Infected ash trees found in south Prince George’s

State agencies are involved in identifying and destroying the trees

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006

by Carla Peay

Staff Writer

The emerald ash borer is a small green insect that resembles a beetle and only infects ash trees.

‘‘The emerald ash borer was discovered in Michigan about three years ago. There was a quarantine on the sale of ash trees in the state, but a nursery in Michigan illegally sold ash trees to a nursery in Prince George’s County,” said Sue DuPont, director of communications for the Department of Agriculture. The name of the nursery that unknowingly bought the infected trees was not released.

‘‘We were fortunate that a nursery inspector discovered the problem and we are taking steps to correct it. We have begun a strong, aggressive eradication effort on 120 ash trees so far in the county,” DuPont said. Joining forces with the Department of Natural Resources, foresters from that agency are surveying the wooded areas in the county, while teams from the Department of Agriculture are conducting residential street by street surveys.

When infected trees are discovered, they are chopped down and taken to a warehouse in Cheltenham where they are chipped apart and destroyed. DuPont stressed that there is no danger to people who burn infected ash wood as firewood.

‘‘The best advice we can give citizens is to report any ash trees that they spot, not to plant any ash trees, and to only burn firewood that they buy locally,” said DuPont.

Ash trees that have been spotted and are scheduled to be taken down are marked in orange around the county.

‘‘Our state has been very successful in finding and identifying these trees. Some of these trees had been used in landscaping on public property before it was discovered that they were infected,” said Susan Hubbard, public information officer of the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation.

‘‘When an infected tree is discovered, the survey teams then increase their survey area by a radius of half a mile, so we are confident that they can find and destroy all the infected trees in the county,” Hubbard said. A quarantine is still in effect on ash trees, and it is illegal to ship ash trees from state to state. An infected ash tree looks like it’s dying, and can be detected by small D-shaped holes in the bark of the tree.

‘‘We are working with the state to get the work out to concerned citizens,” said Hubbard.

Two public workshops have been scheduled through the joint efforts of the Department of Public Works and Transportation, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources. The first is scheduled for Wednesday Nov. 29 at Frederick Douglass High School in Upper Marlboro. The second is scheduled for Thursday Dec. 7 at Surrattsville high School. Both will be held at 7 p.m.

E-mail Carla Peay at cpeay@gazette.net