By Ronnie Reese
Special to Inside
The Illinois Department of Agriculture held a public information meeting at the Ravenswood School, 4332 N. Paulina St., on March 31 to discuss the possible deregulation of sections of the Ravenswood Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) quarantine zone. The ALB public outreach campaign is a coordinated effort with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) and the City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation's Bureau of Forestry.
On July 9, 1998, the Ravenswood quarantine zone, which includes Kilbourn and Oz Park areas, became the first Chicago region identified as being infested with the ALB. This discovery led to the eventual quarantine of nearly 25 square miles of the Ravenswood community. The Kilbourn and Oz Park infestations were found on July 14, 1999, and February 2004, respectively, adding an additional 6.81 square miles to the zone.
At the time of the most recent extension of the quarantine zone in 2004, the removal of any ALB host material from the quarantine area — including nursery stocks, green lumber, stumps, roots, branches and debris of a half inch or more in diameter — was prohibited. Host tree species included maple, horse chestnut, birch, Rose of Sharon, apple, mulberry, poplar, cherry, willow and elm. Residents were also encouraged to look for signs of infestation by the two-inch, black and white-spotted beetle, such as sawdust at the base of trees or on top of branches, and dime-sized holes.
The proposed deregulation of the Ravenswood quarantine coincides with the third phase of a 10-year plan developed in 1999 by the USDA's APHIS and Forest Service for the eradication of the ALB in New York and Chicago. The plan outlined the following stages: phase-in, delimitation and containment; suppression and control; deregulation; eradication. Following two years of survey with no evidence of beetle presence or life stage in ALB-infested trees, a quarantine zone is eligible to be removed from regulation.
For more information on Asian Longhorned beetles, visit: na.fs.fed.us/fhp/alb/ or aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/alb/ |
