( known to be infected with the borer are...)Emerald Spectre haunts Ontario's ash forests

known to be infected with the borer are under quarantine. Prominent signs along highways advise the public of the total ban on the transport out of the area of ash trees, saplings and firewood. During the winter of 2003-2004, the CFIA took the dramatic step of creating a borer "firewall" in Ontario's Essex County. That involved removing all the ash trees in a ten kilometre wide swath between lakes Erie and St. Clair, beyond the eastern boundary of the borer's current range.

Regardless, the report notes, "the borers distribution expanded dramatically in 2004" primarily through natural dispersal, but in some cases through human transport. In Ontario, the borer infected 23 new sites to the east, all beyond the firewall. The study suggests that the new infestations most likely came from infected firewood or saw logs moved there prior to the creation of the firewall ?but MacIsaac doesn't rule out the possibility that beetles jumped the ash-free zone. The study notes that scientists still need to determine the maximum flight potential of adult borers.

In Michigan, the borer was reported at 29 new sites in 2004. New infestations were also reported in Ohio and Indiana.

The one bright spot in the study is the apparently successful eradication of a borer population that was introduced into Maryland and, subsequently, into Virginia in a shipment of infected nursery saplings from Michigan. Officials destroyed the saplings as well as all ash trees within a kilometre of each infected site.

"The success in Maryland shows that if you get them early and before they build up large populations you can probably extinguish colonizing groups," says Dr. MacIsaac, whose research is primarily on freshwater and marine invasive species. Scientists believe the borer probably entered North America in ash shipping materials, and was present for as much as a decade prior to being identified.

The challenge in the Great Lakes region, he says, is the current
'"/>

Source:Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

Page: 1 2 3
Related biology news :

1. U.N. mulls the protection of Earths forests
2. Report highlights change in Canadas forests
3. Soil nutrition affects carbon sequestration in forests
4. Fungal factories may save hemlock forests
5. MITs ocean model captures diversity of underwater forests