Thanks to a destructive beetle, New Haven is now the Elm City in name only. A generation later, traps are now being set in the city’s parks to stop a new beetle menace.
The Board of Parks Commissioners Wednesday evening approved a request by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to begin laying traps for “exotic wood boring and bark beetles” in at least one New Haven location.
Commission member David Belowsky (pictured above center) said the USDA appeared to be interested in one particularly dangerous beetle. The traps will help determine whether the species had spread to the New Haven area, he said.
“They’ll put together maps and talk about how far they’ve come and whether there’s any natural predators to take them out,” he said.
Though the USDA’s letter to the commission does not specify the primary target, the traps are part of the 2009 Exotic Wood Boring and Bark Beetle Survey, which is largely aimed, according to the agency’s website, at the Asian Longhorned Beetle. This species, which has infested trees in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere for a decade, has caused nearly $300 million in damage and was spotted as close as Worcester, Mass., over the summer.
The traps will be laid beginning March 15 and will be checked every 7 to 14 days through October.
Audits To Go Digital?
Although parks chief Robert D. Levine (pictured above, at right) said his department’s $2 million capital improvements budget may face significant cuts next year, the commission also discussed new projects. Plans include soliciting renewed bids for safety audits at school and other playgrounds around the city. ‚Such audits must be done regularly. Levine suggested the process could be made more efficient by shifting to digital technology to keep track of the process rather than continue to rely on pen and paper.
“You have no idea what that book looks like after two years riding around in a truck,” he said.