The effects of an emerald ash borer infestation are beginning to show on parkways and in McHenry County subdivisions years after the tree-killer first arrived.

The infestation has spread like wildfire in McHenry County, lumping the county with 39 others in a quarantine by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The quarantine includes no county-to-county transportation of ash products and all firewood.

“We have to learn to live with it,” said Juliann Heminghous, emerald ash borer outreach coordinator for the state. “They are going to wreak havoc on ash trees for awhile, and we have to manage it as best as we can until it balances itself out.”