Kirkwood Fights to Save Trees From Destructive Beetle

To protect against an exotic beetle that likely would destroy Kirkwood’s ash tree population, the Greentree City will remove all ash trees in the city’s right-of-way.

The pest is the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) who was discovered in Southeast Missouri in 2008 and then in two other Missouri counties in 2012. The city predicts it’s only a matter of time before the EAB lands in Kirkwood.

According to the City of Kirkwood’s blog, All Aboard, any large-scale die-off of ash trees would overwhelm Kirkwood’s forestry crew and result in costly contract work.

To prevent this, Kirkwood will perform a survey of all its ash trees within the city’s right-of-way in June and then begin to systematically remove the trees over a 6 to 8-year period.

To learn more, check out the city’s blog post on All Aboard.