How the emerald ash borer is changing the suburban landscape
With more than 3 million ash trees here, the emerald ash borer is changing the suburban landscape — forever
From the Daily Herald
First of three parts
Bare suburban streets. Thousands of
gallons of rainwater with nowhere to go. Billions of dollars in public
money. Higher air-conditioning and heating bills. Lower property values.
And millions of dead trees that could pose hazards to people and
property.
In the next five to seven years, the tiny
emerald ash borer will utterly change the landscape of the Chicago
region. In some places, it will happen one tree at a time; in others,
whole blocks of trees will be felled at once.
Illinois has the largest population of
public ash trees in the nation, with at least 5.5 million on developed
land statewide and nearly 3 million of those in the Chicago area,
according to a study on emerald ash borer damage expected between 2009
and 2019.
Between those public trees and millions
more on private property and in forest preserves, nearly 1 in every 5
trees in the region is an ash — all of which will be destroyed by the
ash borer if not treated.
“This is like a natural disaster in slow motion,” said Scott Shirmer, emerald ash borer program manager for the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
“We didn't see it coming very far in
advance, and once we did, we tried to prepare as best we could,” he
said. “We'll just have to pick up the pieces afterward.”
Worse, that slow-moving disaster is
actually speeding up. Ash borer treatments don't work nearly as well on
trees that are not well watered, and trees have been weakened in general
by the drought — making some people wonder if treatments are even worth
it.
That same study, done by experts in
entomology, forestry and economics, says that in the 25 states where
emerald ash borer infestation is at its peak, dealing with it will cost
upward of $10.7 billion.
Illinois' share of that is estimated at
$2.1 billion, split up among municipalities, forest preserves, private
landowners and other government units.
Michigan and Indiana have already
gotten the worst of it. Fort Wayne, Ind., has lost thousands of ash
trees and plans to remove another 4,500 in 2012.
Chad Tinkel, manager of forestry
operations for Fort Wayne, said knowledge and planning are key to
avoiding the “massive catastrophe” his city has seen.
“Act now,” he warned. “Do not wait and think you can handle it as it comes.”
Andi Dierich, forest pest outreach coordinator for the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, said the ash borer is devastating everywhere it strikes.
“But, there's so much ash that was planted here, so the devastation is just magnified,” she said.
Ash tree overload
The suburbs are heavily populated with ash trees, which make up nearly 35 percent of some towns' tree populations.
As suburbs expanded in the past
half-century and developers looked for trees to decorate the new
subdivisions, ash was an inexpensive, fast-growing, large-canopied
option. As well, it had no known predator, an important factor in the
post-Dutch Elm disease years.
The emerald ash borer, which evolved in
Asia, first came to the U.S. around 1990, hidden in packing crates and
pallets aboard ships and planes. The bug was first seen in 2002 in
Detroit suburbs.
It would traditionally take years for
borers to move even a few miles, but humans sped up the infestation by
moving infected pallets and firewood around the country, Shirmer said.
read the rest of this article HERE
