Forester and logger responses to the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB) could substantially affect regions across the United States. We analyzed forester and logger responses to EAB in Massachusetts and Vermont, exploring characteristics associated with purposeful targeting of substantial ash properties; managing forests differently because of EAB; and regeneration goals. One-third of respondents increased timber sales on ash properties, motivated by ecological, not economic, impacts of EAB. Nearly 60% said EAB changed their management activity in stands with ash; changes influenced by the ecological impact of EAB and not economic factors. Those influenced by EAB’s ecological impact to choose properties with substantial ash were more likely to have increased harvest area size, sawtimber removal, and harvest intensity. Loggers were more likely than foresters to remove small-diameter ash and low-grade trees. Both rated regenerating economically valuable species well adapted to the site as their highest essential priority.
Emerald ash borer (EAB), a wood‐boring insect native to Asia, was discovered near Detroit in 2002 and has spread and killed millions of ash trees throughout the eastern United States and Canada. EAB causes severe damage in urban areas where it kills high‐value ash trees that shade streets, homes, and parks and costs homeowners and local governments millions of dollars for treatment, removal, and replacement of infested trees. We present a multistage, stochastic, mixed‐integer programming model to help decision‐makers maximize the public benefits of preserving healthy ash trees in an urban environment. The model allocates resources to surveillance of the ash population and subsequent treatment and removal of infested trees over time. We explore the multistage dynamics of an EAB outbreak with a dispersal mechanism and apply the optimization model to explore surveillance, treatment, and removal options to manage an EAB outbreak in Winnipeg, a city of Manitoba, Canada.
Our approach demonstrates that timely detection and early response are critical factors for maximizing the number of healthy trees in urban areas affected by the pest outbreak. Treatment of the infested trees is most effective when done at the earliest stage of infestation. Treating asymptomatic trees at the earliest stages of infestation provides higher net benefits than tree removal or no‐treatment options. Our analysis suggests the use of branch sampling as a more accurate method than the use of sticky traps to detect the infested asymptomatic trees, which enables treating and removing more infested trees at the early stages of infestation. Our results also emphasize the importance of allocating a sufficient budget for tree removal to manage emerald ash borer infestations in urban environments. Tree removal becomes a less useful option in small‐budget solutions where the optimal policy is to spend most of the budget on treatments.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10155398
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Natural Resource Modeling
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0890-8575
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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