Emerald ash borer changes city’s landscape
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
Although the emerald ash borer weighs just a fraction of an ounce, the collective weight of its local infestation will put a considerable strain on municipal budgets and create a void on the landscape for years to come, according to local officials.
“Echo Park is going to look drastically different next spring,” City of Burlington Department of Public Works employee Aaron DeGrave predicted.
DeGrave, who has a degree in horticulture, said city crews plan to remove 21 dead, dying and diseased ash trees from the park this winter, if the weather cooperates.
This past year, crews removed 19 trees from Riverside Park.
The culprit is the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that, in its larvae stage, feeds on the wood of ash trees just below the bark. The iridescent green bug was first confirmed in the town and city of Burlington in 2013, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Since then it’s been a losing battle for work crews, the city’s elected leaders and, ultimately, its residents.
Declining urban forest
According to DeGrave, a 2014 inventory of trees on city property identified nearly 800 ash trees – 486 green ash and 322 white ash trees.
As the infestation has intensified city DPW crews have used a combination of insecticide treatment – which has produced mixed results – and removal. But so far, the efforts have added up to a declining urban forest.
Crews removed 63 ash trees in 2016 and have already culled 67 ash trees in the first nine-plus months of 2017. DeGrave said another 50 to 60 trees will be removed over the winter months.
In a typical year, the city plants between 30 and 50 new trees in parks and along city streets, according to DeGrave. Using an average of 40 new trees per year, the math puts the city at minus-50 trees for the past two years.
“It all comes down to money,” DeGrave said.
The city typically budgets between $20,000 and $30,000 per year for new trees and the labor needed to care for existing trees. With nearly half that amount spent on purchasing new trees, the funds left over are beginning to fall short of amount needed to treat or remove the rapidly climbing number of infested ash trees.
City Administrator Carina Walters said that challenge is on her radar and, consequently, will be discussed by the Common Council as part of the budget process.
“We have talked about it,” Walters said. “We need to be proactive rather than reactive.”
Just how proactive the city will be remains to be seen. In addition to paying nearly $1.5 million in flood clean up costs, the city is faced with replacing City Hall and, possibly, the public library in the near future.
Walters said the city’s forestry program will come down to the priorities set by the City Council. But, she said, the aldermen will be made aware of the problem and will be given options to deal with it, she said.
For the compete story see the Oct. 19 edition of the Burlington Standard Press. Copies are available at local newsstands or click here to subscribe.
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