Bill Skvarla, owner of Harmony Hill Vineyard, was first to approach the podium to ask questions at a public meeting held Nov. 7 to discuss eradication of the Asian longhorn beetle in Clermont County. The beetle was discovered on Skvarla’s property and he is now concerned about healthy trees being cut down during eradication efforts.

Bill Skvarla, owner of Harmony Hill Vineyard, was first to approach the podium to ask questions at a public meeting held Nov. 7 to discuss eradication of the Asian longhorn beetle in Clermont County. The beetle was discovered on Skvarla’s property and he is now concerned about healthy trees being cut down during eradication efforts.
More than 300 concerned residents crowded in the Grant Career Center Nov. 7 to find out exactly how the Asian longhorned beetle is going to be eradicated from Clermont County.

Representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, as well as the Ohio Department of Agriculture, were on hand to speak with residents about the beetle and the eradication process, which will begin Nov. 14.

“I have nine trees that are marked,” Eileen Sipple, a resident who lives off of SR 125, said. “But I don’t know what they are going to do to the woods.”

Many residents said they were concerned with how the eradication process would work and were also worried about whether or not healthy trees would be cut down to prevent future spread of the beetle.

“It’s a radical thing to do,” Jim Brown, another Bethel resident with affected trees, said about cutting down healthy trees. “I am not a professional, just bitter because I would lose my woods.”

The Asian longhorned beetle, which was discovered in Tate Township in June, is an invasive insect that eventually kills the trees in resides in. Most hardwood trees are hosts for the beetle including maples, birches, willows, elms, ash trees and more.

Since the beetle was discovered in the township, APHIS surveyors have confirmed that more than 5,000 trees in the area are invested by the Asian longhorned beetle. Officials said that number is likely larger because even though they have surveyed most all trees in the area, surveying is not 100 percent accurate.

“The people who climb in the trees usually pick it up 60-70 percent of the time,” Dave Lance, of APHIS, said. “They are 20-30 percent likely to find trees on ground surveys.”

In addition, Lance explained that even though the beetles are slow-moving and don’t like to fly, a small number of the them can reproduce and take over an area.

“Because the surveys are imperfect, and we are going to miss trees, and because we know a small number can reproduce, we have to go by an area-wide approach,” Lance said.

Lance said that while there are ways to chemically treat both infested and non-infested trees, this method does not always kill all of the beetles. In addition, the optimal time of the year has passed to begin this method of eradication.

“At this time, we believe tree removal is going to be the way for a program to knock this beetle back,” he said.

Christine Markham, the national director of the ALB Eradication Program for APHIS, explained how the planned tree removals will work in the area.

Markham said APHIS, along with their tree removal contractors, will begin removing infested trees Nov. 14.

She said contractors will work directly with residents during the process and will help make sure landscaping is repaired and stumps are removed. Once trees are removed, they will be chipped into fine pieces to ensure that the beetle does not continue to survive in the wood.

During the removal of the infested trees, Markham said scientists will also be working on an environmental assessment of other trees in the area before they move forward with removing non-infested host trees.

Bill Skvaria, owner of Harmony Hill Vineyard in Bethel, where the beetles were first found, with the support of many other residents, challenged officials to say whether or not that means non-infested trees will be removed.

“The intention is yes,” Rhonda Santos, APHIS representative in charge of Asian longhorned beetle public affairs said. “The program is anticipating removing host trees as well.”

Her answer created chaos in the meeting room, as upset residents voiced their frustrations.

And even though APHIS plans to move forward with host tree removal, which will eliminate host trees within a quarter mile of infested trees, Santos told residents there would be a 30-day period for public comment after the environmental assessment is complete and before the non-infested host trees would be removed.

Matt Beal, chief of Plant Health for ODA, said during the meeting that ODA officials fully support what USDA APHIS is doing moving forward with the eradication.

“Nobody here really wants to cut trees down,” Beal said. “We want to grow trees and protect trees.”