Dismayed Connecticut state arborists have discovered the emerald ash borer in three more New Haven County towns – Cheshire, Oxford and Middlebury – threatening more of the state’s abundant ash tree crop.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says its Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station division found the ravenous bug (Agrilus planipennis) beyond places where the insect was previously found last July: Prospect, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Waterbury, and Bethany.
Federal agriculture authorities have confirmed the ash borers’ spread.
The emerald ash borer is responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees from the Midwest to New York state and south to Tennessee.
Ash makes up about 4 percent to 15 percent of Connecticut’s forests and is a common urban tree, DEEP said.
To try and prevent the pests’ spread, an existing state quarantine limits the movement of ash logs, ash materials, ash nursery stock, and hardwood firewood from within New Haven County to any area outside of that county.
The quarantine currently applies to only that part of the state and mirrors a federal quarantine also imposed on New Haven County.
In addition to the quarantine, regulations are in effect regulating the movement of firewood from out-of-state into Connecticut or within Connecticut.
