By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
A contract to remove dead or dying ash trees that belong to West Windsor Township has been awarded to a Belle Mead-based landscape contractor., Sunset Creations, Inc., was awarded the $80,990 contract by West Windsor Township Council at its April 10 meeting. The highest bid from among the six landscapers who sought the job was $139,370., Sunset Creations will remove 116 ash trees and replace them with 135 trees of a different species. This is the first phase of a multi-phase project addresses publicly owned trees, according to township officials., Ash trees nationwide have been affected by the emerald ash borer, which is a beetle that was introduced into the United States from Asia., The larvae feed and bore tunnel-like galleries underneath the bark of the ash tree, cutting off circulation between the roots and the leaves and ultimately killing the tree., The emerald ash borer was discovered in Detroit, Michigan in 2002. It has killed millions of ash trees across the country, and was recently discovered in West Windsor Township and surrounding townships., Of West Windsor Township’s 20,000 street trees, about 1,800 are ash trees. Ad additional 110 ash trees are located in the township’s parks. All of those trees are considered to be on public property., Since it is not possible to get rid of the emerald ash borer, West Windsor Township has adopted a management plan for trees on public property., The policy calls for healthy ash trees to be treated with chemicals to preserve them, but dead or dying trees will be removed and replaced with a different tree species., As ash trees become infested with the beetle, the leaves in the upper branches may wither and small branches will die. Suckers, or new young shoots, may appear on the trunk or on some branches., Affected trees will be cut down, and the wood will be chipped to trap the emerald ash borer larvae inside the tree. This will prevent the insect from spreading to other trees. The tree stumps and roots will be ground down and covered with topsoil and grass seed.
