Ash Tree Management

On May 15^th, Don Tobi, Jericho’s Tree Warden, began to mark some of the ash trees in the park with blue paint.

Last summer, he and a group of UVM students inventoried ash trees that are adjacent to the park’s trails. They identified over 300 ash trees that, although not currently identified as infected with the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), are susceptible to future infestation and may experience die-off in the future.

The park’s Board of Trustees has decided to have Mr. Tobi mark these trees with blue paint so that we can continue to monitor our ash trees’ vitality and to be better able to make informed and proactive decisions in managing our trails and forests. Dead or dying ash trees can present a falling hazard and should be cut. This will be a multi-year project, as the Park District budget allows.

The marked ash trees will have the visual effect of bringing us all to a more immediate awareness of the scope of this potential EAB infestation. As visitors walk the Mills Riverside Park trails and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of its many natural ecosystems, they might also be reminded of the fragility of these ecosystems as they struggle to survive and thrive in these challenging times.

The Jericho Underhill Park District Board of Trustees will continue to keep the public informed of our efforts to protect and nurture the park’s natural resources. It is our hope that future generations can enjoy the park in much the same way as we all do today.

The Town of Jericho drafted a five-year plan for the town’s preparedness and management of Emerald Ash Borer infestation, dated April 2023, and recently updated it in January 2025. In that report, they cite Mills Riverside Park as having a significant population of white, black and green ash trees in our park.

Our park encompasses approximately 216 acres, and is predominately forested. We have a wide variety of tree species throughout the park. In conjunction with the town preparedness and management initiative, an ash tree inventory was done along the forested trails of the park by Don Tobi, Jericho’s Tree Warden, in 2024.

His inventory identified over 350 healthy white, black and green ash trees that he described being in close proximity to the trails, and as such, of possible future concern to the park. Additionally, the tree warden deemed 30 ash trees as dying or already dead. Ash trees can become brittle when dead, potentially snapping off and falling, posing a hazard to park visitors.

Each year, throughout much of our 216 acres, the park sustains fallen trees of all species. Trees fall for a variety of reasons – they can be dead or decaying, wind-sheared, blow-downs, etc. They fall across our trails, they fall adjacent to our playing fields, and they fall in our open spaces and into the river.

The Jericho Underhill Park District board’s tree management practices are both reactive and proactive. We react to downed trees on our trails as quickly as possible to keep our trails open and safe. We proactively take down trees that we know are hazardous - the so-called “widow-makers” and “leaners”. Most recently, we hired, at tremendous expense, a tree service to remove sections of a very large cottonwood that we felt potentially threatened the pedestrian bridge.

Acting in a proactive manner, we hired the Town Tree Warden to mark the inventoried ash trees this spring. These ash trees will be marked with blue paint. The board will then be able to identify any ash trees that could pose a threat of falling on our trails.

As these plans firm up through the spring, the board will continue to communicate with the public on next steps.

For additional information about the Town of Jericho’s tree policies and EAB, please click on this link.