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  "description": "Invasive emerald ash borers are emerging from Oregon trees weeks earlier than usual this year, the Oregon Department of Forestry says. The pest was first found in the state in Forest Grove in 2022.",
  "path": "/emerald-ash-borers-emerging-early-this-year-oregon-department-of-forestry-warns/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-27T23:44:45.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.newsinthegrove.com",
  "tags": [
    "OregonEAB.com",
    "oregoninvasiveshotline.org"
  ],
  "textContent": "Invasive emerald ash borers are emerging from Oregon trees weeks earlier than usual this year, driven by a mild winter and warm spring, the Oregon Department of Forestry announced May 18.\n\nODF Invasive Species Specialist Wyatt Williams confirmed that in early May he peeled back bark from a section of a Raywood ash tree in King City, in southeast Washington County, and found a fully formed emerald ash borer (EAB) adult that looked ready to emerge.\n\nEmerald ash borers were first discovered in Oregon in Forest Grove in 2022. The Oregon Department of Forestry told this newspaper that a series of ash trees growing in the Joseph Gale Elementary School parking lot harbored the first EABs in the state. In the four years since, adults in northwest Oregon have begun emerging from inside tree trunks sometime in the first two weeks of June, and continue maturing and emerging for several weeks into July.\n\n\"The very mild winter and the many warm spring days we've had in Oregon this year has allowed EAB larvae to develop more rapidly into adults,\" Williams said.\n\nHe wasn't completely surprised by finding an adult so early in May.\n\n\"When we looked at the updated models that accounted for warmer than expected temperatures this spring, the models pointed toward an earlier emergence of adults,\" Williams said. \"That's exactly what we're seeing.\"\n\nKing City is within the existing Washington County EAB quarantine zone, but Williams' discovery was the first time the pest had been seen inside the city of about 5,000 people southeast of Portland.\n\nWilliams was following up on a hotline report from Warren Tickner of Pacific Landscape Management, which is contracted by King City to look after publicly owned trees. Tickner reported that Raywood ash trees in the city looked to be declining — a classic sign of EAB.\n\nWilliams said he found several of King City's ash trees suffering dieback from verticillium wilt, a soilborne fungal disease.\n\n\"Peeling back bark from a section of trunk of one of the trees, I found larval galleries and an EAB adult ready to take flight,\" Williams said.\n\nHe also found two of the ash trees had the characteristic twisting galleries made by EAB larvae under the bark. Since then, an adult EAB has been seen at a new site in Woodburn, less than a mile from Wyffels Park, where the pest was found last year.\n\nErin Carey, public information officer for King City, said the city is working to remove infested trees.\n\n\"We appreciate our residents' patience as we navigate the proper way to address and remove any trees infested with the emerald ash borer as soon as possible,\" Carey said. \"We would also like to commend our landscape contractor for taking swift action when reporting his suspicion of the EAB to the appropriate authorities.\"\n\nWilliams said EAB larval growth is closely tied to outside temperatures. This past winter in western Oregon was tied with 1934 as the warmest on record, followed by record-breaking or near record-breaking high temperatures this spring.\n\n\"These changes in climate favor insect pests,\" ODF Forest Entomologist Christine Buhl said. \"It gives EAB adults more time to find a mate and then find an ash tree to infest with their eggs. At the same time, hotter temperatures and drought stress trees. This makes them less able to resist infestation and they may decline and die sooner.\"\n\nSince it can be hard to see EAB adults, ODF suggests the public learn to identify ash trees and monitor for signs of EAB infestation, such as dieback in the upper canopy. More information about identifying ash trees or emerald ash borer and what signs to look for can be found at OregonEAB.com.\n\nSuspected EAB infestations in ash or olive trees can be reported to the Oregon Invasive Species Council at oregoninvasiveshotline.org, or by phone at 1-866-INVADER (1-866-468-2337).",
  "title": "Emerald ash borers emerging early this year, Oregon Department of Forestry warns",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-27T23:44:46.053Z"
}