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truth of fact, the reason is the greater good, but also that the city owns the right-of-way beside the street and technically the trees on it.

The pestilent insect known as the Emerald Ash Borer does its harm to ash trees in a bid for personal survival, as the ash tree provides food for its young, who burrow under the bark and make S-grooves, eventually impairing the ash tree’s ability to sustain photosynthesis in the process.

Loss of green leaves and dead falling wood is the result of this infestation, in which the lack of resistance and built-up immunity by North American ash trees play a supporting role in making said trees the losers compared to their hardier Siberian cousins, whose defenses against the ash borer are somewhat stronger, along with somewhat colder local temperature, thereby keeping the ash borer population in check to a degree, as under bark cold kills the young.

Wisconsin is a tropical resort in comparison, meaning that the unchecked spread of the ash borer is an existential crisis for North American ash tree families, whereby the parasite kills the host in time, dying itself as a result of lack of food after the quick population boost. Before the natural crash, though, city boulevards nationwide will suffer the damage, as dead and dying wood threatens to come falling down, unless cut beforehand. And the worst part of it all?

By the time it’s known the insect can have been present for years, meaning that it’s not a bad idea for local residents to check their own ash trees with distinctive diamond shaped-bark patterns and convex double lens-shaped leaves, just in case they might be infected themselves. So what are some distinctive ashborer invasion signs?

S-shaped track marks under the bark. Many resident insects can cause holes in trees, often circular or oval as opposed to the distinctive ‘D’ shape, but S-shaped track marks under the bark are a sign that the Emerald Ash Borer is your nemesis—they only target ash trees, hence the name. So just what IS the ash borer or its biological purpose?

The scientific name of the Emerald Ash Borer is Agrilus

Planipennis, according to the convention that cuts out all but the

last two taxonomic qualifiers (genus and species respectively). If

you’re into longer names, it’s the Arthopoda Insecta Coleoptera Buprestidae Agrilus Planpennis. Now loose in the area and breaking down wood like it would in the forest, keeping your eye out for the Emerald Ash Borer or its distinctive signs can help keep this menace at bay, long name or short.

Branching from the bark can be a sign that your tree is under stress and in need of TLC or further investigation into the root cause of the epicormic shoots. Staff photo.

The emerald ash borer. Image sourced at www.arborday.org