By Kalvin D. Perron
Staff Reporter
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BRIMLEY - On Monday, Sept. 12, United States Department of Agriculture Entomologist James Zablotny officially confirmed that two larvae extracted from the Brimley State Park were emerald ash borer larvae. This marks the first time the pest has been detected in the Upper Peninsula.
Members of the EAB Response Project originally detected the EAB's signature D-shaped exit holes on a detection tree at the park in early July. On Wednesday, Sept. 7, the MDA crew returned to the park to cut and peel nine ash trees, finding the larvae after removing the bark from the eighth log. According to Carol Kirvan, of the MDA, the state's most effective approach of combating the spread of the pest once it is detected is to cut down all ash trees within one-half mile of the site of infestation.
"Fortunately for us the EAB is a lazy bug," she said. "It only moves as far as it has to. The spread of the pest is not inevitable. We are confident that the finding at the Brimley State Park is an isolated incident. So far we have not detected signs of the pest elsewhere."
Kirvan said that before the state begins the process of cutting the ash trees, they must first determine the edges of the one-half mile area and survey them and beyond for signs of the pest. Once the edges are determined, each ash tree, one-inch and larger, must be inventoried. After all the ash trees in the area are inventoried the process of bidding out contracts to cut the trees will be started.
As part of their survey, Kirvan accompanied a crew from the EAB Response Project's Traverse City Office on a tour of Bay Mills Indian Community's 10.5-acre Black Ash Preserve near Wild Bluff Golf Course. The crew scaled numerous trees throughout the preserve and peeled the bark of freshly cut logs on adjacent property to locate signs of an infestation. But they came up empty-handed. Anthony Johns, the EAB Response Project's Crew Leader, said if the EAB made its way to Bay Mills it would definitely make its presence known in a few year's time.
"I've seen what this pest can do and it's not pretty," he said of areas infested by the EAB. "I've seen campgrounds in the original core area that looked like Swiss cheese. If it were to come here, it wouldn't take long to kill your entire ash population."
The EAB is currently responsible for the death or damage of 15 million ash trees in the Lower Peninsula. Kirvan estimated that around 50 percent of the "farms" area, or eastern boarder of the reservation, is populated by ash trees. She said that if the EAB were to infiltrate the reservation boundary, it would undoubtedly make its presence known.
"We have a really, really good chance of preventing it from coming to Bay Mills," she said. "An infestation is not inevitable. Steps can be taken to keep it from spreading."
Kirvan said that close monitoring of the wood coming into places like the Bay Mills RV Park, or the campground behind the Bay Mills ball field, and the establishing of quarantine on Bay Mills are steps that could be taken to help prevent the spread of the pest.
For more information about EAB, please visit www.michigan.gov/eab, or www.emeraldashborer.info.
