Monday, April 20, 2009

We're Bugged!

These purple box-kites started showing up in Illinois recently, and I figured out what they were before I stopped to look at one. The emerald ash borer has been on the move, and governmental agencies who watch these things are trying to track them.

The bugs are probably all over Illinois already, and are just waiting to be discovered. Ash is one of our greatest hardwood trees for growing useful and beautiful wood, but I quit recommending it in tree planting projects as soon as I heard about this insect arriving on our shores. Ash has serious disease and insect problems that are native in this country, and I think that the new bug on the block will make it impossible to manage for ash timber in the future.

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