Arlington Heights is planning to mortgage the future of the city by borrowing $11.5 million to fund the removal of 13,000 parkway ash trees. For the entire story, see Arlington Heights Fails City Residents.
West Chicago, however, has committed to saving their ash trees for significantly less money. January 2012, West Chicago City Council voted to extend the contract of Emerald Tree Care LLC until 2017 for the treatment of all of their parkway ash trees.
Almost as an afterthought, or perhaps because of pressure from residents, Arlington Heights is now backing a new treatment method for residents interested in trying to save their parkway tree(s). A highly controversial treatment method involving drilling (known as TREE-äge) has been in the news lately, and many cities have bought into the marketing hype for this new product. The science behind the proper treatment of trees seems to be continually discarded while chemical companies are rushing into this new market eager to make money. Dr. Mark Harrell of the University of Nebraska has done extensive research into various tree injection systems. He lists the injection method for TREE-äge as the most damaging method in his report. For Dr. Harrell’s report, see Nebraska Forest Service – EAB Treatment Options
Dr. Alex Shigo, the late United States Forest Preserve plant pathologist who many considered to be the ‘father of modern arboriculture,’ firmly believed and taught all of us for years that, “Drilling trees makes no sense!”
West Chicago relied on concrete evidence of treatment success from other states like Michigan. West Chicago was on the edge of losing the majority of their ash trees when Emerald Tree Care LLC began treating in late August 2011. Out of 1835 ash trees treated in 2011, only 45 did not survive for continued treatment in 2012. That is more than 97.5% success! “Had we been given the opportunity to have treated sooner in this EAB crisis, we would have had even better results,” stated Wayne White, Board Certified Master Arborist of Emerald Tree Care LLC. White has been treating ash trees since 2002 and is currently licensed in five states. Because of this, no other arborist in America has treated more ash trees and has more alive as a result.
Emerald Tree Care LLC has even better treatment results in cities like Roselle and Downers Grove where the company also hold city contracts. Here, the success rates are higher than 99%. This success can be attributed to the unique treatment programs. “We do not rely on just one method of delivery to treat ash trees,” says White. “We use a soil drench mixture of Imidicloprid, a high grade plant fertilizer, and a bio-root stimulant to encourage uptake and overall health of the tree.
In addition, we proudly use the ArborSystems Tree Injection system to get another full dose of Imidicloprid into the trees using a hypodermic needle to go just under the bark.” Dr. Mark Harrell’s report shows the ArborSystems’s method as causing less than 10% of the damage caused by drilling with the Arborjet tool for TREE-äge. Emerald Tree Care LLC has used this combination treatment approach to ash trees since 2002, and currently is how the contract specifications are written for treating for Emerald Ash Borer in West Chicago, Roselle, Downers Grove, and Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
The Emerald Tree Care, LLC office is in Carol Stream. Email them at EmeraldTreeCareLLC@gmail.com
Call the Office at 630-480-4090