Emerald ash borer: A "ticking time bomb" in Twin Cities - 20% of trees at risk; Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN

Emerald ash borer: A "ticking time bomb" in Minneapolis, St. Paul | Twin Cities Daily Planet | Minneapolis - St. Paul

The Park Board has hung traps for the emerald ash borer — like this one at Brackett Park — in hopes of reducing the amount of damage to the city’s trees. Photo by Scott RussellBy Scott Russell , Bridgeland News
July 05, 2009
Minneapolis, a city known for its trees, has approximately 210,000 ash trees; that’s more than 20 percent of the total number of trees in the city. The emerald ash borer, recently detected in St. Paul near the Minneapolis border, threatens them all. Minneapolis has approximately 38,000 ash trees growing on boulevards, but most ash are on private property, according to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (Park Board).
Park Board President Tom Nordyke says all the information the Park Board had received suggested the ash borer wouldn’t arrive for three years — optimistically five years. It has not crossed the Minneapolis border but it is clearly ahead of schedule. “We don’t’ have a plan,” Nordyke says. “We will have to figure it out. It will be in the context of a statewide solution.”