Jade Harrell with Skip Kincaid, Forestry Commissioner City of St. Louis and Donna Coble, Executive Director Forest ReLeaf of Missouri.

A tiny green exotic wood-boring insect called the emerald ash borer (EAB) is invading the City of St. Louis’ popular ash trees. Since 2002, the EAB has been killing all untreated ash trees in cities they have infested. They burrow into the trees, damage their veins and cut off their water supply. Once dry and brittle, ash trees can fall and damage people and property.

The City of St. Louis Forestry Division takes the EAB problem very seriously and is being proactive before stopping the insect becomes much more difficult, dangerous and costly to manage. It has created a five-year plan that combines the lessons learned from other cities that have been infested by the EAB. unnamed1For instance, several cities decided not to remove their ash trees until they died. Then they realized they could not keep up with the mounting number of dead trees or the cost of removing them.

Learn more visit http://moreleaf.org/ashreleaf/