Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradicated From New Jersey
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - The Asian Longhorned Beetle is no longer a threat to trees in the Garden State.
"I'm proud to announce the eradication of the beetle from Union and Middlesex Counties," said state Agriculture Secretary Doug Fisher Thursday of the locations of the last two clusters.
But he noted that it is "a ferocious creature," saying "it wreaked an enormous amount of havoc in many communities around this state."
Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradicated From New Jersey
It was first seen in Jersey City in 2002, but wiped out of Hudson County a few years ago.
"It's a killer of hardwood trees," he said.
"It's the circle of life. You can take things down and we replant them. So we were able to go back in and we replanted thousands of trees," said Lynn Fleming of the the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Parks and Forestry.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Victor Harabin said they're still fighting this beetle.
"And achieving similar results this year in Manhattan and Staten Island," he said, adding the fight goes on in Massachusetts and Ohio.
He said the bug could still cripple the timber, maple syrup, and tree nursery industries.
"Yards and neighborhoods would take decades to recover," he said.
