Don't Let The Emerald Ash Borer Follow You To The Cabin
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Before you head to the cabin this Fourth of July, the Minneapolis Park Board has an important message.
Do not bring any wood you may have chopped from downed trees. They say this is imperative in its fight to stop the spread of Emerald Ash Borer.
Instead, the board is urging homeowners to have the limbs and trunks from their yards made into mulch.
"The last thing we want to see is an infestation sprout up at your favorite camping site," said Phil Potyundy, who's with the Park Board.
Trees in Minneapolis that are potentially infested with Emerald Ash Borer are now marked with green ribbons. Some of those trees fell over during last weekend's storms, so be careful what you do with wood from those trees.
"Any movement of wood that could be infested has just moved the infestation to a new location," Potyundy said.
The spread of the pest is then sped up, and more trees could die sooner. Moreover, right now is the flight season, so the pest spreads all the more.
The Department of Agriculture has put counties including Hennepin, Ramsey and Houston under quarantine.
"They don't want wood moved outside of the quarantined area, so the idea is to keep the infestation where we know where the infestation is," Potyundy said.
This is the rule not just with ash trees, but with all hard wood.
And even if you only plan to bring the wood inside your home to burn, it would be better to have the tree taken down by an arborist, removed, and turned into mulch, Potyundy says.
"Then we've reduced the population a little bit, and every little bit helps," he said.
The Park Board says the wood is ground down to a size small enough so larvae can't live. Then, it's okay to transport.
