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April 03, 2009
Pest Watching
Michigan has had its share of disasters, the most recent of which seem related to industry and business. However, a much bigger disaster that most people seem oblivious to has been the devastation of our ash trees by the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), or Agrilus planipennis. When we were first alerted about the EAB infestation about 10 years ago, it was of course, alarming. Here was this small beetle, living in SE Michigan for 5-10 years before anyone with entomological knowledge was made aware of it. If it had been some exotic pathogen that lived among humans for that length of of time and then started causing massive deaths, imagine the uproar and finger-pointing that would have gone on.
However, ash trees are not people, but the loss of a major forest component will have ecological, industrial, and financial implications for many years to come. It’s hard playing catch-up when you are behind, and when a pest has a big lead, some things in hindsight, could have been done better. When the word “eradication” appeared in publications about EAB, I knew that there was no way that would happen. Unless there was a stiff penalty and a concerted effort to check vehicles for moving firewood and nursery stock out of infested areas, the EAB was going to spread. Some idiot moving firewood into a state park such as at Burt Lake ends up bringing in EAB and now ALL the ashes there are dead or dying. A lack of manpower and authority has been a big enabler to the EAB probelm. Someone bringing in infested wood should have a hefty fine leveled right there, with community service for additional punishment.
Of course, a lot of this can be attributed to the constant under-funding of agencies that are responsible for keeping us alerted to new pests and the inspection of incoming shipments from around the world -- especially China. The US Forest Service, and APHIS PPQ have been under considerable pressure to do a better job -- which of course, can be accomplished mainly by hiring more inspectors and more money to find solutions to current and potential pest problems.
You are probably wondering where I am going with all this. Last night, I attended the first meeting of the Michigan Cooperative Pest Cadre in Brighton, which is sponsored by the USDA. The purpose of the MCPC is to engage volunteers in surveying for potential pests that are not yet in Michigan, or have only recently been detected, or in the case of the Giant Hogweed, have been detected for some time, but eradication efforts to prevent the spread require detection of any previously unknown populations. Using citizens to help monitor pest species is an excellent idea. Look at how birders can converge at a single location when some rare bird is reported. Imagine using the power of the internet and the desire of many people to want to do useful things. Anyone with an interest in natural history can be trained in a few minutes to do what it takes to survey for some of the pest species. I think this is a great idea by the USDA and I hope it spreads and allows us to quickly detect some of these unwanted species.
For some pest information on the four species being targeted thus far:
Sirex Woodwasp
Asian Longhorned Beetle
Asian Gypsy Moth
Giant Hogweed
I'll update later this year as I proceed to volunteer as a pest watcher.
Posted by mfobrien at April 3, 2009 09:59 AM