Quarantine in Washington County aims to limit spread of invasive wood-boring beetle

Last summer, an invasive and highly destructive forest pest was first spotted in Oregon at an elementary school in Forest Grove. Oregon is the first state on the West Coast and the 36th in the nation where the emerald ash borer has been detected. The small, shiny green beetle is native to Asia and has killed over a hundred million ash trees nationwide since its arrival in the U.S. roughly 20 years ago. In June, the Oregon Department of Agriculture reinstated a temporary quarantine on ash and white fringe tree products from Washington County, including untreated lumber, nursery stock, firewood and wood chips greater than one inch in size. The department also began releasing several species of wasps that are natural predators of emerald ash borers at tree locations where they’ve been observed. Cody Holthouse, manager of the Insect Pest Prevention & Management Program at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, joins us to talk about the quarantine and other efforts to combat the spread of emerald ash borer.