Emerald Ash Borer Costly

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Saturday, 19 July 2014 09:37

The Emerald Ash Borer has made its way to Woodstock and is leaving a mess for Woodstock Parks and Recreation.

WOODSTOCK- At an inch long the Emerald Ash Borer may not seem like that 'big' of a deal.

The pest has made its way to Woodstock and is intent on destroying every tree in the Friendly City.

According to Woodstock Parks and Recreation Director Brian Connors, every ash tree in Woodstock will be gone within 5 years.

While the Parks and Recreation department is on top of the problem they only handle city owned ash trees. If you have an ash tree on your property the responsibility will be yours if you want to try and save or remove the tree.

Keeping in mind if you leave the dead tree and it is in close proximity to your house it could potentially cause damage as it is at risk of breaking once dead.

There are options that you can pursue if you are interested in saving a tree, however they are long-term costly processes.

"With a chemical program its approximately 210 dollars a year and you have to do it every other year for 15 years. So thats about 8 applications which turns out to be 1680 dollars over the lifetime of a tree and hopefully it would work." said Chris Kern, supervisor of Woodstock Parks and Recreation.

Kern adds that even the removal of a tree can be pricey.

"When dealing with say a 30 centimetre tree- to cut (the tree), remove the stump, topsoil, grasseed and a new tree is approximately 880 dollars a tree."

It's a pricey solution to a pest that has ravaged cities and shows no sign of stopping.

The pest which appeared around 4 years ago in Woodstock has been spreading across Ontario. Unfortunately the harsh Southwestern Ontario winters were unable to kill off the pest as it burrows into the tree and is sheltered from the elements.

The Emerald Ash Borer digs through the bark to the inside of the tree where it lays its eggs. The hatched larvae then eat the tree from the inside out. What's left are dead ash trees that can pose a hazard depending on their location.

The effect of the Emerald Ash Borer in Woodstock varies from place to place.

"So if you're in an area where the monoculture was all Maple trees then you really don't see much effect on your street. However there are a lot of ash monocultures and if you're living on one of those streets or have, it started last year we've been cutting them all down because they are either dead or dying."

There are no numbers for the total economic impact of the pest. However when you factor in the cost of removal, replacing the trees and perhaps even the property values on streets where mature ash trees once stood the numbers are drastically increased from the 750 000 dollars the city of Woodstock has spent to date on general tree removal including trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer. The budget for combating the Emerald Ash Borer problem had to in fact be increased in 2013 to account for the aggresive nature of the pest.

Connors says there are ways you can identify if your ash tree is a victim of the Emerald Ash borer.

It usually starts the top of the tree canopy, where you will notice it stops producing leaves and it will then spread to the rest of the tree. You will also notices vertical splits in the bark.

For more information on the identification of the ash borer click HERE