For more information, contact Stephanie Ely, (937) 775-3232. October 23, 2009 Wright State biologist says progress under way to control onslaught of Emerald Ash Borer  Even though it’s fall, with the leaves turning and trees heading for their dormant season, the emerald ash borer (EAB) remains active. But scientists remain optimistic that─in the long run─ways can be found to reduce the impact of this insect that is devastating Midwestern forests before it’s too late.
A team of researchers from Wright State University, Ohio State and other institutions are making progress in identifying compounds that should make ash trees more resistant to EAB through breeding efforts. EAB was detected in Montgomery County over two years ago, and just last summer the pest was identified in Greene and Clark counties.
“It’s not bad in this region right now, but this can change in a hurry,” said Don Cipollini, Ph.D., a Wright State professor of biological sciences and director of its Environmental Sciences Ph.D. program. “The longer it remains in this slow−moving stage, the more time it gives us to come up with solutions. New insecticides are being developed that are much more effective if EAB is identified early in the ash trees, and scientists are working quickly to identify potential biological controls for EAB,” Cipollini said.
The EAB is a bark-feeding pest that has killed millions of ash trees and devastated forests in the Detroit area, southern Michigan and northern Ohio. The EAB larva kills the trees by attacking the way they move water and nutrients. In the winter months, the larvae are in the in bark and protected from the cold as they feed on the trees.
Cipollini said the fact that a similar approach used by the American Chestnut Foundation led to a resistant hybrid chestnut that is being reintroduced into the wild is reason to be hopeful that current efforts with ash will bring similar results. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service certainly hopes so and is funding much of this work, he added.
Cipollini said researchers are searching for biochemical traits in the Manchurian ash in China (the home range for EAB) that confer greater levels of resistance to EAB than is currently found in most North American ash species. “We have identified some candidate traits that may be possible to breed into North American ash trees, and we hope to start testing this hypothesis after further study is completed. The production of resistant North American ash will be achieved through a traditional breeding process that can sometimes take decades, or through genetic engineering, which is much faster and can be done in less than 10 years. The hope is to produce a resistant ash tree that can be reintroduced into the wild, much like hybrid American chestnuts, or at least back into the nursery industry.”
Cipollini, who studies the insect as part of his research on invasive species, said some forests with a high density of ash in the upcoming decade will likely see a rapid decline in the abundance and quality of ash, but areas where the concentration of ash trees are less dense will stand a better chance of survival. “The effects of EAB will be particularly obvious in suburban developments and other areas where ash was planted in great numbers,” he said.
The biologist said the initial media frenzy over EAB has died down, but EAB reappears in the local news as communities receive their first reports of an infestation and are forced to make hard decisions. To that end, education and information programs by federal and state agencies aimed at slowing the spread of EAB remain ongoing. He said this is important because once EAB gains a foothold it is often more cost effective to just remove all the ash trees than it is to implement an effective treatment program.
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NOTE: For more details, contact Cipollini at (937) 775-3805 or don.cipollini@wright.edu.
PHOTO: A photo of Cipollini inspecting an ash tree on the Wright State campus.
 Click on the photo above to see a high-resolution version suitable for printing.
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