BROOKINGS Emerald ash borer is in Brookings, and residents are urged to learn more at a meeting July 11 at 7 p.m. at the McCrory Gardens Education and Visitor Center.
Well spend a little time just talking about, OK, whats the situation now in Brookings? You know, where are we finding most of the infestations? What do people need to look out for? John Ball, SDSU Extension forestry specialist and South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources forest health specialist, said.
The meeting will feature representatives from SDSU Extension, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources and thecCity of Brookings.
In 2018, we first found emerald ash borer in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Now when I say we found it, I mean we confirmed it. It had been there probably since about 2014, Ball said. We havent confirmed it in Moody County yet, so this is kind of a jump. Brookings will be our first county that is landlocked so to speak. The issue with that is that once we find emerald ash borer in a county we have a quarantine, and no wood can move out of it.
Ball said city staff have worked out a plan.
Thats what the representatives from the city will be discussing how theyre going to be managing at the landfill so that we reduce the possibilities of having something leak out, Ball said. Right now, we certainly want to remind everybody not to carry ash firewood unless they bought it at a store where its been treated.
Ball said they will also discuss options for treating infested trees.
Its not a death sentence at all. And in fact, this is one of the few situations where we have an incredibly effective treatment for it. The emerald ash borer insecticide injections are very, very effective near one-hundred percent, Ball said. If someone has an ash tree in their yard that looks healthy by that, no dead branches, it provides a lot of shade for them and they dont want to lose it, well nows the time to start treatments.
He said, depending on the tree, treatments could cost around $200 per year.
We want people to start making those decisions relatively soon, Ball said. If you just leave an ash tree in your yard, dont treat it, and then it finally gets to the point that it dies from the emerald ash borer those removals become very expensive.
He said advanced cases on large trees have turned out to be costly.
The most expensive ash tree removal that I saw in Sioux Falls was about $24,000. Now again that was a very large tree, and it certainly wasnt typical. But the cost will go up the longer you wait to remove your ash tree, Ball said. When I confirmed emerald ash borer in Sioux Falls in May of 2018 on a Saturday, the first thing I did when I got home on Saturday is I removed the one ash tree in our yard.
He said theyll also discuss replacement options.
Were going to go over some other trees that are not well-represented in Brookings in other words, trees that we may want to see more of in town, Ball said. What we dont want to see is a lot of people rush out and plant maple, because at some point well have too many maples in Brookings, and who knows what little pest will come in as happened with Dutch elm disease. We lost all our big elms, and now ash were losing our ash. Well, we want to break that cycle. So wed like to see a more diverse planting. And I will say the city of Brookings, on their street trees, has certainly been following that. And for those that havent noticed, theres a lot of interesting trees planted along the streets in Brookings. To add to that diversity, wed like to see that carry over to peoples yards.
Ball said the public is welcome to bring questions to Thursday nights meeting. More information about emerald ash borer identification and treatment options is available at the SDSU Extension website at extension.sdstate.edu.
Email Jay Roe at [email protected].
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