Key takeaways:
- Eighty ash trees will be cleared over the following 3-4 weeks.
- All of the ash trees at Bedford’s DeWolf Park will be withdrawn beginning Monday.
Halifax Regional Municipality will clear 80 ash trees from DeWolf Park in Bedford beginning Monday.
Many trees are lifeless or in a poor state due to damage induced by the emerald ash borer, a beetle that feeds on the species.
“Unfortunately, all the ash trees here are infested, and nearly 75 percent of them are dead already,” stated Kevin Osmond, HRM’s senior urban forestry supervisor. “Twenty-five percent of them are showing symptoms of life with several leaves on them, but they are already infested.”
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This is not a new issue for the park located on the Bedford Basin coast. The insects were first seen there four years back. Tree reduction and stump grinding are anticipated to take 3-4 weeks. Other species will substitute the trees over time.
“It is on the move up through Bedford, but we haven’t seen it anywhere else in HRM yet,” Osmond stated of the emerald ash borer. “Once it is into a site, it is impossible to eliminate.”
The emerald ash borer is native to northeastern Asia. Once a tree is infested with beetle larvae, the tree falls quickly, usually dying within three years.
Source – CBC News
