April - June 2014
It came from Asia, by way of Michigan
The emerald ash borer has been at work in Michigan for years. "Unfortunately, it sneaks up on you," says Jessica Simons, who coordinates the Urbanwood Project. "It slammed us before we knew it was coming."
Simons lives in Anne Arbor, Mich., just a few miles from where the emerald ash borer first showed up from Asia in 2002. And she says the beetles have since killed virtually every ash tree in the area.
"The home that we, that we used to live in. The whole edge property was nothing but ash trees," sighs Simons. "By the time we moved, it was just a row of dead, sad looking snags. It was really upsetting to see how even our own yard had changed."
The scourge has spread across most of the Midwest, and into parts of New England, the South, Canada and Colorado. The beetles landed near Kansas City probably seven or eight years ago, but the city's forester, Kevin Lapointe, says the damage is just starting to show.
"There's a perfect D-shaped hole, right there. There's another one," says Lapointe. "These trees are loaded with these beetles and they're coming out of here this spring."
The trees he's talking about are in a parking lot, just off Tiffany Springs Parkway, near KCI. Most have died back partially, some are in much worse shape.
"You got stone dead one down there, stone dead down there, stone dead down there," motions Lapoint. "All these are half dead or dying. And, uh, it's worse than I thought it would be."
The damage isn't uniform. Lapointe motions to city ash trees lining the parkway that appear healthy. He says those trees have been treated against the emerald ash borer. But the treatment's not cheap. Cities and property owners will pay to treat a fraction of the four and a half million ash trees growing in the nine-county Kansas City area. Lapointe says all the rest are as good as dead.
"When this thing really hits, you are going to see thousands of trees dying at the same time," says Lapointe. "And then you have the whole issue of disposal, of all this material that's going to be dying. Where's it going to go? What are you going to do with it?"