Woodbury Looks at Tree Canopy, Prepares for Emerald Ash Borer - Woodbury, MN

Woodbury Looks at Tree Canopy, Prepares for Emerald Ash Borer - Woodbury, MN Patch

The Woodbury City Council on Wednesday learned that about 23 percent of the city is covered by a tree canopy while also looking at how it can prepare for the seemingly imminent arrival of the emerald ash borer.

An inventory of trees in city parks and right-of-ways shows that a little more than 17 percent are ash, according to Whitney Olson, an urban forestry specialist with Minnesota GreenCorps, part of a team that examined the city’s trees through a Department of Natural Resources grant.

The council took no formal action Wednesday, as it was a workshop meeting, but members seemed to agree that the city should start removing old and dying ash trees. The emerald ash borer—a beetle that kills ash trees—has not come to the city. But those tasked with the tree canopy study it’s a matter of when, not if.