May 18, 2020 —Denton, Texas
On Thursday May 7, 2020 the City of Denton Urban Forester, Haywood Morgan, met with a homeowner in the Villages of Carmel neighborhood who had concerns that his ash trees might have EAB. After meeting with the homeowner, he was waiting to cross the street and noticed a bug land on a leaf of an ash tree. With the assistance of the homeowner he was able to capture the bug and place it in ziploc bag. Upon further investigation he had a strong notion that the bug was an adult EAB beetle. He informed the homeowner that the Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) would be contacted to get a second opinion. Later that day he emailed pictures to Courtney Blevins, Urban Forester with the TSF. Courtney replied that he thought the diagnosis of EAB was right and requested a meeting to pick up the specimen the next day and send it to the TFS entomologist for a positive ID.
On Friday May 8, 2020 the Urban Forester received a call from Allen Smith Entomologist with the TFS who used the pictures to confirm the specimen is an EAB beetle. For it to be official the specimen would have to be sent to a lab in Michigan for positive identification. Allen stated once we receive positive identification, Denton County will be quarantined by the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). This means that a protocol will be in place to reduce of the spread of the EAB. TDA will also have to inspect and approve our wood waste recycling equipment/program at the landfill to verify we are compliant with standards for processing EAB wood waste products for resale. Mr. Smith also stated that there would be a meeting with communities, agencies and businesses in Denton County that will be affected by the quarantine. Both Allen and Courtney have offered their assistance to help the City of Denton deal with this pest.
The State of Denton Urban Forest 2016 report calculated Denton’s urban forest to consist of about 4% (138,000) ash trees including public and private properties. Ash represent the eighth most populous tree in Denton, most of which are located on private property, natural areas and near riparian areas. As a part of Davey Resource Group’s work on the Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP) a street tree (tree within the street right-of-way) count was performed on 10% of public streets. Using this data, it was extrapolated that Denton has approximately 20,850 street trees (between the curb and sidewalk). Utilizing data above it has been calculated the approximate number of ash street trees is 834.
About 70% of City properties maintained by Parks and Recreation have been inventoried for ash trees. A total of 59 ash trees have been inventoried, with most locations having only two or less ash and the majority of those being less than 12 inches DBH. The highest concentration of ash trees are in Lake Forest Park and Sequoia Park.