Vernon Hills looks to tackle emerald ash borer threat to trees

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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:38AM

Vernon Hills is developing a new policy to deal with the growing threat of emerald ash borer in the community.

Village staff presented a draft of a new Vernon Hills Emerald Ash Borer Management Plan to the Village Board on Jan. 10. The goal of the new policy is to provide “timely inspection and removal of infested trees,” as well as reforestation with different tree species.

“We’re creating a policy because for our area it (emerald ash borer) is relatively new,” said Vernon Hills Village Manager Mike Allison. “We’ve talked about it before and taken steps, but this is a comprehensive look at it.”

The emerald ash borer is an small tree-killing insect from China which forestry officials say poses a significant risk to an estimated 135 million ash trees in communities and forests throughout Illinois. The insect has been known to attack all native ash trees including white, green and blue ash.

Vernon Hills officials estimate about 30 percent -- or 3,500 -- of the village’s parkway trees are ash trees.

“We have a significant amount of ash trees in the parkway areas as well as on private property,” said Allison.

Vernon Hills village crews removed more than 60 ash trees in April 2011 that were infested with emerald ash borer.

Under the policy, any reasonably accessible village-owned ash trees showing signs of infestation, decline or death will be scheduled for removal. The village will be divided into different “management zones” and village staff will conduct a thorough inspection of the ash trees in each zone regularly.

In addition to removing infested parkway trees, the village will give notice to all adjacent property owners when an infested parkway tree is found.

Safety hazard

Once an infestation of a private tree has been positively identified, notice will be given to the property owners informing them about the positive identification and asking that they begin plans for removal. If an infested tree is allowed to die and is not removed by the homeowner and becomes a safety hazard, the village could seek potential legal remedies in court under village ordinance to order its removal.

Allison said the forced removal of trees from private property would be a “last resort” in rare cases where homeowners refuse to remove an infested or dead tree. “Hopefully, we can work with the homeowner to get the tree taken down,” he said.

Village trustee James Schultz said the village already has an ordinance on the books for many years dealing with Dutch Elm disease and other tree diseases or insect infestations, but the new policy will establish more specific steps for dealing with trees infested with emerald ash borer.

“We’re trying to get a little more definition in the policy and how we interact with other property owners who have diseased trees,” he said.

Having a policy in place also will increase the opportunities for the village to obtain grants for reforesting areas that have been impacted by emerald ash borer and replacing them with different tree species.

“Most ash trees will become a thing of the past,” Schultz said. “Most of what we typically think of as green ash are very susceptible (to emerald ash borer).”