North Iowa Reporter

The Algona City Council took steps to prevent the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer in the city's tress, voting to mitigate the damage caused by the insects during the board's March 6 meeting.

The council learned that the insect-based disease was found just outside the city's borders last summer, in Kossuth county, about 15 miles south of town. Because of the proximity, officials are operating on the assumption that the Ash Borer (EAB) is already in Algona and were deciding to enact its response program. City Administrator Jacob Tjaden said the city needed to act quickly due to the prevalence of ash trees around town.

"Unfortunately, we have about more than 800 ash trees on public property within the city, and it's about 23% of our total public tree stock," he said. "So in the plan, we address different areas of in the right of way parks, cemeteries, airport, other city grounds as part of the response plan. We do include establishment of a program to partnership with abutting property owners for treatment of trees within the right-of-way."

In addition, the city will also have a rigorous tree-removal timeline over the next several years, likely more than a decade. Tjaden said tree removal is an unfortunate necessity as ash trees, once infected by the EAB, only have a year or two until they are completely dead. At that point, the trees become brittle and prone to falling, which can pose a threat to nearby structures, roads and pedestrians, so it is better to remove them before they can harm someone.

Tjaden explained that the program "would be a program that the abutting property owner would apply for, if the city deemed that this was a tree that was in good shape and was a legitimate, viable candidate for treatment, it would be a cost-share program of up to $150 per treatment per tree, or not to exceed one half of the costs of that trunk injection of the insecticide for emerald ash borer."

While the city has a few select trees the city will try to save and prevent contamination, there are many areas where they admit efforts would be futile, Tjaden said. The city has put tree removal contracts for the first 75 ash trees in the city out for bids, the contracts for which will be awarded later this month. The work will take place starting in June, but the city's plan includes 10-12 years of funding for tree removal contracts.

The city also have a plan for restoration and replanting after the EAB threat mitigated, Tjaden added.