00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.820
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:00:02.820 --> 00:00:11.680
- America's urban forests are under threat
from exotic invasive insects and diseases.

00:00:11.680 --> 00:00:14.750
The problem is that they
are being introduced now

00:00:14.750 --> 00:00:20.920
at such an accelerated rate because of
globalization and worldwide shipping

00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:22.075
and mass transportation.

00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:30.630
- In Ohio alone, we're dealing with
Asian Longhorn Beetle threatening

00:00:30.630 --> 00:00:34.550
the maples, beech bark
disease, viburnum leaf

00:00:34.550 --> 00:00:40.520
beetle killing all the native viburnums,
Emerald Ash Borer threatening Ash.

00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:42.210
- We moved here two years ago.

00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:45.280
And since then pretty much
all the Ash trees have died.

00:00:47.667 --> 00:00:48.750
It's really heartbreaking.

00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:59.660
- When you have so many toxins
in the air, trees are a big help.

00:00:59.660 --> 00:01:04.220
Can you imagine how much worse air
quality would be without trees?

00:01:04.220 --> 00:01:06.420
- The public health
research, what that's showing

00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:09.105
is that trees can literally
be a matter of life and death.

00:01:12.470 --> 00:01:14.825
- Really what we need to do is fight this.

00:01:14.825 --> 00:01:16.710
It's too important not to fight it.

00:01:21.690 --> 00:01:24.180
(TREE CRASHING)

00:01:24.180 --> 00:01:28.164
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:01:37.128 --> 00:01:40.614
(BIRDS CHIRPING)

00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.550
- I have a broad job as the Natural Resource
Manager for the Cincinnati Park Board.

00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:26.850
It's everything from making sure that crews
address pressing needs, a tree blocking

00:02:26.850 --> 00:02:32.421
a road, to a policy decision that will be
implemented sometime over the next five

00:02:32.421 --> 00:02:32.920
years.

00:02:34.690 --> 00:02:38.800
Cincinnati's blessed with a
large amount of green space.

00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:42.420
Right now our city canopy is at 39%.

00:02:42.420 --> 00:02:46.017
Which, from the sky if you looked
down at the city, 39% of the area

00:02:46.017 --> 00:02:47.225
would be covered with forest.

00:02:54.440 --> 00:02:58.960
We have about 85,000 public
street trees along our roads --

00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:03.010
which is equivalent to approximately
driving from here to Florida,

00:03:03.010 --> 00:03:06.505
if you were to think about how many
trees you pass by, that's what we manage.

00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:22.070
I'm also responsible for about
5,000 acres of park forest.

00:03:22.070 --> 00:03:27.390
So my job is to manage all those
in a way that keeps them healthy

00:03:27.390 --> 00:03:28.940
and maintains public safety.

00:03:30.416 --> 00:03:34.352
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:03:51.497 --> 00:03:54.330
- Those of use who live in Cincinnati
are especially proud of trees,

00:03:54.330 --> 00:03:56.480
because we have so many here.

00:03:56.480 --> 00:03:59.860
And when my friends visit Cincinnati,
one of the first things they remark on

00:03:59.860 --> 00:04:01.460
are the numbers of trees we have.

00:04:03.140 --> 00:04:05.370
A tree feels very friendly to me.

00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:06.940
I used to play in trees.

00:04:06.940 --> 00:04:09.200
I would sit under trees and read books.

00:04:09.200 --> 00:04:12.250
I would seek out trees, and I
just wanted to be by myself.

00:04:12.250 --> 00:04:13.727
It was a good place to just be.

00:04:13.727 --> 00:04:16.310
And a tree was not so much a
place to just sit under and rest.

00:04:16.310 --> 00:04:20.985
It was like being with a good friend.

00:04:20.985 --> 00:04:23.180
And that's what I see when I see this tree.

00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:25.530
I just see a good old friend.

00:04:32.740 --> 00:04:36.000
I don't know when the Emerald Ash
Borer first got to our shores.

00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.310
But I can remember when it began
to make an impact on Cincinnati.

00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:42.760
At first, I just thought,
yeah, it's just a bug.

00:04:42.760 --> 00:04:44.335
And I also thought, big deal.

00:04:44.335 --> 00:04:47.264
I mean, they'll find some
pesticides or whatever.

00:04:47.264 --> 00:04:50.680
And people will go out and squirt the
little bugs and that would be the end of it.

00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:54.240
I did not understand the
seriousness of this invasion.

00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.790
And I did not understand that
our trees are defenseless.

00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:00.680
- This little beetle here,
only about a half inch long,

00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:03.790
could soon be targeting your trees.

00:05:03.790 --> 00:05:07.240
- Green beetle from Asia is
spreading across the state line.

00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:10.450
- The Emerald Ash Borer is spreading
a lot faster than first predicted.

00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:17.940
- The first time I saw Emerald Ash
Borer in Michigan, I stopped to get gas,

00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:19.930
and there was an Ash
tree at the gas station.

00:05:19.930 --> 00:05:22.150
I got out, I looked at that Ash tree.

00:05:22.150 --> 00:05:27.200
And I saw Emerald Ash Borer adults,
males and females, mating on the trunk.

00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:29.360
Laying eggs on the bark.

00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:32.380
These were things that I've
only seen in the laboratory.

00:05:32.380 --> 00:05:35.570
It was just unbelievable.

00:05:35.570 --> 00:05:38.710
But it was also obvious
that what was happening here

00:05:38.710 --> 00:05:41.674
was the Ash trees had no natural resistance.

00:05:41.674 --> 00:05:43.590
And it was going to be
an ecological disaster.

00:05:46.370 --> 00:05:56.940
- Emerald Ash Borer is a non-native insect
pest that is maybe the size of a tic-tac.

00:05:56.940 --> 00:06:00.060
The damage that it does is it
feeds right underneath the bark.

00:06:00.060 --> 00:06:07.260
And trees, when they have a sufficient
grub load, simply die of desiccation.

00:06:07.260 --> 00:06:16.720
Ash trees in this country appear to
be 100% at risk of death from EAB.

00:06:18.850 --> 00:06:24.080
- And we're walking up to a very large
Ash tree under treatment right now.

00:06:26.110 --> 00:06:29.570
The problem ultimately is global trade.

00:06:29.570 --> 00:06:36.560
These insects that have evolved, say in
China where Emerald Ash Borer is from,

00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.280
they will have a suite of natural
enemies to keep them in check.

00:06:40.280 --> 00:06:44.250
And the trees that they feed on -- the
Fraxinus over there, the Ash over there --

00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:45.200
are different species.

00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:50.090
And they have defensive compounds that
help protect them from Emerald Ash Borer.

00:06:50.090 --> 00:06:55.220
When they are moved across the ocean to
a new continent, then all of a sudden

00:06:55.220 --> 00:06:57.210
they don't have any natural enemies.

00:06:57.210 --> 00:07:00.660
And the trees that they feed on do
not have those defensive compounds.

00:07:04.320 --> 00:07:10.280
What's at stake is an incredibly
abundant genus of trees, of Ash.

00:07:10.280 --> 00:07:14.540
They represent a very significant
portion of our forests in many areas.

00:07:14.540 --> 00:07:18.620
In some areas of New York, it can be
up to 50% of the forest can be Ash.

00:07:21.020 --> 00:07:25.540
- Ash trees are very important parts
of floodplain, riparian ecosystems,

00:07:25.540 --> 00:07:29.840
upland ecosystems, swamp ecosystems.

00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:35.290
So as the ash trees die, it's going to
have a cascading effect on other plants

00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:36.925
and animals in the forest.

00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:45.510
- Ash trees are important because
they're a native species that provides

00:07:45.510 --> 00:07:48.130
food for mostly birds, but other animals.

00:07:48.130 --> 00:07:52.100
They're 10% of the trees that we have.

00:07:52.100 --> 00:07:54.960
They have excellent fall color.

00:07:54.960 --> 00:07:58.120
They have a lot of value
in the timber industry.

00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:03.540
They're used for baseball bats,
flooring, all kinds of different things.

00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:06.310
We started actually
removing Ash trees before we

00:08:06.310 --> 00:08:09.704
found Emerald Ash Borer in the city.

00:08:09.704 --> 00:08:10.620
We knew it was coming.

00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.510
We knew it was on its way.

00:08:13.510 --> 00:08:16.745
Around 2008, 2009, we started
seeing it pretty widespread.

00:08:26.650 --> 00:08:29.340
- What the citizens see
is they see the landscape

00:08:29.340 --> 00:08:31.900
of their streets changed significantly.

00:08:31.900 --> 00:08:34.940
They've lost a lot of tree canopy
and shade on their streets.

00:08:34.940 --> 00:08:38.640
That affects property values,
it affects cooling costs,

00:08:38.640 --> 00:08:42.900
and it affects the health of the community.

00:08:42.900 --> 00:08:45.830
- We had to cut down a
whole bunch of Ash trees.

00:08:45.830 --> 00:08:48.050
Pretty much they've all
died since we moved here.

00:08:48.050 --> 00:08:52.540
We cut this one down, and there are a
couple in here that we need to cut down.

00:08:52.540 --> 00:08:55.230
And then just recently
we discovered there are

00:08:55.230 --> 00:08:59.470
two other ones over here that have died that
we're going to have to cut down as well.

00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:06.730
It's really heartbreaking.

00:09:06.730 --> 00:09:10.730
There was one specific tree in the
backyard that I really loved looking at.

00:09:10.730 --> 00:09:12.070
And it's completely dead.

00:09:12.070 --> 00:09:13.390
We have to chop it down now.

00:09:19.930 --> 00:09:24.970
- We are closing roads and dropping
trees wholesale down the road.

00:09:24.970 --> 00:09:26.870
Hundreds of trees are coming down.

00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:35.000
As a person and someone with a
science background, I totally...

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:36.500
you know, it's horrible.

00:09:36.500 --> 00:09:38.540
It really is horrible.

00:09:38.540 --> 00:09:41.530
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:09:54.920 --> 00:09:58.110
- The problem now, I believe, is
found all the way from Michigan

00:09:58.110 --> 00:10:01.264
south to Kentucky, Tennessee,
and all the way eastward,

00:10:01.264 --> 00:10:02.555
most recently to New Hampshire.

00:10:05.640 --> 00:10:11.710
They believe that by 2019, it will have
moved through almost all of the native area

00:10:11.710 --> 00:10:12.545
where Ash grows.

00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:21.320
- All of our native Ash trees
are going to become extinct.

00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:26.220
We're going to lose all of them that
are not treated using pesticides.

00:10:26.220 --> 00:10:29.135
We have selected some high
priority streets in the city

00:10:29.135 --> 00:10:31.320
where we've decided to treat them.

00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:33.576
The bulk of our policy
is to remove Ash trees

00:10:33.576 --> 00:10:35.200
and replace them with non-host species.

00:10:40.402 --> 00:10:42.360
Mr. Chair, Counsel, my
name is Dave Gamstetter.

00:10:42.360 --> 00:10:45.193
I'm with Cincinnati Park Board's
Natural Resource Management Section

00:10:45.193 --> 00:10:47.850
and I'm responsible for
the forestry program.

00:10:47.850 --> 00:10:50.760
Mr. Chair, to answer the
question from the council member,

00:10:50.760 --> 00:10:55.380
the street tree assessment has been
at $0.18 per front foot since 2009.

00:10:55.380 --> 00:10:57.510
And we are requesting a $0.01 increase.

00:10:57.510 --> 00:11:02.840
So the average property owner would pay
about $0.50 in addition to the $9.00

00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:03.840
they've been paying now.

00:11:06.570 --> 00:11:07.640
- Councilmember Murray?

00:11:07.640 --> 00:11:08.310
- Yes.

00:11:08.310 --> 00:11:08.780
- Councilmember Silva?

00:11:08.780 --> 00:11:09.285
- Yes.

00:11:09.285 --> 00:11:10.285
- Councilmember Simpson?

00:11:10.285 --> 00:11:10.570
- Yes.

00:11:10.570 --> 00:11:11.695
- Councilmember Sittenfelf?

00:11:11.695 --> 00:11:12.760
- Yes.

00:11:12.760 --> 00:11:13.691
- And passage

00:11:13.691 --> 00:11:14.190
Mr. Chair?

00:11:14.190 --> 00:11:16.440
- Yes, Mr. Flynn?

00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:18.240
- I'm going to vote no on this.

00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:19.520
I do love the trees.

00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:22.496
And I'm just not in favor of $100,000.

00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:30.010
- Right now, the city budget is
not in a good financial position

00:11:30.010 --> 00:11:34.360
to be able to fund a lot of
removal and a lot of planting work.

00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:39.690
We're spending all of our energy and
funding on removing hazardous trees.

00:11:39.690 --> 00:11:41.030
And we are not replacing them.

00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:49.550
- Cities have to take care of these trees,
because a dead tree could fall on somebody,

00:11:49.550 --> 00:11:52.040
kill somebody, do a lot of property damage.

00:11:52.040 --> 00:11:56.660
So cities are having to, all
of a sudden, unexpectedly,

00:11:56.660 --> 00:11:59.020
spend a lot of money on tree care.

00:11:59.020 --> 00:12:01.567
An average sized tree 20 inches
in diameter, 40 feet tall,

00:12:01.567 --> 00:12:03.400
probably costs a thousand dollars to remove.

00:12:03.400 --> 00:12:08.740
So you can see that it could have great
economic impact to both local governments

00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:14.515
and the private property owners.

00:12:20.250 --> 00:12:22.725
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:12:35.595 --> 00:12:38.630
- This is an item that has to
do with our urban forestry.

00:12:38.630 --> 00:12:42.200
And there's no one who lives in
Cincinnati who probably does not

00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.200
appreciate our canopy, our trees.

00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:46.920
Some of our trees are under
attack from pests and so forth,

00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:50.501
so this is a very important item.

00:12:50.501 --> 00:12:53.910
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:13:06.562 --> 00:13:08.869
- And you guys were at French today?

00:13:08.869 --> 00:13:10.160
- Today we were at French, yes.

00:13:10.160 --> 00:13:13.830
- Did you get those dead Ash trees
over there by the playground?

00:13:13.830 --> 00:13:14.330
- Yes.

00:13:14.330 --> 00:13:14.871
We got those.

00:13:14.871 --> 00:13:17.340
- We are putting off planting trees.

00:13:17.340 --> 00:13:20.400
We removed over 100 trees in
burned out woods last year,

00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:22.080
and we've not planted a single one.

00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:33.750
You know, short term the objective is to
make the streets safe and the parks safe.

00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:36.090
Long term, we should be
replacing those trees

00:13:36.090 --> 00:13:41.560
to continue the forest on
for future generations.

00:13:41.560 --> 00:13:46.480
And right now we aren't doing that,
because we don't have money to do so.

00:13:46.480 --> 00:13:51.940
- I am constantly very much aware of
what our city looks like with trees.

00:13:51.940 --> 00:13:55.150
And I dread what it would like without them.

00:13:55.150 --> 00:13:59.020
When we're losing trees, we need to
work cooperatively to replenish them.

00:14:06.110 --> 00:14:11.100
My hope is that Cincinnatians
not only understand what we have,

00:14:11.100 --> 00:14:13.990
but appreciate it to the point
that we're willing to defend that.

00:14:20.770 --> 00:14:23.650
- Trees do so much for us.

00:14:23.650 --> 00:14:28.940
They clean our water, clean our
air, provide us wood products,

00:14:28.940 --> 00:14:35.510
provide habitat, make it so that we
don't have to use as much energy.

00:14:35.510 --> 00:14:41.670
If trees were not doing that, we would have
to put more scrubbers on our power plants.

00:14:41.670 --> 00:14:46.230
We would have to build more
stormwater detention basins.

00:14:46.230 --> 00:14:49.415
We would have to have more
water treatment facilities.

00:14:51.950 --> 00:14:54.860
- A large tree can easily
provide several hundred dollars

00:14:54.860 --> 00:14:59.750
worth of environmental services
each year to a community.

00:14:59.750 --> 00:15:03.190
They sequester carbon dioxide.

00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:07.070
Trees have a big effect on
reducing the urban heat island

00:15:07.070 --> 00:15:11.160
effect that's caused by concrete
and impervious paved surfaces.

00:15:17.470 --> 00:15:21.190
- A lot of people have commented on the
link between the natural environment

00:15:21.190 --> 00:15:24.550
and well-being in the broadest sense.

00:15:24.550 --> 00:15:28.330
But not very many people have come at
it from a statistical point of view.

00:15:28.330 --> 00:15:29.996
And that's where I come in.

00:15:29.996 --> 00:15:36.540
What I try and do is quantify a link
between trees and public health.

00:15:36.540 --> 00:15:40.020
So this animation shows the
spread of EAB since it first

00:15:40.020 --> 00:15:42.170
appeared in Detroit, Michigan.

00:15:42.170 --> 00:15:48.290
And you see it spreads very quickly
until 2013, where it goes to Colorado.

00:15:48.290 --> 00:15:51.230
So you just kill all these
trees in a short amount of time.

00:15:51.230 --> 00:15:52.920
What happens to public health?

00:15:52.920 --> 00:15:55.020
And what I found is that it suffered.

00:15:55.020 --> 00:15:59.310
In fact, what we found is across 18
states and seven years of the study,

00:15:59.310 --> 00:16:02.180
an additional 15,000 deaths
from cardiovascular disease,

00:16:02.180 --> 00:16:07.170
an additional 6,000 from lower
respiratory -- so quite a lot of people.

00:16:07.170 --> 00:16:08.670
Why would they be in particular?

00:16:08.670 --> 00:16:11.620
Well, because we know that
trees can improve air quality.

00:16:11.620 --> 00:16:16.500
And we know that air quality is associated
with both those types of diseases.

00:16:16.500 --> 00:16:21.020
We also know that if you put people in the
natural environment, it can lower stress.

00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:26.090
And certainly it's not news to anybody that
stress is an important driver of disease.

00:16:26.090 --> 00:16:30.130
Indeed, I start to think of trees as
an essential part of our public health

00:16:30.130 --> 00:16:31.760
infrastructure.

00:16:31.760 --> 00:16:33.870
So if you're on the city
council and you're trying

00:16:33.870 --> 00:16:39.860
to balance education, law
enforcement, streets, sewers, trees,

00:16:39.860 --> 00:16:43.480
it's not that you can abandon those
others and spend it all on trees,

00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:45.580
but rather that you have
a better understanding

00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:47.947
of what benefits those trees can provide.

00:16:47.947 --> 00:16:49.780
And you can make a better informed decision.

00:16:53.080 --> 00:16:55.710
- That's the lesson of urban
parks around the country --

00:16:55.710 --> 00:17:02.810
that by and large investments in the 19th
century have paid incredible dividends.

00:17:02.810 --> 00:17:07.260
You can't find anything that
costs so little that continues

00:17:07.260 --> 00:17:10.950
to have so much value to communities today.

00:17:13.550 --> 00:17:17.440
- We all know the story of
how the country got logged.

00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:22.430
Squirrel could jump tree to tree to tree
from the East Coast to the Mississippi.

00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:25.310
And then at some point, all
those trees were logged and gone.

00:17:25.310 --> 00:17:27.530
And that's really true.

00:17:27.530 --> 00:17:34.130
It took that much before people became aware
that we're running out of a major resource.

00:17:34.130 --> 00:17:36.830
This is what we built all the cities out of.

00:17:36.830 --> 00:17:41.140
This is how the country was
fueled for heat and for cooking.

00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.610
Wood was really important.

00:17:43.610 --> 00:17:48.992
The first few people that kind of became
aware and started talking about this crisis

00:17:48.992 --> 00:17:54.490
-- coincidentally enough, many
of them were from Cincinnati.

00:17:54.490 --> 00:17:59.610
- John Warder comes to the city of
Cincinnati in the 1830s to practice

00:17:59.610 --> 00:18:02.800
medicine, which he does for about 20 years.

00:18:02.800 --> 00:18:07.040
He, all along, has this
love of horticulture.

00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:12.310
Warder's connected to all kinds of folks who
are interested in trees around the country.

00:18:12.310 --> 00:18:16.590
And by the mid-1870s he,
like some other Americans,

00:18:16.590 --> 00:18:20.920
are growing concerned about the
state of the nation's forests.

00:18:20.920 --> 00:18:26.210
- And in 1882, the very first forestry
congress held in North America

00:18:26.210 --> 00:18:28.450
was held here in Cincinnati.

00:18:28.450 --> 00:18:31.645
And that brought experts in from all
around the country here to Cincinnati

00:18:31.645 --> 00:18:35.610
to confront the tree
crisis they were facing.

00:18:35.610 --> 00:18:40.050
- And this is where the American
Forestry Association is established.

00:18:40.050 --> 00:18:46.190
That organization is designed to discuss
the importance of trees to the nation

00:18:46.190 --> 00:18:51.340
and to think about steps that
need to be made to preserve trees,

00:18:51.340 --> 00:18:55.290
and also to promote the planting of trees.

00:18:55.290 --> 00:18:58.799
- Two days after the congress, the
superintendent of Cincinnati's schools

00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:00.090
let all the kids out of school.

00:19:00.090 --> 00:19:04.790
They went up to Mount Adams to an
abandon vineyard and planted trees.

00:19:04.790 --> 00:19:09.915
And that has become Eden Park, which we
all know as a beautiful, forested park.

00:19:15.580 --> 00:19:18.350
- I am certain that there's not
a person here who on the way

00:19:18.350 --> 00:19:23.970
here, coming to an event about trees, didn't
notice some dead trees along the skyline

00:19:23.970 --> 00:19:26.930
sneaking above the canopy.

00:19:26.930 --> 00:19:32.570
This is not the first major
reforestation effort in the Tri-State.

00:19:32.570 --> 00:19:35.740
Reforestation happened over
100 years ago in a big way.

00:19:35.740 --> 00:19:37.430
And it's going to happen again.

00:19:40.094 --> 00:19:44.260
- The City of Cincinnati, the counties
in this region, other municipalities

00:19:44.260 --> 00:19:48.710
do not have enough dollars to
take care of the job themselves.

00:19:48.710 --> 00:19:52.310
So it's really important that
volunteers get engaged -- civic groups,

00:19:52.310 --> 00:19:55.060
community organizations,
businesses, schools.

00:19:55.060 --> 00:20:00.390
We'd love to be able to spark a national
revolution of planting trees everywhere

00:20:00.390 --> 00:20:03.550
in America and around the
world for that matter.

00:20:03.550 --> 00:20:05.520
- Planting a tree is the
one thing that you can

00:20:05.520 --> 00:20:10.460
do right now that right away
starts improving the environment.

00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:14.710
We need to plant a diverse
range of different trees.

00:20:14.710 --> 00:20:18.800
So get out there and grow something
different than your neighbor has.

00:20:18.800 --> 00:20:21.970
We're going to be a lot better off for it.

00:20:21.970 --> 00:20:24.290
- So the reason that we
want to plant trees is

00:20:24.290 --> 00:20:27.000
to increase our biodiversity
in our forest stands.

00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:30.070
If we only had a stand of
a singular tree species,

00:20:30.070 --> 00:20:32.530
we would have no more trees
if something like an Ash Borer

00:20:32.530 --> 00:20:34.910
came in and wiped them out.

00:20:34.910 --> 00:20:38.820
- This is certainly not going to be
the last invasive species that we have.

00:20:38.820 --> 00:20:42.140
It's not going to be our
last ecological disaster.

00:20:42.140 --> 00:20:46.070
We're discovering new
invasive species all the time.

00:20:46.070 --> 00:20:51.340
In Ohio alone, we're dealing with
beech-bark disease, viburnum leaf

00:20:51.340 --> 00:20:55.110
beetle killing all the native
viburnums, Asian longhorn

00:20:55.110 --> 00:20:56.785
beetle threatening the maples.

00:21:01.110 --> 00:21:07.510
- If we get Asian longhorn beetle here, we
would actually lose 25% of our street trees

00:21:07.510 --> 00:21:10.490
and 33% of our park trees.

00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:11.580
Those are huge numbers.

00:21:14.410 --> 00:21:17.130
It would be devastating for human health.

00:21:17.130 --> 00:21:20.390
We would have more storm water
flowing into our streams.

00:21:20.390 --> 00:21:23.970
There would be just enormous consequences.

00:21:23.970 --> 00:21:29.790
- So far, the cost of managing
the damage from these exotic pests

00:21:29.790 --> 00:21:34.069
nationwide has been over $2
billion to local communities.

00:21:34.069 --> 00:21:35.110
That's not federal money.

00:21:43.320 --> 00:21:47.350
We are at a crisis where
we're going to have to come

00:21:47.350 --> 00:21:49.710
at this problem with a variety of solutions.

00:21:52.590 --> 00:21:57.150
When trees are cut down to make wood
products -- pallets, for instance,

00:21:57.150 --> 00:22:04.260
to ship goods to the United States --
these pallets have the insect in them.

00:22:04.260 --> 00:22:09.660
Can you imagine how many pallets come
into the United States every day,

00:22:09.660 --> 00:22:11.900
24 hours a day?

00:22:14.410 --> 00:22:18.040
- They get here through
infested produce and plants.

00:22:18.040 --> 00:22:22.060
The government agencies charged
with protecting our borders

00:22:22.060 --> 00:22:27.850
have experienced major budget cuts
and they're spread way too thin.

00:22:27.850 --> 00:22:30.500
- We do have to increase our inspection.

00:22:30.500 --> 00:22:32.810
We may do 1%.

00:22:32.810 --> 00:22:35.260
We need 10%.

00:22:35.260 --> 00:22:41.130
And what we need to do is train
arborists, homeowners, everybody,

00:22:41.130 --> 00:22:48.030
to look for signs and indications of
insect and disease symptoms on trees.

00:22:48.030 --> 00:22:52.040
There's a number of things communities
can do, and planners can do.

00:22:52.040 --> 00:22:55.560
They could look at street
tree ordinances and see what

00:22:55.560 --> 00:23:00.520
in there could be improved to
give trees a fighting chance.

00:23:00.520 --> 00:23:03.090
What I would recommend
for any municipality now

00:23:03.090 --> 00:23:07.390
in North America is no matter
whether EAB is in your state or not,

00:23:07.390 --> 00:23:09.120
you should develop a plan.

00:23:09.120 --> 00:23:15.270
And then for municipalities, once EAB
is within 20 miles, pull the trigger

00:23:15.270 --> 00:23:20.820
and start protecting the trees that
you have decided need protection.

00:23:20.820 --> 00:23:23.500
- These are among about 100
trees in the park system

00:23:23.500 --> 00:23:26.205
that we are treating for Emerald Ash Borer.

00:23:26.205 --> 00:23:28.580
It's hanging in there, it's
been under a lot of pressure.

00:23:28.580 --> 00:23:33.690
But it's coming back and looking good.

00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:39.490
- The insecticides can be very effective
at protecting individual trees.

00:23:39.490 --> 00:23:44.270
Unfortunately it's too expensive
to use on a really wide scale,

00:23:44.270 --> 00:23:47.850
so it's not an option for
protecting Ash trees in the forest.

00:23:47.850 --> 00:23:50.630
In that case, we're looking
at a more long-term solution

00:23:50.630 --> 00:23:58.450
and trying to breed resistant trees that we
can ultimately reintroduce to the forest.

00:23:58.450 --> 00:24:04.430
- The government is saving seeds from local
populations and putting them into storage.

00:24:04.430 --> 00:24:10.050
We may be able to come back in and
plant these seeds and start Ash again.

00:24:10.050 --> 00:24:14.280
But we're talking a process of
50 years, 100 years, who knows?

00:24:14.280 --> 00:24:16.150
A long time.

00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:20.620
- The next hope is hybrid trees in the
same way that hybrid elms were developed,

00:24:20.620 --> 00:24:24.450
and the same way that hybrid
chestnuts have been developed.

00:24:24.450 --> 00:24:28.250
So perhaps 40 years from
now, we will be planting

00:24:28.250 --> 00:24:30.910
hybrid Ash trees that are resistant to EAB.

00:24:38.010 --> 00:24:41.540
- I don't know how much
you know about Arbor Day,

00:24:41.540 --> 00:24:47.090
but when I was your age it was a very
special day because we, like you,

00:24:47.090 --> 00:24:51.700
go out and plant trees -- not only at
school, but also in our neighborhoods.

00:24:51.700 --> 00:24:57.375
And some of those trees that I planted
as a child are still thriving today.

00:24:57.375 --> 00:25:00.500
And I'm told that the tree in front of
you that you're going to plant today

00:25:00.500 --> 00:25:01.710
is a Burr Oak.

00:25:01.710 --> 00:25:05.370
And that tree is going to
get really big and could

00:25:05.370 --> 00:25:10.560
last as long as 100 years, which
means that you'll get the opportunity

00:25:10.560 --> 00:25:14.410
to bring your children, and
perhaps your grandchildren,

00:25:14.410 --> 00:25:16.285
to see the tree that you planted today.

00:25:21.310 --> 00:25:23.330
Trees need to be taken care of.

00:25:23.330 --> 00:25:26.250
They will take care of us, but
we need to take care of them too.

00:25:26.250 --> 00:25:28.860
It's a symbiotic relationship.

00:25:28.860 --> 00:25:33.140
Things that we didn't have to worry
about, we now need to pay attention to.

00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:35.480
Well, the warning has been sounded.

00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:39.266
We simply need to take note and be prepared.

00:25:39.266 --> 00:25:43.250
(MUSIC PLAYING)

00:26:22.660 --> 00:26:29.060
Funding for this program has been provided
by the Ohio Humanities Council, the Stephen

00:26:29.060 --> 00:26:36.430
H. Wilder Foundation, the Craig Young
Family Foundation, and the Tree Fund.

00:26:36.430 --> 00:26:40.250
To order a copy of this program,
visit treesintrouble.com