Millions of Ash Trees Are Dying, Creating Huge Headaches for Cities
Ash trees are a dominant species on American city streets, but an invasive beetle is killing them off.
KANSAS CITY, Missouri—Forester Kevin Lapointe remembers clearly the day he and his colleagues at the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department did their first autopsy on a dead ash tree. Under its peeling bark, they found S-shaped burrows running across every inch of the outer layer of wood. Looking closer, they discovered the killer: a slender green beetle smaller than a penny.
The emerald ash borer, or EAB, a native of East Asia, has already devastated entire ash populations in northern cities such as Detroit, where it first appeared in 2002. Since then, the insect has swept into 22 states across the country. In the summer of 2012 it reached the Kansas City metropolitan area.
There are seven billion
