OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Oshkosh residents are encouraged to remove diseased ash trees near city streets and sidewalks as soon as they can.
Property owners with trees infested with the emerald ash borer may receive a letter saying they must get rid of the tree if it has the potential to affect the public right of way.
Residents of Oshkosh are advised to plan for ash tree removal sooner rather than later.
Ash borer arrived in the city of Oshkosh in 2018, technically, and since then, we’ve been kind of dealing with the aftermath,” said Travis Derks, City Forester and Landscape Operations Manager for Oshkosh.
Derks says last year, Oshkosh removed around 700 of its ash trees due to emerald ash borer.
“With that, we started to notice that there are lot of trees dying on private property and backyards,” said Derks. “And it’s one of those things where if they stay standing dead for too long, they become very hazardous and can create a public nuisance.”
If the property owner doesn’t comply and complete the removal of the tree, the city has the authority to have that tree removed at the property owner’s expense.
Currently, there are no financial assistance programs to help residents with the costs to remove ash trees on private land.
“We will work with them. We completely understand that due to emerald ash borer, contractors are extremely booked, and it’s not cheap to take these trees down,” said Derks.
The city says it can cost $1,500 or more to hire a contractor to remove an ash tree.
“I’m booking out about two months right now, and I’d say 90% of my work is ash trees,” said Michael Meyer, owner of Meyer Tree Care LLC in Oshkosh.
Meyer says the city isn’t wrong about the price.
“That’s pretty typical on some of those. That’s totally not out of the ordinary,” said Meyer.
How can you tell if your tree has an emerald ash borer infestation?
One sign is bark falling off and “S-shaped,” patterns which are tunnels left behind by the insects.
“It’ll start budding out less every year. So, every spring, you’ll notice that it’s looking more like half a tree,” said Meyer.
The ash trees start to die and dry out, changing the state of the wood. The process increases the chances of tree failure and the potential for property damage.
“There’s a lot of these ash trees that are really close to houses,” said Meyer. “So, mainly limbs falling — the tree falling during the bad storms in the summer is my main concern.”
Residents can attempt to save their healthy ash trees by giving treatments to the tree if it’s generally in good condition.
But Meyer says most trees infested with emerald ash borer are already at a loss.
“If you treat it, it’s going to be half dead already. It’s going to be a lot more dead when you cut into it than you think it is, so I personally recommend removal,” said Meyer.
The Wisconsin Arborist Association has resources for finding arborists and tree removal contractors, for more information click here.
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