Our Ash is trash.
In our front yard, we have an ash tree between the sidewalk and street. Recently Paul noticed a bad crack in the trunk. He called an arborist to look at it. The arborist said that although he could attempt to save the tree, he would not recommend it since the dreaded emerald ash borer is rapidly boring in in Rochester (see link). Minnesota has something like 900 million (that's right, see this second link) ash trees and it looks like it's going to be a slaughter. Supposedly Rochester has 80,000 ash trees. The arborist felt it was not worth the risk/effort to try and save the tree (only later to have the city condemn all ash trees in a given area) and unfortunately we agreed. Paul contacted the city forester who came by and officially condemned the tree today.
