This summer the effort is underway to treat one-third of the city’s inventoried ash trees for preservation from the Emerald Ash Boerer. According to Paul Mahoney, who is responsible for identifying and assessing the current health of the trees, now that a vendor has been found to provide the treatment ingredients, the work remains to infuse the blue chemical into the base of the trunk through an air pressured system of hoses and taps. According to Mahoney, a tap is inserted similar to an intravenous line, allowing one tap for each inch and a half of the tree’s diameter. The forty foot ash near the tennis courts received 13 taps for it’s size and the process takes between 15 and 20 minutes to send the treatment into the xylem which distributes the fluid into the system protecting the tree for up to 3 years. The process will only be conducted on trees deemed likely to respond to the fix.
In all, 450 trees will be treated in the 3 year cycle, counting on a positive prognosis to keep parks and other green spaces populated with the mighty ash. Mahoney notes that home owners should also treat those ash trees on private property. He said to keep all receipts from the process to verify you are trying to save the tree. If that is unsuccessful, however, documenting that you did all you could, will result in the city splitting the cost of removal at a 60-40 percent rate. For now, all fingers and branches are crossed that the treatments will protect them.
