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DES MOINES, Iowa – Exactly how much is the emerald ash borer going to cost Iowa’s businesses, communities, and citizens?
The half-inch long emerald ash borer is well-recognized as an incredibly destructive tree pest. It’s killing millions of ash trees in the United States, and Iowa is no exception.
9 counties have a confirmed infestation, and State Urban Forester Emma Hanigan, above, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the impact statewide will be sizable.
“We’re talking about billions of dollars across the state, unfortunately,” says Hanigan. “For individual communities it’ll usually be from several thousand to a few million dollars, but then we have to add in all the private homeowners that have trees. And then also commercial areas have a lot of ash and so that’s going to be cost to businesses as well.”
The ash tree is somewhat ubiquitous across Iowa; Hanigan says it grows quickly and works well in an urban environment. Not surprisingly, the utility of the ash tree is offset by its cost once the emerald ash borer enters the equation.
“Communities usually have a limited budget,” Hanigan explains, “and the Emerald Ash Borer is not part of their usual budget cycle for forestry. So they’re needing to add their staff time or contracts to their budget to deal with this problem because ash trees when they have emerald ash borer, they become brittle over time they can become a hazard to people and property so they have to deal with those ash trees, whether that’s treatment or replacement. And so those extra costs are spendy for a city.”
Hanigan says Iowa DNR is now encouraging communities to replace ash trees with a diverse range of different trees to avoid a repeat situation in the future.
