The Emerald ash borer causes damage to ash trees and they have made their way into Perry, and the Perry Parks and Recreation Department is in the process of removing those trees.

Director John Anderson says recently signs of Emerald ash borer damage in ash trees around the community has become more prevalent. Anderson says once the trees start showing signs of the Emerald ash borer there isn’t much time before they die. 

“We went through the post-derecho, we really started noticing, you could point out the trees that were looking like they were suffering and we’ve been out there I think ever since looking at them and watching them pretty closely and we really noticed that the borer was showing its signs now and it is proven once you see the signs of the borer in the tree that the borer had already been there for five years, so without a doubt you only have a short amount of time left before that tree will be completely dead.”

Anderson tells Raccoon Valley Radio they knew they needed a plan moving forward which included having a tree nursery to replant trees and removing the ash trees from the community. Anderson says some of the ash trees have already been removed from Perry. 

“I know we’ve been working diligently this winter on removing ash trees just in the park system. We have 175(ish) trees in the park and we’ve taken out 85 so far. Not all of those were ash some of them were other trees that were dead and diseased but we’ve done a really great job of trying to get ahead of it in the park system.”

Anderson says the hopes are to complete the removal of the ash trees from the community within the next five years.