DEC Announces May 20-26, “Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week”

Albany, NY (WIBX) - The Department of Environmental Conservation is urging residents to educate themselves to protect the state's ash trees.

According to the DEC, this is Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week. To show what trees are at risk several groups, including local Cornell Cooperative Extension groups and the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, are tying ribbons and posting signs in front of more than 6,000 ash trees across the state.

Other groups, working with the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), are hanging purple traps in ash trees to find new infestations.

Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week also coincides with the "Don't Move Firewood" campaign, urging people to not move untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its original location. The DEC also has firewood regulations posted on their website.

Since becoming a problem in Michigan in 2002, Emerald Ash Borers have spread to 15 states and Canada, putting hundreds of millions of ash trees at risk.

In 2009, New York reported its first infestation. EAB are now in twelve counties, including seven in western New York and five in the Hudson Valley.

For more informaton on the EAB, click here. To report a possible infestation, fill out the survey here.

(Gino Geruntino previously reported on this subject for WAMC through the New York Reporting Project.)