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Vernon Hills considers outside help with battle against emerald ash borer

Vernon Hills officials are considering hiring outside contractors to help with tree removal and replacement as the deadly emerald ash borer reaches its tree-killing peak during the next two years.

“There’s a term arborists use — exponential death curve. We’re right in the middle of that,” said David Brown, village engineer and public works director.

Last year, village crews identified and removed 650 ash trees on public property. That work also includes grinding the stumps, replanting new trees and making sure they were watered.

“We had all hands on deck addressing emerald ash borer issues for nearly two months,” Brown said.

The number of dead ash trees is expected to soar and the village expects to remove and replace 1,100 trees in each of the next two years.

“It’s not sustainable. We’re going to need some help,” said Brown, who is reviewing figures for the village board to consider, including the cost of outside contractors.

Part of the expenses will involve replacement trees as communities throughout northern Illinois continue to deal with the emerald ash borer.

“There’s a concern about the number of trees within nurseries and the ability to keep up with replacement,” he said. “It will impact availability and pricing.”

The escalation in the damage done by the beetle in Vernon Hills also is expected to have a noticeable impact in the Deerpath subdivision, just south of Route 60, an area “substantially overpopulated” with ash trees, according to Brown. Those include many large, old specimens along the ‘A’ streets on the west side of Deerpath Drive.

By some time in 2015, the village will have removed all but about 600 of the estimated 3,500 ash trees on public property.

“It’s a shame. So many people planted these trees because they have a nice canopy and grow quickly — all of the nice things you want from a tree,” said Village Manager Mike Allison. He said a mature ash tree in his front yard has held its own after chemical treatments, but that isn’t a cure-all.

Brown said the village has treated some white ash trees, which have a greater chance of surviving than green ash trees, mainly as a means to extend their lives to make removal and replacement on an annual basis more manageable.

“Some of them will make it, some of them will not,” Brown said.

And those are just the ones on public property. Brown estimated there are a total of about 10,000 ash trees in Vernon Hills, including those on private property. The village has been receiving calls for direction from homeowner associations and private businesses, he added.

The emerald ash borer has killed tens of millions of trees in the Midwest and other areas in the past decade. In Illinois, the exotic beetle was first verified in 2006 in Lily Lake in Kane County, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Forty-nine Illinois counties are quarantined to prevent the spread of the beetle, to include firewood and nursery stock after eight counties were added to the list this past Nov. 1. Those included Jo Daviess, Whiteside and Rock Island in northwestern Illinois.

The beetle has been confirmed in hundreds of communities, mostly in the northeastern part of the state.

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