University of Wisconsin officials announced a preventative plan Tuesday to avoid the devastating effects of an aggressive wood-boring beetle that threatens southern Wisconsin.

According to a UW press release, Environmental Services recently began removing about 160 trees, depending on their location and health, to prevent the emerald ash borer from attacking.

An additional 30 ash trees will be designated as "detection" or "trap" trees, which will be girdled in May. The girdling process includes removing a strip of bark exposing the undercurrent part to detect larvae, according to Gary Brown, UW director of campus planting and landscape architecture.

There are currently more than 650 ash trees on the UW campus that could be affected, Brown said.

"Many are street trees and in parking lots," he said. "Right now we're just doing a preemptive strike to prepare if it would happen … we're removing the stressed and damaged ones, that way if the bug gets here, it will prey on them first."

Brown said the emerald ash borer has attacked wooded areas in Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Recently, officials made discoveries of the beetle in northern Illinois, just 40 miles south of the Wisconsin border.

Current patterns show the bug could eventually infest state forests as well as trees on the UW campus, Brown said.

"The emerald ash bore is heading its way toward Wisconsin," he added. "In Michigan, since 2002, 20 million trees were attacked."

Mark Guthmiller, Department of Natural Resources forest health spokesperson, said the emerald ash borer moves at a pace of about one half to two miles per year due to natural spread, but also can be carried easily across state borders in firewood. Depending on their size, Guthmiller said it takes approximately three years before signs and symptoms first appear in affected trees.

If the beetle makes its way north, the devastation would be comparable to another major tree epidemic in 1960s.

"It's probably on the scale of Dutch elm disease if it gets here," Guthmiller said. "All of our native ash and our horticultural varieties could be hit."

Once the trees are felled and removed in the fall, Brown said new varieties of trees — such as Maples and Kentucky Coffees — will be planted to avoid a culture of the same type of trees, which is more susceptible to insect damage.

Brown also said officials are taking the opportunity to spread awareness about prevention and planting technology on campus.

"Mostly it's an aesthetic thing, but it's also about teaching — we're going to treat it as teaching the community," he said. "We already have done work with Dutch Elm replacement planting, and the autumn purple white ash was created here on campus."

The DNR has girdled trees for emerald ash borers for the past three years, and according to Brown, the process is appropriate because visual detection surveys are ineffective.

Aside from the UW plans, Guthmiller said the DNR has taken preventative measures to protect against artificial introduction of the bug.

"On all state lands, firewood from out-of-state is banned," Guthmiller said. "No one can bring firewood within 50 miles of a state park."