City trying to "de-bug" its trees

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - The neighborhood's name is Forest Ridge, but soon you'll see the forest before the trees.

"It's going to take and render all the ash trees extinct eventually," says James Brinegar of the Emerald Ash Borer, a bug that's killing ash trees across the country and is now here in Dayton.

A number of ash trees in the Forest Ridge neighborhood are dying from the effects of the Emerald Ash Borer, but the area is far from alone.

"We've found it in almost every neighborhood in Dayton," Brinegar says.

City officials estimate that its neighborhoods contain 2,000 to 3,000 ash trees. That doesn't include parks or golf courses.

At Wednesday's budget presentation, public works officials updated the mayor and commissioners on efforts to remove and replace all those infected ash trees.

"Right now we're getting to the point where they are starting to decline quickly and we'll likely have large removals in some neighborhoods," Brinegar says.

Just how large isn't completely known yet. That's why next year's goal is to inventory the city's trees, ash or otherwise, to find out what kind of shape they're in and determine how many will have to be replaced.

That way places like Forest Ridge won't be tree-filled in name only.

As the city replants trees, it's trying to use more of a mix so that another bug like the Emerald Ash Borer, which only targets one type of tree, won't take out entire stretches of trees.