Record number of ash trees chopped in Barrington
The village of Barrington has cut down more ash trees infested with the emerald ash borer this year than any other on record.
Mark Werksman, the village public works director, said 550 trees have been chopped down so far in 2014 and there will be more removed before the year is done.
In 2013, 128 trees were removed and in 2012 there were 39.
Werksman said he believed this year is the "peak of the natural disaster."
"We'd anticipated the removal would have been on the rise in 2014, but unfortunately the drought and this past winter have dramatically weakened more trees than we could have anticipated," Werksman said during a presentation to the board of trustees at their public meeting Monday night.
The Fox Point and Windgate subdivisions have been hit the hardest losing 317 and 87 trees respectively, Werksman said.