True Costs of the Emerald Ash Borer

Officials in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario are all gearing up for another summer of fighting the emerald ash borer. The Asian insect burrows into and kills ash trees. The economic and the environmental costs of the invasive beetle are adding up. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Poorman reports:

Transcript

Officials in Michigan, Ohio, and Ontario are all gearing up for another
summer of fighting the emerald ash borer. The Asian insect burrows
into and
kills ash trees. The economic and the environmental costs of the
invasive
beetle are adding up. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill
Poorman
reports:


Researchers first identified the emerald ash borer just a couple of years
ago. The small, metallic-green beetle has killed millions of ash trees,
especially in southeast Michigan where thirteen counties are under
quarantine. Paul Bairley is the city forester for Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The
city is spending millions of dollars fighting the emerald ash borer. But
Bairley says, losing the trees has a significant environmental cost, as
well. Larger ash trees can provide enough oxygen for a family of four
for a
year, and other benefits.


“That same tree will provide the cooling value of about twenty
room-size air conditioners, BTU equivalents…and probably most importantly, air filtration
of pollutants. A car driven 11-thousand miles per year, that tree could
absorb effectively, recycle the exhaust from that automobile.”


Researchers think the emerald ash borer first arrived in the mid 90s
aboard
packing materials for goods shipped from Asian countries. For the
Great
Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Poorman.

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