FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 10, 2025 

MEDIA CONTACT: Ben Koisti, Ben.Koisti@state.sd.us  

 

Emerald Ash Borer Confirmed in Milbank, South Dakota 

 

PIERRE S.D. – 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://emeraldashborerinsouthdakota.sd.gov/. 

 

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