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July 2, 2020
ADAMS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
Northglenn-ThorntonSentinel.com
VOLUME 56 | ISSUE 47
The age of the Ash Borers Arvada infestation proves that emerald pests are here to stay BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
After years of municipal efforts to fence in the Ash tree killing Emerald Ash Borers and keep them from expanding out of Boulder County, the inevitable has arrived. They’re here. “I guess the message I’d like to tell people is that if they’ve been holding back and waiting to do the treatment on their ash trees because it’s not quite here yet, well, we do believe that it’s here now,” said Westminster City Forester John Kasza. Westminster crews first found the emerald pests infesting the trees in the parking lot outside the Willow Run Shopping Center at the end of August 2019. Now they’ve been found just to the south, in neighbor Arvada. Craig Hillegass, Arvada’s city forester, said the bugs were discovered on Ash trees on private property on the Southeastern portion of the city, in the neighborhood surrounding Homestead Park. Ben Irwin, Arvada’s public information officer, said they’ve been getting ready for this moment. “We finished up a management plan for this earlier this year, even before they discovered the outbreak,” Irwin said. “We are doing an inventory of all of our trees, looking at their condition. Some will be treated, based on
The Emerald Ash Borer.
Westminster parks officials have begin decorating some ash trees with green sashes, warning residents that the city’s trees -- as well as thousands of privately owned ash trees -- are at risk of being damaged by Emerald Ash Borers. The pest was found in Westminster in 2019 and in Arvada this year. SCOTT TAYLOR their location and their value to the community. Others may be replaced slowly, over time.” Westminster’s Kasza said he’s not sure that the bugs have spread elsewhere in between, but he’s pretty confident they have. “We have not had any confirmed cas-
DRIVE-IN GRADUATION
es besides the one up north,” he said. “But it’s hard to detect emerald Ash Borers at the early stages of the infestation. It’s usually been in the tree for a year or two before we find it.” So far, the cities of Northglenn and Thornton have not reported infestations of the green bugs.
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INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 6 | LIFE: PAGE 8 | SPORTS: PAGE 10
PERIODICAL
DID YOU KNOW
FILE PHOTO
U.S. pest since 2002 Emerald Ash Borers are a non-native wood-boring beetle responsible for the death and decline of tens of millions of ash trees in the United States and Canada. As a non-native insect, it lacks predators to keep it in check. Colorado’s municipal forestry departments have been preparing for the bugs for years. The pest was first discovered in the U.S. in Michigan in 2002 and has been detected in Boulder, Gunbarrel, Longmont and Lafayette since 2013. The state forest service began a quarantine around Boulder County in 2013 to help prevent humanassisted spread of the pest. But the borers broke quarantine two summers ago when pests were found near 136th Avenue and Main Street in Broomfield on August 2018. State state agriculture officials said they didn’t know if it spread there naturally — the insect can spread a half-mile each year on their own — or if it was brought in by people accidentally, on firewood or infected ash bark used to SEE BORER, P2
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The Dog Days, the hottest days of the year beginning in July, are named for the Dog Star Sirius which rises with sun at this time. Source: Merriam Webster dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com)