Emerald ash borer detected in Brookings Co.

The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources has confirmed an infestation of emerald ash borer in Brookings.

DANR has expanded the existing state Plant Pest Quarantine to include Brookings County. The updated quarantine area now includes all of Brookings, Minnehaha, Lincoln, Turner and Union counties. Emerald ash borer has been identified in the communities of Baltic, Brandon, Brookings, Canton, Crooks, Dakota Dunes, Lennox, Sioux Falls and Worthing. The quarantine is designed to slow the spread.

The quarantine, which is in place year-round, prohibits the movement of firewood and ash materials out of Brookings, Lincoln, Minnehaha, Turner and Union counties. Movement of firewood from any hardwood species, whether intended for commercial or private use, is also restricted. If an ash tree is infested before it is cut, the wood may still contain larvae. An individual split piece of ash firewood can have five or more adults emerge yet this summer.

"We all need to work together to slow the spread of EAB," said DANR secretary Hunter Roberts. "Firewood is the most common way EAB is moved from one location to another. Please, follow the quarantine restrictions and buy it where you burn it."

Treatments made early in the season can kill the young larvae before they are able to injure the tree. Property owners within a 15-mile radius of Brookings wanting to save their ash trees should contact a commercial applicator as soon as possible.

Emerald ash borer is a boring beetle that feeds on all species of North American ash. It was first detected in the United States in 2002, and in South Dakota in 2018.