Planning the Future Landscape

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2009

Ash trees are popular trees in our communities and around our homes. We know there are insects currently attacking ash in the northeastern part of Illinois.

It's time we think about what we are going to do when emerald ash borer arrives here. These insects are currently in a southern Missouri county and in southern Indiana counties. The message then becomes, "When will they be found here?"

Cost of treating these trees annually will be expensive. The question now for us is what trees will we plant to replace ash trees?

A rule of thumb is to limit, a community's trees to 5% of anyone species. So, what trees will we choose? Plant a tree that is different than your neighbors.

If you haven't heard of a type of tree, then most likely there are not many around. Uncommon lawn trees such as Black Gum, Cypress or American Birch could be used. All of these do well here in southern Illinois if planted in a good site.

The purpose of this article is to tell you emerald ash borer will someday be indentified here in

southern Illinois. It could be next year or 5 years from now. But it will be found here and if you have an ash in your landscape it will be attacked. So choose to plant a new species of tree today so in future years that tree can be left when the ash needs to be removed.

This is simply a message to ash tree owners. Ash trees will someday most likely be attacked. Planning now by planting another species will reduce the effects of removing those ash trees from our lawns and communities when necessary.

Plan your landscape future by planting a new tree.

Source: Ed Billingsley, County Extension Director, Williamson County and Interim County Extension Director, Jackson County, edb@uiuc.edu