Tree inspectors, info links and public sessions part of offensive against emerald ash borer
By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
With the arrival of the Emerald Ash Boer in the West Island, municipalities are being proactive in getting the public informed about the insidious insect in an effort to prevent a complete infestation.
Last week, Pierrefonds-Roxboro held an information session with experts on the topic so that homeowners can identify if they have a type of ash tree prone to the EAB and what to do if the tree has been infected. The city of Pointe Claire held a similar style meeting and Dorval will be hosting a French and English information meeting tonight and tomorrow evening.
The city is also doing an inventory of trees found on private property and four urban forestry interns will be doing the rounds during the summer months.
The Beaconsfield, Ste. Anne de Bellevue and Dollard des Ormeaux city websites have dedicated links as does the city of Montreal has links for its boroughs.
Lachine began testing for the EAB with sticky traps three years ago. To date, about 1,000 ash trees can be found in the borough and six have had to be cut down.
In Kirkland, an inventory of the more than 800 public ash trees have all been inspected and so, far EAB has not made its way into the municipality. Director General Joe Sanalitro told The Suburban that a policy will be put into place shortly that will provide an action plan for any further procedures.
“To date, we don’t have any EAB on our territory, out of the 10,000 to 12,000 trees in our public inventory that include parks and streets,” said Sanalitro. “The plan will have procedures depending on the infestation such as replacing the tree, repairing or cutting it down. To date, there is nothing concrete about what to do with the infected wood.”
In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, elected officials agreed to install a hundred stick traps throughout its territory in an effort to gauge the possible EAB spread before appropriate action will be taken.
