Emerald Ash Borer Task Force Recommendations are Here!

This is the Executive Summary and Recommendations, but the info is a bit confusing.

EAB Taskforce Report
Executive Summary and Recommendations

Summary
Since 2008, the City of Madison has been working on how to mitigate the impact of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). With an estimated 21,000 terrace ash trees, 20,000 ash tree in Parks and the many thousands more found on private property the EAB could have a devastating effect on our urban forest.. A taskforce was created to coordinate assessing the EAB threat, planning various response strategies, reviewing the latest research and acting to mitigate impacts on our tree canopy and ensure public safety.

The attached documents of the report provide background on the EAB, key issues and potential strategies researched by the Taskforce for addressing the threat, and summaries of comments collected at three public listening sessions.
Proactive recommendations based upon the Taskforce’s professional assessment of how to best meet the needs to maintain our urban tree canopy and deal with a destructive, invasive pest, while using resources in the most cost-effective and environmentally sound way are listed below.

Recommendations
– Begin preemptively removing small ash trees and replanting them with different, diverse species within one year of removal (or next appropriate planting season) to hasten the recovery of the City’s green infrastructure.

– Remove ash trees when advantageous during infrastructure maintenance, unless street tree is considered a legacy or high value tree, and replace them with different species within one year.

– Provide the option for homeowners to chemically treat publically owned trees through either a city permit or by special assessment.

– Provide for chemical treatment of trees where appropriate to preserve legacy or high value trees or when tree
canopy needs to be preserved for environmental, economic or social reasons.

City Forestry has diversified their replacement tree selection to 29 different tree species to diminish future impacts on the tree canopy by invasive species. Preemptive removal and replacement would follow Forestry planting policy to ensure a variation in tree age, canopy cover and species diversity.

If an EAB infestation is discovered in Madison or Dane County, State of Wisconsin response guidelines and regulations would have to be followed, but all options for mitigating its impact would be reexamined and the best options that help us preserve the tree canopy and public safety would be pursued.

Unfortunately, the info I got doesn’t have the attachments. And the recommendations include only three of the four items above. I’m confused because this was attached.

EAB Task Force Recommendations

This document is intended to help guide policy makers through the process of creating an Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) management plan that best meets the City of Madison’s needs to maintain our urban tree canopy and deal with a destructive, invasive pest, while not exceeding our resources.

The EAB task force recommendations are based upon their professional assessment of both the impact on the city’s street trees and the best utilization of resources to manage EAB while upholding public safety. The task force also took into account the pubis’s view of this threat, by holding three public meetings in the last quarter of 2010 to educate on the EAB and to discuss several potential strategies and gather public input on the strategies.

The EAB task force recommendations are:

1. Begin preemptively removing small ash trees and replanting them with different, diverse species within one year of removal (or next appropriate planting season) to hasten the recovery of the City’s green infrastructure.
2. Remove ash trees when advantageous during infrastructure maintenance, unless street tree is considered a legacy or high value tree, and replace them with different species within one year.
3. Provide the option for homeowners to chemically treat publicly owned trees by either a city permit or by special assessment.

Background on the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), the strategies reviewed by the taskforce and other important information can be found in the attached City of Madison EAB Plan: Potential Strategies and Issues Overview document.

More about EAB is on the city website here, but I didn’t see the report as of this posting.