And the next "wave" of invasive pestilence will be the Long Horned Asian Beetle. It's favorite things to eat are Maple trees.

As a member of the Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Committee for the last 11 years I have been proud to be part of a strong group of dedicated people who have given of their time and effort to help maintain the urban forest. We are not funded by the city, but rather we survive on grants and donations. On our own time we plant trees and as they grow we maintain them by pruning and mulching. The purpose of the urban forest street tree inventory was not to make suggestions, but to provide the city with data that could be used in decision-making. The emerald ash borer, the insect mentioned in Frank Schultz's article, has no natural enemies, so it's not going to stop. It will continue to move through the ash population, and eventually will reach Janesville. Whether or not it will totally decimate the ash population is a wait-and-see issue. What we do know is when an ash tree is infected, without dramatic treatment it will die. Even with treatment, it may die. By the time an ash tree shows symptoms, it may already be too late. (The larvae eats the cambium layer under the bark, effectively disrupting the tree's ability to take up nourishment, leading to death.)

Disposal is an issue of great importance. EAB infested wood presents unique challenges when it comes to disposal. It can be split into firewood and used locally, but it must not be moved to other locations for danger of spreading the infection. The proscribed method of disposal is that it be chipped to a certain size and dried so the EAB larvae has nothing to feed on so it can't propagate. This has the potential to be a costly procedure for the homeowner on private property, or for the city on public property.

Our goal is to do everything we can to aid the city of Janesville in maintaining the urban forest.

Our mission statement expresses our goals: The Mission of the Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Committee shall be to promote and enhance the beauty and general welfare of Janesville's urban forest.

Visit the Janesville Shade Tree Advisory Committee's website at www.jstac.org and take a look at who we are, what we do, and how you can help.

Mary Thompson
Sec/Treas JSTAC

I think contractors should be required to plant trees when they bulldoze for new construction. Or each homeowner should be required to have at least 5 trees on their property.
Trees are beautiful and increase property value. When we were looking for a home in Janesville, we would not even look at homes that weren't on tree lined streets. It just adds more character, beauty, and health to our city. Lets make the name City of Parks acutally mean something.

Save our trees!!!!

I love people who just give up. That's the spirit, sannio!
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Regardless of the elm situation, we have a continuing city here and trees both enhance the beauty of the city and quality of life but also help keep buildings cool and generate oxygen. They will always be important. Now we are facing the loss of ash trees and perhaps oaks as well. I don't know if chestnuts were ever common here, but that genus is all but gone, too. So keeping the urban forest healthy remains an ongoing challenge for this and future generations.
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The city can do much to encourage property owners to plant appropriate vegetation without budgeting substantial money, and the city needs to plan ahead to manage its extensive public property as well.

The game changed after the elm trees went down. Now it doesn't matter to me what trees are planted. I suspect most people living in Janesville never experienced the "city of tunnels". I think the city counsel could work on more important issues (not that they aren't already).