East Gwillimbury’s emerald ash borer battle on budget

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 22, 2016
By Simon Martin

You might not have heard a lot about the emerald ash borer, but the pest is still on the Town of East Gwillimbury’s radar.

Last year, the town started an ash tree removal program that was estimated to cost $553,636 over five years.

The results are in from the first year of the program and the town is on budget.

In 2015, town workers removed 151 trees, when they planned for just 51, and they only injected 25 trees, whereas they had planned to inject 145.

They were also able to replace 78 trees.

A total budget of $87,000 was approved for the first year of this project in 2015 and the project is tracking in that range.

Council allotted $60,000 in the 2016 capital budget to continue with the EAB Management Plan’s implementation.

In 2013, Davey Resource Group conducted an inventory of public park and streetscape trees in East Gwillimbury. Among the 7,485 trees inventoried, 528 were ash trees, comprising 7.1 per cent of the inventoried population

East Gwillimbury council endorsed a strategy to remove and replace trees as well as treat significant trees.

Under the town’s strategy, there would be a significant cost increase in 2017 and 2018, with close to 200 trees being removed each year. The program would cost $213,000 in 2017 and $181,000 in 2018.

There is little choice for the municipality, as a glut of dead trees in public areas presents safety concerns and a liability issue.

An important part of the plan is keeping residents informed as to what is going on, parks, recreation and culture general manager Aaron Karmazyn said.

Door hangers were sent out to inform residents of monitoring, removals, replacements and treatments prior to work being carried out.

As well, the town completed two comprehensive tree assessments in June and September to determine the current health of ash trees and updated its work plan accordingly.

The town’s strategy doesn’t include trees on private land.

If you are interested in learning more about how to deal with the emerald ash borer on your property, visit yourleaf.org, which has all the different strategies.

The beetle, which originated in Asia, was discovered in North America in 2002.

The emerald ash borer was first detected in Toronto in 2007 and southern York Region in 2008.

A tree will die two to three years after infestation.

It is estimated most of the roughly 2.8 million ash trees in York Region will become infested and die within the next 10 to 15 years.