First documented sighting of invasive tree killer in the Adirondack Park’s Essex County

Lewis, Hamilton remain only counties without evidence of emerald ash borer

By Gwendolyn Craig

Emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that kills ash trees, was caught in a trap in mid-July in Essex County, state officials have confirmed. It is the first documentation of the bug there and shows it is more widespread in the Adirondack Park than previously thought.

Essex County Soil and Water Conservation District interns trapped the borer at Beaver Bend Nature Preserve in Westport, said Alice Halloran, manager of the district. Champlain Area Trails owns the preserve.

Jason Denham, a forester with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the DEC confirmed the sighting this week, the furthest north the borer has been spotted in the Adirondacks. Authorities have documented it at the Canadian border.

“We’re bummed,” Halloran said. “It was probably inevitable. It’s all around us.” 

The next steps, Denham said, will be to survey the area to see where the infected trees are.

Lewis and Hamilton counties are the only two in the state now that have yet to have a documented ash borer sighting, Denham said. Both counties, he added, do not have many ash trees. It’s also possible the ash borer is there but hasn’t yet been spotted. Emerald ash borer has particularly spread through Hamilton County’s neighboring Warren County.

“Adults are perfectly capable of making that flight, and we have a robust adult emergence of emerald ash borer every summer,” Denham said.

Emerald ash borer was first identified in the Adirondacks in the summer of 2020. State officials confirmed an infestation in the town of Chester at the Warren County Canoe Launch on the Schroon River.

Emerald ash borers are native to Asia and were transported to the United States in infested crates and pallets likely in the 1990s. It was first discovered in 2002 in the United States and first spotted in New York in 2009. 

They are metallic, green-winged beetles whose larvae feed on the inner tissue of an ash tree. As adults mature and exit the tree, they leave a D-shaped hole. It takes about two to four years for the ash tree to die. A dead or infected tree will exhibit squiggly galleries underneath the bark where the larvae have fed.

Halloran credited the district’s interns for observing D-shaped holes on ash trees at the Beaver Bend Preserve and for choosing that area to hang one of 10 traps they use. Halloran said there has been anecdotal evidence of more emerald ash borer in the county, and they hope to put up more traps next summer.

Signs of an infected tree, according to the DEC, include:

• D-shaped holes;
• Lighter tree trunks due to woodpeckers peeling off the outer bark to eat emerald ash borer;
• Dying canopy foliage;
• New sprouts shooting up from the bottom of the tree; and
• Galleries under the bark.

Report new infestations to the DEC by emailing photos and the location to [email protected]. The DEC’s also has a Forest Health Information line: 1-866-640-0652.

Top photo: The Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis), also known as the EAB, is a destructive invasive pest affecting ash trees. Photo by USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service