Northumberland County to replace 6,000 infected trees over seven years

Northumerlandnews.com
Todd McEwen
Nov 16, 2017

Northumberland County is laying out a plan to decrease the number of pesky invasive beetles known for destroying a specific kind of tree across the province.

Ontario confirmed the arrival of an invasive Asian beetle known as the emerald ash borer about 10 years ago, Northumberland County’s forest manager Ben Walters told county council, and municipalities in Ontario have remained helpless to the spread of the bug.

“There’s no natural control known to this pest and it hasn’t been kept under control by any local species,” Walters said.

Its host is only ash trees ... it doesn't move to other species in our area.”

Walters presented Northumberland County’s Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan during a meeting on Nov. 15 where he discussed the data and findings of a study while pushing the importance of public education on the insect.

“It’s an important issue we’re all dealing with,” Port Hope Mayor Bob Sanderson said.

Port Hope, for example, already has a “significant infestation” of the insect, Walters explained, as well as the Municipality of Brighton because of a large number of ash trees located along the lake shore.

“It just hasn’t spread as fast in (Alnwick/Haldimand Township),” Walters said.

In total, the county discovered 6,373 trees requiring removal that are along county right-of-ways.

The county plans to remove and replace the ash trees over the course of seven years, Walters explained.

“There’s more detailed decisions that need to be made,” he said. “Overall, this is guidance.”

The county faced a similar invasion of insects in the 1970s, he explained, when the Dutch elm disease required elm trees to be removed and replaced with new trees.
What were the new kind of trees planted at the time?

Ash trees, Walters said.

That decision has now come back to cause headaches for the municipalities. So in order to avoid putting all the “eggs in one basket,” Walters said the county’s replacement species will depend on site conditions, but the intent is to replace the infected ash trees with “as much diversity as possible.”

The most challenging aspect, however, may be the public education campaign to help continue combating the spread of the insect on private property.

“I think we have an awful lot of challenges, specifically with the public with getting this information out there,” Coun. John Logel acknowledged. Walters previously told Northumberland News the main cause of the spread of the beetle is people moving contaminated firewood. While there’s no natural control, infected ash trees can be treated with insecticide. The Canadian Forest Service scientists estimate that costs for treatment, removal and replacement of trees affected by emerald ash borer in Canadian municipalities may reach $2 billion over a 30-year period.