ABOVE: City of Fairmont park and street crews remove an Ash tree from the boulevard at South Hampton and Ward Street Wednesday afternoon. The city is in the process of removing all Ash trees in the boulevards and right-of-ways.

FAIRMONT– Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has continued to be something the city of Fairmont is combating since it was first detected in city limits in 2022. Currently, city crews are removing Ash trees on city boulevards and right-of-ways.

Park and Street Superintendent, Nick Lardy, said that the mild weather so far this winter has been perfect for tree removal. Last winter’s mild weather also allowed crews to remove many Ash trees in city parks. In fact, since the summer of 2022, 1,000 to 1,200 Ash trees have been removed from parks.

“This year we’re concentrating on the boulevard trees,” Lardy explained.

EAB is an invasive species of insect lethal to all species of North America Ash tees and can spread by flying short distances or by being transported in infested firewood. It was first detected in Martin County in 2018 and at Heritage Acres in Fairmont in 2022.

Of infected Ash trees, Lardy said, “Once they die, they start to get really brittle and they’re kind of a dangerous tree to remove after they’ve been standing dead for awhile. The best thing is just to get rid of them as soon as possible.”

He said that it has been now determined that all Ash trees need to be removed as the Minnesota Department of Agriculture considers the city to be infested with Ash trees and if they’re not treated, they need to be removed.

“With that being said, it would be a good idea for the public to know that and start making plans for any Ash trees in their yards,” he said.

The city is responsible for its Ash trees, which include trees in parks and boulevards, but homeowners are responsible for any trees on their property and Lardy said he’s noticed some tree removal businesses at private residences.

He estimates that there’s about 500 Ash trees in the city boulevards. The plan is for park and street crews to continue to remove them throughout the winter as weather allows.

“First they identify it as an Ash tree. Then they remove the tree and haul it out to the tree compost area to be processed. As far as the stump goes, we’ll probably go around this fall and take the stump out and backfill the hole and put grass seed on it and some erosion control product,” Lardy explained.

Removing and replacing the trees is expensive. In 2023, the city of Fairmont applied for $1 million in grants to combat EAB and was awarded a $100,000 ReLeaf grant from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

“They planted 50-some trees last fall with the grant and we’ll replant as many as we can but the biggest problem is having staff to tend to them after they’re planted to get them watered and fertilized,” Lardy said.

For 2025, the Fairmont City Council budgeted $440,000 for the EAB program.

Fairmont and Martin County are far from the only communities dealing with EAB. Many counties in the state and especially southern Minnesota have detected EAB.

“Everything pretty much on the I-90 corridor is infected,” Lardy said.

According to the Minnesota DNR, there are nearly 1 billion Ash trees in Minnesota so the spread of EAB will have a serious impact on communities and forests.

While the spread of the disease is unfortunate, there’s not much to do now but take care of it. Lardy asked that people in the community watch out for crews working in the streets and be patient as there may be short road closures from time to time.