Thursday, May 24, 2012

Environmental Assessment: Asian Longhorn Beetle: Bethel Ohio

To anyone interested in this fight -- yes, that should be you, if  it isn't -- the Environmental assessment has been prepared, and the officals want to hear from you. They are seeking opinions from the public. Please read the report thoroughly -- it will take a while and multiple readings -- before deciding your stand. But please, do take a stand. Do make your voice heard. The report can be read here: http://www.bethelalb.com/ALB-OH-ClermontCounty-2012-EA.pdf

Now, they are not promising that they will act on what people tell them. They are a government organization which means essentially that they will infer everything and promise nothing. But they are asking for opinions. Let's give them that much.

This is important to everyone, although it is most important to the people of Bethel. It is their trees that are being eradicated. (Not the beetle.) It is their properties being destroyed, it is their countryside being laid bare for flooding and wind erosion. It is their small hometown being turned into a hot spot.

The numbers are hard to comprehend, but there are people gifted with the ability to put the concepts into words. Bill Skvarla, beetle activist, offers this example:  If the street tree in front of the Midway Theatre is the only tree in Bethel that has a beetle, every single healthy uninfested host tree in the entire Village will be destroyed according to USDA's EA-Alternative B.

Imagine that.
Imagine if your home town had to be denuded of all its tall shady trees because a tree in the town part of town had a problem. Would you like that? Would it seem reasonable to you to lose all the shade on your house because someone a half mile away had bug holes (and maybe-probably bugs) in one of their trees?

This is a problem for everyone, not just Bethel. If the government can do this to us, they can do it to others. Maybe the excuse won't be the Japanese long-haired beatles. Or green borers. But There will be something,
I promise you.

And you will have to suffer it, because allowing this without a fight sets a precedent. A precedent of government takeover of your private property. A government takeover of your community's landscape. A government takeover of your right to stand up and say "No!" to the chainsaws and bulldozers.

Read.
Research.
And speak out and speak up.



http://bugs.clermontcountyohio.gov/ALB.aspx;
http://www.agri.ohio.gov/TopNews/asianbeetle/;
http://clermont.osu.edu/news/asian-longhorned-beetle-found-in-ohio-osuextension-offers-information-hotline; the APHIS ALB plant pest page
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/asian_lhb/index.s
html.


5 comments:

  1. But now every tree is infected with this beetle!! You wanted to make them stop now what? The beetle is flying and breeding like wild fire.. Now what is going to be done?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. where are you getting your information? EVERY Tree is NOT infested. If that were true, there would be no point to doing any cutting at all. The beetle does NOT fly and breed like that -- except when tree cutters drop, toss, and throw the branches around, or let them blow from trucks.

      Did you read this Environmental Assessment? It spells out what is happening and what could happen if or when different things are gone.

      I don't blame you for replying anonymously. No one likes to have the world see how ignoarant they are.

      Delete
  2. WOW! Anonymous is surely hysterical. Who is stopping what? I never heard anyone say anything about stopping. Bethel is working hard to make sure the USDA gets infested trees cut (8000) so far, and we want this thing gone from the face of the planet. Somebody is out there spreading lies about us. I think I know who.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is wille(attention seeker)S still trying to convince everyone to donate to his lost cause..Wille why dont you tell everyone how you keep the gov off of your 70 acres of trees while everyone elses trees come down.Masssive infestation all around your property but for some reason your property has been spared by the beetle...yeah ok. Keep donating people to this wonderful cause

    ReplyDelete