Get the facts about Emerald Ash Borer (EAB)

Emerald Ash Borer(EAB) has now been found at a site in Ramsey County, Minnesota. Subsequently both Hennepin and Ramsey (Minneapolis and St. Paul) Counties have quarantined the shipment of any live ash trees, ash firewood or ash products of any kind from those counties. Houston County had already been quarantined. There will be a delimiting survey done this week in one mile increments from the Ramsey County site to determine whether any further evidence can be discovered.

What does a quarantine mean?

A quarantine simply means that ash trees, ash firewood, and ash products may not be shipped from within the quarantine area to anywhere outside the quarantine area. Shipments into and within a quarantine area are stilled allowed. Full state quarantines have now been issued for Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and lower Michigan. Six counties in Wisconsin have also issued a quarantine on ash wood and products: Crawford, Fond du Lac, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Vernon, and Washington.

At this time Bailey Nurseries is still able to ship bareroot and container ash trees to anywhere in the country, although shipping to infected or susceptible areas of the country is not recommended. We currently have growing fields of both container and bareroot ash in Oregon as well as Minnesota and are shifting more of that production to Oregon in the event that our Minnesota fields become quarantined.

We are still being asked whether ash trees should be planted?

We certainly do not recommend planting ash in areas that have been quarantined. But there are areas of the country that are unlikely to get EAB and where ash is still a good tree of choice. Check with local extension agents for more information. Should there be a favorite ash tree that needs to be saved, there are preventive treatments available. Check with your local arborist or tree specialist for more information about these treatments.

For additional information visit the Emerald Ash Borer website.

For information on on using insecticide to save affected ash trees click here to download the EAB Insecticide Fact Sheet