New grant will pay for ash tree removal in Minneapolis
Minneapolis will distribute $8 million to help residents with ash tree removal. But there’s no relief for homeowners who’ve already had trees condemned.
Amoke Kubat, pictured in her north Minneapolis backyard in October 2023, is paying for $6,000 in ash tree removal costs through her property taxes.
Dymanh Chhoun | Sahan Journal
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Audio transcript
INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about trees for just a moment, if we could please. The graceful canopy of trees in the Minneapolis, Saint Paul area is sorely lacking in some places. In Saint Paul, some 30,000 ash trees have been removed to stop the infestation of emerald ash borer. The Minneapolis Park Board has condemned more than 18,000 ash trees since 2013, more are on the way.
Much of the time, the cost is passed on to homeowners. But the city of Minneapolis has received $8 million in federal money that will help offset the cost for some. Not everyone is happy about this though. Andrew Hazzard has been covering this story. He's an environmental reporter for Sahan Journal. Welcome back to the show, Andrew. How are you been? How have you been?
ANDREW HAZZARD: I've been well. Thank you so much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Good, thanks for being here. So folks may or may not be familiar with the situation revolving around the emerald ash borer, this insect that's been around now for a number of years in the infestation of ash trees has been pretty severe in the Twin Cities metro area. Where do we stand right now with this fight?
ANDREW HAZZARD: That's a good question. So the situation with the emerald ash borer in the broader Metropolitan area is basically that cities across the metro are doing their best to either cut or treat almost every ash tree that's in the public right of way in the area. So that means if it's in a public park, it probably got cut down. If it's on your sidewalk street, it's probably been cut down by the city.
And if it's in a private property, many cities are either condemning these ash trees, which means that they're basically forcing the homeowners to remove those ash trees. Or they're asking homeowners to get a treatment for the ash tree, which is basically like plugging an IV into your tree every couple of years with an insecticide to prevent the green beetle from taking root and killing the tree ultimately.
So in terms of where we're at numbers wise with this, that is sort of unknown there are some rough estimates here. As you mentioned, Saint Paul has cut down about 30,000 trees. Minneapolis cut down about 40,000 trees in the public right of way. And they have since condemned, as you said, about 18,000 trees on private property.
But in terms of getting a full account of all this ash trees, they really don't have one because in Minnesota we are in a rich ash tree environment here. And the state DNR estimates that there were, at the beginning of all this, a billion ash trees across the state.
INTERVIEWER: Wow. So it feels though, just given the numbers you've given us just in the metro area, there can't be that many trees left to infect, at least in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Maybe, it seems like that. But there are estimates roughly that there could be upwards of 20,000 trees left in Minneapolis that have not been condemned at this point. And that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not infected yet, but it means that no one has gone around to say this is probably infected and condemned it. But the rough estimates out there are just that, they're rough.
INTERVIEWER: Help me out here. I'm old enough to remember when the elm trees fell to Dutch elm disease. Were ash trees planted in their stead?
ANDREW HAZZARD: Oftentimes yes. So this has been a learning process for the arborist community. And as you mentioned, in the 70s and 80s, there was a mass infestation of elm trees. Dutch elm disease is what was causing this. And they cut down these elm trees throughout the metro. Tons, and tons, and tons of trees were cut down.
And when they replaced those trees, they would often do it block by block, and say, on this block, we're going to do maples. On this block, we're going to do ash. And on many of those blocks that they replanted them all with ash trees, we've seen those same blocks get totally decimated and clear cut basically in response to this infectious disease.
And so when you talk to the arborist community today, when they're replanting or when they're planting trees on public property, they're trying their best to mix up the species. So that in theory if another invasive species or another disease comes along that the impact won't be quite as drastic. But as you mentioned, yes, there are several blocks that got their elm trees cut down. 30 years later, their ash trees are getting cut down. And hopefully, this doesn't happen with the maple trees.
INTERVIEWER: Well it's just so sad to see. So as I mentioned in my intro, the cost to take these trees down tends to fall to the property owners, which is a lot of money, my gosh. And I'm sure it depends on how big the tree is.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Yeah, it's a ton of money. So the average price of a condemned ash tree removal in the city of Minneapolis is around $1,500, but that can vary widely. I talked to several people who are paying much more than that for this story. And you can find in the data tree condemnations that were upwards of eight, $7,000, huge expenses.
And as you said, of course, the size of the tree matters a lot. The bigger the tree, the more equipment, the more manpower is needed to take this tree down. What happens if the tree is near a power line? What happens if you have to go around a fence? All these other little things that can factor in and build up to a massive cost being passed along to these homeowners.
And when they do these condemned trees, at least in the city of Minneapolis, they have a contractor come out. And they cut down this tree, but they don't remove the stump. And stump grinding itself, that sounds extremely boring, I realize, stump grinding. But stump grinding is super, super expensive and cumbersome. So this is a lot of money that we're talking about that people have to take.
INTERVIEWER: So this new federal money is a big deal. So who's eligible to get it?
ANDREW HAZZARD: That's right. So this money is coming out of the Inflation Reduction Act through the US Forestry Service, the city of Minneapolis got $8 million for this grant to help people. And this grant is specifically to help ash tree removals in federal environmental justice areas. That means neighborhoods that have a history of pollution, or industrial activity neighborhoods that have a significant population of residents of color, neighborhoods that have lower incomes in those areas.
So in Minneapolis, that map sort of looks out is that the vast majority of North Minneapolis is on that, there are parts of Northeast that are on that. sections of South Minneapolis kind of in the 35 Hiawatha area are part of that. So all told it's roughly about 35% to 40% geographically of the city of Minneapolis.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, so have you heard from homeowners who are upset about this program?
ANDREW HAZZARD: Yes, and it's not necessarily that they are upset about this program. But they are feeling like, I already have this on my bill. So the way that this condemnation has worked so far, someone shows up they document that you've got an ash tree. And they say, oh, we're seeing signs that this disease that might look like easy woodpecker damage, that might look like thinning canopy. And they are going to condemn the tree.
People might see a big, green X on the tree. And they leave a little door hanger that says, you've got 60 days to either hire a contractor to do this on your own. Or if you cannot do that, we will send somebody out a private company that bids on these tree removals to do it for you. And we will assess that onto your property taxes. And this was traditionally done with just a five year assessment blanket, five year assessment for everybody. That since changed with more options for 10 and 20 years.
But the point is, if you have an expensive tree removal, or if you've got more than one ash tree, and all of a sudden you've got this $6,000, $7,000 assessment on your bill that's being paid off over five years, people are basically adding $100 to $300 more on their monthly cost just to take care of this problem that they might not even have been aware of. And that basically taking care of that is committing to this public good, which is trying to prevent these trees from dying, and collapsing, and potentially hurting somebody, or damaging property, and that sort of thing.
So it's not that they're mad that this new federal money is available. They're glad that their neighbors and whatnot might be able to benefit from this program. But they're saying, well, what about us? And what the city has been told by the federal government is that they can't use this retroactively.
And so there is an effort ongoing right now from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board where they're trying to seek out philanthropic partners potentially to help people who are already paying this off. But they don't really have a good solution for people who are stuck with this on their bills currently.
INTERVIEWER: OK, I got it. It's a little complicated, but I understand. So some of these homeowners, are they going to be replanting new trees? Or is that left up to the city of Minneapolis?
ANDREW HAZZARD: So the federal grant pays for replanting. And the city has said that for these new homes and these new tree removals that come under this federal grant that they are going to be planting one to two trees to replace those trees. Now for the 18,000 or so people who have already been had trees condemned on their property or cut down, there was no free tree planting for them or anything like that.
And planting a tree, much like removing a tree, can be more expensive than you think. You might have to call before you dig number, which is everyone's greatest fear. And it's not that simple, unfortunately. And so there will be replanting with this new one. But in terms of replacing those 18,000 trees on private property that have already been lost, there's no real tally of how much people are replanting.
And as you mentioned, people might be apprehensive about replanting, thinking, am I just planting a 20 year bomb to get a new bill on my house, if some new infectious disease or invasive species comes through? I talked to a woman for this story who has had seven trees on her property condemned over the past 20 years, due to Dutch Elm and emerald ash borer disease.
INTERVIEWER: Wow.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Why would that woman want to plant more trees on her property, which is a really sad thing to say, because trees are very good for us, and for the air, and for the storm water runoff, and for providing cooling benefits, and just being nice things. So it's unfortunate that many people are in this really negative bind here.
INTERVIEWER: Interesting story. I really appreciate the backstory to this and the context nicely done. Thank you, Andrew.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Thank you very much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Andrew Hazzard is the environmental reporter for Sahan Journal. Sahan is a nonprofit digital publication dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. You can read Andrew's reporting at sahanjournal.com.
Much of the time, the cost is passed on to homeowners. But the city of Minneapolis has received $8 million in federal money that will help offset the cost for some. Not everyone is happy about this though. Andrew Hazzard has been covering this story. He's an environmental reporter for Sahan Journal. Welcome back to the show, Andrew. How are you been? How have you been?
ANDREW HAZZARD: I've been well. Thank you so much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Good, thanks for being here. So folks may or may not be familiar with the situation revolving around the emerald ash borer, this insect that's been around now for a number of years in the infestation of ash trees has been pretty severe in the Twin Cities metro area. Where do we stand right now with this fight?
ANDREW HAZZARD: That's a good question. So the situation with the emerald ash borer in the broader Metropolitan area is basically that cities across the metro are doing their best to either cut or treat almost every ash tree that's in the public right of way in the area. So that means if it's in a public park, it probably got cut down. If it's on your sidewalk street, it's probably been cut down by the city.
And if it's in a private property, many cities are either condemning these ash trees, which means that they're basically forcing the homeowners to remove those ash trees. Or they're asking homeowners to get a treatment for the ash tree, which is basically like plugging an IV into your tree every couple of years with an insecticide to prevent the green beetle from taking root and killing the tree ultimately.
So in terms of where we're at numbers wise with this, that is sort of unknown there are some rough estimates here. As you mentioned, Saint Paul has cut down about 30,000 trees. Minneapolis cut down about 40,000 trees in the public right of way. And they have since condemned, as you said, about 18,000 trees on private property.
But in terms of getting a full account of all this ash trees, they really don't have one because in Minnesota we are in a rich ash tree environment here. And the state DNR estimates that there were, at the beginning of all this, a billion ash trees across the state.
INTERVIEWER: Wow. So it feels though, just given the numbers you've given us just in the metro area, there can't be that many trees left to infect, at least in Minneapolis and Saint Paul.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Maybe, it seems like that. But there are estimates roughly that there could be upwards of 20,000 trees left in Minneapolis that have not been condemned at this point. And that doesn't necessarily mean that they're not infected yet, but it means that no one has gone around to say this is probably infected and condemned it. But the rough estimates out there are just that, they're rough.
INTERVIEWER: Help me out here. I'm old enough to remember when the elm trees fell to Dutch elm disease. Were ash trees planted in their stead?
ANDREW HAZZARD: Oftentimes yes. So this has been a learning process for the arborist community. And as you mentioned, in the 70s and 80s, there was a mass infestation of elm trees. Dutch elm disease is what was causing this. And they cut down these elm trees throughout the metro. Tons, and tons, and tons of trees were cut down.
And when they replaced those trees, they would often do it block by block, and say, on this block, we're going to do maples. On this block, we're going to do ash. And on many of those blocks that they replanted them all with ash trees, we've seen those same blocks get totally decimated and clear cut basically in response to this infectious disease.
And so when you talk to the arborist community today, when they're replanting or when they're planting trees on public property, they're trying their best to mix up the species. So that in theory if another invasive species or another disease comes along that the impact won't be quite as drastic. But as you mentioned, yes, there are several blocks that got their elm trees cut down. 30 years later, their ash trees are getting cut down. And hopefully, this doesn't happen with the maple trees.
INTERVIEWER: Well it's just so sad to see. So as I mentioned in my intro, the cost to take these trees down tends to fall to the property owners, which is a lot of money, my gosh. And I'm sure it depends on how big the tree is.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Yeah, it's a ton of money. So the average price of a condemned ash tree removal in the city of Minneapolis is around $1,500, but that can vary widely. I talked to several people who are paying much more than that for this story. And you can find in the data tree condemnations that were upwards of eight, $7,000, huge expenses.
And as you said, of course, the size of the tree matters a lot. The bigger the tree, the more equipment, the more manpower is needed to take this tree down. What happens if the tree is near a power line? What happens if you have to go around a fence? All these other little things that can factor in and build up to a massive cost being passed along to these homeowners.
And when they do these condemned trees, at least in the city of Minneapolis, they have a contractor come out. And they cut down this tree, but they don't remove the stump. And stump grinding itself, that sounds extremely boring, I realize, stump grinding. But stump grinding is super, super expensive and cumbersome. So this is a lot of money that we're talking about that people have to take.
INTERVIEWER: So this new federal money is a big deal. So who's eligible to get it?
ANDREW HAZZARD: That's right. So this money is coming out of the Inflation Reduction Act through the US Forestry Service, the city of Minneapolis got $8 million for this grant to help people. And this grant is specifically to help ash tree removals in federal environmental justice areas. That means neighborhoods that have a history of pollution, or industrial activity neighborhoods that have a significant population of residents of color, neighborhoods that have lower incomes in those areas.
So in Minneapolis, that map sort of looks out is that the vast majority of North Minneapolis is on that, there are parts of Northeast that are on that. sections of South Minneapolis kind of in the 35 Hiawatha area are part of that. So all told it's roughly about 35% to 40% geographically of the city of Minneapolis.
INTERVIEWER: Wow, so have you heard from homeowners who are upset about this program?
ANDREW HAZZARD: Yes, and it's not necessarily that they are upset about this program. But they are feeling like, I already have this on my bill. So the way that this condemnation has worked so far, someone shows up they document that you've got an ash tree. And they say, oh, we're seeing signs that this disease that might look like easy woodpecker damage, that might look like thinning canopy. And they are going to condemn the tree.
People might see a big, green X on the tree. And they leave a little door hanger that says, you've got 60 days to either hire a contractor to do this on your own. Or if you cannot do that, we will send somebody out a private company that bids on these tree removals to do it for you. And we will assess that onto your property taxes. And this was traditionally done with just a five year assessment blanket, five year assessment for everybody. That since changed with more options for 10 and 20 years.
But the point is, if you have an expensive tree removal, or if you've got more than one ash tree, and all of a sudden you've got this $6,000, $7,000 assessment on your bill that's being paid off over five years, people are basically adding $100 to $300 more on their monthly cost just to take care of this problem that they might not even have been aware of. And that basically taking care of that is committing to this public good, which is trying to prevent these trees from dying, and collapsing, and potentially hurting somebody, or damaging property, and that sort of thing.
So it's not that they're mad that this new federal money is available. They're glad that their neighbors and whatnot might be able to benefit from this program. But they're saying, well, what about us? And what the city has been told by the federal government is that they can't use this retroactively.
And so there is an effort ongoing right now from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board where they're trying to seek out philanthropic partners potentially to help people who are already paying this off. But they don't really have a good solution for people who are stuck with this on their bills currently.
INTERVIEWER: OK, I got it. It's a little complicated, but I understand. So some of these homeowners, are they going to be replanting new trees? Or is that left up to the city of Minneapolis?
ANDREW HAZZARD: So the federal grant pays for replanting. And the city has said that for these new homes and these new tree removals that come under this federal grant that they are going to be planting one to two trees to replace those trees. Now for the 18,000 or so people who have already been had trees condemned on their property or cut down, there was no free tree planting for them or anything like that.
And planting a tree, much like removing a tree, can be more expensive than you think. You might have to call before you dig number, which is everyone's greatest fear. And it's not that simple, unfortunately. And so there will be replanting with this new one. But in terms of replacing those 18,000 trees on private property that have already been lost, there's no real tally of how much people are replanting.
And as you mentioned, people might be apprehensive about replanting, thinking, am I just planting a 20 year bomb to get a new bill on my house, if some new infectious disease or invasive species comes through? I talked to a woman for this story who has had seven trees on her property condemned over the past 20 years, due to Dutch Elm and emerald ash borer disease.
INTERVIEWER: Wow.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Why would that woman want to plant more trees on her property, which is a really sad thing to say, because trees are very good for us, and for the air, and for the storm water runoff, and for providing cooling benefits, and just being nice things. So it's unfortunate that many people are in this really negative bind here.
INTERVIEWER: Interesting story. I really appreciate the backstory to this and the context nicely done. Thank you, Andrew.
ANDREW HAZZARD: Thank you very much for having me.
INTERVIEWER: Andrew Hazzard is the environmental reporter for Sahan Journal. Sahan is a nonprofit digital publication dedicated to reporting for immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota. You can read Andrew's reporting at sahanjournal.com.
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