Des Plaines outlines emerald ash borer plan
Des Plaines residents may be able to temporarily save ash trees that officials say will succumb to emerald ash borer infestation and eventually will have to be replaced with healthier trees.
The city’s public works committee Wednesday night discussed a plan for dealing with emerald ash borer infestation, which hit the region in 2006.
“Once a tree is infected, it’s on its way to die,” said Tim Ridder, assistant director of public works and engineering. “We have much fewer ash trees in our parkways than a majority of communities in the area.”
Roughly 20 percent of the city’s trees are ash. Des Plaines will have to replace more than 3,700 ash trees in public right-of-ways, 300 of which are in critical condition — either highly infected or limbs are falling off — and recommended for immediate removal. Crews already have removed 700 trees this year, and 300 more will be taken down by year end.
“It’s a big number, but we think it’s manageable,” Ridder said. “You have approximately five to seven years before the trees will be infected and lose their leaves.”
Public works staff members recommended all ash trees infected by the emerald ash borer be removed over several years.
Officials hope to replace the ash trees with a more diverse variety of plantings so there is no more than 10 percent of any one species.
The city also has sent out 600 letters to residents whose parkway ash trees are targeted for removal explaining how the city’s tree planting program works. Residents can participate by paying $50 toward the roughly $300 average cost of replacing a tree. So far, only 325 residents have responded to the city’s tree replacement program, Ridder said.
City aldermen and a couple of residents questioned why treatment of ash trees wasn’t being offered as an alternative to replacement, but staff members said that would merely prolong the death of the trees.
“Once you stop treatment, it will become infected,” Ridder said. “Ash trees decay pretty quickly. The city is going to face a lot of liability with falling limbs. Our goal is to get those trees down before they become standing dead trees.”
Ridder said while some neighboring communities are treating ash trees, others have chosen to get rid of them.
Officials said the city would have to come up with a good inspection program, if residents were allowed to treat the trees themselves.
Resident Sally Murphy said she and some of her neighbors would be interested in saving the trees on her street where about 35 trees have been marked for removal between Golf and Mount Prospect roads.
“People I know who live in Elk Grove, they got ahead of this and treated their trees and they are fine,” she said.
Ridder said it is cheaper to replace the trees than treat them, which would cost roughly $100 every other year. The city also would have to bear the cost of monitoring trees being treated, he said.
“If a resident wants to treat the tree themselves, as soon as it shows distress, we will remove it,” he added. “We’d like to do this as quick as possible so we are not constantly dealing with the amount of manpower (needed) year after year (for) getting rid of trees.”
Aldermen ultimately directed staff members to inform homeowners that treatment of ash trees would be an option, if they are willing to pay for it themselves, and also requested more information on what it would cost the city to monitor trees being treated.
“It’s got to be done professionally,” committee Chairman Jim Brookman said. “It’s got to be verified.”
Trees taken down this fall won’t be replaced until the planting season in spring and next fall.