The Potomac Valley Audubon Society’s monthly program for March will feature a presentation on the Emerald Ash Borer.

The program will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 at the Hospice of the Panhandle facility in Kearneysville. Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

The speaker will be local arborist Shawn Walker. He will discuss the threat the Emerald Ash Borer poses to local ash trees and steps property owners can take to help protect their trees.

The Emerald Ash Borer is a beetle native to Asia and Eastern Russia. Outside its native range it is highly invasive and has a devastating impact on ash tree populations.

The insect was first detected in the U.S. in Michigan in 2002. Scientists believe it probably first arrived here in the 1990s, in packing crates from Asia. By now it has spread and killed uncounted millions of trees throughout the Eastern U.S. and Canada, and as far west as Colorado and as far south as Georgia.

It was first found in West Virginia in 2007 and is now a major problem here.

The Hospice facility’s address is 330 Hospice Lane, Kearneysville. The Audubon events will be held in the main meeting room of the facility’s main office building.

There is plenty of parking at the facility.

For more information go to www.potomacaudubon.org or contact Krista Hawley at adultprograms@potomacaudubon.org or 703-303-1026.