Beaconsfield to hold town-hall meeting about emerald ash borer bylaw

Aug. 26. 2014
westislandgazette.com
By Kathryn Greenaway

Bruno Chicoine from Antidote Arboriculture knelt at the base of a mature ash tree in Beaconsfield’s Centennial Park on a hot and humid Monday morning. He was poised to demonstrate how the organic insecticide TreeAzin is injected to fight off the invasive emerald ash borer which has already decimated millions of trees in North America since 2002.

Beaconsfield received a donation of 20 litres of TreeAzin from Tree Canada to treat around 75 of the town’s 3,200 ash trees growing on public property. Tree Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging Canadians to care for and enrich Canada’s tree population.

“There are no signs the emerald ash borer has reached Beaconsfield yet, but the injections are part of our prevention plan,” Mayor George Bourelle said during a press conference announcing the donation with Tree Canada president Michael Rosen.

“At the moment, TreeAzin is the only effective treatment,” Rosen said. “These injections are costly, but they are essential if we wish to intervene in the proper manner. In fact, according to the most recent economic studies, it is less costly than to kill and replace a tree.”

The cost of injecting an ash tree begins at $425, but can increase depending on the diameter of the tree and how far the technician has to travel to treat the tree.

Beaconsfield has taken an inventory of ash trees on private and public property, screened for infestations, installed emerald ash borer traps and continues with its annual planting of 200 trees of a variety of species.

And a proposed emerald ash borer bylaw has been tabled.

A town-hall meeting to discuss the bylaw takes place Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. The proposed bylaw details when an ash tree can be pruned, what the homeowner’s responsibilities will be if the infestation nears or invades a property with ash trees and what fines could be levied against unco-operative homeowners.

Bourelle said two-thirds of Beaconsfield properties have no ash trees, which means the estimated 10,000 ash trees on private property are concentrated in one-third of Beaconsfield’s yards.

“We have to look at what we can afford without affecting people’s taxes,” Bourelle said. “How will residents react to (the concentration of the ash trees). Are the two-thirds willing to support the one-third?”

Using a sharp drill bit, Chicoine drilled 13 holes, one-inch deep, around the base of the tree. He inserted a white nozzle into each hole and then clicked a slender plastic tube filled with liquid insecticide into each nozzle.

The liquid drains and is sucked up into the tree’s sap “vascular” system in under three minutes.

TreeAzin is made from the seeds of the neem tree. (An extract from the neem tree is also used to treat head lice.)

“Our data shows a 94 per cent success rate of the injections (of TreeAzin) in trees that are not infected,” BioForest technical specialist Etienne Papineau said. BioForest is the company hired by the city to handle injections on public property.

For details about the Sept. 15 town hall meeting, visit www.beaconsfield.ca.