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Risk to ash from emerald ash borer: can biological control prevent the loss of ash stands?

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Ash trees (Fraxinus spp.) are an important components of both natural forests and urban plantings in the United States and Canada (Federal Register, 2003; Nowak et al., 2003). There are approximately 16 species of Fraxinus native to North America (Harlow et al., 1996; USGS, 2014), each adapted to different ecological niches across a range of climates zones, soil types, and moisture gradients (Eyre, 1980). This abundant and diverse ash resource provides economic benefits, with ash timber alone valued at $282 billion (Nowak et al., 2003). For instance, green ash (F. pennsylvanica Marsh.), the most widely distributed ash in North America, is a fast growing, moderately shade tolerant tree that grows in mixed hardwood stands along river bottoms and wetlands, in small lowland groves, or in upland mesic sites. It was planted extensively throughout North America as an ornamental landscape and street tree due to its rapid growth and hardiness, and as agricultural shelterbelts for livestock shelter and soil conservation (MacFarlane and Meyer, 2005; DOrangeville et al., 2008). Ash trees are also a valuable ecological component of the deciduous forests of eastern North America, and provide food, cover, nesting sites, and habitat for mammals, birds, insects, and other organisms (Poland and McCullough, 2006; Gandhi and Herms, 2010; Koenig et al., 2013).

Citation

Duan, Jian J.; Van Driesche, Roy G.; Bauer, Leah S.; Kashian, Daniel M.; Herms, Daniel A. 2015. Risk to ash from emerald ash borer: can biological control prevent the loss of ash stands?. 2015. In: Van Driesche, R.G.; Reardon, R.C., eds. Biology and control of emerald ash borer. FHTET-2014-09. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team: 153-163. Chapter 10.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/49310