The Ohio Department of Agriculture expanded an ash tree quarantine Wednesday after officials found evidence of a destructive Asian beetle in trees in two northeastern counties.
The expanded quarantine includes Medina County, which had not reported any trees infested with the emerald ash borer, and Lorain County, which first reported the pest in December. Officials decided to include Lorain after finding more infested trees there.
Under the quarantine, wood from ash trees cannot be taken outside the affected counties. Transporting logs out of a quarantine zone could result in fines of up to $4,000.
A total of 22 Ohio counties have identified trees infested with the tree-killing beetle, which officials think was accidentally imported to Detroit from China in 2002.
About 15 million ash trees in Michigan have died or are dying, and Ohio officials are testing 10,000 trees to see how far the bug has spread.