The larvae of long, green beetles are winding their way under the bark of Maine’s brown ash trees in northern and southern pockets of the state.
Known as Emerald Ash Borers, the insects have decimated ash trees in the Great Lakes already.
They likely will do the same here one day, local researchers said. But for 20 years, Maine has been preparing with a focus on protecting Wabanaki traditions and including indigenous knowledge, an approach setting it apart from other states.
Maine has also had more time to prepare: emerald ash borers were found in Michigan in 2002 and spread steadily eastward. They weren’t found here until 2018.
The tree has a limited role in Maine’s forest products industry. It has a much larger one for Wabanaki tribes, whose members have spiritual and ceremonial connection to the tree also used for basket making.
Basket makers had the most to lose from the beetles, and efforts began early to include their knowledge in policy decisions, said Darren Ranco, a University of Maine professor of anthropology and Native American programs who is a citizen of the Penobscot Nation.
Basketmakers are also more likely to catch the borers because they interact with the trees more than most people. The beetles reproduce invisibly under the bark and green adults tend to gather on the tops of trees, where they blend in with foliage.
They also leave D-shaped holes in bark when tunneling out. The trees may die near their top branches or branch more than usual at the bottom.
Joining together as the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik, university researchers, state and federal forestry agencies, conservation groups, tribes and basketmakers planned their approach. They join western and indigenous approaches to science, research and decision-making.
“To me, most of the complex problems we face in society require us to think from different points of view,” Ranco said.
For example, the Mi’kmaq language describes the concept of two eyes seeing, Ranco said. That’s different from Western science, which focuses on one perspective.
“To have both eyes together is a more stereophonic approach,” he said.
This collaboration led to several approaches unique to Maine.
When the pests were still regulated by the federal government, the group achieved a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture that it would consult with the tribes if an infestation was found near federal land.
That formalized communication and work between the groups, Ranco said.
Now that regulating the beetles is on the state level, policymakers and tribes will collaborate when quarantine lines are set so basketmakers can plan and respond. If the trees basketmakers need were caught behind a quarantine line, they wouldn’t be able to take it to a basket making site.
The collaborations also led to the creation of the Wabanaki Youth and Science program, bringing a similar approach to other subjects.
“We’ve also been very hopeful in fact that research has led to … collaborations and policy outcomes that are far more inclusive in terms of the way Maine has responded,” Ranco said.
Maine still has stricter regulations for emerald ash borer control than other states in the Northeast and is still in an earlier stage of infestation, said forest entomologist Mike Parisio.
Ash borer populations are established in southern and northern Maine. They were found in Penobscot County for the first time last year, and counties are quarantined extending into central Maine.
These areas limit the movement of ash trees and ash wood in or out of their boundaries. Firewood that hasn’t been heat-treated for pests can’t come into the state at all.
As spread has continued, the focus has shifted toward adapting to the beetles as the inevitability of their arrival became clear. The collaboration is also researching and promoting adaptation on smaller scales.
University students are teaching people to collect seeds from ash trees to promote more genetic diversity and find variations of the tree that are resistant to the ash borers. Those could be reintroduced to affected forests one day.
Researchers are also using tiny, stingless wasps to kill ash borers.
“People are resigned to a pretty brutal future around it,” Ranco said.
But these activities can be hopeful and buy time, perhaps even for decades. There are still living ash trees in Michigan, for example. Parisio, the forest entomologist, said there’s a lot of effective prevention work that can still be done.
People from private citizens to arborists are also informed and invested in looking for the borers, he said, and outreach networks are strong.
Research continues: the ash protection collaboration and the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry are looking for a site of at least 10 acres with 150 trees to join a study over 10 years or more on a combination of insecticide and biological control methods.
