City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/26931
happened. The devastation and the economic impact have been catastrophic. Furthermore, never underestimate the speed at which the pest moves through your community. In Windsor, the EAB originally appeared to move slowly, and we only removed a few hundred trees. Starting in years three and four, however, there was a significant increase in infestation. By year five we scrambled to remove trees before they toppled over. The number of dead and dying trees on our streets and in our wood- lots was staggering. We learned that communication is key, and we commu- nicated with residents regularly. We used every media outlet we could to update, educate, and inform the com- munity about the actions taken by the City of Windsor Forestry Team. In addition, we presented at local Rotary lunches and for school groups and we provided public display information, posted information on the Web, and advertised in our recreation guide. We used the disaster to motivate and inspire com- munity greening efforts. The EAB sparked the Plant a Million Trees campaign that was a regional effort to plant trees in the City and County. Working with local volunteer environmental groups and the Essex Region Conservation Authority, we have organized regular tree plantings, encouraged people to plant trees on private property, and educated everyone about the benefits of a healthy, diversified urban forest. Some very positive results occurred during our battle with the EAB: The City of Windsor mobilized stronger support for a diversified urban forest. We developed two local municipal nurseries to grow Carolinian trees. These nurseries have flourished and provide exception- ally strong trees for our community. Our community plantings have become special events that attract peo- ple of all ages and help us launch new facilities such as a $64 million arena, the WFCU Centre. Planting trees in the grounds at a new facility like this highlights our com- mitment to greening and provides the community with a sense of ownership for the new facility. It’s been almost ten years since the discovery of the EAB in North America, and it continues to spread rapidly across the United States and Canada, having significant environmental and economic impacts on our communi- ties. Let’s hope that some sort of balance is reached before more communities experience the losses we in the epicenter have had. —Bill Roesel, Manager of Forestry and Horticulture, Windsor, Ontario E 36 veryone has a disaster. I’m beginning to think that every arborist, forester, or natural resource manager experiences at least one prolonged natural disaster during their career. My predecessors dealt with Dutch elm disease, others have experiences with bark beetle epidemics, shoot moths, chestnut blight, tornadoes, hurricane after hurricane, and the list goes on. It seems that Lansing is getting more than its fair share of disas- ters lately—two tornadoes in two years, down blast winds, floods—but the winner in the natural disaster sweepstakes is Emerald Ash Borer. My predecessors, in their infinite wisdom, mixed up our tree species as much as they could. They had learned their lessons from previous epidem- ics. They planted at least four genera per block and refused to plant a tree next to a tree of the same species; we continue that policy to this day. As a consequence of their efforts, when I became the for- ester for Lansing, Fraxinus species made up only 8 percent of the street trees. The park tree population of green ash was higher because the lands being donated or purchased for park use were unbuildable low lands with a very high population of ash. Today the percentages of Fraxinus species we manage have changed dramatically. A number of years ago the arborists in southeast- ern Michigan began talking about having problems with ash trees of all ages and sizes dying. Little did we realize that soon all of our resources would be dedicated to removing dead trees. Initially the prob- lem was misdiagnosed but soon enough, EAB was discovered. One of the researchers who helped coin the common name of this insect told me that their group initially considered calling it the “large ash borer,” but then thought better of the idea. Federal, state, and local resources were marshaled to fight the invader. Research was conducted, pesticides tested, natural predators researched and eradica- tion efforts undertaken. As a result of these efforts, we can now tell you that prized trees can be pro- tected with injectable insecticides and that the rest of the ash trees are going to die. EAB definitely has preferred tastes in trees. The first observable sign of the pest is woodpeckers attack- ing green ash (F. pennsylvanica) in the 10- to 25-inch (25- to 64-cm) DBH range. Within a year or two the main branches die and lots of shoots develop on the main trunk. The tree will die within a year or two of the shoots appearing. After the green ash in the neighborhood are gone, EAB starts to attack the white ash (F. americana) with the same result. EAB’s least favorite ash species seem to be European (F. excelsior), Crimean (F. excelsior ‘Hessei’), Modesto (F. velutina), blue (F. quadrangulata) and black ash (F. nigra). —Paul Dykema, Manager of Forestry and Grounds, Lansing, Michigan City Trees