City misses opportunity to engage residents in fight to save ash trees

Dear Ottawa residents,

Let me tell you about trying to “work with” the City to save our beautiful, 45-year-old Ash tree.

As I noticed the odd tree in our neighbourhood with a silver tab, I called the City to find out why not mine. “Because it is not healthy—it is cabled-- and therefore not eligible”. What? Cabled 25 years ago, in full leaf at the crown, no suckering, no symptoms at all of the EAB? I persisted but no, our tree was not of the chosen few on our street.

So, I called an arborist to have the tree inoculated in an attempt to save it. Happy to do that he said. It's not a City tree, is it? Well, it's on our property but was planted in Centennial year by the city (1967, the year our daughter was born). Sorry, he said, I am not allowed to inject your tree.

What? The tree is on our lawn that is fertilized and watered every year so that the tree has grown strong and tall, almost 70 cm in diameter or 148 cm in circumference. A very large and very much loved tree that shades us in the summer and protects us in the winter. Squirrels love it and the birds hang out there heading for the feeders in our yard. We cannot pay $400 to have our own tree protected from the Emerald Ash Borer? A minor shouting match between myself and City staff followed with threats to go to the media.

A couple of days later I was told by the arborist that in fact the City had relented and we would be given the privilege of paying to have the City's tree injected to save its life. At a cost of roughly $425 and the same every second year, my tree has a chance to grace our home for years to come.

There is something seriously wrong with a City strategy that has thus far inoculated only 2,400 out of a possible 75,000 ash trees -- a strategy that nicks the taxpayer millions of dollars to destroy upwards of 70,000 trees in the not-too-distant future. What will it take to get the elected representatives to pay attention when none will attend community meetings nor publish the information in their newsletters, so tree-owners will know what can be done to save these beautiful, life-giving trees.

Barbara Lajeunesse,
Ottawa Resident (Ward 8)

PS: The City form necessary to treat a City-owned ash tree on your property is below.