The emerald ash borer is wreaking havoc in Michigan, not just in the trees.

The weakened ash collapses and is losing more and more limbs since a tree-destroying insect was shipped in a shipment between Asia and Detroit 16 years ago, experts said. And they strike people – with tragic results.

"It's just that we have a lot of ash trees in the state and a large proportion of them are dead, and you are exploiting the opportunities that are available to you. It gets a little scary in this way, "said Deborah McCullough, an entomologist at Michigan State University specializing in research on the emerald ash borer.

According to research conducted by Detroit News, people continue to die, despite probabilities still high. At least eight people were killed by falling trees or branches in Michigan this year, five by the ash. The other deaths are related to oaks: one just this month north of Lansing; two motorcyclists in May in Barry County.

The count of deaths is anecdotal. Michigan does not have a complete record of injuries caused by dead or sick ash trees. The news has identified victims in media reports, site visits, satellite images, photographs, arborists and witnesses. Countless people have been injured or have narrowly escaped.

October 1, the day the motorist was killed near Lansing, The state lifted its quarantine of 16 years against the transport of hardwood campfire, recognizing that the effort was too late to stop the invasion of the virus.

Other casualties include a landscaper from south Lyon who was crushed when a large part of an ash tree broke on May 2nd. A moving car from a 90-year-old man from Kent County was razed a day earlier by a fallen ash domino. And in southwestern Michigan, the same day, an ash crushed owner – a short distance and almost exactly one year after another owner was killed in the same way.

The culprit is an invasive beetle, green and iridescent: the emerald ash borer.

"Currently, in some areas, we are at the top of the bell curve (for ash collapse)," said John Bedford, pest control program specialist at the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Rural Development of the State.

& # 39; They are all dead & # 39;

Jim Green sits straddling his quadrunner Sunday afternoon on White Temple Road in southwestern Michigan, and talks to his brother, Tom. Their brother-in-law died last May. Accounts vary; they finish the same.

Robert Wright, 73, was crushed on May 1st by the fall of a tree in the forest behind his house near Vandalia, about 30 miles north of the Indiana border in Cbad County.

The green brothers believe that it was an ash. The tree fell either while his attention was turned to another tree felled, or trying to cut the second tree. Google Earth shows large areas of dead ash in this set of farms, fields and hardwood forests.

"They are all dead. I have never seen a concert, "says Jim Green. The branches of several dead ashes lie on a nearby dirt road that he will travel home. "I hide when I drive under them."

The next day, 190 miles away, a worker from Oakland County was killed by a tree. A landscaper heard a crack. He discovered that much of the hardwood had fallen on a 36-year-old foreman in Independence Township, causing serious head injuries. Gusts of up to 65 mph have been reported.

On the same day, a mail carrier who was delivering mail in Oakland County had been injured by a "snap", common enough to bear a name. The tree was broken in south Lyon about 25 feet above the ground during a big storm. The carrier could talk but not move. Rescuers used chain saws to release him.

Destruction of the forest

Scientists consider the emerald ash borer a half-inch as the most destructive and cost-effective forest insect for American invaders. It has killed over 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone and could destroy more than 700 million people throughout the state. national and regional information network on the emerald ash borer.

Trees are popular plantations in parks and streets. They shade trails for hikers and skiers, the banks of rivers for fishermen. Its hardwood is used for furniture, flooring, cabinets, tool handles and sports equipment. Ash was the crack behind Mickey Mantle's bat.

Scientists are probably saying that only a few drillers are stowed here in crates or wooden pallets. Science calls this an "extinction event," the version of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

The destruction by the drillers was first noted in 2002 in Canton Canton, ironically named for the Chinese city. Asiatic ash has developed defenses. American ashes did not have any.

By 2004, the beetle was making its way up to the tip of the lower peninsula, depriving trees of food and water. The jump to the Upper Peninsula was identified two years later. Only four U.P. Counties – Iron, Ontonagon Gogebic and Luce – have not reported infestation, perhaps because there are fewer people.

Today, 35 states and five Canadian provinces are affected. Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont, as well as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada, were added this year.

Green, white and black are the most common ashes in Michigan. They represent about 25% of the trees. All are vulnerable, some more.

The scattered ash trees in North America are estimated at $ 8.7 billion. The cost of treating and eliminating only 50% of landscape ash in urban areas could exceed $ 10.5 billion by 2019, according to a report co-authored by McCullough, the researcher of MSU. Including the suburbs, costs almost double.

"In terms of trees falling into the forest, we are approaching the top of this bell curve (in zones)," said McCullough.

Boron dig under the bark. The nutrients are cut. The trees are dying of hunger and thirst. They may appear alive but their wood is fragile. Trees fall or fall off branches without warning. This is one of the reasons why cutting trees is the most dangerous job in the United States, ahead of the offshore fishery, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Once infested, ash stands can reach a 100% mortality rate in six to eight years. At first, the symptoms are not obvious. Later, mortality accelerates. This is what is called a "synchronized death".

"Suddenly, we see it everywhere in a given region. It seems like everything happened at the same time, "said Bedford, the state's pest expert.

A year ago, an influential scientific group placed five types of ash trees from the eastern United States on its "Red List of Threatened Species". The trees are now clbadified as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Bedford and McCullough both pointed out that the devastation was not the same everywhere, just as all the hardwoods in Michigan were not the same. Maple, oak, birch, beech, walnut and others persist in various mixtures. (Four counties in western Michigan – Allegan, Muskegon, Oceana and Ottawa – are also quarantined against the transport of hemlock because of another Asian aphid, the woolly plush of hemlock).

The chances of being killed by a tree are very long. There are 10 million people in Michigan. That equates to a little more than a death of trees this year, the same as at least eight Michiganians died last year in similar circumstances, The News revealed. Chances are pretty much the same as being struck by lightning, according to the National Weather Service. In contrast, the odds of winning the $ 1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot were one in 300 million.

& # 39; We heard cracking & # 39;

The past few years have been "particularly" problematic, said RoNeisha Mullen, Senior Communications Specialist at DTE Energy Co.

"When these ash trees become sick and weak, they are very likely to fall on DTE power lines and electrical equipment," she said.

On average, 30 percent of tree failures are caused by trees outside the DTE Electric right-of-way, damaging equipment, Mullen said.

Arborists recommend removing sick ashes before they become too fragile or die. The cost can be the difference between a few hundred dollars and more than one thousand dollars per service. An illuminating forest canopy is an indicator. Healthy trees can be treated annually against drillers.

The invading pest control agents in Michigan basically admit their defeat. On October 1, a quarantine regulating the transportation in the state of ashes and other campfire hardwoods was lifted. In doing so, Michigan partnered with several states to decide that the effort to slow the ashes was no longer meaningful; the insect was virtually everywhere.

"According to research, it is likely that this was happening in Michigan 10 to 15 years before even its identification (near Detroit)," said Gina Alessandri, director of the Division of Pest and Phytosanitary Control of the United States. State, in a statement ending the quarantine.

Infestations, death and disintegration are not uniform; a given region may have forest stands at all stages. The heaviest destructions occur in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula, extending across central and northern Michigan in different concentrations. The high peninsula is a trail, but significant infestations are found.

Vic Foerster, a consultant arborist from western Michigan, favored quarantine hardwood.

"We know what we're dealing with with emerald ash borer and other invasive species. It's the ones we do not know that worry us, "Foerster said.

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