Beetles damage ash trees. The article talks about how to save ash trees. 1. Banning transportation of ash trees, which will take beetles' nests to other areas. (They cannot prohibit private companies that cut down ash trees to be firewood.) 2. Drilling holes on the ash trees to inject a chemical pesticide that make beetles leave away ash trees. (Drilling to much holes will damage ash trees. The cycle of injecting a pesticide is two years.) 3. Planting trap trees that beetles like to lay their eggs on. (Trap trees are beetles' food, which will increase the population of beetles and hurt more ash trees.)
None of the three measures proposed in the reading can effectively slow down the decrease in the number of ash trees caused by beetles. Firstly, from the perspective of prohibition of ash tree transportation, the professor states his doubt, because according to the lecture, although zero transportation may stop taking beetles’ nests to other areas, it is impossible to prohibit private companies to do this, whose major business is to cut down these ash trees and send them to other places for firewood. Moreover, judging from the chemical injection, the professor holds a different view, as the lecture further illustrates that drilling much holes into the trunk may physically harm the ash trees and the proper cycle of chemical injection is two years, which is not enough to drive away the beetles. Last but not least, on the point of the plantation of trap trees, the professor never fails to express his concern, because in terms of the listening, trap trees are beetles' food, which will increase the population of beetles and hurt more ash trees. (176 words)
