Red Oak adopts emerald ash borer plan
RED OAK – With the invasive Emerald Ash Borer located about 60 miles due east in Creston, Red Oak city officials are preparing response plans for the seemingly inevitable attack on local trees.
The Emerald Ash Borer, an exotic insect pest originally from Asia, has spread the last couple years to 13 Iowa counties, including Allamakee, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Cedar, Des Moines, Henry, Jasper, Jefferson, Muscatine, Story, Union, and Wapello.
At the urging of state Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa State Extension Office, the Red Oak Park and Tree Board has modified a community plan that includes preventive measures and reactionary ones should the insect be found locally.
“Basically, we are trying to be proactive instead of doing things last minute,” Park and Tree Board Chairman Bill Drey said.
Preventive measures to be taken include an inventory of all public trees, which will include a specific count of ash trees and an assessment of their condition. City workers would remove trees that are dying or in poor condition.
Should the ash borer be found in Montgomery County, all ash trees on public property would be removed. With several hundred ash trees in Red Oak, a separate line item in the budget would be needed.
Drey also recommended pre-planning work for grants to secure funds to replace the lost ash trees.
The plan’s components for private landowners include:
— Encourage community members to begin evaluating and replacing ash trees with a more diverse mix of species. Provide some incentive for proactive replacement of dying and poor condition ash trees.
— Provide citizens with a list of alternate species to replace ash trees.
—Increase public awareness of the Emerald Ash Borer and how to prevent its spread.
Drey said Red Oak doesn’t have as many public ash trees as other communities, some of which are taking more preventive measures.
“Some communities are cutting down ash trees right and left even though they don’t have the EAB there yet,” he said.