Federal, State Officials to Hold Public Meeting on Beetle Infestation Threat

Federal, state and local conservation officials are holding two joint public meeting this week to discuss the discovery of an Asian longhorn beetle infestation on the grounds of Faulkner Hospital, a little over a mile from the Brookline border.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the city of Boston, and the town of Brookline will meet at the Franklin Park Clubhouse on Circuit Drive, Jamaica Plain, on July 13, and at Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington St., on July 14. Both meetings start at 6 p.m.

Officials are expected to talk about ongoing effort to eradicated the beetles, which were discovered in six trees near the Arnold Arboretum over the July 4^th weekend. State officials have said they believe the infestation was limited to those trees, but local conservationist fear the bugs could still be out there.

Parts of Brookline remain under a wood-product quarantine while conservation experts scour the town looking for evidence of the beetle. No wood or wood products may be removed from the designated area until the quarantine is lifted.

When the Asian longhorn beetle hit the Worcester area in 2008, crews were forced to destroy more than 25,000 trees, many of them as a precaution to slow the spread of the infestation.