State Department of Environmental Conservation officials have made their first discovery of an emerald ash borer in Albany County in a Selkirk trap located on private property near the CSX rail yard.
The beetle infects and kills ash trees, and the infestation of the borer has led state officials to implement restrictions on the transportation of ash wood outside of neighboring Greene County, along with Ulster and Orange Counties in the Hudson Valley, in an attempt to limit the spread of the borer.
DEC officials placed approximately 200 purple prism traps in Albany County in the beginning of this year, and say the discovery in Selkirk was the only one in the county. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the finding on Oct. 20.
“This is sort of an end of the season round-up,” said DEC spokesperson Michael Bopp. “We bring in the traps and see what we’ve found.”
The emerald ash borer was first discovered in the U.S. in 2002 in southeastern Michigan, and the first finding in New York was in Cattaraugus County in the western part of the state in 2009. Currently, the state has set about 2,500 traps for the borer, and there were over 5,000 traps set by federal and state partners this year.
“We are continuing our investigation and sharing our findings and developing a coordinated response with our partners so that we all move together,” said Bopp. “We feel that we don’t need to do an emergency response quarantine because we are past the fly-around season, so we are at a low-transmission risk. We expect to have some kind of plan in place by the spring.”
DEC officials found no signs of infestation in ash trees surrounding the area where the beetle was found. The concern, though, is that damage could be done if the borer is not contained.
“There are 900 million ash trees in New York, and they represent about 7 percent of our forestry resources,” said Bopp. He added that it is a large component of the state’s natural resources to have at risk, and that a dead tree can provide a hazard to individuals and trouble for municipalities.
The state is carrying out a strategy known as SLAM, or Slow Ash Mortality. As part of the plan, the DEC is attempting to more precisely define infestation boundaries, while also researching insecticides and organisms that can be used to control the spread of the borer.
“Other states that have experienced this have essentially done clear-cutting, presuming that was the end game,” said Bopp. “Instead of cutting down every ash tree within 1,000 yards, we are visually inspecting trees before we get into any massive action or larger-scale action.”
“It is very important to remind everyone to not move any ash materials or firewood from the Selkirk area to prevent this infestation from spreading further,” said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens.
Bopp said the best thing for the public to do is to contact the department if anything suspicious is observed near ash trees. More details about spotting and reporting emerald ash borers can be found at www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7253.html.
