Emerald Ash Borer Information
The Emerald Ash Borer was recently found to have invaded ash trees in Worthington. The Emerald Ash Borer is an ash tree-killing insect from Asia, inadvertently imported 10-15 years ago. The pest is a wood-boring beetle that kills ash trees in three to five years. Adults are dark metallic green, about the size of a Tic-Tac, and fly May thru September. Larvae spend the rest of the year beneath the bark of ash trees, and when the emerge as adults, leave behind small D-shaped exit holes in the bark.
With the discovery of the Emerald Ash Borer in Worthington street trees, the City is taking steps to assess the threat and determine a course of action for the future.
City staff met recently with representatives from the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to gather more information and advice about the Emerald Ash Borer, its potential impact on Worthington’s ash tree population, and how to best deal with the infestation. The City has approximately 500 ash trees on public property, which includes street trees in the public right-of-way and trees in parks and on other City property. This makes up only 7% othe publicly located trees in Worthington.
The City already has in place an itemization of all the street trees in the City and will immediately begin a detailed assessment of all the ash trees. The assessment will include an inspection to detect whether the Emerald Ash Borer is present in each tree and, if so, determine the extent of the damage and immediate impact. A draft action plan has been prepared, which tentatively outlines plans to remove only infested trees which are deemed hazardous and show a significant amount of damage. Discussions are underway as to the best way to replace trees lost to the Emerald Ash Borer.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture has imposed a quarantine on Franklin County, and other areas of Ohio infested with the Emerald Ash Borer. The quarantine is designed to keep ash tree materials that harbor the pest from leaving the infested area. The quarantine restricts the transportation of ash trees, parts of ash trees and all hardwood firewood out of Franklin County and Ohio’s other quarantined areas.
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