Hutchinson ash trees threatened by EAB

Two and a half decades after seeing its stately boulevard elms devastated by Dutch elm disease, Hutchinson will have to prepare itself for the potential loss of most of its more than 3,000 ash trees to the emerald ash borer, or EAB.

The message was delivered to the Hutchinson City Council last week by City Forester Mark Schnobrich, who has been with the city long enough to remember when Hutchinson lost more than 880 elm trees in one year back in the 1980s.

“Every year since 2001, the EAB has been spreading across the north central United States and it is now in Minnesota,” he said. “About a quarter of our trees in Hutchinson are ash. It will have an economic and environmental impact.”

An estimate done a few years ago came up with a $650 cost to remove a tree. At that price, removing 880 ash trees in a single year would cost $500,000, he told the council.

In a memo to the council, Public Works Manager John Olson said Hutchinson’s current ordinance, developed to deal with Dutch elm disease 25 years ago, should be adequate for handling an infestation of emerald ash borer. It would require speedy removal of infested trees on public and private property.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)