Time is running out. Your ash trees cannot afford to wait.
Our enviable position here in the greater Rochester area in 2011-12 is that we are able to treat and save ash trees before widespread EAB infestation sets in. A healthy ash tree has value in aesthetics, shade, stormwater management and helping to lower utility costs. Summit’s Certified Arborists can help you determine the health of your tree and your treatment costs.
First discovered in Michigan in 2002, Emerald Ash Borer has recently been found in the Rochester area. Millions of ash trees have been destroyed in the last 8 years. Larvae feeding under the bark prevents the uptake of nutrition, causing the death of the tree.
All existing ash trees within and surrounding the Rochester area are susceptible to infestation with death of untreated trees following within 3-5 years. In the Rochester/Finger Lakes area we are still in the position to prevent the infestation of ash trees, from individual trees in residential settings to municipal trees. Many communities are beginning to act. For example in early December, 2011, the NYS Parks Department began clearing ash trees along the Genesee Greenway trail in Chili to protect hikers from the inevitable falling trees. The Village of Fairport has completed a plan to remove, treat, and monitor it’s ash trees. Municipalities can apply for grants from the US Department of Agriculture to help offset the costs of treatment, removal and/or replacement.
If you live in the Rochester area, consider treatment this spring while your ash tree is still healthy instead of waiting for EAB to begin to affect the health of your tree.
See Cornell University’s information-packed website here: http://www.nyis.info/index.php?action=eab
This map indicates where Cornell feels treatment is urgent in 2012 to save trees. The circle represents a 10 mile radius from the largest infestation in Chili. To update the map one would also create a 10 mile circle originating at High Falls in downtown Rochester where EAB was discovered after this map was generated.
http://www.nyis.info/images/eab_maps/Cornell_Insecticide_Rochester_112111.pdf
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7253.html
Time.com Meet the Beetles: The Emerald Borers Attacking America’s Ash Trees
Photo Credit: Rob Gorden
Don’t know your Ash from your elbow?
To identify an ash tree first look for opposite branching: the branches are attached directly across from one another. The bark of a mature ash tree has a diamond shaped pattern. Young ash trees have smooth bark.Ash tree leaves are compound, consisting of 7-11 leaflets
For more information on ash tree id: http://www.emeraldashborer.info/identifyashtree.cfm
Identify your ash tree.
