As spring arrives, the City of Kitchener will be checking on the health of its ash trees, after the emerald ash borer beetle was found in Waterloo Region last summer.
It's an issue that could have both a social and environmental impact, as well as a being something very costly to deal with from a financial perspective.
Over the next three weeks, the city will be assessing the health of the affected trees, taking samples of branches and searching for evidence to determine how far the emerald ash borer has spread.
The bugs are doing damage to street side trees as well as at places like the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) Plantation on the east side of Cambridge.
Virginia Gordon, a watershed forester with the GRCA who plants, maintains and watches the health of area woodlots, says "It grows as it tunnels its way through the inner layer of the bark, ultimately girdling the tree."
The beetle was first found in the Windsor area nine years ago. It then travelled along the Highway 401 corridor and now threatens thousands of trees, including many in Waterloo Region.
Dave Schmitt, environmental and urban forestry project manager with the City of Kitchener, says "Kitchener, for the street trees, with the 4,500 trees we have we expect in total it's going to cost us about $3.5 million to remove the trees and another $1.5 million to replant."
Replacement is the only option right now, as there's no effective control system for the pest.
According to Gordon, "Ash trees in general will be declining over time and a lot of them will die due to emerald ash borer. It will be a similar situation to the dutch elm disease and the decline of elm."
It is considered a serious loss because the ash tree has been popular in urban plantings.
"It's one of our preferred trees," Schmitt says, "because it's easily established, they provide a lot of benefits, they grow well, so in many ways it's going to be a significant loss to the community when the trees are lost."
Restricting the movement of firewood may slow the spread of the emerald ash borer, and the city already has plans in place to replace the dying trees before they have to be taken down.
"The GRCA's management strategy here will be to do some under plantings in areas where there is a heavy over story of ash," Gordon says.
Maple, oak, locust and linden trees are being considered as replacements, as part of a strategy to increase the diversity of species.
Most of the ash trees in the area are expected to be lost over the next ten years.
