The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Bugs chew up budgets
Tree-removal costs skyrocket for towns hit with ash borer
Towns across the state are faced with ash trees dying faster than they can remove them due to a tiny invasive insect — and it’s going to cost millions of dollars across Connecticut.
The emerald ash borer has killed thousands of trees throughout the state, prompting officials to start crafting plans on how to pay for the work, including the possibility of borrowing money or deferring other road work to handle trees.
Some towns hope the federal or state governments will create a way to help with the costs — much like what would happen in a natural emergency
“Everybody from this part of Connecticut has this problem,” said Redding Public Works Director Jeff Hanson. “The emerald ash borer is wreaking havoc.”
Redding is grappling with how to remove more than 900 ash trees over the next few years. In an effort to chip away at the growing list, a crew was hired to take down 50 to 60 trees in four weeks beginning last Monday.
These weeks of work will cost $30,000, leaving little left in the town’s $50,000 tree removal budget, especially because a portion was needed earlier this year.
Hanson expects the overall work to tackle the full list to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Other towns are also facing large bills and trying to figure out how to cover the costs.
“I don’t think any town has their funding in place to take them down,” said Thomas Osborne, Washington’s tree warden. He said Washington maxes out its limited tree removal budget every year.
Dead trees are hazardous because they can come down on power lines, block roads and potentially injure or kill someone, especially in these recent storms with powerful winds.
“We know we need a plan,” Osborne said.
A recent problem
The emerald ash borer was first seen in the U.S. near Detroit in 2002 and in Connecticut in 2012. It was discovered in Fairfield County the following year.
The removal problem is even newer, starting about a year or so ago.
Last year, the state Department of Transportation began a specialized tree removal program focusing on the trees affected by the emerald ash borer and the gypsy moth, said DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick. He added there’s been a major uptick the number of compromised, dead or dying trees because of these insects and consecutive years of drought.
“We’re looking at tens of thousands of trees that need to be removed from Connecticut DOT right of ways,” he said.
Right now, the removal is eating through the department’s operational funds, but Nursick said they are looking at ways to better fund it and purchasing specialized equipment to efficiently remove trees so they don’t have to keep renting the machinery.
He estimates it will cost millions of dollars over the next few years, but hesitates to set an exact timeframe.
“This is going to be a challenge for years to come,” he said.
He said the department’s 12 tree crews are taking down healthy ash trees near infected ash trees because it’s only a matter of time before those become infected as well.
The infestation
The emerald ash borer has killed tens of millions of ashes from Colorado to New Hampshire and is marching from west to east. Some stands in eastern Connecticut seem relatively healthy, but sooner or later, they’ll wither and die, too.
Authorities have set firewood quarantines in a broad swath of the U.S. in an attempt to contain the insect, but because the beetle is an excellent flier, these steps have only delayed the inevitable, experts say.
“Before the emerald ash borer hit, ash represented about three percent of the tree population,” said Jeffrey Ward, chief scientist of the Department of Forestry & Horticulture at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. “That works out to over 21 million trees with a diameter of over one inch.”
That percentage increases to 15 percent when looking at trees with trunks at least 30 inches in diameter. Ashes, like sycamores, are relatively immune to disease once they’re wellestablished, at least until the emerald ash borer came along. It was one of the species that played a part in the reforestation of the state after farms were abandoned in the 19th and early 20th centuries as agriculture moved west.
It was also considered a good street tree and replaced a bulk of New Haven’s elm trees a century ago after the Dutch elm disease ravaged the species of trees that gave the city its nickname.
“It makes a great street tree – and until the EAB came along, it was about as disease- and pest-resistant as a tree can be,” said station entomologist Claire E. Rutledge.
All of the ashes near the experiment station have takedown notices stapled to their trunks, a warning that chain saws and wood chippers will be coming soon. All are suffering from crown die-back, in which leaf growth retreats to the center of the tree.
“It’ll be a shame to see them all go,” Rutledge said as she looked up and down the street, populated with once-healthy ashes.
The aftermath
Once the ashes are removed, there’s the cost to get rid of them: Redding will give it free to residents for firewood. Public Works will even deliver it to the end of their driveways.
The larger wood is brought back to the transfer station and chopped up. If no one asks for the firewood, the town has to pay $10,000 to $12,000 to haul it away and clean out the transfer station. The town is looking at long-term solutions to deal with the wood removal, Hanson said.
Washington will leave the wood for the residents if they want, or will take it back to the town dump to chop it up. They’ll offer it as firewood, or if no residents want it they’ll pay a company to take the wood to turn into mulch.
The state will destroy the wood and return it to the woods if the area allows, or they’ll bring it back to a DOT area. If they collect enough dead wood, they’ll bid it out for a company to turn it into mulch.
Nursick said giving the wood away has too many risks of spreading the invaders.