As the Emerald Ash Borer continues to eat its way through thousands of ash trees across New York State, the infestation is now being felt in the city of Buffalo. Dying trees are being removed from Shoshone Park and city streets.
Tree removal appears to be the only real solution right now. It's not the first time Buffalo has had to deal with this type of situation. It wasn't that long ago that Dutch Elm Disease devastated the city's urban forest; tens of thousands were removed leaving parks and streets emptier.
"We don't have as big a problem as we could have, with the amount of ash out there," said Deputy Public Works Commissioner Andy Rabb.
"But, we do have some parks with clusters of ash trees. We do have some streets with clusters of ash trees. We know where they are and we're monitoring them."
Much of that information was compiled after the city completed a census of trees located in the parks and along the streets of Buffalo. City officials are now moving forward with plans to fortify the tree population.
"We have dozens of different types of trees that we plant. And, that's really the best thing you can do against some sort of epidemic like this," Rabb said.
"We plant different trees in the spring than we do in the fall, depending on what's available from the nurseries. But, we're not just planting one or two or three types of trees when we do our street tree planting contracts."
While a close watch will remain in place for its ash trees, the city doesn't plan to remove them all at this point.
"The reality is it's just going to take a couple of years to kind of see what the beetle (Emerald Ash Borer) does and the trees that need to be removed."