Emerald ash borer found in Lake County Indiana
By Times Staff nwitimes.com | Posted: Monday, April 25, 2011 9:39 am |
The emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that kills ash trees, has been detected in Lake County, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources announced Monday morning.
The insects have been found in Fulton, Hancock and Marshall counties as well, officials said.
Phil Marshall, state entomologist, recommended people in counties known to have been infected with the emerald ash borer limit movement of ash materials to within the county.
Counties hit by the bug are part of a new quarantine for the northern half of Indiana, bordered on the south by Benton, Tippecanoe, Boone, Hendricks, Marion, Hancock, Madison, Delaware and Randolph counties. All of those counties and counties to the north will be considered "generally infected."
Movement of ash within those areas is not restricted, but moving ash materials outside of the area will require a compliance agreement from the IDNR.
An application for a compliance agreement can be filed by contacting the IDNR Division of Entomology and Plant Pathology at (317) 232-4120.
Regulated materials include whole ash trees, limbs, branches or debris of ash trees measuring 1 inch or more in diameter, ash logs or untreated ash lumber with bark attached and cut firewood of any hardwood species with bark attached.
In addition to the quarantine at the state level, all of Indiana is under a federal quarantine that prohibits the movement of regulated material out of Indiana without a compliance agreement or permit from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Health Inspection Service.
The emerald ash borer was first detected in Indiana in 2004 and since then has been found in 42 counties including Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Posted in Lake on Monday, April 25, 2011 9:39 am | Tags: Emerald Ash Borer, Environment, Indiana, Indiana Department Of Natural Resources, Lake County
