Narrative: The Start of a Crisis, Crossing the Mississippi

In early April, 2009, officials confirmed some bad news for Minnesota's ash trees. The news originated in Victory, Wisconsin, just across the Mississippi River from Minnesota's Houston County. 


A stand of ash trees in Victory were dying for no apparent reason. When inspected, thousands of little tunnels were revealed under the bark of the trees. These tunnels signaled a new turn of events in the battle for many forests and urban trees near the Mississippi River.


Many small green bugs created the tunnels. As they grew from a larvae stage, the bugs chewed through the phloem, the life-veins of the trees, and emerged out of the bark as full-grown flying beetles with brilliant green wings.  During their short life span they mate and burrow back into the bark to reproduce and die. 


But while their life cycle continues, the tree they call home slowly withers, unable to get the resources needed through its phloem. Within a three years, its foliage is completely gone and its bark, dry and brittle, peels off.


So for Houston County, bordered by Iowa to the south and the Mississippi River to the east, trouble was at the doorstep. Reporters carried the broadcast to every major city in the state. People hundreds of miles north, in Ely, Grand Marais, International Falls, winced at the news. The Emerald Ash Borer had nearly arrived.


The Minnesota Department of Agriculture moved quickly to carry the messages about not moving firewood, and they set a quarantine on any logging or movement of hardwoods in Houston county. County meetings were called and the MDA discussed their future plans to search for the bug in the vicinity. But it took another full year until infected ash trees were found in the county. The MDA gave confirmation of the infestation on April 29th, 2010. 


By then, the flying bug already migrated 175 miles northwest—to the Twin Cities. 




“Forest Protection Reserve Appropriation.” Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 15 Oct. 2009. PDF. <http://www.mda.state.mn.us/news/government/~/media/Files/news/govrelations/fpr-firstquarter2010.ashx>

“MDA Confirms Emerald Ash Borer Infestation In Houston County.” MDA.state.mn.us. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 29 April 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2011.