Boston City TV, MA City of Boston Parks Department, 28 Oct 2021

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From YouTube: City of Boston Ash Tree Care Plan - October 28, 2021

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City of Boston Ash Tree Care Plan - October 28, 2021

A

Recording everyone, yes, this will be recorded. uh Thank you for joining us today.

A

My name is maggie owens, I'm a planner for the parks, department and project manager for the urban forest plan and I'll be talking to you today about kind of uh what is the emerald for? What do we know about it? How do you detect and respond to it and what's going on? What are the next steps, we'll open it up to question answer at the end, and we have been continually posting new information online, so hopefully you find those resources helpful as well as we move forward.

A

So let me just start with a reminder about emerald ash, borer and kind of where we can detect it and how we can treat it. So the urban forest within the park system or within the city transcends both public and private land trees occur on our streets, they occur in parks, yards campuses, just to name a few, and that affects uh how we can, whose jurisdiction over tree care.

A

What funding there is, what the approach is going to be, and that's something that's just important to keep in mind as we talk about uh confronting them with ashford.

A

The other piece that's important to know is that the way trees are laid out can also affect how we're able to care for them, and so you might have singletons like public street trees happening uh just kind of a neat row along the roadway, but you might also have clusters or a more designed landscape like in our parks, but then there's also natural areas uh where there's a dense cluster of trees. And uh you know, as we go through the presentation, you'll see how kind of these things come into play with ml-4.

A

Now uh the emerald ash borer is a rather beautiful beetle, actually that that uh was detected in massachusetts in 2012, but it likely arrived much earlier in the 1990s to the us, before I kind of delve into what they do and how they do what they do.

A

I want to talk about their life cycle, real quick so for people who are a little unfamiliar with insect life cycle when an insect attaches. It goes from an egg to a larval form, and this larval kind of wormy form is where a lot of the damage happens um and then it's the adult form that helps the population to travel.

A

So eggs are laid under the bark and the egg hatches that larva that burrows further into the tree killing the tree eventually because it disrupts the circulatory system, that's just under the surface of the tree's bark, and that circulatory system moves water and sugar and that's kind of one reason why, when bark is damaged from other things like say, a bike cuts into the tree, it exposes a circulatory system to outside harm like a fungal infection.

A

So uh that's a little bit about the emerald ash. Borer's life cycle now you're not going to see adults in any of the or any of the life stages really in the winter time. So spotting them is going to happen in the warmer months when it comes to ash trees and their prevalence throughout boston.

A

When it comes, we haven't been planning, the parks department hasn't been planting ash trees in our streets for at least 15 years, and so in some ways that's good news, because we, the population, is somewhat limited ash trees within our streets, but we have found I'm going to ask for um in these different neighborhoods and emerald ash borer does focus on ash trees. It does not go after other trees.

A

So that's another um positive point now when emerald ash borer since emma dashboards come here, a lot of questions come up like what about other creatures that are going to come our way. What about the spotted lanternfly? Well, with the spotted lanternfly? In particular, its easternmost detection has been in worcester county and, as far as we know, it's not really shown up in boston, but these aren't the first insects that are coming or have come and they're not the last um they with climate change.

A

This is kind of the new normal and the way human habitat uh is structured, we're gonna it's a new way of life, dealing with different pests and disease as the weather changes and also society changes.

A

Right now, we know that we have approximately 1800 ash trees in our public sidewalks, which is only about four percent of our total street tree population, which we know because we had a public street tree inventory done as part of the urban forest plan.

A

That said, we don't know the extent of infestation, especially because infestation changes over time. So we we have a snapshot of the health of the tree uh over the summer, but we don't know how that might have changed or which trees ended up being uh infested with some of the ash borer we when it comes to parks, we have some parks like the emerald neck.

A

The parks looked after by the emerald necklace conservancy um that have inventoried a portion of the ash trees, but not all of them, and because it's very expensive to inventory trees, especially if you're trying to get into the more natural areas rather than highly designed, dispersed trees.

A

So all in all, we don't have an inventory of trees in our parks, other sorts of public land and private property, and we don't we all in all, it's unknown. How many trees in total, in streets, parks and private property are affected by the ml-4.

A

But what we do know so far is that there will need to be removals along streets like blue hill, ave, washington, street and roslindale, and those are just a few. There will be pretty notable because you might see a stretch of removals.

A

It was common to plant in monocultures, planting the same species for quite a ways, and we know better these days that that kind of sets you up for uh trouble when a specialist pest, like the emerald ash, borer, comes and wipes out all of one species. So we've been working on biodiversity, but the urban forest plan will also make recommendations on planting and maintenance practices and how to be more resilient. Knowing that more pests and disease will come and knowing that the climate is changing.

B

Sorry to interrupt you maggie, but just so you know, um commissioner, woods and chief white handman is here now.

A

Thank you christine. uh Let's, I can pause for a moment and hand it off to the chief and commissioner, if you all, I just wrapped up kind of what we know about the extent of infestation. So far, if you had anything you'd like to share before going on into more details,.

C

um Maggie so I can't seem to get my um video started, but that's fine. um No, I just wanted to just thank folks for being here. um Obviously this is sobering news, not not something we wish was happening, but been really thankful for the way people are interested. People are willing to engage. We've been able to talk with the city council. We've been able to talk with the state state house delegation for the boston area um and and get a real sense that everyone is going to pull together. So I think this is definitely challenging.

C

um I I don't want to downplay the the concern and I think it's a real opportunity for us to mobilize folks and come together around this. I've been really excited to see the number of people that have really been invested in supporting our tree canopy, and I think this this provides us an opportunity to go deeper, to engage and educate more folks that maybe don't know um so much about uh the situation that we have in boston the importance of our trees. So just wanna, thank folks for being here.

D

I don't want to delay it any any further. I think the chief said anything, but I want to thank everyone for being here and we have anything you can do to help us educate. Others uh advocate. Let your groups know that this is going on. We didn't want to just start the process and you know whether it be doing injections into trees or taking down trees without um spreading this news and having a campaign.

D

So people know that it's going on, so anything you can do to help share this with your networks, uh and the importance of this would be greatly appreciated. So thanks maggie for the opportunity.

A

Thank you, commissioner, um all right so we're getting to the media stuff. You know, how do you identify and react to emerald ash borer well, emerald ash borer is a tricky beetle. It can.

A

A tree can be infested for three to five years before it begins showing visible signs of infestation, and it can take three to nine years to actually kill the tree by disrupting its circulatory system and emel dashboard tends to start from the top of the tree and go down which makes it extra sneaky, and uh that's why, like in image four, you start to see some crown die back.

A

That's a sure sign that emerald ash borer might be affecting that tree. There's other uh significant signs of emerald ash borer like a d-shaped exit holes, splitting bark uh little galleries, where the larval form that wormy form of the beetle has um kind of made its home under the bark and a bunch of other sites. Now, in the wintertime, since the adults and larvae and everything is kind of dormant one of the ways in which you can see if a tree has been affected by another ash borer.

A

Is this woodpecker blondie shown in image five and that's a sign that there's uh dead wood and some good bite eats under the bark that the woodpeckers are going after.

A

So that's one way in the wintertime when you can't tell if there's there's supposed to be leaves or if the leaves are eaten or what have you, you can maybe see a sign of apple to ash for all in all, we'll be relying on certified arborists to kind of to assess the level of infestation of a tree if it's infested and they look at all these factors together to determine that.

A

Now there, how do you respond to emerald ash borer? There's some broad management strategies and you'll see all different sorts of approaches by municipality.

A

uh Boston will be focusing on kind of the more multifaceted approach to emerald ash, borer management and that's treat, remove and do nothing. It's a tree by tree approach. uh We're not saying we're gonna do nothing to and we're not going to say we can treat all the possible trees throughout the urban forest in boston. We have to triage and look at a tree by tree approach based on what we know and what we have capacity for.

A

But what specifically does that look like well, uh it'll primarily rely on detecting emerald ash borer, removing trees that are affected or uh could be, could help spread or be a springboard for ammo dashboard treat certain trees also called inoculation, and also just improve our biodiversity and our new plantings to make sure that emerald ash borer has fewer places to go a few things that one thing that we can all do right now is the limit movement of tree material uh residents and tree workers.

A

We can slow the spread of never moving tree of emerald ash borer by never moving tree material from one place to another, because that's they hitch a ride and dcr is working at the state level on some interesting things um like bio control of emerald ash borer, where you use one living organism to manage another living organism.

A

Now the city isn't necessarily involved with that, but it'd be interesting to see where it goes, and there may even be an emerald ash, borer ash species in development, as I've heard of but the extent to which you're able to enact removal detection uh biodiversity. Things like that really depends on budget priorities, the condition of the tree and our risk tolerance risk tolerance. It's not only for how likely is emerald ash borer likely to spread, but how safe are our workers going to be infested? Trees can become weakened and too dangerous to climb.

A

So we do have to consider some of those things as part of the approach to emerald ash borer management.

A

Now I'm going to start with one of the most difficult management strategies for us all to face, because it's really hard to see a tree removed it's hard to see a tree's health decline, but we will need to do removals.

A

Infested ash trees can lose moisture and the limbs become brittle and you can have limbs drop during normal weather. People don't expect it and that infestation can cause even trees to fail at the base are called ash snaps and all these things really make unhealthy ash trees, hazardous to people, homes and vehicles and affected trees, help spread emerald ash borer.

A

When do we choose to remove a tree? Well, when it comes to trees that the parks, the front or city manages on public streets and parks we can remove, we may remove a tree if it's infested or substantially affected by emerald ash borer or it can even be removed preemptively. If it's thought that, if removing the ash tree though it may not be infested, is the best way to save the most ash trees, because it could be removing a stepping stone for the critter.

A

We will ideally remove trees in the cooler months when insects become dormant because they are limited in their mobility and because infested tree material can spread infestation.

A

That material, unfortunately, cannot be reused, and the plan is about a month after removal. This stuff will be ground to make way for a new street tree and seasonal planting schedule would stay the same, so we would be able to plant new trees and, as the weather warms up.

A

Oh and before I move on actually the assessing, if the tree, the tree's health will be done by certified arborists and you know with the aspiration to keep as many trees as possible and save as many trees as possible. So uh that's important to keep in mind now. Treatment uh treatment means using an a systemic insecticide and the amount used depends on the size of the tree.

A

You would reapply about every three years, depending on the size, health and chemical, but it really relies on judicious use so proper method, proper timing, the insecticide cannot be used to reverse damage. So if the tree is past the point of no return, it would not make sense to use this treatment on it.

A

So the tree must have a certain level of health to be able to circulate the insecticide, and this would happen sometimes in the spring and summer, when the tree's, not in the dormant phase, it's possible that even after a tree has been treated, you may see it decline for the first year, but then, hopefully it'll improve in the second year. So it's not always clear right away. If a tree is responding to treatment.

A

Injections would be done by a certified pesticide applicator and the injection the chemical would go straight from the bottle or the container into the tree. It's not aerosolized in any way. It's either in the chemical in the container or in the tree, and we do have more resources.

A

There's lots of information about treating ash trees for emerald ash borer online.

A

Then there's also biodiversity, so let's say you've treated a tree. Maybe you've needed to remove a tree. How do we improve biodiversities? Biodiversity is increasing forest diversity by using more types of trees, and that will help minimize the effects of specialist pests and diseases.

A

We can we already plant trees that are similar in appearance and size of ash, and you can look at more tree species that we use in our particularly our street trees online.

A

Any planting- that's done in our in this process will be limited by staffing and contracting levels. That's not an inconsiderable challenge. It is really challenging to plant trees at the rate that they're removed, especially when emerald ash borer has come to visit.

A

So uh if you don't see a tree removed within a specific time frame, it may be that we're limited in staff and contracting to get it in there, because we do aim to replace our public street trees when they're removed.

A

If you see emerald ash borer in a park or street tree, you can report it to 311.

A

We ask that you not email staff individually about this, because we need the three-on-one cases to operate, to distribute our resources and staff efficiently, uh because the city doesn't control private property. Private property owners would need to consult a local tree company and certified arborist to evaluate their site for emerald ash borer and respond to it.

A

Now, if, on the off chance, you happen to know that you're on state parkland the department of conservation and recreation, they don't currently have a reporting system for emerald dashboard. But that could change over time and in fact I think that maybe something did come online, but they you can find out more by visiting that link now, all in all, if you're unsure of ownership- and you just want to make sure that all the bases are covered. If you suspect I'm with ash borer, you don't know who owns the property that that tree is on.

A

Why not report it to three on one and if it's on public land, they will route your case to the appropriate department, but they can't redirect reports to most private property owners. It's an app um through one is an app, but you can also call- or you can go to the website.

A

So in boston, what is the best case scenario? Well, we're not going to have perfect information and so someday.

A

Hopefully, the population of emerald ash borer is so low that we no longer have to treat ash trees, foreign ash borer, but we can't forecast how long it will take to eradicate emerald ash borer from boston not only due to the amount of information we have or funding, but there's just also so many different players involved, whether it's state on land or private property, so we'll just keep working as hard as possible on this and who assesses the health of trees in these public street trees and parks.

A

Where most of our emerald ash borer efforts will be directed well. Certified arborist in the tree division or certified arbors contracted by the tree division will be assessing health and utility companies still have the right to prune ash trees away from infrastructure, and they may also remove dead or dying or dangerous ash trees that threaten utility lines.

A

How will trees be prioritized for treatment, so the healthiest tree, healthiest ash trees will be prioritized for treatment, and the most hazardous will be prioritized for removal. Those would be the ones that are most likely to fail, and once again, it's quite expensive to manage all this so we're starting with those kinds of metrics. The polar opposites and trees may not be replanted.

A

If there's a removal and in the exact same location, because the site maybe is unsuitable, there may be utility conflict sight line issues or other considerations, so don't be alarmed if you see a tree planted elsewhere instead of right where it was removed. There's probably a good reason.

A

Now when it comes to park, trees uh well, park capital, improvement projects which are like those renovations and redesigns that you see they already have been treating trees, including preemptively, treating healthy trees. So earlier than our public street trees, we've been able to manage some of our some of our parks that have been undergoing other projects.

A

Detecting trees with emerald ash borer will rely on both our staff doing street tree inspections, but also 301 reports.

A

Now we have funding to.

A

We have routinely funding for removing and planting public street trees and we're waiting on word for funding on a lot of the emerald ash borer strategies, but when it comes to parks, it's a little bit of a different situation. We'll have a similar prioritization process for removing those trees. Once we detect emerald ash borer, but there's currently no budget to replant in areas not currently undergoing those capital improvement projects, those renovations it uses a different funding stream than our street trees. Street trees have funding for replacement parks.

A

Currently don't and parks only recently got funding in the last few years for actually some management, some maintenance money, but not enough to do planting and treatment.

A

How does the urban forest plant, though, play into all this in some ways? It's good timing that that urban forest line is happening and uh we'll be making recommendations on city operational needs probably need increased funding and staffing for tree care that will all make it easy to detect and respond to pests like emerald ash borer in the future.

A

Boston is not using the same strategies as all other municipalities, because it really depends on the circumstances. Capacity and value of that, those municipalities to respond to emerald ash borer and one concern- that's come up as we talk about. What's going to happen with emma's dashboard, our public street trees and parks, um you know heat, you can lose the the benefits of a tree instantly.

A

Well, we are if a tree has some life if it doesn't seem like it's going to spread emotional right of way, you know we're not gonna and we don't have the capacity to remove all the ash trees that possibly are infested all at one time. So uh there is a bit of a staggering of removals, but removals do have the potential to worsen the urban heat island effect.

A

When it comes to removals in the more natural areas, the the effects may be a little bit less, because canopy fills in the gaps fairly quickly, but also that canopy is typically not shading. The really hot materials that, if a tree canopy shade, is removed, immediately um begins absorbing that ambient heat. But you know once again slightly good timing. In some ways it depends on how optimistic you want to be healthy places.

A

Is a holistic planning effort that the environment, energy and open space cabinet is undertaking and that incorporates the heat resiliency study, the urban forest plan and open space recreation plan so essentially planning for heat, trees and parks and we're looking at cooling heat, resiliency studies, specifically looking at pooling through design ideas, policy, recommendations, programming and modeling.

A

So there is some thinking right now going on. How do you manage heat not only for short-term emergency situations but long-term? How does the city become more heat resilient?

A

And, lastly, um you know: what's what are our next steps? Removal will be happening in dormant season treatments if funded and staff physicians feel we can begin in the spring when trees are in leaf and planting seasonal planting will continue for the public street trees once again, planting in parks that happens through capital improvement projects, typically, uh that there are some exceptions and removed street trees will be prioritized for replanting public announcement.

A

Wait we're having our first webinar and so we'll continue to try to keep everyone apprised um share information, we're of course interested in hearing from you. uh What would be helpful for you and uh in your life and responding to your email dashboard? Does it help to have materials to share with friends and family?

A

uh Would you like to know where uh certain information about ash trees in boston where our ears are open and we'll we'll keep checking in, and the last thing before I hand it up to question answer, is that our communications team has done a wonderful job, renovating our tree pages online and you can find a lot of helpful materials on the emerald ash borer on boston.gov forward slash.

A

So we may direct you on some questions that the website can better answer with that, I will stop sharing. I guess and open it up.

A

And maybe christine.

B

Folks can feel free to raise their hand, and I will unleash you if you have a question or feel free to drop it in the q, a iris you can edit yourself.

E

Thanks christine, um my question was in the chat uh it was about what happens to the materials after they are the trees after they've been removed and crushed, and and does that crushing, actually um kill these guys.

A

Yeah, that's a really good question and uh you know other folks from the city feel free to interrupt me, um I'm unsure of how infested material is handled, but I can definitely look into that. uh It is definitely something that our tree division is aware of and managing it's just that I would need to pull some of that information for you.

E

Okay, thank you.

A

It's a good question.

B

um Evan wrote in the q a: why are we starting this process now? Why not sooner.

A

Yeah, uh so it's a good question. um You know having enough information about the extent of what's happening where and what kind of needs to be done and what's our funding, that's uh all affects our ability to respond to emerald ash borer. So uh you know we detected it in these different neighborhoods and have uh since then begun, putting together an effort, a broader citywide effort. So you know better late than never but yeah we weren't able to the first detection necessarily put together such a sweeping response.

B

Thanks maggie anyone else have a question.

B

Margaret you cannot mute yourself.

F

um I'm margaret the corny- and I am the chair of the commonwealth mall committee. We have 28 ash trees on the mall and we have actually had a discussion about um preemptively, replacing them with other species. The trees are healthy at this point and quickly from your neighborhood um survey as to where the bohr ash borer is it's not that close to us? Do you think it's an overreaction to take a look at that as a strategy.

A

No, not at all. I think that it has to make sense within your resources and capacity to manage into the future, because treatment, for instance, only lasts about three years, as you know, uh and you need to reapply it so uh if it has to be taken into consideration. Also with you know, what are the consequences of the removal of the heat, for instance heat effect.

A

But uh you know there are a lot of municipalities that are taking that approach being like. You know, let's just get on it right now and try to replace the handful of trees that are affected so that we can begin growing the new canopy, because it will take time so I'd say that it's there's no right or wrong just kind of what makes sense in the particular situation.

C

Thank you maggie I'll. Just just add. To that I mean, I think the one concern that I would have is if the trees are healthy, I just think: can we save as many of them as possible? It it. I guess for me like taking them out before they're unhealthy, feels like um a challenge, but I do think cycling them out might make sense, and I think I guess what I'll say is, from our perspective, we're trying to save as many as possible.

C

The fact that this inoculation, which I guess functionally is similar to a vaccine, is available.

C

um If you know, I think, obviously, as maggie said, you have to make the right decisions and there's not exactly a right or wrong, but I think um figuring out first, if we can protect the trees as long as possible um and see if we could reduce the amount of ash borer in the city overall, because there are parts of the state that are not struggling with. There are parts that are. We are not the only place that is dealing with it, but there are other places that it's it's not a major issue.

C

So again, it's it's on a case-by-case basis, but I do think if we can save as many healthy older trees as possible, their benefits in terms of what they provide us in shade and cooling, etc. Are pretty substantial.

B

Thank you. Anyone else.

B

Emerald necklace, conservatory.

G

Hi, this is erica holm from the emerald necklace, I'm the field operations coordinator, so I know a little bit on the tree side of things um and this, maybe is not a question to be answered right now, but maybe more of a comment for the future. But just um does the city have plans to kind of contextualize.

G

This event like this particular pest with other pests that have happened before or that have potential to happen in the future, so the ones I'm thinking of are dutch elm disease and how now we have cultivars of elm that we can plant at this point and then also spotted lanternfly, um which is sort of more of an emergent pest. It's kind of like the quote: unquote, next pest. So really the question is just yeah.

G

Are there plans to kind of contextualize tree pest management and kind of record these efforts over time as one sort of program? Or I guess that's it thanks.

G

Thank you erica.

A

And I can take a stab at it. um I think yeah, it's it's important to see these things as just a part of tree urban forestry management. It's not a static event, an occasional event that you don't really need to think about and respond to. uh Once again, you could bring in kovit kind of like you need a long-term preparedness program for things when they come along and have the infrastructure in place, and so I think we feel the same way about pests and disease and the urban forest plan.

A

I think, will help us advocate and kind of sketch out the degree of support the forest needs from all the different players: private public institutional. What have you to kind of establish that approach to tests and diseases and provide the infrastructure to respond in a timely way?.

G

Awesome thanks so much maggie.

B

Anyone else want to raise their hand.

B

And then you can unmute yourself.

H

Hi how's it going I'm just curious. If there's going to be, you know more public information about where the removals are going to happen uh kind of on a broad scale or if it's just going to be like a sign on the tree, and you have to kind of figure it out. By going and looking around.

A

So uh when it comes, it's a really good question uh the when it comes to public street trees. If a tree is needed, it needs to be removed because usually they need to be removed due to imminent danger. And such there may not be time to post a sign on a tree to give some warning that the tree is going to be removed.

A

So that's a tricky part, but we are working on ways to kind of provide a visualization of where we know public street tree ash trees are, and so that we can get a sense of where, where their risk might be and um where these initial removals that we know are going to happen are going to happen.

A

It would it's given kind of capacity.

A

It would be hard to show kind of a real-time update on ash tree removals or infestation levels and such and we wouldn't have information on private property and most parks, so we'll share the information we have so that people can be as best prepared for for what's happening, but it may be a little bit less entirely expected.

B

B

Seems to be winding down maggie.

A

Okay, um well, if there are any more questions, I just want to. Thank you so much. You know reiterate what the chief said, commissioner, is just we're really grateful that you took the time to attend this uh webinar today and uh we've got materials online.

A

If that would be helpful to you, and maybe um if you could help spread the word to your network and uh bring as much awareness to this challenge as possible, we can all kind of work together to all hands on deck, to respond to emerald ash borer, and please don't hesitate to reach out with any follow-up questions or comments that you might have we're happy to respond.