Excerpts from our 2012-2013 Annual report:
Emerald Ash Borer
The Alliance formed a Working Group on the EAB issue and tried over a period of months to convince the City to change its strategy to include treating many more Ash trees. Letters were sent to Mayor Watson and the Chair of the City’s Environment Committee as well as other members of Council , and a meeting with the City forester and staff was held. Members of the Working Group also met with Councillor Peter Hume and issued a number of media releases to let the public know that infestation was spreading much more quickly than anticipated and that more resources were needed to respond to this problem.
At a crucial time when decisions on actions should have been taken, the City’s Environment Committee meeting ignored our advice and did not even deal with the issue. Issues were also raised about a very large pile of infested Ash trees at the Trail Road dump site.
We thought that our pressure on the City, local electronic and print media coverage and heightened public concern had finally paid off when the City announced that it would allocate an additional $1 million for treatment and replanting that year. Unfortunately, the City’s plans were shrouded in secrecy so we were never able to obtain specifics on how many additional Ash trees would be treated. It appears however, that the City failed to take this opportunity to include a fundamental reorientation towards treatment and public involvement as we had hoped.
We will continue to try saving Ash trees this coming year but many trees have already been lost. The year 2013 is likely the final year that significant numbers of Ash trees can be saved. Please see more on EAB under “FCA Environment Committee” and “Ottawa Forests” below.
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Amy was involved in organizing another EAB Forum (held successfully on May 13, 2013); Elina designed the poster for this event.
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A new environmental group called “Ottawa Forests|Forêts d’Ottawa” was formed and mandate, structure, and potential projects and activities were discussed.
At a subsequent meeting on March 20 a key conclusion from a discussion of the EAB issue was that a “lessons learned” should be developed, reflecting on last year’s EAB activities. The group is looking at the issue from a wider perspective, estimating that other insects will come along attacking other species.
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Post mortem: The Ottawa Citizen of August 12, 2017 carried a report by Blair Crawford relating information from Ottawa forester Jason Pollard. He says that tree cutting and the infestation peaked in 2015; that 50,000 trees have been removed; that the number of adult beetles showing up in the traps is in decline; that the pest is here to stay so that people who chose to treat their trees may need to continue doing it, though perhaps only every two years; and that the wasps (Tetrastichus planipennisi), introduced in summer 2016, now have established populations.