[getsmart-l] EMERALD ASH BORER: City goes to battle over beetle

[John O'Gorman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080223.BEETLE23/TPStory/?query=emerald+ash
EMERALD ASH BORER: City goes to battle over beetle

Mayor says Ottawa should pay costs as problem with insects is a federal issue
KATE HARRIES Special to The Globe and Mail February 23, 2008

Toronto faces the loss of nearly half a million trees and $40-million in costs as part of the fight against the emerald ash borer - a deadly Asian beetle that threatens a key native tree.

And homeowners will have to bear the cost of removing dead ash trees from their property, the city's chief forester says. 

Ottawa slapped a quarantine order on the city yesterday, two months after the pest was found among a stand of 35 trees in the north of the city, on Sheppard Avenue between Highway 404 and Brian Drive. 

But Mayor David Miller says the beetle isn't a Toronto problem, it's a Canadian problem - and Ottawa should pay for efforts to contain it. 

"The federal government's action in forcing cities to pay for control of this pest I find unacceptable," Mr. Miller said yesterday.

City Forester Richard Ubbens said besides the 30,000 ash trees that line city streets, there are probably a further 425,000 in city parks and naturalized areas and on private property. If the pest spreads across the city, the cost of removing trees as required by federal rules would reach as high as $40-million, he said.

Homeowners will have to bear the costs of removal if they have an ash tree that dies, Mr. Ubbens said. A mature tree close to structures or services could easily cost $2,000 to remove. 

On top of that is the aesthetic cost of losing a fine tree, and property values could be affected as neighbourhoods where the trees predominate would lose their tree cover.

"It's a beautiful hardwood; it's one we've been planting for years as a way of reestablishing native forest habitat in our ravine system," Mr. Ubbens said. 

Toronto becomes the seventh area in southern Ontario to be quarantined under a ministerial order that prohibits taking untreated ash products and firewood of any tree species out of the city. 

The quarantine is required under an agreement Canada has signed with the United States in order to ensure ash forest products can continue to cross the border. But costs fall on the area quarantined - an "unacceptable" situation, according to Mr. Miller.

"It's a federal interest in ensuring that [the ash borer] doesn't go across the country. It's their treaty that they've signed, it's exactly the kind of place where they could be supporting cities," Mr. Miller said, adding that he will raise the matter with Ottawa.

That's something the city of London has been attempting for three months. 

Mayor Anne Marie DiCicco-Best said collection and segregation of ash materials and chipping of wood to ensure the beetle is killed are an exercise in futility that is costing the municipality $500,000 a year, and she wants a meeting with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz to argue for a different approach and ask the federal government to pick up the tab.

Last month, Mr. Ritz refused to meet with her. Yesterday, a Ritz spokesman referred questions to Canadian Food Inspection Agency officials, who said they don't have the money. 

"The CFIA just is not equipped to do that sort of funding, it's not part of our mandate," said Ken Marchant, the agency's expert on the emerald ash borer. 

Mr. Marchant took issue with the position taken by London officials that the beetle's march eastward from Windsor since 2002 has been inexorable and Ontario's ash trees are doomed.

"We feel very strongly to the contrary," said Mr. Marchant. The agency's approach has been based on slowing the spread of the beetle until new research comes up with a control, or until populations of natural predators expand, as already appears to be happening.

"It's far too early to throw in the towel," he said "We are saving millions of trees."

Mr. Miller said he plans to argue against the sweeping size of the quarantine area, which encompasses all of Toronto.

But Mr. Marchant explained that the city-wide quarantine was imposed because the agreement with the U.S. requires county-level controls - which in the case of Toronto ends up being the municipal border. "You need a line by which to quarantine."

Mr. Miller stressed he supports the battle against the emerald ash borer, potentially the most deadly invasive pest to hit Canadian trees. 

"We will do what is asked, we didn't need an order," he said, noting that council approved a plan of action from its forestry department last month. "We're active, we value our trees, and we're very, very worried about it."
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