The emerald ash borer affects the economic structure of communities in a variety of ways, including having to have the ash trees removed, treated, and replaced. It has had a large impact on the baseball bat industry, because ash is the primary wood that is used in the creation of baseball bats. This has resulted in layoffs, increasing the unemployment rate. During our interview with a Naperville Park District employee, we asked her if the need for the ash trees to be treated and/or removed has created any jobs in the Naperville area. She said that as far as she knew, there had been no increase in jobs, as most city employees just helped with the ash trees instead of them hiring more workers. The treatment of Naperville ash trees is split between the City of Naperville and the Naperville Park District, so both offices provided information for the trees that they care for. The removal and replacement of ash trees costs around $800 per tree. With 15,000 of Naperville’s parkway trees being ash, it would cost them approximately $12,000,000 to remove and replace all of the ash trees. There is also an estimated 300,000 more ash trees on private property in Chicago alone. The treatments cost roughly $100 per year per tree, and, as we have said before, are not always effective. Even if they did work, it would still cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in the taxpayers’ money. In 2013, the City of Naperville treated 12,865 trees, with a total cost of approximately $515,000. |
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