Emerald ash borers threaten trees

Two years after confirming the presence of the emerald ash borer, an exotic beetle responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ash trees across North America, town officials are seeing an adverse impact on Wilton’s foliage.

The emerald ash borer was originally discovered in southeastern Michigan near Detroit in the summer of 2002. The beetles, which hail from Asia, feed on the inner bark of ash trees as larvae, disrupting the tree's ability to transport water and nutrients, effectively smothering the trees.

In just 15 years, the species has cost municipalities, property owners, nursery operators and forest products industries nationwide hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

In 2012, Connecticut became the 16th state known to have the emerald ash borer within its borders. Discovered in Prospect, the species has since spread throughout Litchfield, Fairfield, Hartford and Middlesex counties, leaving a “cataclysmic” trail of tree devastation in its wake, said Claire Rutledge, an entomologist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

“We go to towns and tell them that their trees are all in danger, and they respond, ‘Oh, but they don’t look so bad.’ And the next year, that changes to ‘Well, it doesn’t look that bad.’ But then the next year, it becomes ‘Oh my gosh, 65 percent of the ash trees in town have died,’ ” said Rutledge.