In late August the Woodfield Board of Directors addressed this serious Ash trees issue by retaining Dave Leonard, certified arboris,t to evaluate both common area and individual homeowner Green Ash street trees for the purpose of providing us written corrective/treatment recommendations. If you are a homeowner with Green Ash trees (identified with green tape) you will find a detailed report/recommendation enclosed with this letter. (Certain homeowners on the upper end of Collinswood, on Laurelwood and Old Wood Court do not have Ash street trees)

 

The arborist has identified Ash trees they deem unworthy of the investment for being treated with red tape on them. These trees are therefore recommended to be removed and replaced.

Again, Ash trees with green tape only are treatable and worthy of the treatment investment.

 

Here are the next steps: Trees in the common areas are the responsibility of the Association and the treatment details will be handled by the WHOA board of directors. The removal and replacement or treatment and maintenance of homeowner street trees are each property owner’s responsibility.

 

Treatable Trees. The WHOA board of directors strongly urges that property owners contract only with a certified arborist to treat and maintain these trees. We have already seen landscape/mowing companies and others soliciting to treat these trees, however we recommend Woodfield Homeowners hire only certified arborist for the treatment. Very important, treatment must be done by late October, 2009 or early spring, 2010 in order to prevent irreversible damage from the Emerald Ash Borer! It is likely that another treatment will be necessary in 2012.

 

--Untreatable Trees. If and when these trees die out, they must be replaced within one year according to certain species type and planting guidelines from LFUCG. Very important, the LFUCG Tree Removal ordinance, 17.3B requires you have a permit for both removal and replacement of street trees. (Read the full ordinance on www.woodfieldowners.com)

 

The WHOA board of directors plans to review the list of LFUCG approved tree list and develop a policy to share with the membership after the January 2010 annual meeting of homeowners. If you have a tree needing to be removed feel free to shop for your best deal with tree services however make sure they grind the stump to no less than 2 feet deep in order to allow for ample depth for the root dirt ball of the replacement tree.

 

The recommendations for your individual street trees include two estimates for removal and stump grinding: one from Dave Leonard 859-252-2529 and a second from Tree Pro 859-294-4457. Note: WHOA utilized Tree Pro twice in 2008-2008 for common area tree removals and found them to have the lowest price and great service.

 

The green tape was placed on your street Ash trees to help you have identify them and may be removed as you see fit. We recommend leaving the red tape as a reminder until the trees have been removed.

 

For your information we will post Dave Leonard’s complete spreadsheet with all homeowners tree conditions on www.woodfieldowners.com and We will continue to post information about this issue on the website and in a hard-copy newsletter to be published in October.

 

Sincerely,

 

Woodfield Homes Association Board of Directors