The Emerald Ash Borer is destroying trees faster than the city expected. Council was told Thursday night the initial city wide ash morbidity rate was estimated at 5-years but that timeline has been accelerated to 2 ? years and has left the city with several stumps in front of resident homes. So council approved spending $94,300 to be taken from the Parks Capital Reserve Fund to deal with the stumping and street tree planning. Director of Parks & Recreation Brian Connors says residents should be prepared for a change in the style of their survey based on the trees being planted. "It goes between just bigger than a sapling to a tree that has a little more size. When we're moving a mature tree and replacing it with a small tree, there's going to be some surveys that are going to go from very well treed to it's a new survey." Connors says residents with affected trees will get a choice. "We give them a choice of about 5 or 6, if they don't choose to choose, the city will pick. You can't get a tropical tree or something (exotic) put in." Connors says the city is currently two years behind with the tree planting and stumping. The additional funds will allow the Parks department to remain on target with street tree stumping and planting to under one year.

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