City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/22884
so that people can be on the lookout for EAB in their community, know what to expect when it comes to deal- ing with EAB, and then be able to manage its impact without having too many complications. The best tool available to municipalities is having an EAB Management Plan. The ODNR Urban Forestry Program developed a template for such a plan. Similar to any emergency response plan, an EAB Management Plan is a written document outlining a municipality’s objective and the approaches it will use to manage the current or anticipated impact on its urban forest resource. It is a blueprint that administrators and residents can follow with a high degree of confidence, rationality, and order. It allows a community to efficiently and effectively respond to EAB and be able to mitigate the financial burden and ecological impact of this insect. Also, ODNR requires that communities have a written, accepted EAB Management Plan to qualify for their ash reduction grants. They have the sample Plan template on their website along with copies of community plans from throughout the state: www.dnr.state.oh.us/tabid/5073/ Default.aspx. As the EAB urban forester for ODNR, I was involved with assisting communities throughout Ohio in dealing with EAB and was involved in the projects mentioned above. I also helped to develop the template for the EAB Management Plan and assisted many communi- ties throughout Ohio in creating their own plan. Now that I am working as an urban forester for the City of Cincinnati, having that city council-approved plan already in place has been quite beneficial. Due to outlier infestations, EAB is spreading rapidly across our city and county. The City of Cincinnati has been forced to increase the amount of ash tree remov- als it has completed over the last couple years. As issues or questions arise regarding our department’s actions on things such as ash tree removal, canopy replacement planting, wood utilization and disposal, and the budget involved, it has been a wonderful tool to be able to refer directly back to the Plan and show that the decisions we make as urban forest manag- ers are not arbitrary; they have been well thought out and planned. —Marianne Prue, Urban Forestry Specialist, City of Cincinnati, Ohio P rotecting our resources against invasive species is vital to all ecosystems, including urban forests. EAB can go unnoticed in any environment for up to three to five years before damage is visible. As a result of this ability to remain obscure, the need for earlier detec- tion is mandatory in order for management agencies to react and/or plan with as much notice as possible. To date, most recent attempts of early detection have www.urban-forestry.com been found inaccurate, costly to administer, and for the most part, ineffective. In Illinois, where EAB was initially thought to be confined to Lily Lake, the insect has been found in quick succession in many outlying counties as well as Chicago. As a research technician for The Morton Arboretum, one aspect of my job is to conduct studies on trap trees and monitor EAB infestations. I noticed that abundant wood- pecker damage preceded EAB findings. Nothing else attacks an ash canopy the way that birds do while feed- ing on EAB larvae! This bird activity closely resembles the imagined result of a machine gun being emptied into a tree canopy. My focus became the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois, with land holdings of mixed ecosystems totaling close to 70,000 acres. Operations within the County included hanging purple panel traps, mapping the preserves on ash density, and tracking current EAB infestations along with identifying the declining ash trees and any causal agents. While working closely with Cook County staff members John McCabe and Mike Moore, unconfirmed (dependent on Illinois Department of Agriculture confirmation) EAB positives were becom- ing easier to spot. We began noticing subtle decline symptoms among the ash trees. Those subtle symptoms, seen before woodpecker dam- age, include graying of the bark, drooping and/or thin canopy, a dry brittle look, and “alligator banding,” a term we coined. Alligator banding likens the severely scratched bark to the underbelly of an alligator (see photos). These symptoms are widespread in dozens of communities that are currently being monitored by local and Illinois State agencies, including the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDA). At the Morton, I used a one-mile satellite web or grid and monitored for subtleties in ash appearance as described above, resulting in the majority of EAB finds confirmed. From original known infested communities, the insect could be tracked in up to 14 nearby towns, townships, and preserves in November, 2009 alone. December 2009 to February 2010 yielded an additional 20 to 24 finds. Further monitoring continues by The Morton Arboretum and the IDA. Developing this survey technique has aided sampling and advanced survey not only in my work, but also within other agencies requesting detection help. This protocol is responsible for many unofficial, positively sampled EAB detections to date, with confirmation dependent on the limits of an overburdened State agency. Early detec- tion methods empower urban forestry professionals to manage the EAB fallout. —Bryon Doerr, Resource Technician, Forest Preserve District of Cook County; Research Technician, Morton Arboretum 29