Wausau committee weighs EAB removals, planting shortfalls and street-construction impacts on canopy

WAUSAU — The Wausau Parks and Recreation Committee on Tuesday reviewed the city’s emerald ash borer management plan, recent tree removals and injections, a three-year planting grant and how street reconstruction projects are affecting the urban canopy.

City Forester John Kehan told the committee the department has tracked 1,695 ash trees removed since about late 2019 and currently inventories about 3,317 ash trees in the city. “So we've taken down 1,695 ash trees that we've tracked since roughly late 2019,” Kehan said. He said the city has been removing roughly 800–900 trees a year and is injecting fewer ash trees as removals rise; injection counts cited in the meeting were 873 in 2022, 948 in 2023 and 742 in the most recent year.

Kehan said the city aims to follow a 12- to 15-year removal-and-replacement timeframe and is aiming for the shorter 12-year schedule to give flexibility if removals must be delayed. He described the city’s planting program and a recent grant award: contractor Legacy Trees will plant 415 trees under a bid the city accepted, with 180 planted in spring and the remainder planned for the fall. “We plant 415 trees. So they actually came back really well priced. They put in 180 this spring,” Kehan said.

Parks staff and Kehan acknowledged a persistent gap between removals and new trees. Kehan summarized the program’s annual capacity as roughly 525–540 plantings versus 800–900 removals, and staff identified constrained budget and project-driven removals as the main causes. Jamie (staff) said the planting budget "hasn't been increased in the last couple of budget cycles," a factor in why plantings lag removals.

Engineering project engineer TJ Niknish described how typical street reconstruction processes remove trees. He said city design practice calls for excavating roughly 1 foot behind the back of curb to stabilize the curb base and roadbed — a standard that reduces space for tree roots and can make large trees hard to save. “The reason why we go 1 foot behind the curb…that's actually in our design and has nothing to do with the contractor,” Niknish said, adding that some curb-laying machines themselves may require only about 6 inches but that the additional backfill helps protect curb and pavement integrity.

Niknish also listed countermeasures the city has added to projects, including a roughly 14-foot plastic root barrier at tree sites and site-by-site assessment with the forester to determine whether specific large trees can be retained. He said decisions often are case-by-case and that narrower boulevards, utility locations and required road widths (the city ordinance notes residential streets should be between 33 and 37 feet at the back of curb) limit options.

Several alder members urged more front-end coordination between parks/forestry and infrastructure staff during design. Alder Neal recounted multiple recent blocks on Fulton Street where many trees were removed and asked whether decisions could be more targeted. “Out of like 18 trees on that block, if 6 were saved, we would have had some semblance of the character of that block maintained,” Neal said, and asked for a report on the 600 block of Fulton to explain why 18 trees were removed.

Committee members discussed practical constraints and next steps rather than taking formal action. Engineering and forestry staff agreed to pursue more preconstruction coordination, review particularly controversial projects on a site-by-site basis and bring proposals or reports back to the infrastructure committee as appropriate. TJ said the design team and the forester will ride project corridors together on contested sites and, where feasible, consider hand-formed curb or other nonstandard construction to save individual trees.

The committee also discussed timing: staff explained that public-works and contractor schedules sometimes lead to trees being cut in advance of construction and that replacement planting often occurs in the following planting season. Niknish said crews sometimes cut trees in winter and plant the following spring; staff acknowledged that gap and cited budget and planting seasonality as factors.

No formal votes were taken on forestry policy during the meeting. Committee members requested follow-up information, including a site report on the Fulton Street removals and continued work to coordinate designs so the city can better evaluate which trees can be preserved during reconstruction.

Next steps noted on the record: engineering and forestry staff will expand project-specific preconstruction consultation, the committee will consider resurrecting earlier multiagency design guidance and staff will report back to the infrastructure committee and Parks and Recreation Committee as new options or audits are completed.