The emerald ash borer, a tiny yet destructive invasive beetle known for wiping out ash trees on a large scale, has been confirmed at six new locations in northwest Oregon.

First discovered in Forest Grove in 2022, the beetle showed up at traps in Multnomah, Washington, Yamhill and Clackamas counties this summer.

The beetle was previously found in northern Marion County and Salem officials have taken preemptive measures to slow it from killing city trees.

Just a half inch in length and with a distinctive green color, the invader from northeastern Asia has killed millions of ash trees and wiped out entire forests by laying larvae in the trees’ tissue under the bark.

“The pattern of spread in the eastern U.S. has been that populations at first increase slowly and the rate of natural sprea

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