LIVINGSTON TWP. - A discovery of a lone ash tree on an area farm confirms that Otsego County is the 51st county in the Lower Peninsula where the emerald ash borer (EAB) has staked a claim, according to state and federal agriculture officials.

This means that regulations imposed on the other counties that have fallen victim to the spreading pest soon may be placed on residents of Otsego County.

The Michigan Dept. of Agriculture (MDA) confirmed in August that, after several samples taken from the suspect tree were analyzed, the first indication of the emerald ash borer (EAB) living in Otsego County had been found. Lee Olsen, Otsego County commissioner, made the announcement Monday at an open meeting.

“I received a call from the USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) that confirmed it,” said Olsen.

Foresters Nancy Garlock and Tom Stone discovered the affected tree May 10 while overseeing a 250-spruce and larch seedling planting project at the Livingston Township property owned by Colleen Jozwiak. It was an ash tree near the garage and in very poor health that caught the eye of Stone, a forester with the Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR).

“It had the very distinctive signs of an infestation,” said Garlock, Otsego Conservation District (OCD) forester, of the sickly tree's symptoms. Most noticeable were clusters of small branches desperately forming on dying branches in a process called “brooming.” Garlock estimated the tree's age at approximately 50 years.

Upon closer inspection, the foresters found telltale signs of a progressed EAB infestation: wormy tracks, or “galleries,” lie beneath the bark as it was stripped away, and D-shaped holes serving as passageways for the small insect to the outside, dotted the tree's surface. Though no adult beetles, larvae or pupae were found, according to Garlock, she and Stone were able to collect strips of bark from the tree to submit to MDA.

To follow up with those samples, Tom Bauer and Bob Patterson, investigators with MDA, arrived on the Jozwiak property in June to study the tree. They found the tree cut down but still on the site, and collected further evidence of an EAB infestation in the stump. It was unclear at press time what that evidence was, but it was sound enough for MDA and USDA officials to conclude Otsego County had experienced its first EAB infestation. Efforts to reach the property owner were unsuccessful.

“I was a bit disappointed to find out that it had made it to our county,” said Garlock.

EAB young, called instar larvae, damage and kill specifically ash trees by feeding on the cambium layer in between the bark and inner wood of the tree. This cuts off the flow of water and minerals to the rest of the tree. Adult beetles, which are shiny dark green in color, live for approximately three weeks in the summer months, and females can lay 60-90 eggs during this time.

Though the danger to Otsego County's ash trees is more real with the confirmed presence of EAB, Garlock believes that the fate of the county's sparse, spread out ash population will not be the same as for the dense areas of the tree in the southern part of the state.

“We've seen what it can do with a constant source of food,” she said, “but we're not sure what it can do to these pockets (of ash trees).

Regulations by state and federal departments are in effect across the state to slow the progress of EAB. As of June 12, 2006, there were 21 quarantined counties in southeast lower Michigan and another 30 “outlier sites,” or portions of counties, in the Lower Peninsula. The movement of hardwood (non-coniferous) firewood out of these quarantined areas, or out of the Lower Peninsula, is prohibited and violators can be penalized with fines and jail time.

The only confirmed presence of EAB in the Upper Peninsula lies in the Brimley area, where a quarantined outlier has been established.

“I'm trying to stay hopeful that, once we get (EAB) into quarantine, we can hold it off for a while.”

Anyone with EAB concerns may call the Otsego Conservation District at 732-4021.

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