BUFFALO, N.Y. — NEW YORK STATE IS DEDICATING $13 MILLION IN THIS YEAR’S BUDGET TOWARD HALTING THE EMERALD ASH BORER.
The invasive species is a wood-boring beetle that has destroyed millions of ash trees across the country, and expanding across the state since 2009.
Assemblyman Sean Ryan says the money will allow municipalities to inoculate affected trees.
“With $50 a year, we’ll be able to maintain this tree. It costs way more than that to cut the tree down and certainly it will take another generation to re-establish the canopy so, it will allow municipalities to really identify the valuable parts of the canopy and to innovulate against it,” said Ryan, D-Buffalo.
The timing is critical, because May is when the female beetle lays eggs, up to 100 in each tree. Larvae from those eggs can eventually destroy the tree.
