The Bradford City Water Authority will be closing the White Pine and Marilla Loop trails between Horn’s Passage and Shields Crossing on Thursday for the removal of ash trees infested with the notorious emerald ash borer.
The Authority’s Executive Director Steve Disney told The Era he estimates the closure lasting for at least a few weeks.
“Ken Kane is our forester. He had notified us (of the infestation) about six years ago now and we’ve been taking ash trees from the Water Authority’s watershed ever since,” Disney explained. “Basically we’re almost at the end of that; there’s just a small group of ash trees that we have left to take down.”
Generations Forestry Inc. in Kane will be extracting the infected trees.
The Marilla Loop trail surrounds Marilla Reservoir — which serves as a popular fishing spot for locals. Luckily for fishing enthusiasts, fishing activities can take place as normal.
“(The closure) is at the back section of the Marilla Loop, so the front section where most of the fishing activity takes place won’t be impacted,” Disney said, adding that kayaking will also be allowed throughout the course of the tree removal.
The emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle that has plagued timber companies with destruction of trees. Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer has invaded 30 states and has destroyed millions of trees, according to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Disney noted that Marilla Reservoir is not the only watershed that has been plagued by infestation, as both Heffner and Gilbert Reservoirs have seen their share of infested ash trees.
“All across the watershed, any ash population has been infested. At those locations, over 95 percent of the affected ash trees have been removed,” said Disney.
Kane told The Era some of the trees have been able to be saved thanks to injections.
“We actually treated some of the trees with an injection so we could save some of them, but we couldn’t save all of the trees. So, one, we’re getting value out of them. And, two, we’re removing a hazard,” the forester explained. “So we’re removing a hazard and we’re able to do it with a positive cash flow since the trees have some value.”
Kane said one of the first signs of an ash borer’s wrath on an ash tree is seeing decline in the crown of a tree. He added the foliage and the crown will begin to weaken, and the tree will start dying from top to bottom.
With a bit of a somber tone in his voice, Kane explained that the ash borer is here to stay. But explained there is an even bigger threat lurking on the horizon, one that could impose even more devastation and destruction.
“We can almost count on any ash tree in McKean County to be infested, if it isn’t already infested, within 18-20 months. Unfortunately, the emerald ash borer is here and we are forced to deal with it,” he said. “The spotted lanternfly is our next biggest threat. It’s truly a threat that we don’t understand the full impact of what that threat could be.”
The Water Authority will post signs marking the closed areas but will try to make the closed area available during the evenings, when crews are not extracting trees, depending on workers’ availability.
