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Ash Trees Eradicated12-30-05 | News

Ash Trees Eradicated




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To contain the spread of the emerald ash borer, all ash trees, including those used as landscape trees in yards, will be completely removed from Cheboygan County and the department will work with private landowners to re-seed their property.


Officials from the Michigan Department of Agriculture have begun removing ash trees from Cheboygan County in hopes of stopping the spread of the emerald ash borer. At the first public meeting in Cheboygan regarding the destructive ash borer, which feeds on and kills green, white, blue and black ash trees, officials said that all trees one to four inches in diameter will be dropped within a half-mile radius of two separate infestation sites.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture will come in and drop every one- to four-inch tree. Then state contractors will remove the larger material. The smaller ash trees felled during the first eradication phase will remain on the ground in wood lot areas. Sanctuary trees, which have been set up as a bait of sorts for any remaining ash borers in the eradication zone, will remain until next fall. Cheboygan County campgrounds, nurseries, lumber mills and lumber contractors will be visited by a Michigan Department of Agriculture inspector in the upcoming months. Newly released numbers show that ash borer infestation has doubled in the state since March 2005.

For more information contact the Michigan State University extension office at 627-8815.

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