City triples budget for ash borer battle
An estimated 1,119 trees will have to be cut down this year to slow the spread of the insect

montrealgazette.com
April 24, 2014
By Monique Beaudin

Facing the loss of thousands of ash trees, the city of Montreal is more than tripling the amount of money it will spend this year to try to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer.

The insect was first detected in Montreal in 2011, and since then 149 trees in the city have been confirmed to be infested. The insect’s larvae destroy the area of the tree under the bark that transports nutrients and water through the tree. Once that occurs, a healthy tree will die within two to five years, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

The city estimates 1,119 ash trees will have to be cut down this year to slow the spread of the insect. Nearly all are located within 300 metres of an infected tree and are being removed to prevent the spread of the insect. By mid-April, 856 trees had been cut down, the city says.

Montreal had budgeted nearly $1 million for its fight against the emerald ash borer in 2014, but on Thursday announced it would spend an additional $2.6 million this year.

The money will be used to identify infected trees, and inject ash trees with Treeazin, a pesticide that kills the insect, said Réal Ménard, the executive committee member responsible for sustainable development. Working with the city’s 19 boroughs, Ménard said the plan is to inject approximately 9,000 ash trees with Treeazin — 4,000 near infested trees, and 5,000 trees growing along city streets.

The city of Montreal has a total of 200,000 public ash trees, about 50,000 of which are located along city streets, Ménard said.

The city will probably lose about 10,000 of the street ash trees, Ménard said. The vaccination plan is aimed at protecting some of the street trees and slowing the spread of the insect.

Ménard said part of the extra money will come from funds set aside for the city’s canopy plan, which aims to increase tree coverage on the island from 20 per cent to 25 per cent by 2025.

While he acknowledged the emerald ash borer is a serious threat, Ménard said he believes the city is in a good position to “considerably” slow the death of ash trees on its territory. The 1,119 trees cut down this year represents 0.5 per cent of the 200,000 publicly-owned ash trees, he said.

“The situation is not as bad as it may seem, but it is unquestionably extremely worrying,” Ménard said.

But the Projet Montréal opposition party said the new money is too little, too late. It has been calling for the creation of a $10-million emergency fund to fight the emerald ash borer. Projet Montréal councillor Sylvain Ouellet said the city is “robbing Peter to pay Paul” by using money set aside for the canopy plan on the emerald ash borer.

Besides cutting trees down and vaccinating others, Montreal should also plant new trees to replace those being cut, he said. Removing hundreds of trees from city streets will not only reduce the amount of greenery in the city, but also have an impact on heat islands and air quality, he said.

Still unresolved, Ouellet said, is the issue of privately-owned trees. It is unknown how many privately-owned ash trees there are on the island. At this time, nothing compels owners to treat or cut down an infested ash tree.

In the St-Laurent borough, the administration has contracted with a private company to provide Treeazin injections to residents at a low cost, borough mayor Alan DeSousa said.

Ménard said there is still “diplomacy” to be done to persuade the on-island suburbs to participate in an island-wide plan to fight the emerald ash borer, and said it is the city’s intention to introduce a bylaw to that effect at the agglomeration council by June.

Native to Asia, with no known predators, it is believed the ash borer came to North America in ash wood used to transport merchandise. It has killed millions of ash trees across the continent.

At the beginning of April, the CFIA announced a ban on wood transportation in most of southwestern Quebec and much of Ontario in a bid to slow the spread of the insect. That means firewood, ash trees, nursery stock and wood cannot be moved out of the area without written permission of the CFIA.

The insect has proved costly to municipalities. For example, the city of Hamilton, Ont., plans to spend $26 million over 10 years cutting down its 23,000 ash trees and replacing them with other kinds of trees.