![\"Richard](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TYIKY4BPDJGCJH4HSCJKG5IZLE.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe beetle is coming for Oregon Ash trees, but scientists and residents can help soften the blow.<\/p>\n
Just outside Cottage Grove at the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Dorena Research Center, scientists are playing a numbers game: They\u2019re growing thousands of Oregon Ash, sourced from up and down the West Coast, hoping to find the rare tree with genetic resistance to the Emerald Ash Borer.<\/p>\n
About one in 1,000 trees, or five of the 5,300 seedlings here, may be able to survive the beetle infestation, according to Dorena Center geneticist Richard Sniezko. \u201cWe\u2019ve labeled each seedling, so when they\u2019re planted out, there will be a tag on it. So we\u2019ll know which parent tree it came off of.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard Sniezko stands under an Oregon ash tree in Dorena. Yellow-brown seed pods, or samaras, hang from the tree around him.<\/p>\n
Karen Richards \/ KLCC<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a gamble, but it could put the West Coast a step ahead of many other states, where people are now finding a few so-called \u201clingering,\u201d living ash trees, and propagating them.<\/p>\n
The invasive Emerald Ash Borer, or EAB, was first detected in Michigan in 2002. Its larvae have killed hundreds of millions of trees. By the time the beetles are spotted, they\u2019ve likely been in an area for years. They can\u2019t be exterminated.<\/p>\n
Oregon Ash grows from British Columbia to southern California. It\u2019s common in the Willamette Valley, and helps cool waterways and filter pollution.<\/p>\n
Bracken Bing works with the seed propagation program at the USDA Dorena Center. She said these Oregon Ash seeds, now in the walk-in refrigerator, will soon be moved to the deep freezer.<\/p>\n
Ash is also a popular street tree. The City of Eugene reports<\/a> nine percent of its trees are Ash varieties. Sniezko said urban tree removal has cost eastern states hundreds of millions of dollars. Then there\u2019s the loss of shade and the related human health toll.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I like to tell people,\u201d he said, \u201dis that when some of these come in, sooner or later we have to realize that most of the standing trees, maybe 90, 95%, 99% of them, are gonna be gone.\u201d<\/p>\n A freezer at the Dorena facility houses a potential backup solution. At 0\u00b0 Fahrenheit, it\u2019s shockingly cold. Sniezko said more than 40,000 seeds from various regional trees, including Oregon ash, are preserved here. Some Oregon Ash seeds have been sent to other seed banks, including one in Fort Collins, Colorado.<\/p>\n Being late to the invasion gives Oregon some advantages. Wyatt Williams, the Invasive Species Specialist with the Oregon Department of Forestry, said that includes working with the beetle\u2019s natural predators, or \u201cbiological control agents.\u201d<\/p>\n Each seedling is labeled with information about its parent tree. The parent tree, somewhere on the West Coast, is also marked with a metal label.<\/p>\n These Oregon Ash trees will be transplanted to various sites in the northern Willamette Valley this fall.<\/p>\n Karen Richards \/ KLCC<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had 20 years of science,\u201d he told KLCC. \u201dSo we have science on forest genetics, we have science on biological control. Thanks to the USDA and ODA, we were able to release biological control agents the first year. No other states are able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams added that the ODF began proactively collecting Oregon Ash seeds in 2019. It\u2019s those seeds that have become the seedlings at the Dorena center.<\/p>\n But Sniezko cautioned there\u2019s a limit to how many trees can be saved.<\/p>\n \u201cThe individual trees that you value, there are, I think, chemical treatments that you can do,\u201d he said, \u201dbut, you know, we can\u2019t treat millions of trees every year or every other year, across a forest landscape, so that\u2019s not really a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Because the Dorena center is internationally known for studying tree\u2019s resistance to pathogens, he proposed breeding ash from various locations and planting the tagged trees.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Emerald Ash Borer comes through, we\u2019ll see what\u2019s left,\u201d said Sniezko. \u201dWe\u2019ll know what the parent tree is, and then can get back to that tree and can maybe graft it into an orchard or root it or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams said the seedlings raised in Dorena will be moved to four northern Willamette Valley plots this fall.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the test locations is going to be at the ODF seed orchard outside Saint Paul, which is right in the middle of the two known populations of EAB in Oregon, that being the Forest Grove population and the Woodburn population,\u201d he said, adding: \u201dIt\u2019s not inconceivable to think that EAB could be right there, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Emerald Ash Borer beetles leave D-shaped exit holes in Ash tree bark when they leave as adults. See OregonEAB.com for information on how to identify the trees and the beetles, and many other FAQs.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Oregon Department of Forestry<\/p>\n The Emerald Ash Borer has been found in six new locations in 2025. Multnomah County was just added to the list, with a confirmed sighting in Portland. Williams said the website OregonEAB.com<\/a> has a map with a thick red line around the known sites. That\u2019s the quarantine area.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are inside the quarantine area, please do not move wood as you\u2019re camping this fall, especially,\u201d said Willams. \u201dSource your firewood at your destination, where you\u2019re gonna be camping.\u201d<\/p>\n Oregon’s EAB quarantine area, as of September 11, 2025.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Oregon Department of Forestry<\/p>\n On the Oregon EAB website, you can type in an address and find the current guidance for that location, and residents can help state scientists by reporting suspected beetle signs online, or calling the state\u2019s invasive species hotline at 1-866-INVADER.<\/p>\n People can also contribute by learning to identify ash trees and the signs of infestation. Sniezko was impressed that more than 1,000 people signed up to gather Oregon Ash seeds this fall for future propagation, and he says people can help after the beetle goes through.<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s different people to monitor their areas and say, \u2018Hey, 99% of trees are dead, but here\u2019s a living one that\u2019s pretty big and how come it\u2019s not dead?\u2019 It\u2019s really up to you to help us find those rare parent trees that actually survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This republished story is part of OPB\u2019s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit opb.org\/partnerships<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beetle is coming for Oregon Ash trees, but scientists and residents can help soften the blow. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,98130,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-161439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-invasive-species-trees-conservation","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"These](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/L6V74RW3ZVDA7GDKITI5GHLQZE.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Emerald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IJLK7YVJUBCMTC4QK7WMUW5PEI.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Oregon's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/KDVEN55WCBGWNLU262LFSAR7X4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n