DETROIT, Mich. – The owner of a Milford, Mich., landscaping company has been fined $12,300, placed on two years probation and ordered to perform community service for violating the state’s emerald ash borer quarantine.
Stuart Leve, of Stuart Leve Inc., was given the maximum possible fine of $100 for each of 123 violations for sending ash trees in two shipments to Maryland, said Sara Linsmeier-Wurfel, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
The Oakland County district judge handling the case also ordered Leve to perform 200 hours of community service. Leve is to work with local agencies to remove ash trees killed by the pest.
Leve has already paid $60,000 in restitution to the Maryland nursery, the value of ash trees sent to the farm and the value of other ash trees that had to be destroyed because they were kept near the Michigan trees, Linsmeier-Wurfel said.
The judge left open the possibility that Leve would have to pay restitution to the Maryland Department of Agriculture if it could document the resources it had to dedicate to monitoring and surveying trees because of this case.
Leve pleaded no contest earlier this month to 123 charges connected to violations of the state’s quarantine. A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
Under the quarantine, it is illegal to move ash trees, branches, lumber and other materials from the designated counties unless chipped to one inch in diameter. Firewood from any species within the 13 Michigan counties is banned from movement, which means that firewood purchased within the quarantined counties has to stay there.
“This should send a strong message that we are taking this very seriously and compliance with the quarantine is absolutely critical to stemming this pest and the damage it causes,” Linsmeier-Wurfel said.
The first ash borers in Michigan were discovered in May 2002. The pests have killed about 6 million of the state’s estimated 700 million ash trees, federal agriculture officials have said.
Michigan officials have spent more than $14 million and destroyed 40,000 tons of ash trees. Michigan’s congressional delegation and Gov. Jennifer Granholm are asking the federal government for $42 million to attack the emerald ash borer over the next year.
The 13 quarantined counties are Genesee, Ingham, Jackson, Lapeer, Lenawee, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne.
Source: Associated Press