MONROE - The Common Council made way Tuesday for city forester Paul Klinzing to apply for state financial assistance in combating the expected oncoming emerald ash borer invasion.
Klinzing has until Oct. 1 to submit the application, but first, he needs to inventory the vast population of city-owned trees.
The estimated cost to inventory the trees is about $20,000, but that can be partly covered by the Department of Natural Resources grant, he told the Board of Public Works Monday.
The grants are very competitive, he added; however, without the inventory list, the city has no chance of qualifying for the initial grant or any other forestry grants thereafter.
Klinzing met with the DNR Sept. 9 to discuss its Urban Forestry matching grant program. One of the initial priorities to qualify for the funding program, Klinzing discovered, is to have a tree inventory completed.
The city has an EAB management plan, but it lacks a tree inventory list. Klinzing presented an emerald ash borer management plan to the Board of Public Works in early July 2013, preparing the city for the impending emerald ash borer infestation that had, at that time, already reached the Green-Rock county border.
Another part of the DNR grant, for which Klinzing would like to get some funding, is for ash tree treatment and pre-emptive removals.
In the EAB management plan, Klinzing recommended removing 36 ash trees and treating 36 ash trees. The cost for the program was estimated to be $19,000 per year and, over a 10-year period, would address the expected deaths of about 700 city ash trees.
Treatment is not intended to save a tree from removal, but rather to slow down the rate of infestation and deaths of trees, so foresters can spread the cost of removal over a longer period of time.
An Urban Forestry grant would reimburse the city for one half of these costs, and the city can apply for more grants in the future to help fund additional ash tree treatments and removals.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection marked the Monroe area as high risk on its 2012 Wisconsin Emerald Ash Borer trapping plan.
Today Green County, along with Lafayette, Richland and Iowa counties, are quarantined, because they are surrounded by Wisconsin and Illinois counties in which the emerald ash borer has been confirmed.
Last July, Klinzing said some communities, including Milwaukee, were experimenting and finding success with an insecticide capsule inserted into a hole bored in an affected tree. The $60 treatment cost per tree is better than a $600 tree removal, he said.
Klinzing has until Oct. 1 to submit the application, but first, he needs to inventory the vast population of city-owned trees.
The estimated cost to inventory the trees is about $20,000, but that can be partly covered by the Department of Natural Resources grant, he told the Board of Public Works Monday.
The grants are very competitive, he added; however, without the inventory list, the city has no chance of qualifying for the initial grant or any other forestry grants thereafter.
Klinzing met with the DNR Sept. 9 to discuss its Urban Forestry matching grant program. One of the initial priorities to qualify for the funding program, Klinzing discovered, is to have a tree inventory completed.
The city has an EAB management plan, but it lacks a tree inventory list. Klinzing presented an emerald ash borer management plan to the Board of Public Works in early July 2013, preparing the city for the impending emerald ash borer infestation that had, at that time, already reached the Green-Rock county border.
Another part of the DNR grant, for which Klinzing would like to get some funding, is for ash tree treatment and pre-emptive removals.
In the EAB management plan, Klinzing recommended removing 36 ash trees and treating 36 ash trees. The cost for the program was estimated to be $19,000 per year and, over a 10-year period, would address the expected deaths of about 700 city ash trees.
Treatment is not intended to save a tree from removal, but rather to slow down the rate of infestation and deaths of trees, so foresters can spread the cost of removal over a longer period of time.
An Urban Forestry grant would reimburse the city for one half of these costs, and the city can apply for more grants in the future to help fund additional ash tree treatments and removals.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection marked the Monroe area as high risk on its 2012 Wisconsin Emerald Ash Borer trapping plan.
Today Green County, along with Lafayette, Richland and Iowa counties, are quarantined, because they are surrounded by Wisconsin and Illinois counties in which the emerald ash borer has been confirmed.
Last July, Klinzing said some communities, including Milwaukee, were experimenting and finding success with an insecticide capsule inserted into a hole bored in an affected tree. The $60 treatment cost per tree is better than a $600 tree removal, he said.