By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

The Valley City forester usually sends his report in writing to the city commission at the end of summer, but this year City Administrator Jon Cameron asked him to deliver it himself, to honor his service, and so he could deliver some bad news in person.  
“I have a degree in natural resources management with an emphasis in botany,” said forester Dave Dunham, “and the reason I mention this is, when I go and knock on someone's door and tell them their tree's got to go, they say, 'Who are you to tell me?'”
Dunham has been Valley City's forester for the past 14 years, working on a contract basis during the months of June, July and August, Cameron said.
The bad news he had to deliver on Sept. 15 to the city commission, was, after losing so many elm trees to Dutch elm disease over the last generation, it appears ash trees are threatened as well.
Cameron said that during Dunham's time serving Valley City, the forester has marked 1,766 American elm trees for removal due to Dutch elm disease, with 97 in this year alone.
This time, though, the culprit is an invasive species called the emerald ash borer. None have been found in North Dakota yet, but, according to Dunham, it's only a matter of time.
“We're going to lose the ash. When, I don't know,” Dunham said.
According to Dunham, roughly 40 percent of Valley City's trees are ash.
“The tendency is when we get rid of one tree we like to get another tree we like. Well, we can't do that anymore. We have to plant a variety,” Dunham said.
Cameron cautioned there was no prospect yet of mass cutting of ash trees, but he said people wishing to plant trees should choose other species.
The Valley City Forestry Department has a pamphlet available with recommended tree species for city boulevards.
Michael Kangas, forrest health specialist for the North Dakota Forrest Service, said the emerald ash borer came from China originally, probably in the 1990s, though it was only discovered in Detroit, Mich., in 2002.
“It probably hitch-hiked on low-grade packing materials such as pallets,” Kangas said.  “Sometimes, cheap pallets are made with the bark still on, and the elm borer lives under the bark. Since it was discovered, it has killed more than 50 million ash trees.”  

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.