The Emerald Ash Borer was officially detected in the US in 2002. Likely arrived to the US in the beginning of the 90s [0]. Probably with packing material. Relevant regulation of wooden packing material seem to have been passed in the end of the 90s [1][2].

If anything, this story supports the precautionary principle. Nice quote from Wikipedia: "Strong precaution holds that regulation is required whenever there is a possible risk to health, safety, or the environment, even if the supporting evidence is speculative and even if the economic costs of regulation are high" [3].

[0] https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2006/nc_2006_Poland_003.... [1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/7/319.40-5 [2] https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1998-12-17/pdf/98-33444.pdf... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle

I do a lot of mountain bike trail building and maintenance. Here in SE Michigan we were heavily impacted by Emerald Ash Borer, and many of our trails are in wooded areas that contained a lot of ash. Because of how the Ash Borer kills trees what results is a tree that rots at the base and falls over, with the core of the trunk a nicely aged hardwood. This makes cutting out the dead trees as they fall across the trail particularly difficult.

So what I'm hearing is, start a tree removal service.