MILWAUKEE - A small insect that has killed or damaged millions of Michigan ash trees has crept onto the Upper Peninsula and now threatens forests in Wisconsin, state officials said.
Michigan officials announced Monday that the emerald ash borer crossed a critical barrier -- the Mackinac Bridge -- and had been discovered in trees along the Lake Superior shore in Brimley State Park.
Wisconsin forestry officials then sounded the alarm bell.
"This is a very grave threat," said Andrea Diss, coordinator of the gypsy moth program for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "This is a really big threat to our forests."
"When you get a pest like this, it can cause a significant impact," said Gene Francisco, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Loggers Association. "When the forest comes back, it's usually something else. You lose diversity, and that's going to have an impact on wildlife."
The emerald ash borer is an invasive species, originally from Asia. Twenty counties in Lower Michigan have been quarantined, and 27 other counties have reported finding the pest.
To control the disease, the only known remedy is to saw down the tree. In Michigan, all ash trees within a half-mile of an infected tree are cut.
Officials have not decided whether to follow the same procedure if the emerald ash borer hits Wisconsin, but said there is little choice.
"We're like surgeons in the Civil War," Diss said. "We are falling back on amputation."
Ash trees are the second most common urban tree in Wisconsin behind the Norway maple, said Dick Rideout, an urban forester with the Wisconsin DNR. There are an estimated600 million ash trees in Wisconsin and about 700 million ash trees in Michigan.
Until now, Wisconsin officials have been comforted by the fact that Lake Michigan had insulated the state from Michigan's problems.
"The good news is that it's just about as far away as you can get in the U.P. from Wisconsin," Rideout said. "But the bad news is that it's past the bridge and you no longer have that big lake in the way."Associated Press via Duluth News Tribune
