BATAVIA – The city might have to remove as many as 600 parkway trees this year that are infested with the emerald ash borer.
“The infestation is growing, and the trees are becoming more infested to the point they need to be removed,” Batavia streets superintendent Scott Haines said.
Haines updated aldermen Tuesday at the Batavia City Council’s City Services Committee meeting. The emerald ash borer is a destructive, non-native pest that feasts on ash trees.
From 2007 until last year, his department removed 500 infested trees. About 176 trees have been removed so far this year, and Haines said he doesn’t see the ash borer problem going away anytime soon.
“Each of the next three years will be as equally challenging,” he said.
Batavia has not planted ash trees since fall 2003 because of the initial infestation in Michigan.
Haines said the trees that will have to be removed are mainly in residential areas throughout the city.
“We have a list of 57 residents who are treating ash trees to prevent infestation or minimize the impact of devastation,” he said.
The city has a 50/50 parkway tree program that allows residents to share in the cost of planting and replacing parkway trees. Seventy-five to 125 trees are planted every year through the program.
Haines said he hopes by year’s end to have a free program that will allow the city to plant more trees, but they would be smaller than the ones it currently plants.
“I would like to plant more than we are removing,” Haines said.