By:
Stewart Brennan
In
early May 2020, while on a daily walk, I noticed a number of tree’s in my area that
had not grown their leaves. It seemed strange that they were so late, especially
when everything else was flourishing.
As spring turned towards summer, it became clear that these trees were not late in blooming at all but were dead or dying. I became more concerned and so I drove around the West Island of Montreal looking to see if it was just my neighbourhood that was affected…it wasn’t, as I found many more dead trees in the neighbouring communities.…
I decided to do a little research to find out which species of tree they were and what could have killed them. I pulled a few leaves from a dying tree near my home to positively identify them and after a brief search on the internet, I found that the trees were “Green Ash”[01] that were categorized as “critically endangered” due primarily to the "Emerald Ash Borer"[02], a beetle that comes from "China".
The
Ash trees are also susceptible to urban pollution which could have explained
why so many trees were wiped out at the same time, but since there was a reduction in pollution during the COVID lock-down, it didn’t fit the picture. In fact,
for the first time in a long time, we could actually breathe the air in
Montreal due to absence of air and road traffic.
During this time, parks and maintenance personnel were scaled back, which I thought might also explain why the pest advanced so quickly, but after further reading, I found that there is no sure quick fix for this pest, so it couldn’t be the reason the trees died so quickly.
Anyhow, I decided to go back to the park near my home to investigate further by removing the bark from some of the trees and found to my dismay that it was indeed the “Emerald Ash Borer”. It’s very alarming and distressing to see so many dead and dying trees in my region, some of which were very old.
Dead Ash Trees in Local Forest Patch
Green Ash Tree Trunk showing Emerald Ash Borer Holes
Spreading
Infestation
The
sudden onset of this pest was truly disturbing and I felt that it could have
been prevented if China had actually practiced some sort of safety precautions or
adhered to western health and safety regulations. But because China does not
hold health, safety or environment issues with any serious concern, infestations
have come to North America directly through shipping containers, and as such,
are destroying the North American environment.
Economic Shift
When most of the high paying North American manufacturing jobs were outsourced to China, Chinese imports to the USA and Canada began to spike. North American’s were then left with menial lower paying jobs in warehouse receiving, shipping and container unloading.
The North American rules for container cargo are explicit when it comes to infestations. Containers must be fumigated. However, even though certificates are placed on the inside of containers, stating that the container had been fumigated at the source, a wide array of insects have still been found in containers for a number of reasons including; holes in the containers mainly due to wear, damage and or rust, rubber door seals that are severely worn, broken, or missing altogether, and lax environmental rules from the exporting countries. I have personally seen and experienced all of these things over the past few years, so if this disregard for the North American environment persists, infestations imported from China and other places are not going to stop anytime soon.
Safety Regulations?
The
safety regulations are extremely lax in China, with many problems that directly
effect the North American environment. The “Emerald Ash Borer” is just
one of many destructive insects that have made their way from China to North
America.
The “Asian Longhorn Beetle”[03] is another example of a dangerous pest brought to North America from Korea, Japan, and China. The beetle infests maple, poplar, willow, and elm trees causing damage to these trees as well. In fact, there are many invasive and destructive Asian bugs that have made their way to North America through container shipping such as the “Common Pine Shoot Beetle”[04], “The Formosan Subterranean Termite”[05], “The Cabinet Beetle”[06], “The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug”[07], “The Asian Tiger Mosquito”[08] and many others. The question is, when will Chinese and North American environmental regulation governance bring these devastating incidents to an end? How many more disastrous surprises should we expect in the future? One way or another, we are going to find out, and that being the hard way…unless or course shipping comes to a complete stop, but who are we kidding when all parties are more interested in making money than upholding moral responsibility.
Packaging
Many
invasive species from Asia have made their way to North America via container
shipments and the packaging materials used.
But on top of the invasive bug species coming from Asia, there is also a major problem with the vast amounts of disposable, recyclable and unrecyclable packaging materials from the products inside the containers themselves. Most of it is thrown straight into corporate dumpsters which then find their way to our landfills. The amount of waste has grown exponentially over the years due to most everything now being made in China. The environmental impact has been catastrophic.
Thousands of companies across North America fill their garbage bins with tens of millions of tons of non carton packaging materials from China every year. Styrofoam, plastic wrap, paper of all kinds, steel and plastic strap, wood, fasteners, corner boards, linens, etc. Most of it, if not all, ends up polluting our environment while also carrying the potential threat of the next invasive species.
North American Corporations are not regulated or forced to recycle packaging materials, nor are container rules rigid enough to prevent the continuing damage to our North American environment from invasive species. Either we address these problems now or it will be too late for the trees, plants or crops in your community as it is for the Green Ash Trees in mine.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINKS:
[01] Green Ash
[02] Emerald Ash Borer
[03] The Asian Long Horned Beetle
[05] The Formosan Subterranean Termite
[06] The Cabinet Beetle
[07] Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
[08] Asian Tiger Mosquito
Additional Links:
Regional List of Pests affecting Tree Populations
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment.