Drive down Huff Street right now or pass Windom Park on Broadway and you’ll see tree after tree wrapped with green ribbons. These ribbons aren’t marking them for the chainsaw. Quite the opposite — the ribbon-wrapped trees are all ashes, doomed to die from emerald ash borer and be cut down in the coming years unless people like us care an awful lot.
In several of Winona’s most beloved parks and boulevards, a huge percentage of the mature trees are ash. In retrospect, it was a poor decision to plant so many trees of the same species in a row, but here we are. Since the invasive, tree-killing emerald ash borer beetle came to Winona years ago, the city has invested thousands in treating ash trees with pesticides to keep them alive a bit longer and prevent them from all dying at once. But trees have to be treated every couple years indefinitely to remain protected. After delaying and spreading out the damage for several years, the City Council called it quits in a split vote last fall, deciding that it wasn’t worth the ongoing cost to keep these trees alive.