More than 300 ash trees to come down in Cedar Rapids

The ash-killing pest, the emerald ash borer, is going to have less to feast on if or when it arrives in town.

Along city streets over the next three months, city crews will cut down an estimated 325 ash trees that are dying or in declining condition as part of an ongoing city program to remove inviting targets from the emerald ash borer's expected path.

Craig Hanson, the city's public works maintenance manager, on Tuesday noted that the city removed about 160 ash trees in poor condition last winter as a first step in what is now an ongoing city program. He estimated that the city has 10,000 to 15,000 ash trees along city streets.

Hanson said this winter, in one significant way, is different from last: The emerald ash borer - which has killed tens of millions of ash trees in 13 states and two Canadian provinces - was found in far northeast Iowa in May of 2010.

“It's now here in our state,” he said.

The city's removal program, he noted, is in accord with a directive from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which he said has told cities to assess the health of their ash trees and to replace those in poor condition with trees of different species.

Hanson said the city's plan is to replace felled ash trees with oak, maple, tulip, ginkgo, coffee, locust and other tree species. The city intends to spend $120,000 in the current budget year, which ends June 30, 2011, to plant 600 to 700 trees along the city right-of-ways, he said.

Hanson acknowledged on Tuesday that the city's ash-tree cutting last year drew some criticism, including some from the Marion-based Trees Forever.

Hanson said the city now has consulted with Trees Forever and has taken steps to better inform property owners who are in line to see ash trees cut down along the street in front of their homes. The city, he reported, sent a first letter to owners in September so they could see a tree's decline while it still had leaves on it. Only a couple of residents called the city and asked that the city reconsider cutting down a tree, he said.

The city now is sending out a second letter to areas where crews are about to start work to alert the homeowners about the tree-cutting.

Hanson said the first trees are slated to come down on Friday in southeast Cedar Rapids just north of Mount Vernon Road in an area generally between 26th and 31st streets SE.

City inspections last summer targeted neighborhoods with ash trees of 40 or 50 years of age or more to identify those which were in decline. Most of the trees that will come down this winter are big, he said.

Hanson said the hope remains that an effective, inexpensive chemical will come along to protect a large number of ash trees from the emerald ash borer.