The three trees in front of my house -- the ones that give us some shade and probably save us a bit on our summer energy bill and that we hope will continue to provide piles of leaves for our child's autumn frolics -- are ash trees, or at least I'm pretty sure they are.
Up 30 percent of trees in Wisconsin municipalities are ash trees. So, it's a pretty good best you've got a couple pretty close to your house, too. If they all go, we'll all be worse off.
And once the little demon is spotted, the DNR has made it pretty clear that clear cutting of ash trees will commence in 17 counties, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Washington and Ozaukee, to name just the closest. In fact it has just announced that about 6,000 trees will be cut now or tested now and later felled.
"As with any exotic pest, early detection is critical to preserve the widest range of response options," said Adrian Barta, New and Emerging Plant Pest Program Coordinator for Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on the DATCP Web site. "Unfortunately, in this case, the best tools we have for detection of new infestations require taking down trees.
"The process is laborious and no one likes to cut down live trees, but until researchers provide us with better methods, this is the only effective early detection tool we have."
Let's hope this gets nipped in the bud before we lose our ash. See the link below for detailed information on the ash tree and its biggest enemy.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
