Human - mediated dispersal of emerald ash borer : Significance of the firewood pathway DESIREE

Introduction Invasive alien species can have devastating consequences on native biodiversity, ecosystem and evolutionary processes (Lovett et al. 2006, McNeely 2001, Mooney and Cleland 2001). In the United States alone, economic costs associated with environmental damages and losses as a result of invasive species have been estimated to total between $120-137 billion per year (Pimentel et al. 2005, Pimentel et al. 2000). Forest products are particularly affected with losses attributed to exotic insects and pathogens reaching approximately $4.2 billion per year in the U.S. (Pimentel et al. 2005). One exotic insect currently threatening North American forests is the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (1888) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) (Fig. 1), a wood-boring beetle native to Asia that infests ash trees (Fraxinus sp.). First discovered in Michigan in 2002, emerald ash borer (EAB) has since spread to Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, West Virginia, Virginia, and Wisconsin (www.emeraldashborer.info).