By Adrienne Fawcett

The bad news that Lake Bluff has been expecting for some time has finally arrived: the deadly emerald ash borer has been detected on ash trees in the village, putting its entire ash tree population on the path of annihilation.

Ash trees account for 800—or slightly more than 10%–of Lake Bluff’s public forest. There’s no clear data on how many ash are on private lots.

“It’s a lot of trees no matter how you shake it,” said Village Administrator Drew Irvin. “Ash will continue to exist because they’re hardy and they self propagate.”

EAB was detected recently on a private lot in the West Terrace and confirmed by the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Per village regulations, homeowners are responsible for removing hazardous trees, a rule that Mr. Irvin said will apply to the EAB phenomenon.

If you have an ash tree on your property, you can call the Public Works department at (847) 234-0774, and it will come to your property to investigate. Newly affected trees may show few, if any, symptoms and may appear healthy and green for up to a few years. But, according to the IDA, all ash trees are at risk and will become infested. Mr. Irvin said residents should plan accordingly by assuming their ash trees are now infested, because a confirmed presence of EAB anywhere typically indicates a larger, more widespread population is likely nearby.

If your tree is confirmed to have EAB, the village will recommend that you remove it. And if the tree poses a threat to property or people, the village will require that you remove it, he said.

EAB is a bright green, non-native beetle that was discovered in North America for the first time in 2002 in southeast Michigan and Windsor, Canada, according to a press release issued by Lake Bluff on Monday, May 14. Adults are metallic green and are about 1/2 inch long. They leave a D-shaped exit hole in the bark when they emerge in spring.

EAB was found in Wilmette and Evanston about a decade ago, and in Lake Forest around 2006. It’s also been detected in Libertyville, North Chicago and Waukegan. Lake Forest has said it expects 2012 to be a devastating year for its ash tree population. Click here for a GazeboNews story on Lake Forest’s approach to EAB management, and click here for a Q&A with Lake Forest Supervisor of Parks & Forestry Chuck Meyers.

Lake Bluff Public Works crews have not yet found EAB on public ash trees, but when they do find it, they’ll begin removing the infected ash population, beginning with distressed trees, one block at a time.

The Village has no plans to replace each tree lost to EAB, but it does plant a diverse range of trees every year and will continue to do so, said Public Works Supervisor Jake Terlap. New plantings include maple, linden, oak, crab apple, hop hornbeam, hackberry, ginko, northern catalpa, hybrid elms that are resistant to Dutch Elm disease, and honey locust.

The village also will try to save eight of the more choice ash trees on public land and has hired Kinnucan to chemically treat four trees on the east side and four on the west side of town. The trees chosen for treatment are all healthy, larger ash specimens, generally with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 50 inches or more, that are not located near power lines or other places that compromise their health or longevity. On the east side of the village, the four trees are located (one each) on the 10 block of E. Center Avenue; 600 block of Maple Street; 600 block of E. Scranton Ave.; and Sheridan Road near the spur to the Rockland Road underpass. On the west side of town, trees to be treated are located on the 400 block of Greenbay Road; 200 block of West Park; 600 block of Mawman Ave.; and the 1000 block of Campbell Court.

“Fortunately, we don’t have too many big clusters of ash,” said Mr. Terlap. “Campbell court is our biggest cluster, and it’s got a lot of them.”

Campbell Court, which is east of Greenbay Road on the north edge of the village, has ash trees on both sides of the street.

Homeowners may want to consider systemic insecticide treatment of ash trees that are not yet severly infested, and the village also will allow residents to treat public ash trees in the parkways near their homes if the homeowner wishes to take that on.

To learn more about EAB, please visit http://www.illinoiseab.com/. Please go to the following link to find the most recent amended IDA EAB Quarantine: http://www.agr.state.il.us/eab/index.php. If you believe your ash tree is infested with EAB, please contact the Lake Bluff Public Works Department at (847) 234-0774.