End of the ash?

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There's no stopping the emerald ash borer, from the looks of things. Wisconsin has declared next week Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week to try to stop the little critter that's killing ash trees. But it's already ripped through Wisconsin and has arrived, reports today say, in St. Paul.

From the looks of things, efforts to slow the spread of the killer insect don't do much good once it's already in the vicinity. Most of the tips involve not moving firewood from one area to another. But the emerald ash border can fly about a half mile from a tree it infects.

So those of us with ash trees wait and consider whether we should just get the heartbreak over with and chop it down now.

There are treatments that homeowners can use for smaller ash trees, but it takes more than two years to treat larger trees and we may not have that much time.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has a checklist you can use if you think your tree has become infested. The experts say the dieback starts in the top third of your tree.

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