Towns need plans to fight ash borer

A recent feature story profiled a Bartlett woman (Amy Zinga) who is rallying her neighbors toward saving their community’s ash tree population. The culprit is the emerald ash borer. The invasive insects, native to Asia, are devastating and, if left to their own devices, have the potential to wipe out all our ash trees. Unless we act aggressively to save our trees, the ash will fade into memory like the American elm and the American chestnut.

So bravo to Amy, and I hope her zeal never burns out. However, we need to educate ourselves about managing the nasty bug before we elect a control option. Since the insect burrows in under the bark, some spray or injected insecticides simply don’t work well in all cases. Certain systemic insecticides do OK, but they take time to circulate throughout the tree — maybe too much time when the tree is at risk. The following website (provided through a grant from the U.S. Forest Service) is the best place to get all the authoritative information about the EAB: www.emeraldashborer.info.

The story also chronicled what it takes to produce results when politicians chose to sit on their hands. According to the report, Bartlett officials have not announced any specific plans to control the spread of EAB. They are “weighing options” while the trees are dying.

But it’s not fair to pick on just one community. We should all be asking our local officials what they are doing to protect all of our trees. Go out on the parkway and look up and down the street. Look all around in the yards, parkways and “green” areas within view. Then imagine absolutely no trees anywhere in sight. Unless you live in Tucson, you have a hint of why it’s important to care about trees.

Phil Zurawski

Arlington Heights