June 9, 2022 - By Amanda Conrad, DOF Forest Health Technician The vibrant, metallic green of an emerald ash borer (EAB) makes it look like royalty of the forest. But this beautiful, invasive insect is also deadly. Just one beetle can lay 40-70 eggs on the bark of its preferred host: ash trees. The growing larvae disrupt the flow of water throughout the tree, which will ultimately kill the tree. A healthy ash tree... Read More
August 23, 2021 - By Lori Chamberlin, DOF Forest Health Manager, and Joe Lehnen, DOF Forest Utilization and Marketing Specialist The emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive insect that attacks and kills ash trees in North America. It became established in Virginia in 2008 and has wreaked havoc, killing ash trees throughout the state. In 2019, DOF was awarded a federal Landscape Scale Restoration grant titled Grand SLAM (Slowing Ash Mortality) in the... Read More
March 9, 2021 - By Joe Lehnen, DOF Forest Utilization & Marketing Specialist, and Katlin DeWitt, DOF Forest Health Specialist The emerald ash borer (EAB) is an invasive beetle that has decimated native ash trees. It has been present in the U.S. since the late 1990s, feeding on and killing ash in Virginia since initial detection in 2008. This insect is native to Asia and most likely arrived on imported wood packaging material. While named... Read More
February 26, 2021 - Property managers at James Monroe’s Highland recently conducted preservation work on the estate’s tree canopy using cost-share funding from the Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF). With more than 100 ash trees on the property, Highland has not been insulated from the effects of the emerald ash borer (EAB)– an invasive pest that damages and eventually kills native ash species. To maintain the overall health of their tree canopy, they’ve removed... Read More
February 15, 2021 - The Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF) helped Camp Kum-Ba-Yah give some much-needed care to their campground’s forest. The wooded property in Lynchburg, Virginia is owned and operated by the Lynchburg Covenant Fellowship. Camp Kum-Ba-Yah was founded in 1950 by Reverend Bev Cosby. Along with the camp, the property houses the Church of the Covenant, The Lodge of the Fishermen, Common Grounds Café, and Chrysalis Interfaith Retreat Center. Ash trees on... Read More
July 30, 2020 - On July 22, DOF’s urban & community forestry (U&CF) manager Lara Johnson traveled to Alexandria, Virginia to visit a well-known green ash tree. This ash, located in a courtyard between two apartment buildings, is likely hundreds of years old and is one of largest ash trees in the nation. Abigail (so named by property managers Mike and Olivia) is the current Virginia State Champion and was once the National Big... Read More
July 24, 2020 - The fate of Virginia’s stately ash trees might rest on the wings of a tiny wasp. For more than a decade, ash trees (Fraxinus genus) have been under threat from an invasive insect pest, the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) – EAB, for short. The larvae of this beetle feed on the phloem of ash trees, disrupting nutrient transfer. Native ash trees didn’t evolve with EAB, and its natural enemies aren’t here to... Read More
June 9, 2020 - In late May, Lara Johnson and Meghan Mulroy-Goldman (DOF urban & community forestry team), along with the Virginia Beach Urban Forestry Department, embarked on a scouting mission for the rare pumpkin ash in the bottomlands surrounding Stumpy Lake in Virginia Beach (based on information shared from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.) After traveling through the swampy coastal forest, Lara, Meghan and the Virginia Beach Urban Forestry Staff located... Read More
January 3, 2020 - The Virginia Department of Forestry (DOF) is excited to participate in the Centennial Challenge put forth by the National Association of State Foresters (NASF) in 2020. Below is the campaign announcement from NASF: “The National Association of State Foresters is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2020 with a Centennial Challenge campaign, honoring both the work of the association in providing a unified voice for state and private forestry in the... Read More
September 28, 2017 - “They look so pretty!” That’s what I said the first time I saw an adult emerald ash borer (EAB). But I soon learned from our DOF Forest Health team that this green insect’s destruction is anything but pretty. EAB came to the United States from Asia, was first discovered in Northern Virginia in 2008 and is boring its way through ash trees from Michigan to Virginia. “Adult ash borers are... Read More
