Swat team takes to trees

Battling the beetle threatening N.E.'s forests

WORCESTER - Dangling from a tree branch high above a neat suburban yard, Jackie Beebe scanned the bark for the scars and tell-tale boreholes that would be this maple's epitaph.

Finally Beebe, a US Department of Agriculture tree climber, found what she was looking for - a bit of bark where an Asian longhorned beetle had chewed out a pit and laid its tiny egg.

This tree, like 1,500 others identified so far, will have to be cut down after the first hard frost, in hope of halting the destructive beetle's advance into a region whose identity and economy is deeply entwined with maple syrup and fall foliage.

A beetle SWAT team of 32 climbers is going tree by tree and street by street, the start of a monumental task that will take years. On public ways alone, there are about 19,000 trees in Worcester, the vast majority of which are maples - the insect's favorite. Every tree vulnerable to the beetles - hardwoods including elms, willows, and birch in addition to maples - will have to be checked by climbers or crews hoisted in buckets or armed with binoculars.

The sense of urgency comes from the size of the threat and its proximity to the treasured woodlands of Northern New England. The USDA says the beetle has the potential to cause more damage than gypsy moths, Dutch elm disease, and chestnut blight combined. The beetle has been found in a handful of other spots in the United States, but scientists say this in festation represents a unique threat.

"The big thing is that it's the first time it's been found in North America so close to a forested area, and that's always been a huge concern in New England," said Bob Childs, an entomologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "If it gets established, we'll never be able to eradicate it - we'll always be chasing a fire we can't put out."

This week, tree inspections increased in scope and intensity, as about two dozen smoke jumpers from Western states joined the effort to confine the beetle to a 62-square-mile quarantine zone surrounding Worcester. Smoke jumpers - better known for their ability to parachute out of planes and fight forest fires - will use their tree-climbing expertise to get up close to the smooth bark of new branches, where the beetles carve out pits and lay eggs.

Climbers, who average 10 trees a day, look for the oval pits, oozing sap, and "frass," coarse sawdust that the beetles leave behind. Infestation spells death for a tree - which will be cut down and turned to wood chips, because the beetle cannot be eradicated with insecticides alone. Some uninfested trees might also have to be cut down, and all remaining vulnerable trees will be treated with chemicals beginning next year.

The climbers not only must identify the affected trees in yards and on public ways, but they also often inform homeowners that their beloved trees must come down.

"It's pretty sad. We're the bearer of bad news," Kevin Freeman, a USDA supervisor, said earlier this week, as he stood by a van bearing a bumper sticker that read: "WANTED - Asian Longhorned Beetle."

In the same neighborhood - and even in the same yard - some trees are infested and others are spared.

Ann Beinema, tending her garden, looked sadly at climbers dangling in a neighbor's tree that would be cut down, but was relieved to know that "David," the maple in her backyard that provides shade for picnics, was declared beetle-free.

Keir Carroll was not so lucky. The Norway maple in his backyard, which holds a bird feeder that draws droves of finches, and even a rose breasted grosbeak, will have to come down.

"It's not a beautiful tree, but it's a stately tree," Carroll said. "It paints the skyline beautifully, and it'll be sad to lose it."

The mottled, shiny beetle, with its gracefully curving antennae, is seemingly everywhere in Worcester, even in City Hall - encased in glass in city manager Michael O'Brien's office.

"It's on my desk, it's in my nightmares, it's in my every waking thought," said O'Brien, who has been working to ensure the federal government, not the city, will not have to pick up the tab for the beetle eradication. The cost of the first year of the beetle attack was estimated to be $24 million a few weeks ago, when the beetle alert was just half of its current size.

The beetle, native to Asia, weakens and eventually kills trees by cutting off the circulatory system. Beetle larvae burrow toward the tree's center and spend the winter there. Eventually, they tunnel out into the open, boring a dime-sized exit hole.

The beetle's known range in the Bay State has expanded rapidly since the first one was discovered in the Greendale neighborhood of Worcester this summer. It's believed to have been brought here accidentally in shipping materials.

The area being regulated now includes the entire City of Worcester and parts of neighboring towns Holden, West Boylston, Boylston, and Shrewsbury. There are restrictions on cutting down trees or taking wood out of that area.

The beetle was first found in the United States in Brooklyn in 1996, and has since appeared in New Jersey, New York, and Chicago. Thousands of trees have been removed over the years or inoculated with an insecticide to stop the advance.

Eradication can take years, and the beetles can be a formidable foe. Illinois declared victory this spring after a decade of battling the bug. But months later, there was an ominous sign: a lone adult showed up in a parking lot.

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.