This week’s post is from Rosemary Curley. Rosemary was a Conservation Biologist with the PEI government for many years. She is a PEIISC member and also the PEIISC representative for the Canadian Council on Invasive Species (CCIS).
Rosemary attended a Weeds Across Borders meeting in Ottawa in October. During the meeting, city workers gave the group a tour of some sites affected by invasive species. Be sure to click on the photos for full descriptions. All photos were taken by James Borrows, City of Calgary.
For more information about the Emerald Ash Borer, check out this link:
– Rosemary Curley, PEIISC Member and CCIS Representative
Attached images:
Here we are looking at a street tree, the white ash. It and many others in an adjacent park had been killed by the emerald ash borer, an Asian beetle that likely arrived in North America in untreated pallet wood. The city workers had taken out most of the dead ash trees from the site and were replacing them with young alternative species. Photo by James Borrows, City of Calgary.The close-up of the trunk shows the work of the Emerald Ash Borer is destroying the living green cambium layer under the bark, thereby killing the tree. As noted in an editorial piece in the Montreal Gazette, “diversity in city plantings is good thing – preventing the type of clear-cutting that had to be done in the Ottawa Park.” The emerald ash borer is now present in Montreal and the Eastern Townships of Quebec, so it may only be a matter of time before it arrives on PEI. It is sad to see the trees that supplied hockey sticks and baseball bats for many generations now at risk of disappearing. The traditional tree for Mi’Kmaq basketry, the black ash, is also threatened. Black ash is particularly rare on PEI. I have three white ash trees growing in my yard and sooner or later they may have to come down at my expense. This insect is just one example of the effects of global trade. The number of invasive species being detected is trending upward with each passing day. Containers arriving by ship are one just pathway for new arrivals. Photo by James Borrows, City of Calgary.
