HOULTON, Maine — Houlton’s historic Market Square experienced a makeover this past week as 44 green ash trees were removed from the downtown.
The tree removal project is part of a Canopy Grant the town received last spring to remove and replace the trees with ivory silk lilac trees.
“The problem with these (ash) trees is they only had a 15 to 20-year lifespan, and these are now 25 years old,” explained Jane Torres, executive director of the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce who also served on the town’s Canopy Grant committee. She also spent 15 years as a tree nursery manager.
Another problem, Torres said, is that the trees were never properly maintained.
“The trees are also supposed to be maintained on a yearly-basis by taking a third of the top off and pruning for shaping,” she said. “None of that was ever done.”
Torres added there was also the potential of the trees developing issues with emerald ash borer, an invasive species of green beetles that are highly destructive to ash trees. While there have been those who have expressed concerns over cutting down seemingly healthy looking trees, Torres said looks can be deceiving.
“What we have found was that while they may look healthy to people, they really were not,” she said. “A lot of them were diseased and limbs were starting to break off.”
During the first snowstorm of the season back on Nov. 2, one of the trees collapsed under the weight of the snow near the Temple Theatre.
Back in April, the town council postponed purchasing the new trees and removing the existing ones until an analysis could be done on how big of a process it would be to remove the root system of the ash trees. Several members of the town council, at that time, expressed concerns on how the trees root system may have spread under the street and sidewalk. When initially planted, the trees were placed into a catch basin to retain the root wall, but until one is actually dug up, the town has no way of knowing just how far reaching the roots are.
The town’s public works department cut down the trees, leaving about a three-foot trunk. Those stumps and the root balls were in the process of being removed Tuesday afternoon as the town has borrowed a piece of equipment from the city of Bath. The wood was taken to the town pit for disposal at a future time.
Houlton Town Manager Butch Asselin said originally the plan was to have the public works department cut the trees down sooner, but because of various projects — and the first major snow storm arriving Nov. 2 — they were unable to get to the trees until this past week.
“We also waited until now because we wanted people to be able to enjoy the fall foliage,” Asselin said.
Asselin said the plan is to order 24 ivory silk lilac trees in January so they can be planted in the early spring. Funds for the purchase will come from the Canopy Grant that the town received. Houlton received a grant of $8,000, provided it matches the grant.
“The one thing that has to happen is we need to keep the new trees trimmed so that they stay on the short side,” Torres added.