A forestry official has reported that a number of local landowners have taken the initiative to cut down ash trees to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer infestation on their properties.

Josh Hanson, silviculturist with the Bradford Ranger District on the Allegheny National Forest, claims a number of local landowners are addressing the infestation by cutting down stands of ash along roadways and the hillsides.

His remarks were in response to the agency’s recent press release on the Bradford Emerald Ash Borer Remediation project which addresses the infestation and other issues such as beech bark disease in forestry stands.

The non-native emerald ash borer was first discovered in ash trees in the Detroit area in 2002, and turned up in Butler County in Pennsylvania in 2007.

In the nine years since it first appeared in Pennsylvania, the shiny, small green bug has attacked millions of trees throughout the Commonwealth, as well as nearby New York state. The Bradford area was surveyed for the infestation in 2007 or 2008 with purple panel traps. The infestation was seen along interstate corridors because the bug was largely moved through firewood transportation, Hanson said.

“The bug has really been moving from Michigan, south, east and west,” he said. “It’s now our turn to experience the infestation. Almost all of the landowners (locally and in the state) have been actively trying to remove ash from their ownerships for the past five years or better.”

Hanson said landowners also understand that if they have ash on their properties, they’ll likely lose 99.9 percent of the trees as the bug travels through the area.

“If you have an interest in recouping the value of that tree, you should do so now,” he said of harvesting ash. “Or if you have a beautiful tree in your yard, you should make an investment to treat that tree” to preserve it for a few more years.

He said measures to save a tree often can’t stave off the inevitable, as the treated trees usually succumb to the disease after a period of time.

“It takes about six years for the tree to really die,” Hanson said. “You’ll see some die-back in the crown and the big giveaway is woodpeckers will start pecking away at the bark. You’ll see bark missing from the tree, it’s from woodpeckers trying to get inside for the larva.”

He said when landowners see this development, they can expect the tree to be dead within two to three years.

Hanson said companies such as Kane Hardwood and Collins Pines have taken “a hard look” at their ownership to determine what ash is salvageable, or not, and acted accordingly and responsibly.

Tom Case, a forester with Kane Hardwood, said there are some infested areas worse than others in the area. One of his responsibilities is finding infested ash on company land and determining the harvest method.

“We first found it on our Collins Pennsylvania forest in 2013 in Forest County,” he said of the infestation.

Case said Pennsylvania no longer has a quarantine on shipping the tree within the state because all counties have the infestation. He said there is still a quarantine in New York state for the transport of ash logs and green lumber.

“We, as the foresters … are trying to get as much of the value (from cutting the existing trees) before it deteriorates,” he added.

At Potter Lumber Co. in Allegany, N.Y., a division of Baillie Lumber of Hamburg, N.Y., Dave Potter said the company has also dealt with the infestation.

Potter, who is retired, said the infestation first showed up at the Randolph Truck Stop four to five years ago. As the bug is a poor traveler, it is speculated it was transported in firewood or some other manner.

“The bug is here, but it isn’t everywhere,” Potter said. “In fact, I have ash trees around my house and I haven’t seen it yet. In back of my mom’s, there is a whole field of ash and I haven’t seen it there, either.”

Potter said ash has a strong market in China, which likely provides incentive for landowners to salvage healthy trees.

“Last I knew, China was still a good market,” Potter said.

Ash sold to China from infested areas, such as found in Pennsylvania, often is sawed and run through hot kilns to dry it — which also kills the bug.

On another note, Hanson said the Forest Service isn’t requiring landowners to cut ash on their properties at this point.

“We’ve been getting pressure to be more proactive in our approach” in directing landowners’ to cut ash stands, he continued. “But being the government, it takes us a little longer to respond because we have more hoops to jump through.”

Hanson said that while the emerald ash borer will likely destroy most of the ash trees in the country, there is a plan by the Forest Service to regenerate impacted areas.

“Hopefully, we can re-generate a better mix of species there in a new community of trees,” he said. “If we do nothing, the trees will die and the land will grow non-native species, beech brush, birch and stuff like that — and the ash will be gone.”