The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets today announced that the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has removed just over 10 square miles from the Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) quarantine area after a final survey of properties in the area was completed last month. Lifting the quarantine in this designated area, which includes portions of the Townships of Babylon, Huntington, and Oyster Bay on Long Island, will ease regulatory burdens on nursery dealers and growers and other businesses, including landscaping companies, transfer stations, and general contractors as well as private citizens. The remaining 42.9 square miles in the Townships of Babylon, Huntington, and Oyster Bay remain under quarantine.
State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “The Department, along with its partners at USDA APHIS, has been working diligently to eradicate ALB for decades. Today’s announcement that we lifted the quarantine in another 10 square mile area on Long Island is good news for the horticultural industry and other industries that depend on the movement of hardwood trees and materials, as well as for our forestry, timber, and maple industries, which are at greatest risk from ALB. We have more work to do and will continue to survey until we are able to deregulate all Long Island.”
Kathryn Bronsky, USDA APHIS National Policy Manager for the ALB Eradication Program said, "New York is closer than ever to being ALB-free. It's a credit to the work done together with our New York partners to eliminate the beetle. We look forward to the day when we can say that our work fighting ALB is done here."
ALB, which is an invasive species that can cause significant damage to hardwood trees and therefore, significant economic and environmental impacts if allowed to spread, was first detected in New York in 1996. To prevent the spread of this non-native pest, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets established a quarantine for portions of New York City and Long Island, which restrict the movement of ALB-regulated materials without proper permits.
As part of the eradication program, the Department, working with the USDA, took an aggressive approach of survey and removal to combat the ALB’s spread. With the regulations now lifted in this section of Long Island, the ALB quarantine for the region is now 42.9 square miles. The ALB quarantine for New York City was fully released in 2019.
Since ALB was first detected in Brooklyn, teams of survey crews have been surveying for infestations. Trees found to be infested are removed and destroyed, while healthy trees are sometimes treated to prevent infestations from expanding. These efforts are bolstered by outreach campaigns and regulatory compliance. The public and any entities working on or moving any trees or tree parts must be trained on ALB and must enter into a compliance agreement which requires them to meet specific standards for handling and disposal of regulated articles that will prevent ALB from spreading by human assistance.
These diligent efforts have paid off with the release of previously quarantined areas within four different counties and an area in the town of Islip in New York. These areas have been declared eradicated.
ALB is native to China, Japan, and Korea and was likely transported overseas via packing materials used for international shipping. ALB is a wood boring beetle that creates holes in the heartwood of living trees, weakening them and eventually killing them. ALB prefers 12 different genus of hardwood trees, including maples, which are critical to New York State’s agricultural and forestry economies. The loss of many landscape and urban forest trees, along with the ecological services that these trees provide, could be devastating to New York State's forestry sector and hardwood timber industry as well as New York State's maple industry, which produced 750,000 gallons of maple syrup in 2023.
For more information about the beetle and program activities, please call the ALB toll free hotline at 866-265-0301, or call the Long Island AGM office at 631-962-0243. Information can also be found at https://agriculture.ny.gov/plant-industry/asian-longhorned-beetle.
