Arkansas agriculture officials are expanding a quarantine in hopes of stopping the spread of an invasive beetle that feeds on and kills ash trees.
The Arkansas State Plant Board announced Monday that it’s adding eight more counties to its quarantine involving the emerald ash borer. In September 2014, the state implemented an emergency quarantine in a 25-county area in southern and central Arkansas that banned the movement of ash items including nursery stock and firewood in an effort to prevent the spread of the beetle.
But this summer, the insect was discovered in Randolph County, and officials say it likely made it into the county from Missouri.
The new counties added to the quarantine are: Clay, Fulton, Greene, Lawrence, Perry, Pulaski, Sharp and Randolph.
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