The City of Morden Parks Department has put in the time to make a plan of action as to how they'll be working toward the upkeep of the City's Manchurian Ash Tree population. At this time Parks Manager Shawn Dias explained the city if aware of the insect problem they have with this specific species of tree and are working toward treating and or removing trees in the City.

"We have a treatment plan in place, which includes using insecticide soap on some of the trees," said Dias. "We also have a plan to remove about 100 trees that are in poor condition, which was noted during an assessment of our tree inventory last year. When we re-assessed this year they were still of poor condition."

Currently the City has around 360 Manchurian Ash Trees. With crews removing about 100 of these, they're working on finding a variety of species they can use to replace the ones being removed. They want to plant a variety of types of trees throughout the city in case they do run into another situation like this and it won't spread from tree to tree as each one is different.

Dias stated the City has a tree sprayer and the product, which they've been applying to Manchurian Ash Trees in parks and on boulevards throughout the city. As for trees of this species on private property in Morden the Parks Department is looking into finding a private contractor to take care of them.

At this time if you have a tree that's on private property and won't be sprayed by the City, Dias noted there's a way you can help your tree along the way without the insecticide.

"If the tree has leafs all the way out to the end of the branches it should recover next year," added Dias. "You can do things like fertilize, try and water during dry conditions and try to maintain healthy conditions as best as possible. The healthier the tree is the less susceptible they are insect and disease activity."