That discovery, revealed this week by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), will likely lead to restrictions on the movement of wood and wood products out of the entire Region of Peel, according to Brian Hamilton, the CFIA’s acting Emerald Ash Borer program specialist.

The insect, which has likely killed millions of ash trees in southwestern Ontario already, has been found in the area of Dixie Road and Steeles Avenue. Now ash trees in that area are under the CFIA microscope to determine the extent of the infestation. Affected property owners will be notified, according to the CFIA.

Approximately 15 per cent of local boulevard and park trees are ash, according to City of Brampton spokesperson Gordon Smith. They are particularly common boulevard trees in the M and J Sections of Bramalea, according to a previous city staff report.

“We’re very concerned about our trees,” said Smith, adding the city is awaiting word from the CFIA on next steps.

Hamilton said this week that larvae from the boring insect has been found by an arborist in an ash tree on private property— at a strip mall in the area now being examined by the CFIA.

Because of the notoriety of the insect, the arborist reported the find immediately to the CFIA.

The insect does not pose a danger to human health and it does not affect mountain ash.

Hamilton said it’s difficult to say exactly how many trees are affected in the area, but he estimated the insect has likely infested about two dozen trees.

“In our detection surveys, if we find it in four out of 10 trees, it’s probably in all 10,” Hamilton said.

The CFIA does not destroy infested trees because that approach has proven ineffective in stopping the spread, he said.

Instead, restrictions on the movement of wood are put on areas where the insect is found.

The insect does not spread quickly on its own. It is usually spread when infested wood and wood products are moved into an area, according to the CFIA.

That’s why the federal agency is making an urgent request to Bramptonians— don’t move firewood, nursery stock, trees, logs, wood, rough lumber including pallets and other wood packaging materials, bark, wood chips or bark chips from ash (Fraxinus species), and firewood of all tree species out of Brampton.

Hamilton said, based on past practice, the CFIA will likely make that request the law eventually, and not just for Brampton, but the entire Region of Peel (Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon). If Peel is officially quarantined, any movement of those materials outside of the region, without written permission from the CFIA, will carry a fine of between $400 and $4,000. Movement of the materials around the region would be discouraged, but not illegal.

This is the first time the insect has been found in Brampton, but several other Ontario municipalities, the closest being Toronto, are already under regulation after discovery of the pest.

The City of Toronto and Norfolk County were both put under regulation this year. The municipality of Chatham-Kent as well as Essex, Elgin, Lambton and Middlesex counties are under regulation. The insect has also been recently discovered in the Monteregie Region of Quebec.

Hamilton said despite the potential fines, education and awareness are the keys to ensuring the regulations are adhered to.

“CFIA will work with people,” he said. “What we ultimately want is compliance, that’s our goal here.”

The CFIA does “firewood blitzes”, he said, checking campers to ensure the firewood they are using has not been brought out of a regulated area. Hamilton said the bottom line is that firewood should be purchased in the area in which it is to be used.

In the end, it’s cheaper to pay $6 for a bag of firewood at a provincial park than $400 for a fine, he said.

This is the first time the insect has been discovered in Brampton, but the danger it poses to Ash trees was on the City of Brampton’s radar screen in 2003, less than a year after it first turned up in Canada. The city cut by 75 per cent its planting of Ash trees in 2003, and eliminated the tree completely from its new planting inventory in 2005 because of the threat posed by the insect. City staff has estimated it would cost more than $10 million for stump/tree removal and replacement if the pest wiped out the thousands of city-owned ash trees.

It is not known how many ash trees are on private property in the city.

Ash trees are very common, especially as a city boulevard tree, and ash is a common firewood.

Municipalities began planting ash trees more frequently after Dutch elm disease decimated the Elm population, Hamilton said.

He said the ash trees in the identified area will die.

“It might not be this year, it might be four years from now, but it’s going to happen,” he said, noting the insect is “very good” at killing ash trees.

He said the CFIA will also work with the municipality to ensure ash wood does not end up in the yard waste collection material.

Hamilton said there are “billions” more ash trees to be saved and the CFIA wants to try to save them.
For more information, or to report an potentially infested ash tree, cll the CFIA at 1-866-463-6017.