‘Like seeing a friend in his doom’: Yarmouth beeches threatened by invasive species
Forty years ago, David Sollows planted a seedling that became a treasured beech tree on his estate in Yarmouth, NS.
It likes the look of the tree, the privacy it provides and the birds that flock to it, but the tree’s survival is threatened by an invasive species called the beech leaf miner beetle, a species of beetle.
From a distance, the burgundy red tree looks fine. Up close, the telltale sign of infestation can be seen in leaves with gaping holes.
“It’s like watching a friend die,” Sollows said.
The arrival of the mine beetle in the Yarmouth area was first noticed a few years ago, but the problem has since gotten significantly worse.
A motion calling for an employee report to see what can be done about the problem will be introduced at Thursday’s city council meeting.
“It’s one of those things that if you don’t get it out there people don’t become aware of it and they don’t realize how serious the problem is,” Coun said. Gil dares.
Beech trees are plentiful in Yarmouth, Sollows said. He said it was a species planted deliberately in the community in Victorian times.
“They will easily live to be 150 to 200 years old,” Sollows said.
The pests cause the trees to lose large amounts of leaves, making them increasingly weak. Within a few years, the trees may die.
Mining beetles have been reported in other parts of Nova Scotia, such as Halifax, Wolfville, and Cape Breton.
Andrew Hebda, a retired curator of zoology at the Nova Scotia Museum, said it’s unclear when the mine beetles first arrived in the province from Europe, but puts it at about 15 years ago.
“The fundamental problem is being able to control them. You can’t spray them and kill them by contact, which is most chemical control,” he said.
Hebda said work is being done involving the Canadian Forestry Service inject an insecticide into beech treesbut the approach is time consuming and expensive.
Hebda said that while the mine beetles are from Europe, they aren’t much of a problem there because of how other species co-evolved, noting that there are some parasitic organisms that help keep them in check.
He said introducing those species here could have unintended consequences.
“So what will be the impact of introducing a biological control?” Hebda said.
