The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Honors College Spring 5-2020 Communication on Cultural and Environmental Implications of the Emerald Ash Borer Invasion in Maine Salvatore Magnano III University of Maine, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors Part of the Entomology Commons, and the Indigenous Studies Commons Recommended Citation Magnano, Salvatore III, "Communication on Cultural and Environmental Implications of the Emerald Ash Borer Invasion in Maine" (2020). Honors College. 613. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/613 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COMMUNICATION ON CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE EMERALD ASH BORER INVASION IN MAINE by Salvatore Magnano III A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree with Honors (Ecology and Environmental Sciences) The Honors College University of Maine May 2020 Advisory Committee: John Daigle, Professor of Forest Recreation Management, Advisor François Amar, Dean of the Honors College and Professor of Chemistry Robert Northington, Lecturer and Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the School of Biology and Ecology Darren Ranco, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Native American Research Abigail Roche, Doctoral Student and Lecturer in Communication and Journalism Kate Ruskin, Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Sciences ABSTRACT The introduction of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, in the United States in the early 1990’s, has resulted in a wave of ecological, economic, and cultural impacts that will forever leave a scar in the forests of North America. The primary goal of this project is to highlight the importance of regulating EAB as a pest species and to develop a comprehensive plan to promote education and regulation of EAB to the public. Additionally, this project aims to involve public outreach efforts through the Wabanaki tradition of basketmaking. A communication outreach plan involves utilizing a travel plan from Maine to Michigan to facilitate and bring awareness of EAB and the implications of transporting firewood and impacts to cultural traditions. The exploration of this outreach education program brought to light the complexities of organizing such an ambitious idea with multiple entities. In order to fully implement the project three conditions must be met: first, there must be further collaborative development for the harvesting and processing of ash; second, outside agencies must be willing to fund the processes involved, and; third, the willingness of local Maine and Michigan tribal communities is required for this to be a successful outreach program. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would truly not be possible if it were not for the dedication and commitment of my thesis committee, my family members, and my friends that have supported me throughout this journey. College has been a road of many challenges for me, especially as a first-generation college student. It is heartbreaking that I will not be able to attend a graduation ceremony this May (2020) due to COVID-19, but I hope that soon I will be able to walk the graduation stage, for not only myself, but my parents, grandparents, and close family! I hope to revisit the state of Maine frequently and see the family I have made amongst the group of men that took me under their wing. My final year of my undergraduate degree would not have been the same without you all. Thank you to Andrew Donald Hutchins, Gerren Anthony Welch, Connor Jared Leydon, Carlton Fredrick Scott, Cormac Liam Barry Coyle, Peter Allen Hyde, Cliff Greco, Anthony Michael Zenga and Kendall Jon Butler. A special thanks to my advisor, John Daigle, as he has supported me so much through my efforts in my thesis. I do not know what I woulD have done without him; Thank you for the countless edits and words of wisdom you have provided me throughout my thesis experience. I also hope I can get Braiding Sweetgrass back to you in a reasonable amount of time! Lending me this book has added great value to my understanding of the cultural take on science, however getting the book back to you during an unprecedented quarantine is a bit tricky! Another special thanks to Jim McCarthy from The University of Maine’s writing center! I appreciate the amount of time that you have spent with me working on iii vocabulary and cultural awareness. I wanted to be as culturally sensitive as I could while also attempting to connect communities to the best of my ability! I suppose I should also acknowledge my best friend from back home, Mr. Alex Ernest Rasten, for being extremely supportive of me during the writing of my thesis. Thank you for pulling my first all-nighter with me and encouraging me to apply myself. I hope our friendship we made in kindergarten can last a lifetime. Thank you to Alicia M. Badorek for also being extremely supportive with the grammatical edits and sentence reworking suggestions you have provided. Your writing skills are impeccable, and I truly appreciate how you always have constructive feedback for me. You have sincerely changed the way I read and write sentences and I hope I now better understand the difference between fragments and run-on sentences, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll get there, one day... Finally, a big shout out to my two biggest supporters. Very cliché of me but, thank you to mia madre e mio padre. Grazie per sostenere il mio sogno Universitario. Grazie per tutto quello che hai fatto per me. I Miei genitori significano il mondo per me, spero di averti reso orgoglioso. Ti amo assai. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . 1 Invasive Species . 1 EAB Biology; An Invasive Species . 2 EAB Transport . 5 EAB Cultural Impacts . 7 EAB Economic Impacts . 9 Methods . 12 Online Rules and Regulations . 13 Online Rules, Regulations, and Available Resources 14 in the State of Maine . Learning From Other Invasives; HWA as A Proxy to EAB . 15 The University of Maine’s Basket Makers Market . 19 Discussing the Mattioli and Hanning Background Research 20 and Committee Input . Results & Discussion . 21 Looking Towards the Future . 21 Future Implications of EAB; Social, Environmental & Chemical 23 Adaptations . Developing a Draft Plan for Broader Public Outreach . 27 Conclusion . 31 Environmental, Social, & Communicative Hurdles . 31 Developing a New Plan . 36 Literature Cited . 40 Appendix . 47 Author’s Biography . 60 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Raw Data sourced from Ruskin et al. 2018. Selected raw camper data from MDI Survey in 2018. 47 Table 2. Calculated camper decision percentage regarding how campers usually acquire their firewood. 53 Table 3. Calculated leftover wood usage options percentage by total participants. 53 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Emerald Ash Borer adult beetle on top of leave with feed damage . 54 Figure 2. Emerald Ash Borer larvae inside wood . 55 Figure 3. Emerald Ash Borer Adult emergence from tree via D-shaped hole . 56 Figure 4. New County Detection Map (2020) & Quarantine Information . 57 Figure 5. Ash Range Map with Federal Quarantine Overlay . 58 Figure 6. Purdue University’s ‘EAB Wave Invasion Concept’ Graphic . 59 vii INTRODUCTION Invasive Species When new species are introduced into an ecosystem, they can threaten native species and undermine the stability of the ecosystem. Invasive species can be plants, animals, and even microbes that may not have natural predators in the new environments they are introduced to. Because these species do not have natural predators to control them, invasive species can then outcompete native species and overtake a niche in their new environments, creating an imbalance in the average condition of the environment (USDA APHIS & NISIC, 2006). With native species unable to compensate for the additional pressures created by new competitors, the ecosystem balance between predator and prey species alike, may be negatively impacted. Prey species will not have developed the defenses necessary to counteract the damaging effects of the non-native predators, increasing the likelihood for the invasive species to outcompete, kill, and push out the common prey species. With the ability to quickly reproduce and adapt to new environments, invasive species tend to spread quickly once established, harming the general ecosystem with their rapidly changing population numbers (National Geographic, 2020). The stark reduction in available space and resources severely disrupts key species interactions, such as symbiotic relationships and food web interactions in established ecosystems. Symbiotic species rely on the presence of other species, co-existing in order to maintain a healthy metabolism. Some other predatory species rely on life events such as mass emergence, where an abundance of food may be available for the predator. If events such as these are disrupted due to an invasive species, it can cause an imbalance in natural cycles and the potential removal of species within an ecosystem. 1 The complexity of newly introduced species to non-native environments on predator-prey relationships and niches is difficult to unravel. One of the primary mechanisms for invasive species to spread is by human activities during travel, often through ships or cars, and sometimes through materials, such as