The Emerald Ash Borer survey has landed in Milwaukee as Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection continues to check for the ash tree-killing pest in the state.

Crews began cutting down and peeling trees in Milwaukee county to look for the insect, which bores into ash trees and ultimately kill it. This could be a major problem in Wisconsin, where a large portion of the tree population is ash.

Fifteen trees were felled and 10 were peeled and there was no sign of the pest. Cutting and peeling continues this week in Milwaukee County, as well as in Kewaunee and Rock Counties.

In the city of Milwaukee the loss of the ash tree population would mean the cutting down of more than 1/3 and perhaps as many as half of all the trees.

"Our goal is to locate 5,900 trees in 17 counties," Jane Hewston Larson, the DATCP's public information officer, told me in October 2006. "That's about 347 trees per county but the southern counties along the Illinois border will be sampled more heavily compared to more northern counties. Also, we may end up with fewer trees as we do our work in the field because there may not be trees where we survey."