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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/26931
tree care programs. Proactive communities are espe- cially thankful to have been spared uncontrollable ash tree loss and are proud to tell others about how much money was saved by implementing their plan early. Many of the elements of the EAB Management Plan have helped sell basic urban forestry concepts such as inventory, monitoring, and tree removal, creating a platform for community forest management planning. What an opportunity! Once Emerald Ash Borer finishes its stint in NW Ohio, it will be very interesting to revisit these lessons. My hope is that memories will be enduring, and that these lessons of today will continue to remain in the minds of our community leaders for a long time to come. This experience will certainly be unforgettable to this urban forester. –Stephanie Miller, Urban Forester, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry I n July 2006, I had the misfortune of meeting my first Emerald Ash Borer. It was an adult beetle, stuck in his own D-exit hole, at about 5 feet above grade in a pri- vate property backyard tree. At that moment, Wilmette, in Cook County just north of Chicago, had just become the first incorporated community in Illinois to discover EAB. Everyone had been saying “it’s just a matter of time,” but when that time came, it set in motion a man- agement plan that incorporated the work of the village president, elected trustees, and upper management in Wilmette Public Works. Since 2006, we continue to use this core EAB management plan, with some changes along the way. I wish I could say there were no lessons to be learned and that I’d known in advance exactly how it was all going to play out. Our forestry division wrote memos to our village board as early as 2002 alerting them that someday we could be facing the voracious, invasive spe- cies that Michigan was experiencing at that time. The subsequent board-approved worst-case scenario budget plan specified that all infested ash trees (15% of our parkway tree population) would be removed by the year 2011 and all the replacement trees planted by 2012. But somehow “worst-case scenario” was not absorbed by all the residents and especially not by the media when we unveiled our 2006 EAB Management Plan. The front page of a prominent Chicago newspaper carried the headline, “Ash Trees Face Ax in Wilmette” in large font. What made it even better is that yours truly was featured on half the page in full color. Oh boy! Fortunately, however, that story was an anomaly. One thing we did right from the start was communicate clearly with the residents and bring the story to the media. We did interviews with WGN, ABC, NBC, and CBS along with local and regional newspapers, insisting 30 on accuracy. We designated a staging site for camera crews to film EAB symptoms and signs. We reached out to the Chicago area and our neighboring communities to inform them how serious this was and what to look for in finding EAB. We gave tours and presentations and issued email blasts and website updates and public service announcements through our local cable chan- nel. Our village president and our public works director sent out letters to each individual address explaining what EAB was, what the initial plan was, federal and state guidelines, and how residents might want to pro- ceed with their own ash tree care. Lesson Learned: Get the correct information out there and educate. Though we felt prepared and confident with our plan, we learned to keep the door open to creative strategies beyond “cut down and chip up.” We set aside urban ash wood from Wilmette for further wood utilization, such as in making countertops and ash tables for our newly minted U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold Certified Administration offices. My village president used the infested ash trees from his own yard to have “Wilmette Wonderboy” bats made, and when the Little Leaguers got their bats for the spring 2007 season, it drew national attention with an NBC Today Show segment. Dead ash trees around a playground before takedown City Trees