Delta Twp. - A dark war with one of Michigan's deadliest tree killers rages on as surveying crews wearing bright orange vests mark trees with orange spray paint.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture is fighting the spread of the emerald ash borer beetle - a tiny, metallic-green insect that wreaks havoc on ash trees while feasting on their sapwood - by employing its Emerald Ash Borer Task Force to mark infected trees for future removal.
Last week, the team branded ash trees in a half-mile wide swath of land near Saginaw Highway in Delta Township. Surveyors will travel to Potterville next week, then will move on to Owosso and Marshall.
Infected ash trees will be ground down and sent to a Flint facility where they will be burned to produce electricity, MDA spokesman James McRay said.
Although the Mid-Michigan area is not part of the beetle's "core" - a 3,500 mile infestation area near the state's southeast corner - McRay said ash tree inventory, marking and removal in the area is an essential measure since the insect lies dormant during winter months.
"We are trying to mitigate any risk of those trees producing larvae and dispersing infestation," McRay said.
The emerald ash borer beetle, native to Asia, has already destroyed more than six million trees across the state's southeast region since its arrival two summers ago. Last year, state officials requested $42.7 million in emergency funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect Michigan's estimated 700 million ash trees.
To prevent further infestation, 13 Michigan counties, including Ingham, have been placed under a federal and state quarantine forbidding transportation of ash trees or firewood from these locations.
Isolated infections have been reported nearby. In July, the bug was discovered in a cluster of trees in the parking lot of Farmer Jack, 2775 E. Grand River Ave. in Meridian Township. Later that month, several more infected trees were found near Meridian Mall. In all, more than 40 small ash trees were removed, McRay said, and no further surveying is expected in the East Lansing area this spring.
Paul Dykema, Lansing's forestry manager, said there is a six-mile portion of south Lansing with "varying degrees" of ash borer infestation.
Any ash trees skipped over during inspections could support an entire new generation of ash borer beetles, he said. The adult insects begin mating in early summer; eggs are laid in early fall and normally hatch in early October.
East Lansing officials recently applied for a state Department of Natural Resources grant to hire a contractor and inventory the size, location and features of all city ash trees, said Dave Smith, environmental specialist for East Lansing. There are about 817 ash trees in the city, he said.
Although there is no reason to believe a massive ash borer infestation area exists in East Lansing, Smith said the city is exercising caution.
"There is a chance the beetle might be missed," he said, adding that public works employees are being trained to spot infestation symptoms. "We may have a situation where there are ash borers in East Lansing and we don't know it. They're difficult to detect, and they're creeping closer."
