Quarantine seeks to contain emerald ash borer

The detection of the emerald ash borer late last summer in Dalton has led to a quarantine that prevents some wood products from being shipped to other parts of the state.

The products that are quarantined, according to state officials, include all hardwood firewood less than 48 inches long, as well as ash nursery stock and untreated ash lumber.

The ash borer, according to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, is expected to spread further and faster than did the Asian longhorn beetle, which has been in central Massachusetts since 2008.

The small, shiny green insect, which can kill an ash tree in just a few years, is believed to have come to North America in packing crates used to ship automotive parts to the Midwest. By the time the ash borer was detected in Dalton, not far from the Pittsfield city line, the insect also was present in several counties in eastern New York.

“Right now, we’re still just getting familiar with the situation,” said Robert Van Der Kar, Pittsfield’s conservation agent.

In March, Van Der Kar arranged a visit from Ken Gooch, the forest health program director for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, to help local officials detect signs of the emerald ash borer.

Gooch’s presentation included before and after photos of a residential street in a New York town. One photo showed a thick canopy of ash leaves. The other depicted a barren streetscape after the infested trees had been cut down.

Rather than boring into the heartwood of the tree, as Asian longhorn beetles do, emerald ash borer larvae tunnel directly under the bark, creating S-shaped galleries in the wood that quickly cut off a tree’s nutrient and water supply, according to the DCR.

When a mature emerald ash borer finds its way out of the tree, it leaves a D-shaped hole about a quarter-inch in diameter.

Other signs of infestation include decay in the upper third of a tree’s canopy, increased woodpecker activity, and the presence of small branches that emerge in shrub-like bunches between the dead parts of the tree.

Van Der Kar noted that one of the challenges of identifying evidence of emerald ash borers is that drought can cause similar disfigurations.