Invasive species found in state

FILE- This undated file photo provided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shows an adult emerald ash borer. The invasive beetle that has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees over the past decade has been found east of the Hudson River for the first time, marking its closest known threat to New England, researchers in New York told The Associated Press on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, File) less FILE- This undated file photo provided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources shows an adult emerald ash borer. The invasive beetle that has destroyed tens of millions of ash trees over the past ... more Photo: Associated Press Photo: Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Invasive species found in state 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The emerald ash borer -- an non-native invasive species that kills ash trees -- has been found for the first time in Connecticut.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station announced Friday that it had identified the borer -- a bright green beetle -- at wasp nests near a ball field in Prospect and at traps in the Naugatuck State Forest in Naugatuck.

The news means that there is a likelihood that the state's forest ecology will be altered significantly in the years to come.

Currently, ash trees make up 4 percent to 15 percent of the state's forest trees, said Chris Martin, the state forester with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

And in may states where the emerald ash borer becomes established, it simply wipes out ash as a species. The insect has killed tens of millions of trees since it was introduced to the U.S. in 2002.

"I could mean one less species in our forests,'' Martin said.

Louis Magnarelli, the experiment station's director, said he is also concerned that the ash borer is not confined to the two spots.

More Information Unwanted guest To prevent the spread of the emerald ash borer, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station asks that you not move firewood from one location to another. It also suggests that if you are cutting down any diseased ash trees on your property, you have the tree chipped rather than hauling away the brush or selling the wood. To learn more about the emerald ash borer, go to www.emeraldashborer.info

"I think we'll see it other places,'' he said.

In response to the finding, the experiment station and the DEEP announced they were taking several measures, including quarantine for certain wood products to stop them from being shipped out of New Haven County. Magnarelli said the U.S. Forest Service -- which will institute the quarantine -- always does so in a county-by-county basis.

The state will also suspend any timber and firewood contracts in place in state forests in New Haven County

It will now ban any firewood being trucked into the state from New York and Massachusetts unless the owner of the firewood can certify that the wood comes from areas without two dangerous pests -- the emerald ash borer, found in New York, and the Asian long-horned beetle, which can damage a variety of hardwoods and has been found in the open woods south of Worchester, Mass.

Martin said his staff will also work closely with the federal forest service in ecological detective work, to see if it is possible to determine how long the ash borer has been in the state. The longer it's been here, the more chance it's spread and will be harder to control.

Martin said one encouraging sign in this fight is that the DEEP and the experiment station had placed large purple traps at both the Prospect and Naugatuck sites last year and did not find any of the borers. That means the borers might have only arrived in the stater within the past year, he said.

The borer -- which is native to Russia, China, Korea and Japan -- lays its eggs outside the tree. It's larvae then bore into the tree and feed at the cambium -- the area when the bark of a tree and the wood of the tree meet. By doing so, they disrupt the flow of nutrients in the tree and kill it.

The larvae overwinter inside the tree and develop into adults, which bore their way out of the tree in the spring.

They were found in Michigan and Ontario, Canada, in 2002. Borers have spread to 16 states in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region as well as to Quebec. The Connecticut finds move the emerald ash borer into New England for the first time.

Magnarelli said it is assumed that the borer made its way to the state by getting a free ride on firewood being trucked into Connecticut.

But it's also been found in Rhinebeck N.Y., west of the Hudson River.

"It's a strong flier,'' Magnarelli said. "Another way it might have gotten here is if thunderstorms carried it here from the Northwest. There's no way to prove anything.''

bmiller@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345