News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
ILLINOIS
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-ash-trees-wheaton-tl-0129-20150121-story.html
Wheaton adds more than $1M to treeremoval budget
Wheaton is removing ash trees on Shaffner Road because of emerald ash borer infestation. (Dawn
Rhodes, Chicago Tribune)
By Dawn Rhodes Chicago Tribune (IL), 012115
More than $1 million is being added to the Wheaton city budget to hasten the removal of dead and
dying ash trees throughout town.
City council members unanimously approved the additional $1.17 million in extra funding, which will be
used to pay the contractors working with the city to remove thousands of trees infected by emerald ash
borer.
Wheaton officials had considered and supported the idea of boosting the tree-removal budget by more
than $850,000 back in August, but there had been no official measure to increase funding until this
month.
"With this additional money, it appears we will have all of the ash parkway trees removed by May 1 of
this year, with the exception of some trees that are being privately treated," City Manager Don Rose
said at the Jan. 20 council meeting.
Wheaton trees have been decimated by emerald ash borer, which kills trees by feeding on the internal
bark and blocking the flow of water. The emerald ash borer first presented in Wheaton in 2010,
according to the city. The public works department began removing unhealthy ash trees two years
before the first sighting as a preventative measure, and cut down about 1,000 trees between 2008 and
2013.
In late 2013, the city endorsed a plan to remove the remaining 5,500 parkway ash trees over a four-year
period and to replace those trees with a variety of species to help mitigate the loss. The city once
considered using a cost-share program with residents to help restore the lost tress, but later backed off
News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
that idea and said the city should shoulder the entire expense. Replanting nearly 4,000 trees could cost
around $1.2 million.
The city began by taking down trees based on a priority system but bolstered efforts in recent months
by going through whole sections of the city and removing all the ash trees. Crews have been removing
ash trees along Shaffner Road near the Belleau Woods Forest Preserve this month. Other areas targeted
for February are near Geneva Road and Main Street, and Roosevelt and Naperville roads.
Only about 200 parkway ash trees remain in town that are not currently infested or scheduled for
removal, Rose said. Those trees are being treated by nearby property owners but also are beginning to
falter and likely would need to be cut down at some point.
"What we were told is that treatment is OK for a while, but you're just delaying it," Mayor Michael Gresk
said.
It's not clear how many ash trees remain on private property but city ordinance requires owners to
remove any diseased trees on their land.
INDIANA
http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/elkhart/2015/01/22/Rice-Cemetery-trees-cut-down-due-toverticillium-wilt-as-Elkhart-forestry-workers-fight-to-save-those-left.html
Rice Cemetery trees cut down due to
verticillium wilt as Elkhart forestry workers
fight to save those left
A disease called verticillium wilt has killed many Elkhart County trees in a fresh blow to the
city’s canopy, which was recently damaged by the emerald ash borer. Many infected trees
have been heavily trimmed or cut down in Rice Cemetery.
News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
City of Elkhart forestry workers collect tree branches on the ground to place in a wood chipper as they
remove a tree in Rice Cemetery on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015. Many trees in the cemetery have been
marked with red dots, meaning they are infected with verticillium wilt and slated to be removed. The
crews will work throughout the winter to remove the trees, with plans to plant replacements in the
fall. (Jennifer Shephard/The Elkhart Truth)
Michelle Sokol Elkhart Truth (IN), 012215
When Diane Kirts lost her husband last year, she made sure he would be laid to rest in a well-kept plot in
Rice Cemetery.
She visits his grave three times a week to weed and water, and the shade of a large maple tree helps the
plants in the summer.
That large maple is one of dozens in the cemetery now tagged with a red dot — the mark that means
city crews will take it down in the coming months.
Fresh stumps are scattered around the cemetery grounds, and many of the trees still standing are visibly
damaged, with chunks of bark gone or large limbs missing.
A severe case of verticillium wilt is to blame. The disease caused by soilborne fungi is killing the
hundreds of Norway maple trees planted in Rice Cemetery decades ago.
While all maples are susceptible to the disease, Elkhart city forester Dan Coy said the drought of 2012
greatly stressed the Norway maples, and that may have contributed to the widespread infection. When
the fungus affects a tree, it shuts down its entire water pathway and kills it.
The city of Elkhart is in the midst of an effort to remove the dead, dying and critically damaged trees in
Rice Cemetery to give the others a fighting chance at survival.
Trees in Grace Lawn and Prairie Street cemeteries are not showing symptoms of verticillium wilt yet, but
the forestry division will keep an eye on those sites and perform some trimming and removal as
necessary.
Although Kirts said she understands nothing can be done to treat the trees, she is still devastated that
they will be removed.
So is Coy, who is just emerging from a fight against the emerald ash borer — a very different but still
lethal problem.
“The devastation is on par with the emerald ash borer,” he said. “It’s the last thing I want to see right
now. It’s significant canopy loss.”
More trees will be planted — not maples, as verticillium can stay active in the soil for years — but they
will not mature for decades.
Coy said there is one major lesson to take from the loss of the tree canopy due to the emerald ash borer
and verticillium wilt: Diversification is important.
“We need to diversify and strengthen our tree canopy,” he said. “You don’t know what the next thing is
to come down, and there is going to be a next thing.”
He said global trade can bring disease to Elkhart forests, which is why travelers should pay close
attention to their customs declarations.
Coy said the way to prevent further devastation is to keep trees healthy with plenty of water. He
encouraged anyone with questions to visit the Purdue Extension online or contact him at
daniel.coy@coei.org or 574-970-0542.
As for the emerald ash borer infestation: That battle may not be over quite yet, but there is a silver
lining.
A program launched in 2012 called ElkhartWood enables the downed trees to be put to use and invests
in the future tree canopy of Elkhart — one that Coy will make every effort to make sure is diverse.
“It’s a terrible hit to the cemetery,” he said. “We will be replanting. We don’t want the trees to just go
away, that’s for sure.”
News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
IOWA
http://fairfield-ia.villagesoup.com/p/grant-helps-communities-inventory-public-trees/1294589
Grant helps communities inventory public
trees
Fairfield Ledger (IA), Jan 21, 2015
This year, 10 Iowa communities, including Fairfield, will participate in a public inventory of their trees
through a U.S. Forest Service grant called Sustainable Urban Forestry Training and Assistance.
The grant will fund training to municipal staff, ...
(CONTINUES, SUBSCRIPTION.)
http://thegazette.com/subject/news/future-of-iowas-state-forest-nursery-uncertain-20150121
Future of Iowa’s State Forest Nursery
uncertain
One suggestion would see prison inmates work at facilities
Department of Natural Resources Black chokeberry shrubs show their color at the State Forest
Nursery in Ames in this autumn photo.
Orlan Love The Gazette (IA), JANUARY 21, 2015 | 10:00 AM
Changing land use patterns and economic realities have forced the Department of Natural Resources to
consider shutting down its nearly 80-year-old state forest nursery.
In the late 1990s the nursery, with plots in Ames and Montrose, was raising and selling more than four
million tree and shrub seedlings per year, according to State Forester Paul Tauke.
Driven in part by shrinkage of the Conservation Reserve Program, demand since has fallen to about 1
million seedlings per year, and the DNR is losing more than $500,000 a year on the nursery operations,
Tauke said.
“We are supposed to cover our costs. We are examining alternatives because financially we have to,” he
said.
One of those alternatives — a potential agreement with Iowa Prison Industries (IPI) — could ensure the
continuation of an institution that has produced more than 150 million trees and shrubs to enhance the
state’s environment.
“We are hopeful that we can make it happen,” IPI Director Dan Clark said.
Calling the nursery “a pretty important program for inmates,” Clark said from 25 to 50 minimum security
inmates work on a seasonal basis at the Ames facility and another 10 to 15 work at the Montrose
facility, just a few miles south of the state penitentiary in Fort Madison.
“It’s a very good work training program,” he said.
One hurdle involves determining if all the needed seedlings can be raised at Montrose. The biggest
hurdle, he said, involves determining if the cold storage facility in Ames can be dismantled and
reassembled at Montrose.
If that is not technically and economically feasible, he said, the question becomes whether a new cold
storage facility is affordable.
Clark and Tauke said they hope to have the answer before spring planting season arrives.
Nursery’s legacy
News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
The 98-acre nursery at Ames was established during the Civilian Conservation Corps era in the late
1930s. The 20-acre Montrose Unit was established in cooperation with the Department of Corrections in
1982.
To see its legacy, “all you have to do is look at all the 30-, 40- and 50-year-old timber stands that started
with state nursery seedlings,” Cedar Rapids forestry consultant Steve Hamilton said.
The state nursery, he said, has been “a dependable source of high-quality nursery stock with a
knowledgeable and accommodating staff.”
Hamilton said he does not think the shutdown, if it comes to that, will cause major hardships for Iowa
tree planters.
Private nurseries, in Iowa and other states, will be able to meet the demand, though perhaps at a
somewhat higher cost and with less assurance that trees and shrubs have been grown from Iowa
ecotype seeds, he said.
But Bob Petrzelka, a private forester with Geode Forestry Inc. in Swedesburg, said the loss of the state
nursery would be bad for business.
“We get 90 percent of our seedlings from the state nursery, and our costs will go up more than 35
percent if we have to buy from private sources,” he said.
The higher cost, he said, would translate into “less tree planting.”
Petrzelka said he thinks demand will rebound with recent lower prices for corn and soybeans.
Company plants prairie grass to protect transmission lines
With high commodity prices, “a lot of that rough ground that’s better suited for timber got planted to
row crops,” he said.
“To me, the state can justify keeping it open because all Iowans benefit when a tree is planted through
improved water quality and wildlife habitat and enhanced recreation,” Petrzelka said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest Forests of Iowa report said the state has almost 2.97 million
acres of forest land — down 2.2 percent, or 66,300 acres, since the previous inventory published in
2008.
When Iowa was settled in the mid-1800s, timber covered more than seven million acres.
That coverage fell to 2.6 million acres in the 1950s, and to 1.6 million acres in the 1970s, before
rebounding to 2.1 million acres in the 1990s.
It peaked at over 3 million acres a few years ago before starting its current descent.
MICHIGAN
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/2015/01/21/fieger-sues-dte-tree-trimming-policy/22132935/
Fieger sues DTE over tree-trimming policy
By Bill Laitner Detroit Free Press (MI), 9:52 p.m. EST January 21, 2015
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed the first three in what he said could become two dozen lawsuits
demanding a total of $54 million from DTE Energy on behalf of homeowners in Bloomfield Hills and
Bloomfield Township upset that the utility clear-cut trees at the back of their lots.
Fieger claimed DTE removed "hundreds of century-old hardwood trees" as part of "a secret campaign
known as "Ground to Sky" that affected more than 20 residents in the area of luxury homes before the
utility stopped the work at the behest of local officials, he said.
The $54 million figure was achieved because that's the amount that DTE was to pay the Davy Tree
Expert Co. for removing the vegetation, much of which grew outside DTE's right-of-way and thus had
tree crews "trespassing on private property," Fieger said.
News in the Midwest January 22, 2015
Inge Gray, 36, of Bloomfield Township said she and her husband are plaintiffs because DTE ruined the
backyard of their home in a neighborhood just east of Woodward and north of Big Beaver Road.
"They created a huge runway" and "just a strip of mud" along the rear property line of the Gray's 1.8acre lot, she said.
"We had a whole forest back there – young trees, middle-aged trees and old trees. They ripped out
every bush, every piece of vegetation, every sapling," Gray said.
After residents complained about the tree cutting in early-to-mid-December, Bloomfield Township
Supervisor Leo Savoie and state Rep. Michael McCready, who a former mayor of Bloomfield Hills, met
with DTE managers and got them to suspend the cutting, Gray said.
The lawsuit came six weeks after the Michigan Public Service Commission ordered DTE Energy to be
more aggressive about removing trees to prevent power outages.
At the time of the MPSC's order, a DTE spokesman said the utility already had launched a more
aggressive policy, called Ground to Sky, to reduce the risk of outages. The more aggressive approach
came after DTE engineers studied the effects of a crippling ice storm in 2013, which left hundreds of
thousands of Michiganders in the dark, and concluded that Michigan's storms and windy days were
becoming more severe, DTE spokesman Scott Simon said in December.
On Wednesday, DTE issued a statement: "DTE Energy has not been served with the lawsuit and can't
comment on its specifics, but our vegetation management program is done on a year-around basis for
improved electric service reliability and the safety of our customers.
"We follow Michigan Public Service Commission and National Arborist Association guidelines when we
work with trees, and notify our customers before doing so.
"We have been working with officials in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township and will continue to
work with all of the communities we serve to let them know when we plan to trim trees."
After residents and local leaders in the Bloomfields complained last month, the utility halted its tree
cutting program in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township "so that we could take some time to
evaluate the concerns of the landowners and the local officials," DTE spokeswoman Erica Donerson said
Thursday.
There is no timetable for resuming the work, Donerson said.
The trees cut down by the utility "are priceless — each one I could value at $100,000," Fieger said.