The week of June 7–13, 2010, has been designated as North Dakota’s ‘Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Awareness Week’. City of Bismarck Foresters will be placing informational flyers on hundreds of publicly-owned ash trees to highlight the tree loss that this pest will cause.

Informational posters discussing the threat of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) to Bismarck’s Ash population and the beneficial impact trees have on our city will be hung throughout the Chancellor Square area of Bismarck. City of Bismarck Foresters will start placing the ribbons/tape and EAB information for EAB Awareness Week on the ash trees in the Chancellor Square at 1:00 PM on Monday,June 7, 2010. They will start at the corner of Fourth and Broadway on the west side of the intersection. The information will be taken down the following Monday morning, June 14, 2010.

Communities around the state are planning events to increase public awareness of the impact that this destructive pest will have on North Dakota’s urban forests. The North Dakota Forest Service and North Dakota Department of Agriculture have also secured a Governor’s Proclamation recognizing the awareness efforts.

Green ash is the most common tree species in most North Dakota communities, representing 35-65% of the urban forest. EAB has not been found in North Dakota, but monitoring efforts continue. Purple prism traps, designed for early detection of EAB, are being placed throughout the state to coincide with the time when adult insects emerge.

Emerald ash borer is an insect pest of ash trees that was imported into the United States in the mid-1990s in packing material. Since EAB was first identified in the Detroit, Michigan, area in 2002, the insect has spread to 14 states and two Canadian provinces. EAB’s rapid long-distance spread has been attributed to human transport of infested firewood, nursery stock or in wood products made with untreated ash wood. The nearest known infestation is in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

EAB Awareness Week has been organized by the ND EAB Response Committee, with cooperators from the North Dakota Department of Agriculture, North Dakota Forest Service, NDSU Extension Service, North Dakota Urban and Community Forestry Association and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), with funding from the USDA Forest Service. For more information on EAB and to view the City of Bismarck Emerald Ash Borer Plan, go to www.bismarck.org/forestry or contact Jackson Bird, Bismarck City Forester, at 701-355-1733.