Dead and diseased tree harvest underway at Fairy lake

shorelinebeacon.com
By Frances Learment
Feb. 7, 2017

Limb by limb, trunk by trunk, approximately 500 to 550 dead and dying Ash trees are being culled from Fairy Lake in Southampton in a harvest - called “tragic” by one local politician - that began Feb. 6, and could take six weeks.

“We're removing all the White Ash trees that were marked as dead or dying with blue or red markers,” said Jared George, one of six Ontario Line Clearing and Tree Experts staffers who began working in the area behind Grey St. backyards and the pond.

He said it was tight work as they don't want to damage any healthy trees or have any debris fall into Fairy Lake. The smaller limbs were dragged to a chipper and larger logs will be saved, possibly for future use.

For safety, Fairy Lake is closed to the public during the harvest, and Town Parks Manager Frank Burrows expects people to be curious, but he is confident they will respect the barriers erected by the Town.

Burrows said Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) probably infected Saugeen Shores trees two or three years ago, and only this past summer was the devastating extent of the damage clear, especially at Fairy Lake.

“It moves very quickly and that's what caught us at Fairy Lake,” Burrows said in a Feb. 7 telephone interview, adding the loss of bark is the first obvious visible sign of disease, often caused by Woodpeckers attacking the diseased trees.

“We know EAB is in other areas of Saugeen Shores, but it is not showing itself, yet, so we don't have a specific map of EAB-diseased trees, but are constantly monitoring and as trees deteriorate and become a hazard we take them down,” Burrows said, adding they are “pondering internally” whether the Town should develop a forestry plan with a more systematic assessment of trees to better forecast any issues.

He said preliminary work showed that within Saugeen Shores, Ash trees are native species in woodlots, hedges and fence lines. A 2015 inventory of trees on Town streets - not parks, other public lands or private lands – found six per cent of the 7,301 trees were Ash, and of those, 45 (9.3 per cent) had signs of EAB infestation and could be dead within three or four years.

Since the threat of spreading EAB ends with the harvest of affected trees, the Town hopes the harvested wood will be used as much as possible - possibly for signs, benches or other community projects requiring lumber.

Anyone who would like some of the harvested Ash wood can contact info@ontariolineclearing.com for information.

Removal of the Ash trees is phase one of the Fairy Lake restoration project. Phase two includes rehabilitation of the trail ringing the lake, two new pedestrian bridges, a second water fountain and a lookout - all with a Canada Day opening target.

The Town budget includes $255,000 for the project - the tender contract for the harvest was $81,360, much less than the estimated $187,000.