Ash tree pest shows up at 2nd Iowa location
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Officials say an insect that’s killed millions of ash trees has been found in a second Iowa location.
The Iowa Department of Agriculture said in a news release Tuesday that an emerald ash borer was found in a tree in the southeastern Iowa city of Burlington.
The first sighting was made in 2010 in northeast Iowa, on Henderson Island in the Mississippi River.
Emerald ash borers are native to Asia and were first detected in Michigan in 2002. Since then the insects have killed more than 50 million ash trees as the infestation moves from state to state.
The borer can spread when infested logs or firewood are moved from one area to another. In Nebraska officials have begun a voluntary firewood restriction to help stem the tree onslaught.
