Village Gets 10 Grand to Deal With Ash Borer

The will get help from the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus to deal with its emerald ash borer problem.

Director Mike Pubentz announced at Monday’s Village Board meeting that Montgomery has received a $10,000 grant from the caucus, which will be used to remove and replace 97 trees infested with the ash borer.

Those trees, Pubentz said, are clustered on the west side, in the Fairfield Way, Foxmoor and Blackberry Crossing subdivisions.

The grant is an 80-20 match, meaning the caucus will pay 80 percent of the costs, with the village ponying up the remaining 20 percent. Pubentz said the village’s contribution will come from in-kind services his staff will provide—namely, cutting down and replacing the trees.

Pubentz said the goal is to have the affected trees removed this spring. Homeowners will be notified by mail if a parkway tree in front of their house is scheduled for removal, and the trees will be replaced either this spring or this fall.

The emerald ash borer is a small green beetle that, in its larva stage, burrows through the soft wood of ash trees and kills them from the inside. Ash borers lay eggs in the crevices of ash tree bark, and when the larvae hatch, they chew their way deep into the trees.

The beetles were first discovered in North America in 2002, and since then, the infestation has spread to 14 states, including Illinois. The Illinois Department of Agriculture has placed 23 counties under quarantine, including Kane and Kendall, making it illegal to move ash wood to non-quarantined counties.

The infested trees in Montgomery were discovered last fall, and though the new grant will allow the village to remove and replace all the infested trees Pubentz and his staff are aware of, he said there are likely more waiting to be found.

“This will take care of the ones we knew of last fall,” he said. “The general opinion is there are more out there we haven’t discovered yet.”

Trustee Jeanne Felten was quick to praise the public works staff for seeking out grant money to get the job done. And Trustee Andy Kaczmarek questioned whether there was additional revenue to be made.

“Have you thought about making little baseball bats (out of the infested trees), like the (Kane County) Cougars do?” he said.

Pubentz laughed, but said the state sets specific guidelines for disposing of affected ash trees.

Pubentz also said the village is willing to provide assistance to property owners who find ash borers in their own trees. Ash trees can be infested with the borer for years before signs appear, but those signs include D-shaped exit holes in the bark, shoots sprouting from tree trunks and S-shaped tunnels underneath the bark.

If you think you have found signs of emerald ash borer infestation, call Pubentz at 630-896-9241, or send photos to the Illinois Department of Agriculture at agr.eab@illinois.gov.