Oregon officials share lessons from emerald ash borer response; Washington urged to ready communications and rapid response

An Oregon Department of Forestry representative told the Washington Invasive Species Council on July 16 that emerald ash borer (EAB) is effectively impossible to eradicate once established and that preparedness, public reporting and coordinated communications were critical to limiting impacts.

Jim Gerzbach, who supported Oregon’s EAB response, said Oregon’s readiness-and-response plan identified agency roles in advance, which allowed a faster public notification and interagency coordination after initial detections. He described the first confirmed Oregon detection workflow—local detection, state confirmation, and then federal lab verification—and said news releases and an updated, modular website proved critical for routing the public to identification, reporting and management resources.

"Once it appears, you’re not going to be able to get rid of it," Gerzbach said. "What you can do is slow the spread, buy time for communities to prepare, and preserve the highest-value trees when appropriate." He noted treatments exist for high-value trees (systemic injections) and described operational tools used in Oregon—trap surveys, an interagency task force led by the state agriculture agency for quarantines, translated outreach materials, detector trainings (including utility-worker and pesticide-applicator trainings), and demonstration burns using air curtain incinerators to dispose of infested wood.

Gerzbach said Oregon’s communications checklist included: pre-drafted news releases tied to quarantine triggers (county confirmations), a monthly bulletin that aggregated partner activities, targeted in-person trainings and rapid public television coverage that boosted reporting and website traffic. He also emphasized translated printed materials to reach Spanish and other language communities.

Council members asked about task-force leadership and the role of the Oregon Invasive Species Council; Gerzbach said Oregon Department of Agriculture convened the interagency task force because quarantines fall under its authority. He recommended having release drafts and verification procedures ready in advance so agencies can act quickly when lab confirmations arrive.