Emerald ash borer adults don’t fly far, so they travel when people move ash logs, ash firewood or infested ash trees from nurseries. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has issued a state quarantine on firewood, ash trees, and ash tree products in Hennepin, Ramsey and Houston counties to slow the spread of emerald ash borer to other areas.

Take steps to slow the spread of emerald ash borer within Minneapolis, within our counties and within the state:

Firewood: Buy it where you burn it. Don’t transport firewood, even within Minnesota. Buy or harvest your wood near the area where you are going to burn the wood. In Minneapolis, you may buy bundled firewood at gas stations, which are regulated by the State. Other firewood dealers are required to be licensed by the City, so ask firewood vendors – whether in a nursery or door-to-door – for their City fuel dealer license. To confirm whether a fuel dealer is licensed, call 311.

Fall and winter are the seasons to trim or remove your ash tree. The emerald ash borer is active from May through Labor Day. From fall until spring it is not active. If you need to prune or remove your ash tree, now is the best time to do it. If you are a City of Minneapolis garbage customer, you may dispose of smaller branches through the City’s regular yard waste pickup program, which is equipped to handle ash branches safely. Through your garbage day in the week of Nov. 16, the City will pick up branches at your garbage pickup location. The branches can be from any kind of tree but must be less than three inches in diameter, cut to less than three feet long and bundled. Since a dormant emerald ash borer can still travel on wood and branches, make sure to dispose of larger ash branches and wood properly. For a list of sites where you or your tree-servicing company can take your ash wood, visit www.mda.state.mn.us/news/publications/pestsplants/pestmanagement/ashtreewaste.pdf.

Start making your tree planting plans. Whether you are preventively replacing an ash tree or simply adding a tree to your yard, start planning for your spring planting. Consider where in your yard you will plant the tree and the type of tree you want. Consider the height, whether a tall or medium type of tree would work better in that location. Decide between deciduous or evergreen – a deciduous tree on the west or east will block summer sun to save you cooling costs. Evergreens on the north or west will help block the coldest winter winds. Also consider variety when deciding what kind of tree to plant; while in the past the same kind of tree would have been planted extensively in an area, diversity is now preferred to avoid the kind of devastation caused by Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer.

Watch for signs of infestation in your ash trees. Emerald ash borer kills trees over a period of one to four years. The larvae live under the bark of the tree and feed in the tissue layer directly beneath the bark, which disrupts water from reaching all sections of the tree. This can cause a major thinning of a tree’s canopy, with as many as one-half of a tree’s branches potentially dying during the first year of infestation. Trees generally try to compensate for the loss of limbs by sprouting new growth below the level of infestation. At this time the bark may begin to split. Eventually the adult beetles emerge from the bark. In the process of emerging as adults, they leave a “D” shaped exit hole that is about one-eighth of an inch wide. The most revealing sign of emerald ash borer infestation is woodpecker activity in an otherwise healthy-looking ash tree.

The emerald ash borer has already killed more than 40 million ash trees nationwide, primarily in southeast Michigan. Minnesota has the potential to lose 867 million trees, because it has one of the nation’s highest volumes of forestland ash on public property. Minneapolis’ 200,000 ash trees make up 20 percent of all trees on public and private land in the city.

Our urban forest cleans the air, shelters wildlife, catches water runoff, cools our homes and makes our city more beautiful. Well-placed trees lower air-conditioning costs and reduce winter heating bills, prevent erosion by holding soil in place, absorb stormwater that might otherwise pollute our waterways, cleanse the air by producing oxygen and helping remove air pollutants, slow global climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, reduce noise pollution, provide wildlife habitat and increase property values.

If you suspect your ash tree could be infested by the emerald ash borer, visit www.mda.state.mn.us/invasives/eab and use the "Do I Have Emerald Ash Borer?" checklist. Residents who suspect that a tree is infested with emerald ash borer can also contact the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s "Arrest the Pest" Hotline at 651-201-6684.

For more information on the emerald ash borer and responses to its presence in Minnesota, visit:

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board - Quick Links - About Emerald Ash Borer.

Minnesota Department of Agriculture - www.saveourash.net.