The emerald ash borer has been found for the first time in Geauga and Trumbull counties in northeastern Ohio, the state reported yesterday.
The latest discovery of the beetles, made by a Department of Natural Resources forester who found infested ash trees along Rt. 422, officially puts the pests in 55 of Ohio's 88 counties.
Ash borers were first detected in the U.S. near Detroit in 2002; they probably had hitched a ride in wooden packing crates that arrived from Asia. The bug was first found in Ohio in Toledo in 2003. It has been found in Franklin, Delaware, Fairfield, Licking, Pickaway and Union counties in central Ohio.
The state at first tried to wipe out borers by destroying all ash trees within a half mile of an infestation. Federal budget cuts made that too expensive.
In September, the state gave up the fight and announced that it no longer would make it illegal to move potentially infested wood to noninfested Ohio counties. In other words, the entire state was quarantined. It's still illegal to move Ohio ash wood to another state.
via www.dispatch.com
Strategy 1: Control the infestation to prevent catastrophic loss of trees. Result: No more Ash borers in Ohio.
Strategy 2: Throw your hands up and wait for the Ash borer to decimate the Ash tree population in Ohio and then move on to another state. End result, no more Ash borers in Ohio.
The difference between strategies 1 and 2 is the expense of prevention in strategy 1 versus the value of Ash trees in strategy 2. Any cost/benefit experts out there willing to measure the value of Ash trees in Ohio?
