The C&O Canal Park is one entity taking part in a national surveying program aimed to detect the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle that has killed millions of ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
Though the EAB has not been found within the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, it has been detected in surrounding areas, including Prince George’s County and recently, Fairfax County, Va. Virginia state officials this month placed a quarantine on the movement of ash trees, ash products and firewood out of the county, and on June 21, the quarantine was expanded to surrounding counties including Loudoun and Prince William.
‘‘Basically, [the beetle] kills the tree,” said Scott Bell, Natural Resource Program Manager for the C&O Canal Park. ‘‘It’s a real concern because ash trees are very important to the total environment.”
The national effort to track the EAB, coordinated by the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, enlists local, state and national agencies to hang purple triangular traps on ash trees outside the infestation area containing a sticky substance that attracts the pests. The survey aims to determine the breadth of the beetle’s impact outside of known areas.
‘‘It’s the best tool we have right now of doing a national survey,” said Dick Bean, an entomologist with the Maryland Department of Agriculture’s plant protection and weed management division. Bean is also the field operation supervisor for the state’s EAB eradication project.
More traps are concentrated in areas that are within 100 miles of an infestation, Bean said. In Maryland, 954 traps have been placed.
In the C&O Canal Park, high school students ages 15-18 who take part in the Youth Conservation Corps, a summer educational program, helped hang 10 traps in June in the Western part of the park. So far, no pests have been found – but the traps will remain in place until September, throughout the course of the pests’ peak activity during the summer, said Michelle Carter, a biologist with the C&O Canal Park who coordinates the youth program.
The recent news about the infestation in Virginia has lent credence to the trapping program for the students, Carter said.
‘‘I think it definitely makes it come to life a little bit —- there really is validity in the project, we’re not just sticking purple things in trees,” Carter said.
Experts fear the beetle — which burrows beneath the bark of ash trees as larvae to feed and disrupts the tree’s ability to absorb nutrients — can spread quickly because it has no predators, can fly about a half-mile per season, and can be transported easily through wood. The beetle, originally from Asia, was first discovered in Michigan in 2002 and spread to surrounding states, according to the MDA. In late 2003, more than 100 ash trees from Michigan were shipped to a nursery in Prince George’s County, causing an infestation there.
Prince George’s County remains under quarantine, according to the MDA, and about 36,000 ash trees have been destroyed so far in an effort to stop the pest in that county.
‘‘Obviously, it’s spreading around,” Bell said. ‘‘That’s why we’re taking part – so we can continue to monitor it.”
It’s unclear what the potential impact could be if the beetle were to spread into the park, because the total number of ash trees there remains unknown. However, ash trees generally thrive in areas along the water, such as the park, Bean said.
The loss of ash trees would have a wide-reaching impact, Bean said. ‘‘You have these ash trees along the stream valleys that provide shade and cooling...when the EAB takes these out, the stream warms up, making them less habitable to other species like trout,” Bean said.
According to the MDA, the state would re-evaluate the process for controlling the pest if the beetle were to be found outside the infested areas in the fall. Meanwhile, officials are urging residents to stick to the quarantine guidelines in infested areas and refrain from transporting firewood. It is prohibited to bring firewood into the C&O Canal Park’s campgrounds.
Bell said that if the program continues next year, the park will continue to participate. ‘‘This is just part of the larger effort,” Bell said
TO LEARN MORE
For more information about the emerald ash borer, visit www.mda.state.md.us⁄plants-pests⁄eab⁄
TO HELP
Ash trees with dying branches may have EAB. Another sign is increased woodpecker activity, according to David Gailey, a regional forester for southern Maryland with the Department of Natural Resources – the birds tend to feed on the beetles. If you suspect EAB, call 410-841-5920 to report it.
