that recently published several papers about how the type of EAB communication matters for public support of EAB forest management. This study looked at how no information, trail-side signs, augmented reality and virtual reality influenced the public support for four different forest management approaches to treat stands likely to be impacted by EAB. An innovative 6-minute video abstract was created to summarize this work: Research summary: improving public perception of forest management in response to emerald ash borer.

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