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Lawmakers want help battling beetles

By Justin Rocket Silverman | amNewYork Staff Writer

May 22, 2006

Asian Longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky)) on a maple tree branch. This beetle is approx. 1 1/4 inches long and was photographed at the Dept. of Agriculture, Amityville. It prefers maple, elm, birch, poplars, horsechestnut, and willows. Thursday, August 15, 2002. (Newsday file Photo/Bill Davis / May 21, 2006)

The hungry Asian longhorned beetle has turned more than 4,000 city trees into mulch, prompting officials to warn Sunday that Gotham could be stuck with a $2.25 billion bill unless the federal government loosens its purse strings.

That is, the same way lawmakers have done for Chicago, which has gained an upper hand in the fight against the pesky bugs with help from D.C. dollars.

"In New York City's battle against the beetle, President Bush has been standing with the bugs," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/ Queens) said in a statement Sunday.

"It's time for the federal government to do its part to ensure that a tree will still grow in Brooklyn, and throughout the five boroughs of New York."

The city lost out on $15 million in federal funding to fight the beetle during the past four years, according to a recent report by Weiner and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens).

Chicago, by contrast, has had its highly successful, $80 million eradication program almost fully funded by the federal government. While Weiner has repeatedly criticized the funding of Chicago's program over New York's, the United States Department of Agriculture says it allocates money to where it thinks eradication efforts will be most successful.

Weiner said Sunday that he will introduce an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill to increase federal anti-beetle funding for New York.

That bill is still in committee, but could come to the House floor as early as this week.

"If anti-beetle funding continues to fall, so too will our city's trees," Maloney said.

The beetles have been hitching rides here on Chinese cargo ships for at least a decade. Without natural predators in North America, the beetle larvae feast freely on hardwood trees, gradually choking off the flow of moisture and nutrients through the wood.

The bug is particularly hard to kill because it spends 90 percent of its life within the tree, emerging only in late adulthood to lay eggs in other parts of the tree or within a new tree. Once infected, the tree usually must be cut down.

The federal government has warned that if the beetle spreads into the country's hardwood forests, it could cost the economy $138 billion annually.

Chicago has controlled its beetle infestation problem by injecting at-risk trees with pesticide and by chopping down large swaths of infected trees.

"We are locked in combat with the Asian longhorned beetle," said New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe Sunday in Central Park, where, along with Queens, much of the city's infestation has occurred. "The outcome of this struggle will determine the future environmental quality of our city -- whether we can provide clean air, clean water, cool streets, leafy neighborhoods, and healthy spaces for our children and their children."