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Vernon Hills nears end of battle with emerald ash borer

The first batch of replacement trees for this season was delivered Monday to the Vernon Hills public works department, but unlike the last few years, the village is near the end of its long and expensive struggle with the emerald ash borer.

"We're definitely on the backside of the curve," said Ken Loar, forestry crew leader for the village public works department. "A lot of other towns are trying to keep pace with the removals."

The metallic green beetle that has devastated ash trees throughout northern Illinois was found in Vernon Hills in 2010. The village quickly took an aggressive approach to remove and replace the dead or dying trees with nearly two dozen new species.

Since 2011, the village has spent about $1 million to remove and replace 2,964 parkway ash trees. About 200 trees, not including those at some other public spaces, will be removed and replaced this spring, he said. The program has slowed to the point the village won't have to contract the work.

"This year, we'll be able to handle it all in-house," Loar said.

In football terms, Vernon Hills in the red zone and is nearing the goal line.

"We tackled it early and replanted right away," said David Brown, village engineer and public works director. "We benefited from the growth of those trees over that time to reduce the devastation it (emerald ash borer) caused."

According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the emerald ash borer has destroyed more than 250 million ash trees since it was detected in 2002 near Detroit. The distinct emerald green pest has been in northern Illinois for 10 years and has become so prevalent that state officials last fall announced the movement of cut firewood within Illinois would no longer be restricted.

Regulations and quarantines slowed the rate at which the insect spread and gave communities time to manage the pest, but state officials determined it was too widespread to continue to regulate.

"The upper third of Illinois is effectively infested," said Scott Schirmer, plant and pesticide specialist with the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The situation has been known long enough that communities have chosen a course of action to combat the tree-killing beetle. However, there has been no set strategy, with each town doing what it could as budgets allowed.

The first of several shipments of replacement trees was delivered Monday to the Vernon Hills public works department. Mick Zawislak/mzawislak

"I do know a lot of communities that are three or four years out in the replacement because they were so heavy on the removal," Schirmer said.

In Lake Zurich, about 2,700 dying public trees infected by the emerald ash borer have been removed ahead of schedule and replacements will begin this fall.

However, in Libertyville, the village expects to remove 500 infested ash trees during the budget year beginning May 1 but still will have about 350 to remove over the following two years. Both communities have about the same number of ash trees on public property.

Vernon Hills has used about 20 types of replacement trees. Because of demand, finding replacement trees of certain sizes has become a struggle in some instances, Schirmer said.

Ash tree removal/replacement program continues in Vernon Hills

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