Norwich, Vermont, is biting the bullet and making a painful decision that many places are making: It will cut down almost 400 big, mature ash trees, most along well-traveled roads, before they die from emerald ash borer and fall on somebody. It’s one of the first big ash-removal projects in the Upper Valley area of Vermont and New Hampshire.
As you probably know, the EAB bug burrows into ash trees and eventually kills them and is going to basically eradicate ash trees in North America, just as happened to chestnuts and elms in the past. You can save individual trees by regular injection of fungicide but there’s no cure for woodlots or forests.
A lot of places are cutting down ash trees before they get sick, or even before they get infected, either for safety reasons or to sell the lumber while it’s still good.
