Rochester Begins Removing Weakened Ash Trees

ROCHESTER, (AP) - The city of Rochester will remove 400 ash trees damaged in a storm last month because they are more susceptible to the destructive emerald ash borer.

City forester Jacob Ryg says residents who don't want to lose a tree tagged for removal can pay for the cost of chemical treatments to try to preserve the tree, as opposed to having the city pay to replace the tree.

Other Midwestern states have taken similar preventative measures by cutting down weakened ash trees. Ryg says those states have suffered the loss of millions of trees to the emerald ash borer and their budgets have been exhausted by dead-tree removal.

He says Rochester has reduced its population of boulevard ash trees by 3,000 over the last eight years.