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Many people believe that the current actions by the MDA are minimal repressive actions. We believe that they are being conducted under the guise of an eradication so they may ignore the requirements of Act 72 which calls for the treatment of trees and compensation to owners for non-infested trees which are destroyed. The MDA appears to have given up attempting to implement the zone management program of their own EAB Eradication Strategy Plan which, in itself, was unlawfully implemented by an order which, in our opinion, also unlawfully classified the ash tree as a host plant nuisance.
For now, lets ignore the fact that we have shown that the ash tree should never have be "determined" to be a host plant nuisance. If we let them call it a host plant nuisance and they proceeded to follow the public hearing rules for establishing the "section of the state to be eradicated" here's what we think would have to happen.
They would call a public hearing to eradicate all of the ash trees within a specific section of the state. For instance, the area within six miles of the St. Clair River (to protect the gateway to Canada) as described in the Science Advisory Panel's report of January 19, 2005. Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention that I'm not sure where it says that the Michigan Department of Agriculture has a duty or the power to protect the plants of any other country. I thought he worked for the people of Michigan and had a responsibility to them. Let's ignore that for now, because we are good neighbors.
To do that eradication he would need to destroy all of the ash trees in an area approximately 500 times larger than the 6 recent cuts on and near Harsens Island. When asked what it would cost he will have to tell the public that based on those 6 cuts costing $140,000 to cut the ash trees in 155 acres, the 6 mile eradication about 30 miles long could cost $70 million. Also he should tell them that Canada did such a cut and that they have since had 14 incidents of EAB in the Chatham area which have jumped that cut. We hope that he would explain to them that under the EAB Eradication Strategy there was supposed to have been an EAB fire break west of the St. Clair gateway and that the state didn't get around to implementing that fire break because it was impractical or economically infeasible at that time or that it just didn't work. Also hope that he would remind them that the EAB Quarantine Maps now indicate that this pest, though experts tell us it can travel only a few miles a year by its natural spread, has spread hundreds of miles in just 5 years and is now found throughout the lower peninsula of Michigan due to the state's inability to enforce the regulatory provisions of its own plan. The regulatory provisions means stopping the movement of firewood. Let him tell them that this cut is to stop the bug's spread across the St. Clair River and that since the initiation of the EAB Response Project the MDA has not taken the time to put up any signs at the Algonac or Marine City ferries or to do any vehicle inspections to attempt to regulate the movement of firewood to Canada Let him tell them that all of the control measures the Project Team has implemented thus far really never did help slow the spread of the pest but that they were very successful at cutting down quite a few healthy ash trees under an order which is unlawful. Let's see what public comments and support we receive at that hearing. Let me know when that hearing is going to be held because I want to be there.
We think it is time to send a message to the Director of The Michigan Department of Agriculture that he should stop cutting down healthy ash trees and he should start treating them instead.
If you would like to see ways that you can do that click here.
Bob Williams (Bob@SaveYourAsh.info)
