Emerald ash borer is on the move

If you live in Missouri, you have undoubtedly heard of the emerald ash borer (EAB), an insect that kills ash trees.   

For years, we were warned about bringing in firewood from elsewhere because that helped spread this little green monster even further into the Ozarks and beyond.   

But as of January of this year, the USDA issued final regulations dropping this quarantine (at least at the federal level).

I was curious as to why the USDA did this, so I decided to research it further. Apparently, it was felt that the quarantine on firewood was generally unsuccessful in stopping the spread of EAB and they needed to direct resources to other ways of controlling EAB, including the development of a biological control agent, but more about that in a minute.  

Samples of bark from trees that are known to be infected by EAB in Missouri sit in a cooler. According to Dr. Rice, 30-70% of trees in forests throughout the U.S. are ash trees. EAB pose a major threat to these forests because of the large population of ash trees. Kit Wiberg

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