By CRAIG FREILICH

North Country This Week

POTSDAM – An inventory of every tree on village property is underway for a report officials will use to improve and diversify stock in the village, and to face the loss of ash trees to insects.

It will be the first such plan since one produced after the ice storm of 1998 was used to bring in new stock, including introduction of Asian pear trees downtown which is now considered by many to be a mistake.

Forester Aaron Barrigar of the St. Lawrence County Soil and Water Conservation District is conducting the comprehensive survey, which will include the location and species of every tree in village parks, along sidewalks, in the Department of Public Works complex and at the water and waste plants.

The inventory will include the trees’ height, girth, die-back and other measurements, an assessment of the health of each tree, and a recommendation for maintenance, replacement or removal.

“We will probably recommend mostly native species because they do well here – they’re acclimated to the region – and aren’t invasive,” Barrigar said as he continued his survey for the village.

Barrigar said he hoped to complete his assessment before all the leaves have blown away because the leaves make identification easier and are an indictor of condition. If he doesn’t finish up this fall, he’ll complete it in the spring, he said.

Among the report’s sections will be one related to the approaching emerald ash borer, which just a few years ago was still north of the St. Lawrence River, but now has encroached on the southern shoreline of the river into St. Lawrence County by as much as two miles as it continues its steady advance. The bright green beetle is a native of Asia that was first seen in this country in 2002 near Detroit. The adult beetle eats ash leaves, but its larvae will eat into the tree causing enough damage to kill it. Chemical inoculation can save some ash trees, but predictions are the bug will kill billions of trees in the U.S.

There are ash trees on village property. Of particular note is one in Ives Park that is probably older than the village itself, which was settled in 1802.

None of the beetles has reached the trees in Potsdam yet, as far as Barrigar can tell, but it is just a matter of time.

“But we want to be prepared,” said Fred Hanss, the village’s director of planning and development, who has been working with Barrigar on the tree plan.

“We need to make decisions,” about trees in general and ash trees in particular, and especially the big old one in Ives Park, Hanss said. “We’ll probably take some down in advance or inoculate some to prevent an infestation.”

Barrigar told Hanss the big ash tree is easily more than 200 years old and maybe as old as 250 years.

The tree in Ives Park has a little more die-back than would normally make it a candidate for protecting with inoculation. “To make it worthwhile,” Barrigar said, “it would have to be a larger tree in pretty good health,” and this one is, he said. It could last “probably another 20 or 30 years” with treatment. Meanwhile there are perhaps four or five others in the park that might be taken down, he said.

When Barrigar’s inventory and plan are in place, they will incorporate a “diversity rule” and other specifications for the types of trees he would recommend, including things like shorter trees in rights of way for overhead utility lines, and taking into consideration things such as soil type at the site

Barrigar called the Asian pear trees planted along downtown streets about 15 years ago an invasive species. They turned out to be less worthy than had been hoped when they began dropping pears that degrade on sidewalks and get sloppy and slippery and attract yellow jackets.

The village is paying $3,000 for the inventory report, and will be seeking grant funding, through programs such as Urban and Community Forestry Grants from the U.S. Forest Service and the state DEC and the 10,000 Trees program by National Grid, to help with the costs of the inventory and implementation of the plan.