Beautiful beetle from Asia a killer of ash trees here

Emerald ash borer.

From ecoRI News (ecori.org)

The emerald ash borer, a destructive forest insect from Asia, has been found for the first time in Rhode Island, according to that state's Department of Environmental Management (DEM). The state has joined the federal quarantine covering much of the eastern United States to slow the spread of this alien invader.

Officials with the Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have confirmed the identification of a beetle recently found in Washington County. The insect, which attacks only ash trees, was captured during annual monitoring surveys conducted jointly by DEM, the University of Rhode Island, and the USDA.

With many more traps collected from around Rhode Island now being examined, it’s highly likely that there will be more positive emerald ash borer identifications to be announced, according to DEM.

The emerald ash borer accidentally arrived in North America via wooden packing material exported from China and was first detected in Detroit in 2002. The invasive pest overwinters as larva under the bark of ash trees. As they grow, larvae feed and zigzag through tree tissue, leaving S-shaped tunnels that cut off the tree’s ability to transport water and nutrients. Once infested, ash trees rapidly decline and are killed in three to five years.

In Asia, emerald ash borers have co-evolved with native ash trees, so there are natural enemies and pathogens that keep their levels in check. That isn’t the case in North America, where there are very few if any known enemies and pathogens to control the insect.

Emerald ash borers has been detected in 35 states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and in three Canadian provinces. Since its discovery, the insect has killed tens of millions of ash trees and has cost municipalities, property owners, nursery operators, and forest products industries tens of millions of dollars, according to APHIS.

Although ash trees constitute only about 1 percent to 2 percent of Rhode Island’s forests, ash has been widely planted in urban public areas as landscape and shade trees on streets, campuses, parks, and urban woodlots. A compromised ash tree may represent a potential risk to health and safety because of the public use of these areas, according to DEM.

Emerald ash borers threaten all ash species in Rhode Island, including white ash, green ash, and black ash. There are no proven means to control these insects in forested areas, though repeated pesticide treatments can help protect individual trees, according to DEM.

Emerald ash borers don’t pose any human health risk.

DEM is finalizing an action plan aimed at slowing the spread and assisting Rhode Island landowners and municipalities in raising awareness of emerald ash borers and other invasive pests, identifying and inventorying ash trees, and reducing risks. DEM’s Division of Forest Environment is preparing a guidance document to help communities and homeowners develop response plans.

Slowing the spread of this insect is important, according to DEM. Adult emerald ash borers can fly only short distances, but people have accelerated their spread by moving infested material, particularly firewood. Larvae are easily moved in firewood, logs, and nursery stock, because they are hard to detect under bark.

Residents and visitors are reminded to protect Rhode Island’s forests by buying and burning local firewood. Wood dealers, loggers, and arborists should check state and federal restrictions prior to transporting ash out of Rhode Island. DEM has adopted the Don’t Move Firewood campaign developed by The Nature Conservancy.

Oil-spill settlement helps fund shellfish-restoration projects around Buzzards Bay

By ecoRI News staff

BOURNE, Mass. — Buzzards Bay recreational fishermen may soon have access to improved scallop, oyster and quahog populations in town waters for recreational harvests, thanks to settlement funding being used by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and The Nature Conservancy to restore natural resources injured by a 2003 oil spill near the bay’s entrance.

In April 2003, the Bouchard Transportation Co. Barge #120 spilled about 98,000 gallons of fuel oil into Buzzards Bay. The oil spread along more than 90 miles of shoreline and affected wildlife, shellfish beds, recreational activities and habitat. Eight years later, natural resource agencies secured a $6 million settlement to restore wildlife, shoreline and aquatic resources and lost recreational uses.

With the settlement money, the Buzzards Bay/Bouchard B-120 Trustee Council — the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and state agencies from Massachusetts and Rhode Island — has funded 26 projects. Nature Conservancy bay scallop and oyster restoration projects and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries quahog and oyster restoration work are among the recently funded projects. These restoration efforts are targeting recreational shellfisheries within the impacted Buzzards Bay communities.

“Recreational shellfisheries were tragically affected by the Bouchard spill, with some municipal harvesting areas closed for six months or longer during the peak harvest season due to the oiling,” said John Bullard, regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region.

The two settlement-funded conservancy shellfish projects are underway. In early June, the conservancy, in collaboration with Bourne municipal shellfish officials, deployed 7,500 caged adult bay scallops in town waters. The goal is to create a spawner sanctuary as an effective way of restoring sustainable bay scallop populations and supporting seasonal recreational shellfishing.

“Bay scallops are a historically and culturally significant species,” said Steve Kirk, the conservancy’s Massachusetts coastal restoration ecologist. “While populations have always fluctuated, we want to bring them back by creating spawner areas to ultimately boost the wild population.”

In collaboration with the town of Fairhaven, the conservancy is using additional settlement money to restore a one-acre oyster bed in Nasketucket Bay.

The Buzzards Bay Coalition is supporting the scallop and oyster restoration work by securing project volunteers and hosting outdoor educational opportunities focused on this shellfish restoration work.

Also funded by the settlement are projects led by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, including multiyear hard clam (quahog) relay and oyster restoration projects. This work involves moving adult quahog stock from an area closed to shellfishing in the Taunton River to designated transplant sites in the waters of Bourne, Dartmouth, Gosnold, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Wareham and Westport.

Upwellers for nursery grow-out will be installed and juvenile quahogs will be outplanted in Dartmouth, Wareham and Fairhaven. Outplanting of single field-plant-sized oysters will also take place in Bourne, Marion and Wareham.

The goals of the Division of Marine Fisheries-led projects are to increase overall municipal quahog populations and enhance recreational shellfisheries.

“Boosting the local quahog stocks for local recreational fishermen will be a tangible benefit to those impacted by the spill,” said Division of Marine Fisheries director David Pierce. “Once the transplanted clams are certified clean and held for at least one spawning season after a minimum of six months from relocation, fishermen will have access to this crop. We hope there will be increased quahog reproduction from these transplants, resulting in increased and sustainable harvests from their progeny in the future.''