Photo by Wendy Schneider
Yesterday I was made aware of the yellow dot. My head has been somewhere else. I told my kids about the one across the street, not knowing that the four year old tree we have on our terrace was scheduled to be taken down. I called the Forestry Department this morning, Nancy was very helpful. Some background, the emerald ash Borer has taken out over 50 million ash trees to date. The City of Madison’s Forestry Department has had a task force working on the arrival of the pest that kills, since 2007.
They recently marked all the trees that will come down with the yellow dot. Note that Four areas have been found to have the Borer in the ash trees, all are located on the far East Side of Madison. A green dot means a core sample was taken from the marked tree. The whole canopy has been surveyed and 30-40% of the ash trees will be taken down. This is not making the caregivers of our forest happy. They will chemically treat 60% of the trees. Each terrace with the removed tree, will be evaluated based on many factors, and then a tree will be chosen out of 20 different kinds, to replace the down tree. This is a forester’s job, we have no say in what trees are selected. Each block will be diversified.
If the trees are not removed, once infected with the Ash Borer, they will be the first to come down in a storm, 90% of all calls after a storm, are about downed Ash Trees– the wood dries quickly when dead.
Finally, note there will be no more trees taken down till fall, so we will still have some shade this summer. This fall more trees will be taken down and replaced, this will all be completed in two years as the Emerald Ash Borer works its why through our urban forest.
Please visit: http://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/services/forestry/pests/EAB/AdoptaParkTree.cfm
Note: http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/forestmanagement/documents/pub/FR-396.pdf
