June 25, 2025:
The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) will host public information meetings in Watertown and Milbank to address the recent detections of emerald ash borer (EAB) in Codington and Grant counties.
The meeting for Codington County will be on Thursday, June 26 at 6:30 pm at the Codington County Extension Complex, 1910 West Kemp in Watertown. Please enter the building through Entrance I on the south end.
The meeting for Grant County will be on Monday, June 30 at 6:30 pm at the Visitor Center, 1001 East 4th Ave in Milbank.
At both meetings, DANR and SDSU Extension Foresters will share important information about EAB and how it affects local trees.
Topics will include:
- Why the emerald ash borer is a threat to ash trees across South Dakota;
- How to recognize signs of infestation in your yard, neighborhood, or community;
- What you can do to manage the pest, including options for removing infested trees and using treatments to protect healthy ones; and
- Understanding the state quarantine, including what it means for moving ash wood and hardwood firewood from affected areas.
The meetings are open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend—especially landowners, city officials, and anyone with ash trees on their property. Following the presentations, there will be time for questions from the audience.
EAB is a boring beetle that feeds on all species of North American ash. It was first detected in the United States in 2002 and in South Dakota in 2018.
For more information about EAB or to report a suspected sighting please visit https://
June 10, 2025:
The South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) has confirmed emerald ash borer (EAB) in Milbank, South Dakota.
DANR has expanded the existing State Plant Pest Quarantine to include Grant County. The updated quarantine area includes all of Brookings, Minnehaha, Lincoln, Turner, Union and now Grant County. The pest has also been identified in 13 communities including Baltic, Brookings, Brandon, Canton, Crooks, Dakota Dunes, Hartford, Humboldt, Lennox, Sioux Falls, Tea. Worthing and now Milbank.
The quarantine is designed to slow the spread of emerald ash borer.
The quarantine, which is in place year-round, prohibits the movement of firewood and ash materials out of the quarantined counties. Movement of firewood from any hardwood species, whether intended for commercial or private use, is also restricted. If an ash tree is infested before it is cut, the wood may still contain EAB larvae. An individual split piece of ash firewood can have five or more adults emerge yet this summer. The Department has also established an external embargo on untreated firewood entering South Dakota from all states east of the eastern border of South Dakota and all counties where EAB is known to exist in other states.
“We all need to work together to slow the spread of EAB,” said DANR Secretary Hunter Roberts. “With the summer camping season here, firewood is the most common way EAB is moved from one location to another. Please follow the quarantine and embargo restrictions and buy it where you burn it!”
Treatments made early in the season can kill the young larvae before they are able to injure the tree. Property owners within a 15-mile radius of Milbank wanting to save their ash trees should contact a commercial applicator as soon as possible.
EAB is a boring beetle that feeds on all species of North American ash. It was first detected in the United States in 2002, and in South Dakota in 2018.
For more information about EAB or to report a suspected sighting please visit https://
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