The city of Mexico has many Ash trees within its park system but will all change over the next couple of years due to an invasive beetle that’s destroying the species.

Parks and Recreation Director Chad Shoemaker talked about the issue and what the city is doing at a park board meeting on July 10. Recently the department had to take some old dead wood out of Ash trees in Hardin Park. The problem also persists at Green Estates Park.

Shoemaker said the city has known about the Emerald Ash Borer beetle’s arrival in the city for a few years. He said to expect the pest’s damage to accelerate this year.

“As you look around the system you’re going to see a lot of green ash trees starting to look rough pretty fast as the summer proceeds,” Shoemaker said. “The Ash bore is definitely here now.”

Shoemaker said the trees are showing signs called “blonding” where the tree’s bark starts to fall off. The beetle lays its eggs under the bark of the trees. Woodpeckers end up removing a lot of the bark trying to get to the larvae.

Many of the trees will have to come all the way down this fall. He said a lot of the preliminary work has been completed and they will start marking the trees that need to come down.

“It is going to be a fairly good size of material coming down,” Shoemaker said. “When we start putting all of the orange Xs on things everybody will know why.”

Shoemaker said his department has heard complaints because removing the trees isn’t popular, especially when some of the trees appear still alive. He said there are many reasons for removing the trees including safety and saving money in the long run.

“There’s going to be some people who are upset and asking, ‘Why are you taking down that tree it’s still alive,’” Shoemaker said. “As those trees sit on the landscape and they get dryer and dryer they get more dangerous to remove. We want to protect our staff and our taxpayers’ bottom line and get those out of the system.”