WINONA, Minn. — The Winona City Council pledged $10,000 to a private group, Friends of Winona Parks, for a campaign to replace diseased trees that need be felled on city streets. Howard Kruger, who lives near Windom Park, told Council members that his group already has close to $10,000 but needed more for its campaign. Kruger acknowledged that there is no saving hundreds of trees infected by emerald ash borers in parks and along boulevards. The group’s goal, he said, is to get as many replacement trees in the ground as soon as possible. These, he said, would be a range of species – but no vulnerable ashes. The new trees would not be saplings but trees with trunks at least three inches inches in diameter to restore umbrellas of leafy shade in the fewest years possible. As part of its fundraising, Kruger’s group has placed green ribbons on ash trees along Huff Street and in Sinclair Park to give citizens an idea what an ash-denuded city would look.
Once upon a time. Winona once was umbrellaed in elms. Then came dutch elm beetles. Now have come the emerald ash borer.
