NEWS 7
SANTA ANA COLLEGE el Don/eldonnews.org • MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017
NATURAL PREDATOR THREATENS TREES IN OC
RJ MCKAY / el Don
UPROOTING / The trees in the central part of campus were cut down in
order to accommodate construction and renovation. / el Don Staff
If Southern California feels increas-
ingly like a concrete jungle, you may
not be far off. The area is rapidly
becoming less green, with its trees
under attack.
The primary threat to the tree pop-
ulation is a small insect with a long
name—the Polyphagous Shot Hole
Borer beetle. The beetle, known to
attack more than 200 different species
of trees, was first discovered in the Los
Angeles area in 2003 and is believed
to have originated in Southeast Asia,
possibly Taiwan or Vietnam.
Dr. Akif Eskalen is a plant pathol-
ogist at the University of California,
Riverside. He studies several fungal
diseases spread by insects, including
Fusarium dieback, spread by the borer
beetle. “The beetle is not the direct
predator of the tree,” Eskalen said. It
“serves as a means of transmitting the
fungus, which will eventually infect it.”
Eskalen and his team are constant-
ly searching for a means to fight the
borer beetle population in California,
including the injection of chemical
pesticides directly into the plant and
the use of biocontrol.
Until a new strategy has been proven
safe and effective, the best means to
prevent the spreading of Fusarium
dieback is to remove infected material
and dispose of it at a biogeneration
facility, where it will be burned and
converted into energy.
At Santa Ana College, the construc-
tion has not helped our tree popula-
tion, leaving the central part of cam-
pus like an eerie reflection of what is
happening in many parts of the state.
“Without trees, SoCal would look
and feel like that scene out of the mov-
ie Mad Max,” said Anthony Martinez,
a biology major at SAC. “Our trees
provide us with essential elements
necessary to survive. It’s scary to think
of a world without them.”
BORER BEETLE
• The beetle transmits
a fungus to the trees,
which then infects and
kills them.
• A parasite found in
Taiwan may serve as
a natural method to
control the borer beetle
population.
• Cutting down and
burning infected trees is
the simplest method to
get rid of the disease.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Read the whole story at
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Santa Ana College Paper