COUNTDOWN: THE YEAR’S MAJOR WINONA NEWS
No. 11: Deforestation
A city project to save the ash tree canopy on Winona boulevards was abandoned. In short, a beautiful but hungry beetle, the emerald ash borer, won the battle. The City Council decided the eradication project was too expensive, at $100,000 a year. The city forester, Chris Kramer, was told to saw down ashes as they die and to replace them gradually over time – but not with more vulnerable ashes. Nor with elms that were wiped out 40 years ago by a fungal pathogen passed along by another beetle species. The lesson learned: Monoculture forests are risky.
Lovely emerald. But horrific and horrible habits.