www.arborage.com Arbor Age / June 2014 11
Far less money is directed toward educating citizens and
professionals on practical solutions to preserve urban forests.
The consequence has been enormous delays in the imple-
mentation of practical and timely solutions. New pests can
build population density, and their attack points coalesce. This
delay amplifi es costs to local municipalities and private citizens
seeking to preserve urban forests.
Role of government
State and local governments are designated to address wide-
reaching and devastating circumstances such as fl oods, storms
and fi res. However, naturally occurring invasive pest disasters
are often beyond the scope of their expertise. When APHIS
disconnected from the effort to eradicate EAB, the media read
it as "control was not possible." When APHIS indicated that
EAB couldn't be prevented from spreading, the interpretation
was "nothing can be done," and that EAB "would kill every
Ash tree in the country." This media message was wrong, and
the effort to correct this message is now in its tenth year.
Many challenges arose at the city level when EAB man-
agement was redirected to municipalities. Erroneous beliefs
as cited above, a lack of technical expertise, budgets that were
severely under-funded, a struggling economy, and scant re-
search to guide decision makers were just some of the issues
municipal governments faced.
Today, some 12 years after EAB was identifi ed, with vol-
umes of conclusive data and strong fi eld verifi cation, newly
infested communities are still developing EAB plans based
on inaccurate, outdated or factually defi cient data about
costs, treatment effi cacy, environmental impact, and public
safety. Some city leaders, despite contrary information, have
still elected to remove and/or replace healthy trees, when
the science demonstrates that preserving trees is highly ef-
fective, far less costly, has a lower environmental impact, and
preserves communities.
Challenges to the university extension system
The university extension system was developed to dis-
seminate scientifi c research from land grant institutions on
a variety of agricultural concerns to its citizen constituents.
The frequency, intensity and enormity of the new pests we
face are unprecedented, and extension may not receive, and
is not designed to respond with, immediate solutions to these
rapidly changing pest issues. Too often, extension agents, upon
whom the public depends, receive information quite delayed
from its release.
All photos provided by Arborjet
