Green Prudence: Invaders at the Gate

by Linda Saucerman
The Nature Conservancy

Blogger's Note: This is one story of how the misplaced federal fiscal priorities in the era of the Iraq War are allowing a quiet invasion of America, with devastating consequences.

Sometime in the 1990s, a tree was cut in China, turned into solid wood packing material, and shipped to Brooklyn, New York.

This unremarkable event would have gone unnoticed were it not for a routine visit in 1996 by a New York City Parks inspector to Brooklyn’s McCarren Park, a four block recreational area covered with softball diamonds, tennis courts, a defunct swimming pool, and a family picnic area overlooking midtown Manhattan’s skyline.

As he examined the trees, the Parks inspector noticed neatly drilled half-inch holes on several tree trunks. Pulling out his binoculars, he spotted an unfamiliar beetle, then two, then three, scaling up the tree. The shiny, black, one-and-a-half inch beetles had white bands and white dots on their backs and antennae. He’d never seen anything like them before.

No one could have imagined the little black creature, later identified as the Asian longhorned beetle, would be responsible over the next decade for the death of some 7,000 trees in New York and Long Island, and generate a nearly half billion dollar federal campaign for its eradication.

On that lazy summer day in 1996, McCarren Park became the site of the beetle’s first infestation on American soil.

“No one even knew what it was,” says Fiona Watt, Chief of Forestry and Horticulture for the New York City Parks and Recreation Department. “The beetle was eventually sent to Hawaii for further examination. All of the literature was in Chinese at the time and it had to be translated. It was very difficult and it took about a year for us to catch up with the beetle.”

The Threat

Known in China as a pest of poplar trees, in New York the beetle developed a hearty appetite that went far beyond the borough’s modest poplar population. In the 10 years since it was first identified, the beetle has eaten its way through parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island, where maple, willow, birch, elm, box elder, buckeye, and horse chestnut trees are abundant. New Jersey has also experienced infestations, as has Chicago.

The beetle’s lifecycle is unexceptional. After mating in the spring and summer, the female bores a hole in a tree trunk and deposits her eggs in the bark, covering them with a cement-like plug. The eggs become larvae and feed by eating their way deeper into the heart of the tree. In the spring, the larvae pupate and chew their way out to the bark, leaving dime-sized holes in the trunk. The holes cause a disruption in sap flow and weakening of the trunk that ultimately leads to the death of the tree. Unlike other beetles which take two to three years to mature, the Asian longhorned beetle can run through a complete life cycle in a single year.

So why is the Asian longhorned beetle such a big deal? After all, the 7,000 trees killed so far by the infestation represent only about one quarter of one percent of the city’s 5.2 million trees. Last year alone, in the course of routine public space maintenance operations, New York City removed about 9,000 trees without anyone really noticing a major difference.

The danger lies in the fact that, if not controlled, the beetle is likely to kill half of New York City’s trees, reducing the city’s beauty, raising summer temperatures, and lowering air quality. Because the beetle’s tunneling weakens the trees, they will have to be removed quickly and at great expense. And, should the beetle population spread, not only are urban trees at risk but also the forests of the Catskills, Adirondacks, and other wild portions of the eastern U.S. that are crucial to the integrity of our air, water, plants, and animals.

“The Asian longhorned beetle will, in the very near future, either break its quarantine around New York or be eradicated,” says Frank Lowenstein, Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Forest Health Program. “How successful we ultimately are in controlling this invasive species will show just how willing we are as a society to avert a disaster of catastrophic proportions.”

nvasive species like the Asian longhorned beetle are on the march across the United States. Expanded global commerce, the absence of consistent policies, and lack of information and funding make combating invasive species a challenging task. With 19 million residents, 13 airports, six shipping ports, and 800 miles of intrastate canal systems, New York is especially vulnerable to the risks posed by invasive species.

Compounding the challenges of keeping invasives out is the speed with which they are landing on American shores, leaving precious little time for nature and humans to prepare effective counterattacks. The absence of a master plan in New York and beyond puts the nation at major environmental and economic risk.

According to Watt, approximately 4,000 trees have been removed in the city alone as a result of the Asian longhorned beetle infestation. However, if the beetle manages to successfully infect all possible host trees in the city, the price tag to replace them could run upward of $2.2 billion. Nationwide, the Asian longhorned beetle could kill a third of urban trees, which have a replacement value of about $669 billion. The threat is not far fetched: chestnut blight wiped out just about all the chestnut trees in America’s Eastern forests in the last century.

We know the beetle is on the move. After causing a scare when several infested trees were found on the edge of Central Park in 2006, the beetle showed up on Prall’s Island (near Staten Island) on March 1st of this year and was detected on Staten Island proper on March 22nd. Staten Island has the largest tree cover of all five boroughs and stands to lose half its trees if the beetle is not contained.

The Answer

It’s been 10 years since the beetle was first spotted in New York, so why hasn’t it been eradicated yet?

Money is a large part of the problem.

Despite the expansion of the beetle’s range across the five boroughs, Long Island, and New Jersey, funding for the national program has decreased dramatically since 2002. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, in 2007 the national budget for the Asian longhorned beetle was $20 million, with $11 million going to New York City. The proposed national budget for 2008 has dropped to $18 million. The current level of funding is a major decrease from the $50 million allocated in 1996 or the $48 million available as recently as 2002. At that time, the target date for the beetle’s eradication in New York City was set for 2010. Today, the deadline has been pushed back beyond 2030.

The decrease in funding and a new deadline more than 20 years away worries Watt. “The current federal money does not go far enough,” she says. “This isn’t even enough money to implement the federal protocol, which is to inject [with an insecticide] all host trees [within a 1/2 mile of] all known infested sites.” In New York City, 47 percent of all trees are potential hosts. For the city to lose half its standing trees would mean a catastrophic social, economic, and environmental loss.

If the Asian longhorned beetle succeeds in breaking out of its quarantine and bolting into upstate New York and New England, there would follow a devastating economic blow to the sugar maple, tourism, timber, and forest product industries. Over 1.5 billion trees are susceptible across New England.

“Failure to fund eradication adequately now means we will have to spend a lot more money in the long run,” says the Conservancy’s Lowenstein. “We aren’t doing anybody any favors by not having the eradication fully funded. I’d like to see the funding go to at least $30 million nationally. This is a national priority that must be addressed.”

Despite the grimness of situation today, one city has shown that successful containment and eradication is possible: Chicago. The beetle was found there in 1998 but it has not been spotted since 2003. Experts say community involvement and adequate funding helped keep the beetle in check. If there is no evidence of the Asian longhorned beetle after four years of survey, the area will likely be declared beetle-free this fall.

Chicago may have won one battle but the war on invasives is far from over. In fact, with the emerald ash borer knocking on the city’s door, the fight may never be over for Chicago, New York, or the country. Like the Asian longhorned beetle, the emerald ash borer hitched a ride from Asia in wood packing material, only this time it landed in Detroit, spreading throughout the Midwest and killing 20 million ash trees in the process. Foresters believe that this metallic green beetle has the potential to wipe out the ash tree population across the United States.

“If we don’t start dealing with the issue of imports and pests – by adopting strong prevention policies and putting adequate money into controlling those pests that enter the country despite prevention efforts – then we’re going to see massive impacts on cities and towns. The time to act is now,” says Lowenstein.