By Ann Craig-Cinnamon
First it was ash trees being destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer and now red maples are threatened by the Asian Longhorn Beetle. Rich Bassett, who is a Town of Fishers Public Works project manager, said the beetle isn’t in Indiana yet but is on its way here and is destroying red maple trees as close as Cincinnati.
He said there is no chemical treatment and the only way to eradicate the bug is to clear-cut trees for a mile around the infestation.
The town is handling the potential loss of trees by being proactive. Bassett said the town was awarded a grant in 2012 by the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources to conduct a tree inventory of public trees, such as in municipal grounds, parks, and medians. The goal of the inventory was to determine the diversity of trees in Fishers.
“Unfortunately we did have a high percentage so far that we’ve inventoried of ash trees that have been affected by the Emerald Ash Borer. It’s almost a third, 30 percent, of the trees that have been inventoried are ash trees that will be killed by the Emerald Ash Borer. Which is a pretty large percentage of the population.” he said.
Bassett said it will have impact.
“So, moving forward, we want to prevent that by making sure that we have a very diverse population of trees in our community. What we found in the inventory process is that the second highest number of types of species that we have are maples, specifically red maples,” he said and added that with the Asian Longhorn Beetle on its way, the town wants to limit increasing the population of maples trees.
The town is in the process of finalizing a list of recommended trees.
“This is a tree list that both the town will follow for its own plantings, developers will follow for new communities, and then homeowners as part of the permitting process for planting street trees that they will also follow this new tree list,” said Bassett.
Currently, Red Maples are not prohibited by the town but they are strongly discouraged. Bassett said elms and oak trees are preferred. He also recommends when taking a tree down that you keep the firewood in the local area and not move it because that could spread a disease to another area. As an example, taking firewood on a camping trip is strongly discouraged.
