BANGOR — The city of Bangor has a plan to protect its trees from the invasive Emerald Ash Borer.

“We’re taking inventory of trees that we want to inject,” said Benjamin Arruda, forestry manager for Bangor Public Works. “Trees that we want to remove because they already pose a hazard, and trees we don’t currently have any idea what to do with just yet.”

The Asian beetle kills nearly all species of Ash trees in Maine. 

Arruda said there have not been any confirmed cases of Emerald Ash Borers in Bangor yet, but the city wants to get ahead of the issue given that it has been discovered in other regions including Portland and, most recently, Mount Desert Island. 

Sophia Cameron, a Bangor Public Works intern and UMaine Master of Forestry graduate, said the plan for the city involves injecting around 250 of the city’s 1,800 Ash trees with tree-safe insecticide and replacing more than 400 others.

Arruda said the chemical is emamectin benzoate. 

“That is a chemical that’s contained wholly within the tree and targets wood-boring insects such as Emerald Ash Borer,” said Arruda. “Early on, you may not know that your trees are infected. Trees typically die from the top down, so to the untrained eye a tree might not show signs until it’s too late, and there’s no treating once a tree is severely infected.”

Cameron said she has been working to help the Bangor Public Works Department write a management plan for roughly two years. 

“I just thought we had a really good opportunity here to be proactive in dealing with it,” said Cameron. “As opposed to responding once it’s already become a problem.”

Arruda said Ash trees make up roughly 20% of all trees in Bangor.

The Maine Forest Service has wood quarantines in place, including in Bangor, in an effort to slow the spread.

“Emerald Ash Borer has been in the United States since 2002; it became an issue in Maine in 2018,” said Cameron. “It’s sort of like an unstoppable force; it’s bound to arrive eventually, especially given how much recreation we get in the area and in Maine in general. The insect is transported via firewood, so folks that go up 95 carrying firewood from out of state or from a county that already has an infestation — it gives it a free ride straight through the city.” 

The plan has already been presented to the city council, but it is still in the planning stages and needs to be formally approved by the city’s Tree Board.

“We’re still in planning phases,” said Cameron. “We need to have everything approved by the Tree Board, and then the Tree Board needs to make official recommendations to the city council.”

Arruda said the city expects to start injecting some of the trees in June.