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City Closes Trails Due to Ash Borer Damage, Safety Concerns

Tuesday, 16 October 2012 11:26

The Emerald Ash Borer is literally chewing the wood out of Woodstock. The city has been forced to closed two popular trails in the city over safety concerns from falling limbs of dead ash trees. On Monday, the city closed the Lions and Youth Start trails, both off of Dundas in the west end. Recent wind storms has led to a number of falling branches off of Ash trees that have been eaten away at the insides of the trees. Parks Supervisor Chris Kern says it's devastating and a safety hazard. "We've actually closed both trails. Because of the wind storms (in the last week) we had quite a few trees, branches and limbs falling down." Kern says the city has a lot of work ahead clearing the dead trees, and then building the areas back up. "It will take the winter, I'm sure, to get all of the hazardous trees knocked down. And then after that, it will take years...(for reforestation)." Kern says there are hundreds of trees that potentially have to come down on the Lions Trails, and 50 have been cut down on the Youth Start trails, with another 50 to go. Some of the trees are 50-70-years old, some of them are around 70-feet tall. The issue will be coming up at city council Thursday night. Woodstock's Mayor has some comments on the issue in this week's webchat with the Mayor on our webpage below. (In Photo: City Parks Supervisor Chris Kern displays a sign the city will be posting, effectively closing the walking trails in west Woodstock)

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