Cedar Rapids arborist: Treat ash trees you want to save

CEDAR RAPIDS - City arborist Todd Fagan on Tuesday put his latest thoughts on the emerald ash borer more succinctly than ever.

Fagan told the city's Parks, Waterways & Recreation Commission Tuesday that anyone in Cedar Rapids who owns an ash tree that they want to protect should be treating it with an insecticide now.

In recent weeks, the City Council has approved the city's EAB plan to chemically treat certain city-owned trees in the right of way along city streets when the arrival of the ash borer is confirmed in the metro area. The council also has approved the hiring of a contractor to begin work when the borer arrives.

At the same time, Fagan repeated that tree treatment should begin when the borer has been identified within 15 to 25 miles, and its arrival in Mechanicsville, next door to Linn County in Cedar County, is about 25 miles away from part of Cedar Rapids.

The borer has been identified in 22 Iowa counties, including in Black Hawk County north of Linn County, and Fagan said, 'I believe it is here” in the Cedar Rapids metro area.

Once it officially is found, the city will begin to inject certain ash trees in the right of way with a chemical marketed as TREE-age. The trees must be treated every two to three years.

Fagan said the city's plan is to conduct a tree inventory, identify the best ash trees and chemically treat those. Some may be treated only for a few or several years and then cut down after replacement trees on a block can become established and begin to build a new tree canopy along a street, he said.

He said the city will get a better price than an individual resident for the Tree-age insecticide it will use, but he said the city will make its price available to residents who want to protect their own ash trees once the city begins its treatment program.

Daniel Gibbins, the city's parks superintendent, told the commission that most of the city's estimated 15,000 ash trees in the right of way are green ashes that are 30 to 50 years old, many of which are nearing the end of their life cycles, he said.

'We have a lot of ash trees in the right of way in poor condition. So a lot of ash trees are just going to have to go,” Gibbins said.

In April, Fagan and Gibbins said the city may treat up to 6,000 of the best ash trees at least for a time and target the remaining 9,000 to be cut down. The city plan could cost $17 million or more over 18 years, with a 'go-slow approach” to replace trees that have come down, they have said.

On Tuesday, Fagan said a survey of trees on the city's four golf courses found some ash trees, but not a lot of them.

He suggested that residents use a certified arborist if they plan to treat an ash tree with chemicals.