McHenry County Blog

I sent my April 23rd storyto Wayne White, the Board Certified Master Arborist who is going to make my ask tree probably the only one left in Crystal Lake’s and Lakewood’s Country Club Additions subdivision to see if I had made any mistakes and he sent me the following email.

From the progress of the leafing on the ask tree over our home, I sense that it about time for him to make his second sweep through Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. He usually makes his second sweep in June, but the season is advanced about a month by my estimate.

If you want to see what he does, this 2008 article has enough photos to show you.

This time he will be injecting the insecticide to keep the Emerald Ash Borers away into the cambium of the tree (the part of the tree that draws nutrients up to the branches), as well as spraying around the tree trunk again.

In any event, here’s what he wrote:

“Awesome story as usual…. one thing I have to compliment you on (you deserve many of course) is that unlike many other newspaper reporters I have run into over the years, you have a knack for getting the details right.

“I enjoy reading your articles as they tell the whole story without any embellishment or mistakes.

“Well done – I knew that if I had time you would have loved a picture of my new truck.

“Actually a 1998 F350 dually but it is completely wrapped in EAB fighting theme.

“For the first time I am so busy I need help and my two daughters are both working for me now.

“Both licensed with Illinois for Pesticide applications.

“My youngest Melinda was involved doing the entire City of West Chicago contract this year. They have renewed my contract for the next 6 years for approx 1800 street tree ash.

“Roselle renewed this year for both the city and the park district (over 600 and 200 respectively).

“I also got back Downers Grove for the third year.

“Roselle is thrilled as they had a third party consultant review the ash trees in the city this year that were treated by me last year and it appears that 99% of them survived even in the face of an exploding insect population last year.

“As the first year is the hardest one to get through when starting treatment – we are well on our way to a huge success story brewing there over the next few years.

“Two weeks after my story about Arlington heights hit google alerts – the city council there voted to reimburse residents $50 per tree (one time only) for treatment of trunk injection ONLY with TreeAge – their favored treatment method.

“Why they would favor one treatment over another when they know nothing about what works is ridiculous but I feel I may have had something to do with their decision as MANY residents read my story about them and were up in arms……. It reminded me instantly of you and your never ending passion for writing on the web.

“It works. If you search ‘emerald ash borer treatment’ on google, yahoo, or bing, I come up on page one of free listings.

“Even my website has grown in importance with google etc.

“The fact you link to it is HUGE as your site is of major importance to google because of your readership.”

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This was not a paid advertisement for the value of advertising on McHenry County Blog, but I do trade Wayne White his company’s ad for keeping it alive.

Got something to trade and want a better Google listing, shoot me an email.

Master Arborist Wayne White was in town today spraying insecticide around the trunk of the ash tree that shades our bedroom.

He was so busy, he wrote on a note I found by my front door, that he didn’t have time to stop and chat as he usually does.

As luck would have it, you can see what he did last May 8th in the photo to the right.

Cities all over the Chicagoland area have just given up on saving their ash trees.

The Chicago Tribune ran an article on what one of the larger suburbs, Arlington Height, is doing to cope with the infestation.

No preventative treatment for Arlington Heights.

No siree.

Instead they are talking about borrowing $11.5 million to remove and replace those ash trees.

13,000 city parkway ash trees.

White was contacted by neighbors disturbed at seeing 177 ash trees marked for removal and drove from Michigan to speak to residents.

White discovered that treatment couldn’t be financed by a bond issue, but could pay for cutting down the trees and planting newer (of course, smaller) ones.

And the village fathers did find $2 million to start the destructive process in 2012.

“The grim reality is that you CAN get huge sums of money by borrowing and mortgaging your city’s future when it is faced with a catastrophic situation,” White wrote in an article on his web site.

“Namely the safety of the community when the dying and dead ash trees threaten life and property because they are very dangerous when they die and left standing.”

Unlike Arlington Heights, Naperville is treating parkway trees that can be saved, according to the recently issued “Naperville Connected” newsletter.

“In order to prevent the further spread of the emerald ash borer a containment strategy has been developed which consists of removing parkway ash trees that cannot be saved and treating the remaining parkway ash trees citywide.

“The treatment of the healthy parkway ash trees will begin in April and continue until July.”

White will return to the area in early June (maybe late May with this year’s early spring) to inject insecticide into the ground and the cambium of the tree trunk.

If you live in an area threatened by this tree-killing insect, you might want to give Wayne White a call…before you face the problem Arlington Heights residents met when they saw their trees marked for destruction.

You can see here what White has been able to do to save ash trees on airport property near Detroit compared to what happened across the street in a residential neighborhood where there was no preventative action taken.

More detailed information, complete with pictures, about what White does to treat an ash tree in late May or June in normal years can be seen in this article.

Last night I wrote that I hadn’t seen Wayne White, the Master Arborist who has been treating my ash tree for the Emerald Ash Borer since 2008.

He’s usually in Crystal Lake at the end of the first week of June, but with the late spring he hasn’t come yet.

I called him at 877-SAVE-ASH (877-728-274) to make sure he hadn’t already been in McHenry County and about the front page Chicago Tribune article.

White told me he was in Northern Illinois and that he’d be here in the next two weeks.

I told him the Tribune story was so, so pessimistic.

Tree-killing pest eludes rising battle to squash it

That’s the headline.

The subhead?

Even newest weapon,
parasitic wasps, could
lose its sting as beetle
munches across cities

White is passionate about saving ash trees.  I liken his emotional involvement to Johnny Appleseed of the early 1800′s.

He treated some trees in St. Charles this year.  As he drove to his clients, dead ash trees lined the street.  His were green.

That’s what northern Illinois will look like soon, he explained.

The Tribune article focuses on Oobius wasps imported from China stopping the ash borer invasion.  Three hundred were released in Chicago and Evanston last year.

Evanston arborist Paul D’Agostino tells the Tribune, “We have not seen any results.  We can’t stop it.”

Such pessimism.

So, an experimental approach isn’t working.

But a proven method is.

And it’s cost-beneficial.

The Daily Herald has written about that aspect.  Just last week.

635 ash trees will be treated at a cost of $27,000 this year.  Piggy-backing on the village contract with White’s Emerald TreeCare, LLC, is the Roselle Park District.  That’s an additional 220 or so trees.

Figure out the cost per year.

$42.50 is what I get.

White tells me it will take 5-7 years for all the untreated trees to die.

So, let me apply the cost-benefit analysis that I learned while a baby Budget Examiner at the United States Bureau of the Budget.

About $300 a tree under the contract cut by Roselle with White.  He tells me he is treating trees on private property in Roselle for the same price.  (The pricing is based on size of the tree.)

Removal cost is estimated to be about $1,000 per tree.  More to replace the dead ash with a much smaller tree.

$300 for treatment versus over $1,000 for the chainsaw and replacement approach.

One does not need a master’s degree in public administration to figure out which approach makes sense.

Roselle officials consider the ash trees part of the village’s infrastructure.   And, I would assume they think more shade is better than less shade.  More oxygen-producing leaves preferable to fewer.

In Carol Stream, village officials are cutting down dead and dying ash trees and replacing them.  Crystal Lake’s St. Aubin Nursery on Route 176 is supplying 2,000 replacement trees.

Carol Stream plans to spend $2.25 million on the effort.

Elmhurst is chopping down ash trees that are not even infected.

Go figure.  One would think a town named after the last tree species to pretty much disappear might have a different approach.

And, strangely, Elmhurst officials think the ash trees can be replaced over a 20-year period.  In seven or so years, they will all be dead, so the village board thinks people will allow dead trees all over town for thirteen years.

Yeah. Right.

The Tribune article reports that the infestation has spread to Deerfield, Gurnee, Hinsdale, Joliet, Lake Zurich, Rolling Meadows and “at least 16 other communities.”

Will they follow the example of Roselle or Carol Stream?

Downers Grove is another town using White’s treatment.

But these villages, the ones that have chosen the treatment approach over the knee-jerk chainsaw massacre approach, are not mentioned in the Tribune article.

Other municipalities mentioned in the article were Highland Park, Oak Park, Orland Park and Schaumburg.

Spring was late this year and so was Wayne White, arch foe of the Emerald Ash Borer.

White drives his truck from Michigan to treat trees in Illinois and Wisconsin. He comes with the message that ash trees will die if they are not treated.

White has treated about 11,000 ash trees and lost less than twenty.

Pretty good success rate, I’d say, even if he were not an advertiser.

He usually comes through town the fist week of June.

He sprays around the ash tree again, plus inserts the insecticide into the cambium layer of the tree.

I haven’t seen him so far, so you might still be able to get him to stop by your home and treat your ash tree.  His phone number is 1-877-SAVE ASH or 728-3274.

My guess is that it will cost you as much to cut a dead ash tree down as it will cost to save it.

And, it will take a long time for a replacement tree to grow large enough to provide shade.

White was off to treat Julie Richardson’s ash and then to Cedarburg, Wisconsin, where he has the city contract to treat all its ash trees.

Algonquin has apparently made it decision to do nothing to try to save the 4,400 ash trees found on public property.

The village’s most recent reaction to the Emerald Ash Borer, according to the First Electric Newspaper, is to buy “a new heavy duty stump grinder.”

As McHenry County Blog has been reporting for years, there is a way to save ash trees.

Wayne White, one of our advertisers, has proven that his method works. He should be in the area soon, so if you have an ash tree that your want to save, give him a call.

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin sent out a press release about a month ago listing Illinois cities “infested by (the) Emerald Ash Borer” that would get $10,000 to a couple of tens of thousands of dollars.

I’ve finally read his press release and he talks about how the average cost of removal of a dead ash tree is $500 and a couple of more to replace it.

$1 million in all to Illinois communities. The municipalities getting the grants are listed at the bottom. To make the grants look larger than they really are each grant has a decimal point with two zeros after it.

Not a word is mentioned about trying to save the ash trees.

That’s what the Johnny Appleseed of ash preservation,  McHenry County Blog advertiser Wayne White has been doing for the better part of a decade.

And he has demonstrated success.  (Email: SaveTheAsh@aol.com)

He usually swings through Northern Illinois in early June.

Want to see what he does?

Look here.

Chop them down and plant other trees is the approach of so-called “environmentalist’ Durbin.

Here’s the press release:

Durbin Announces Federal Funding for Communities Infested by Emerald Ash Borer

Monday, February 21, 2011

[CHICAGO, IL] – Municipalities across Chicagoland will receive much needed federal assistance to manage and recover from the emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced today.

More than $1 million in federal funding is being distributed to fifty-eight communities in Illinois through a competitive grant program spearheaded by the Morton Arboretum and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus (MMC). The funding was made available through the US Forest Service, State and Private Forestry, as part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and a Durbin-authored provision in the 2008 Farm Bill.

“Around 20 percent of the trees in Chicago are ash trees, and as the infestation rapidly spreads, communities across the region are struggling with the costs associated with combating this destructive beetle.

“Many communities have tens of thousands of ash trees at risk.

“At an average cost of $500 per tree removal and a couple of hundred dollars more to replant a tree, an EAB infestation can have a serious economic impact on our communities.

“The federal funding distributed today will help alleviate the financial burden of removing infested trees and planting new ones for fifty-eight communities in the Chicagoland area. This has been a collaborative effort, and I am grateful for the work of The Morton Arboretum and the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus,” Durbin said.

“This funding will not only address immediate local needs for coping with EAB, but will facilitate more comprehensive urban forest protection and growth to help maintain a robust canopy of trees for the long term. This is important to preserve the region’s economic well being and help communities flourish,” Edith Makra, Arboretum Community Trees Advocate, said.

“The Emerald Ash Borer infestation crosses multiple city boundaries, meaning solutions should be addressed on a regional basis.

“This funding is crucial to preserving the quality of life in our region by helping local governments replace infested trees and restore diminished tree canopy. We are grateful to Senator Durbin and the Illinois congressional delegation for their assistance in securing funds for the Chicago region and the State,” Larry Hartwig, Mayor of Addison and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Executive Board Chair, said.

The competitive grant program was designed to strengthen each community’s ability to build a sustained urban forest canopy.

With the assistance of the Arboretum’s expertise, municipalities will now be able to acquire trees to replace those threatened or destroyed by EAB, plant the trees using best practices, and bolster existing community tree care programs or help governments roll out such programs. Grant recipients are required to prepare and submit local EAB management plans verified by certified arborists.

The newly-planted trees will provide environmental benefits such as clean air and water, reduced storm water runoff and erosion, and reduced energy demand as trees mitigate the heat-island effect. The tree planting will also have economic benefits, and will help promote Illinois’ nursery industry through the sale of replacement trees.

Communities received funding for reforestation and technical assistance through the 2008 Farm Bill and for targeted geographical reforestation through GLRI. In particular, the Farm Bill funded tree inventories and comprehensive management plans to help communities manage the immediate impacts of EAB and analyze their urban forests for future vulnerabilities. More than 150 grant applications were reviewed by a team of experts including representatives from the Morton Arboretum, Openlands, USDA APHIS, Lake County Forest Preserve, the City of Chicago, Illinois Department of Agriculture Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Citizen Advocacy Center, and the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative.

Communities receiving grants have committed local matches totaling more than $2.4 million.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, EAB threatens an estimated eight billion ash trees in the United States, including 130 million in Illinois. Durbin has been actively involved in efforts to secure emergency assistance for dealing with EAB since it was first discovered in Illinois in June 2006. Since then, Durbin has helped secure more than $10 million in federal funding for EAB management in Illinois.

The Emerald Ash Borer, which has been confirmed in 16 counties including Boone, Bureau, Champaign, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Iroquois, Kane, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, McHenry, McLean, Will and Winnebago, is a bright green beetle that kills trees by burrowing into their bark and destroying the trees’ ability to bring water from the roots to upper branches. Infected trees usually begin to die within two to three years. State officials have quarantined all or parts of 25 Illinois counties due to EAB infestation.

Illinois Urban Forest Restoration Grants:

Algonquin: $20,000.00; Arlington Heights: $20,700.00; Aurora: $40,000.00; Bloomington: $16,190.00; Buffalo Grove: $20,000.00; Chicago Park District: $40,000.00; Cook County Forest Preserve: $16,222.00; Deerfield: $9,670.00; Des Plaines: $30,000.00; Downers Grove: $20,000.00; Elburn: $10,000.00; Elmhurst: $16,000.00; Evanston: $30,000.00; Evergreen Park: $10,000.00; Glencoe: $10,000.00; Glen Ellyn: $20,000.00; Glendale Heights: $19,880.00; Glenview: $20,000.00; Hoffman Estates: $29,926.00; Homewood: $10,000.00; Itasca: $10,000.00; La Grange: $10,000.00; La Grange Park: $10,000.00; Lake in the Hills: $20,000.00; Lincolnwood: $9,840.00; Lisle: $10,000.00; Matteson: $10,000.00; McHenry: $7,420.00; Midlothian: $7,500.00; Montgomery: $10,000.00; Mount Prospect: $30,000.00; Naperville: $40,000.00; Naperville Park District: $29,150.00; Northbrook: $20,000.00; Northbrook Park District: $20,000.00; Northfield: $14,000.00; Oak Lawn: $30,000.00; Oak Park: $30,000.00; Palatine: $7,020.00; Park Forest: $10,000.00; Park Ridge: $20,000.00; Riverside: $10,000.00; Streamwood: $19,860.00; Sugar Grove: $9,850.50; Wilmette: $20,000.00; Winnetka: $10,000.00

Illinois Technical Assistance Grants:

Barrington: $20,000.00; Franklin Park: $6,000.00; Glenview Park District: $20,000.00; Hinsdale: $20,000.00; Roselle: $20,000.00; Round Lake: $8,000.00; Shorewood: $20,000.00; Skokie: $6,800.00; South Elgin: $10,000.00; Wauconda: $16,000.00; Westmont: $20,000.00; Wheeling: $4,200.00

Last night was my alma mater’s Homecoming Dance.

A neighbor was taking two young ladies from Crystal Lake Central High School to have their pictures taken shortly before I finished walking part of my Algonquin 7 precinct Saturday.

This afternoon, while walking down the east leg of Riverside Drive in County Club Additions, a 420-some home subdivision between the south shore of Crystal Lake and the Crystal Lake Country Club, I discovered two damaged Jeeps.

I was told a car came from the direction of the Country Club about 3 AM, left the street on the right, plowing through shrubbery into a Jeep parked at the end of driveway near the neighbor’s garage.

The 17-year old boy then backed his Jeep into another Jeep nearer the street.

The two male occupants then abandoned their (parents?) car and ran away.

They were captured is what I was told.

Do you think the youths had attended the CLCHS Homecoming festivities?

What do you think will be their punishment—not from juvenile court—but from their parents?

I imagine car insurance rates will increase a good bit.

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I also learned that the city had required the first homeowner to remove an ash tree infested by the emerald ash borer.  It was just the right time to be able to identify ash trees in the neighborhood.  Some were dropping their crunchy leaves.  Others were still displaying their bright yellow little leaves.

Maybe others in the neighborhood are having their ash trees treated with insecticide, but, if not, the ash tree you see behind our home at Gate 11 will soon be the only one alive in the neighborhood.  Wayne White is my Master Arborist.  He has an ad on McHenry County Blog with a link to his web site.

It was the first half of June, so I wasn’t surprised when Master Arborist Wayne White knocked on the door.

I was surprised and disappointed that he had finished treating our ash tree before I had a chance to take some photos.

Reflecting upon his fervor to save ash trees, I thought of Johnny Appleseed.

Although the apple seed sower was on the front end of the growth process, his enthusiasm for propagating his favorite fruit tree cannot have been any greater than that of White’s in saving ash trees.

I won’t go through how he got into the business. You can read that here.

What’s he done lately?

He is treating 385 white ash trees on the public rights of way in Downers Grove.

A nearby town, Glen Ellyn, requires residents who treat their trees to get a permit.

Before you go into shock, as I almost did when I heard about it, listen to the reason:

It’s so the village can find out what treatments work and which don’t.

Put in that light, the idea sounds like a good one unless one is just willing to give up and saw down all the ash trees.

White was off to Cedarburg, Wisconsin. The local forester is injecting the insecticide into the ground around the trees, but White’s expert touch is needed to inject it into the tree trunks.

The Wisconsin forester told White that his state’s association meetings consist mainly of how to use infected ash wood.

Locally, ash trees are dead along the McHenry-Kane County line in Algonquin. That means they are probably in the early stages of infection farther north. Confirmed sitings in McHenry County include

• Algonquin
• Crystal Lake
• Huntley
• Lake in the Hills
• Marengo
• Woodstock

Measure 15 miles from there and you pretty much have all of McHenry County.

And, the Illinois Department of Agriculture issued a press release June 9th about the emerald ash borer having been found in Loves Park’s Rockcut State Park in Winnebago County near Rockford.

Unless people start treating them, we’ll be hearing the sound of saws–just as I did in the fall of 1960 in my freshman year at Oberlin College as the elms were being disposed of.

The Rockford Register-Star reported Emerald Ash Borers in Boone County, just to the west of Marengo and Harvard.

The paper points out that the little green bugs leave a D-shaped hole when it bores out of the tree.

Infected trees have to be cut down and Paul Deizman from the Illinois Department of Agriculture is assuming that all ash trees in Boone, not just the ones found infected in Belvidere have their devastating presence.

“Plan for the death of your tree,” he advises.

The Boone County strategy, as I read what County Board member
Marshall Newhouse is saying, is to identify the ash trees on public rights-of-way and prepare to cut them down. There are no plans to try to save any ash trees in Boone County.

Such pessimism.

Elsewhere, Cedarburg, Wisconsin, for instance, every tree is being treated. That’s what Wayne White, seen above next to his yard sign with its toll-free number (877-SAVE ASH).   I expect Cedarburg will advertise itself as one of the few towns in the Midwest where people can see ash trees.  Maybe it will change its name to “Ashville.”

The Ag Dept employee talks of possible treatment, but is ever so pessimistic.

“It’s like chemotherapy,” he said. “There’s a risk that the treatment will fail.”

Well, duh.

Sometimes it succeeds.

Certified Master Arborist Wayne White’s experience is that five years of treatment will save a tree.  That’s how long he had treated the ash trees you see at the Detroit area airport entrance road.  The ash trees that are dead are across the street.  They were not treated.

The Illinois ash borer experts says the treatment is costly. You can find pricing in this article.

And, there’s the possibility that the treatment might succeed, as has the treatment by itinerant Certified Arborist Wayne White on the ash tree towering above our home in McHenry County. Here’s his email address:  Save the Ash.

This time the first citing of the year was in DuPage County’s Wheaton.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the little green insect is alive and well in the Chicago area.

I learned about it when Algonquin’s Stan Gladbach found it in his front yard.  He lives right on the Kane County line.

So, that means that means my thoughts are turning to Wayne White, the Certified Arborist from Michigan who provides preventative treatment to the ash tree that overhangs our bedroom in Crystal Lake.

(For those not familiar with what an ash tree looks like, perhaps it will help to know the leaves turn bright yellow quite early in the fall and are pretty much the first to drop. They are crinkly when you step on them after they dry up.)

I don’t know when he will be making his run through the area, but as the teens say, “He’s the Man.”

You can read about his trip to McHenry County last year here.

When he came the first time, he showed by the Wayne County Airport (officially, “Detroit Wayne County Airport”) Metropolitan , where he was hired over five years ago to prevent the Emerald Ash Borer from decimating the trees at its entrance.

Ash trees were across the road, too. Take a look at what happened without treatment.

Two years ago, I suggested he get yard signs like others who provide services to homeowners.

I know mind is in the garage, but haven’t been able to find it yet.

If you want to see what White does to protect ash trees, you can find out here.