Invasive Emerald Ash Borer in Bar Harbor Ash tree material quarantined on MDI
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Invasive Emerald Ash Borer in Bar Harbor

Ash tree material quarantied on MDI

Carrie Jones and  Shaun Farrar

Apr 02, 2025

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.

TOWN HILL—When local arborist Jamie Lambert drove down the Indian Point Road recently, he noticed something: the trees were blonding.

Blonding is when the woodpeckers start to remove the outer bark of the tree to go after an insect’s larvae and pupae.

Lambert stopped to confirm what he thought might be happening under the surface of those ash trees: emerald ash borer infiltration. He checked the trees and told the state.

The state quickly went into action, he said.

And what the state found?

It was exactly what Lambert, the local manager and arborist representative at Bartlett Tree Experts in Mount Desert, feared.

The emerald ash borer was definitely in the Town Hill trees.

“They’re super invasive,” Lambert said Wednesday.

The emerald ash borer is in Bar Harbor, it is super invasive, and that’s definitely bad news for the town’s trees. The vibrant green bug is known for its ability to decimate entire populations of ash trees.

Billy Guess, owner of Eagle Arboriculture in Trenton, said that he and his workers saw no signs of the emerald ash borer in any of the ash trees that his crews recently removed from the western side of the Town of Bar Harbor’s ball fields.

This project removed dozens of potentially problematic (for reasons other than the borer) trees from behind Ledgelawn Avenue residences of the eastern side of the road.

Guess also said he hasn’t yet seen evidence of the emerald ash borer elsewhere on the island, but suspects they will soon.

Maine State Forester Patty Cormier officially shared the news about the emerald ash borer, April 1. The Maine Forest Service (MFS) Forest Health and Monitoring Division confirmed that the emerald ash borer (EAB) is on Mount Desert Island (MDI) and it’s not in an area that had been regulated before.

The larvae of the borer eat the ash tree bark’s inner layer. This is the same layer that brings nutrients and waters to the leaves. Untreated trees gradually die when the bark layer is damaged and have roughly a 2 percent chance of survival.

Example of blonding via University of Delaware

“This is an unfortunate but not entirely unexpected discovery,” Cormier said. “We’ve known that EAB continues to spread throughout Maine, and we appreciate the vigilance of local arborists and community members. Public awareness is important to detecting and responding to this destructive forest pest.”

There is now a quarantine of all ash tree material except for ash chips. The quarantined tree material cannot be transported off the island, but must stay on-site or at MDI-based disposal facilities. This is meant to slow the borer’s spread to other areas.

The ash borer was first found in Maine in 2018. According to a research report from Bartlett trees, it was first found in Michigan in 2002. It is not native to the continent and arrived via “solid wood packing material from Asia,” the report says.

Emergence Magazine further explains, “In the early 1990s, a cargo ship arrived in the port of Detroit, carrying pallets made of unprocessed ash wood from East Asia, where cousins of North American ash trees live. Along for the ride were several emerald beetles, each only half an inch long.”

The borer has already infested millions of Maine ash trees. After that infestation, trees typically live only 2-3 years.

According to the U.S. Forestry Service, “Deeply rooted in tribal culture, the brown ash tree is not only the principal building material for baskets produced by tribal artisans, it’s also referenced in the Wabanaki creation story. This association of brown ash both to basketry and the creation story of the people clearly shows that the species is a part of the cultural identity of all the Indigenous peoples of the region.”

Humans came from an arrow wound. That wound? It was in an ash tree.

“Working with the brown ash is very sacred for me,” Mi’kmaq Nation Vice Chief Richard Silliboy told Emergence. “For one thing, it’s very spiritual. When I’m working on a basket, I’m using something that’s very sacred to all the Wabanaki people. Our creation story is that the Creator put Glooscap on the Earth, and the Earth was barren, and Glooscap created the trees and the grass and also created the animals. And then he realized that he needed something to take care of the animals and take care of Mother Earth. Any Natives across the United States or Canada, they’ll tell you that it’s our job to take care of Mother Nature and Mother Earth. When Glooscap was going to create man and woman—create the Natives—he took his bow and arrow and shot it into a brown ash tree, splitting the tree open, and out came the Natives, dancing and singing.”

The ash is slender. Its trunks are furrowed. It is strong, but it also bends. It’s an important part to the Wabanaki and also to Northeastern wetland ecosystems.

As Philip Kiefer wrote for Downeast Magazine, “After European colonists forced tribes from their lands, Wabanaki survived in part by selling their ornate, durable baskets, first to settlers and later to rusticators, collectors, back-to-the-landers, and vacationers.

“‘The ash tree helped us survive our hardest time,’ said Jennifer Neptune, president of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance. ‘It fed us, built our houses, and sent our kids to school. The tree is almost like a relative.’”

TREATMENT

An emerald ash borer beetle. Credit: Kelsey Stoll / National Park Service

According the the Bartlett Tree Experts lab report directed by Dr. Kelby Fite, the best treatment is early application of insecticides.

“Once an ash shows greater than 40% crown decline, however, treatment efficacy is significantly impaired. Recovery, even after effective treatment, may not become apparent until the second year. Trees with greater than 50% dieback should be scheduled for removal as soon as practical to prevent hazardous conditions due to the brittle nature of dead ash wood,” the report states.

One of the problems is that it’s hard to find trees that have a low density of larva. It’s also not desirable to put insecticide in a location before the insect invades that area.

via Bartlett’s

According to the Bartlett report, “Treatments should ideally begin when EAB is found within 10-15 miles of an ash tree’s location. Research has shown that management techniques change as population levels build. Emerald ash borer population dynamics typically follow a pattern:

“Early Stage (Cusp of invasion) – Over three to four years, populations slowly build; losses from EAB are less than 8% of the total ash tree population. Annual preventive treatments with soil-applied imidacloprid will protect ashes during this stage.

“Peak Stage (Crest of tree mortality) – By year five of an infestation, EAB populations are very high. Most unprotected ash trees will be killed over the next four to five years. During this stage, root flare injection with emamectin benzoate every other year has been shown to be the most effective treatment to protect ash trees from the severe pressure presented by this pest.

“Late Stage (Core infestation) – By this stage, most unprotected ashes have been killed and beetle populations are declining. Annual preventative treatments with soil-applied imidacloprid will again protect ash trees at this stage.”

Containment via quarantine is a major strategy. That’s because if humans didn’t cut dead ash, didn’t chop it, carry it into other areas for campfires, then the borers would move just about a half a mile each year.

INFORMATION FROM THE MAINE FORESTRY SERVICE

Key guidance for landowners, municipalities, and the public includes:

  • “Ash tree material should remain on MDI. Logs, branches, or wood waste from removed trees should be disposed of on-site or at an island-based disposal facility.
  • “Ash chips are not regulated and may be legally transported off the island.
  • “High-value ash trees that are not heavily infested can be evaluated and may be preserved through systemic insecticide treatment by licensed pesticide applicators. These treatments require periodic reapplication.
  • “Infested ash trees will decline quickly and become structurally unstable. Property owners and managers are urged to evaluate ash trees near infrastructure for potential treatment or removal.

“The MFS and collaborators, including the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik’s (APCAW), Sustaining Ash Partners Network (SAP-Ne), and USDA Animal and Plant Inspection Service, continue to support ongoing mitigation efforts, including:

  • “Release of biological control organisms from federal partners by MFS through community partnerships.
  • “Seed collection and protection for future restoration led by APCAW.
  • “Education and technical support by varied partners.
  • “Public tree management and replanting through state and federal funding opportunities.

“Please let the state know If you suspect you have found damage from EAB in Maine, refer to maine.gov/eab. This website features an interactive map with EAB detections, quarantine boundaries, and tools for identification and reporting.

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

For more information and updated quarantine maps, visit maine.gov/eab and these resources:

For more information on the emerald ash borer, quarantine zones around the state and methods to protect your property, visit the state’s dashboard.

The report below is from Bartlett Tree. Many thanks to them and the Abbe Museum with research for this article.

Emerald Ash Borer

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