By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
As Department of Public Works Supervisor Dan Jensen explained March 4 at the City of Burlington Common Council Committee of the Whole meeting, the money spent last year to inventory the city’s trees was well spent.
In addition to finding out the health of the trees and just how many of each species of tree the city is responsible for, officials also got to see where the city stands with the emerald ash borer (EAB).
As a result of the study, the city now has both a tree management plan and a EAB implementation plan.
“This is a way for us to manage our resources,” Jensen said at the meeting.
The inventory showed that the city’s urban forest is in fair condition, Jensen said. Around 63 percent of the city’s have a condition rating of 70 percent or higher, and most of the remaining trees are in the 60-69 percent range.
The majority of the trees are also fairly large, and the management plan is to remove deadwood from those trees on a continual basis because of the potential to drop branches, buildings and utilities.
As for the EAB, though, it’s going to be a matter of treating what trees the city can – using a product called Tree-age, which is a chemical treatment contained inside the tree by injection – and removal of 98 different trees.
The effectiveness of the treatment was questioned by Alderman Peter Hintz, who pointed out that the city used to have a plentiful dutch elm tree population, and treatments for Dutch Elm disease were supposed to be effective as well.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find one right now,” he said of elm trees in the trees in the city.
A representative from the treatment company said at the meeting that the treatment will allow the city time to deal with its ash trees on its timeline, as opposed to all of the trees dying at once if the spread of the EAB goes unchecked.
When asked, Jensen stressed that the city would communicate with residents about trees that would be treated, and trees that would be removed. There is a timeframe, he said, for informing residents.
“We’re going to educate before we do anything,” Jensen said.
-
-
-
-
-