Emerald Ash Borer Found in Fayette County
Quarantine placed on forest-related products
West Virginia Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass has announced that the West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) has placed a quarantine on a variety of forest-related articles from Fayette County in an effort to combat the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a forest pest that has already killed some 20 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.
The quarantine prohibits the movement of any firewood – as well as ash logs, ash timber scraps and other regulated articles – from Fayette County to other West Virginia counties. A similar federal quarantine prohibits the movement of regulated articles from Fayette County to other states.
Anyone with questions about the details of the quarantine should call the WVDA’s Plant Industries Division (PID) at 304-558-2212.
In November 2007, an EAB larva was discovered in a “trap tree” that had been prepared by the WVDA-PID to survey for the beetle. Trap trees are intentionally damaged to provide an attractive tree for the beetles to inhabit, if they are present. Because the discovery was made so far from the West Virginia border, experts believe the beetle entered the state by hitching a ride on firewood brought into West Virginia by campers from an area already infested and under quarantine.
For more information about EAB, download these files:
APHIS Factsheet
APHIS News Release
Ohio News Release
EAB Pest Alert
EAB Photo Gallery Link
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