DuPage County taxpayers will pay at least part of the cost of removing and destroying trees in an unincorporated area of the county that has been infested with the Asian longhorn beetle.
County Board members agreed without debate Tuesday to pledge up to $30,000 for what they hope will be a coordinated effort with other public agencies to eradicate the beetle in DuPage. Board members also called for federal and state legislation that would prevent future infestations.
Board member Roger Jenisch (R-Bloomingdale), who sponsored the move, said public funding would help ensure that the trees are removed quickly and effectively. The county would risk a spread of the beetles if responsibility for removing trees is left to private property owners, he said.
Federal and state agriculture officials imposed a quarantine on about a mile-square area in unincorporated DuPage near Addison after the white-speckled black pest was discovered late last month in about 20 trees. It is one of three such quarantine areas that have been declared in the Chicago area.
The quarantine zones are intended to prevent the spread of the beetle until the infected trees can be cut down and burned.
Authorities recommend that the trees be removed and destroyed after Dec. 1 when adult beetles have died and larvae are dormant.
The insect was discovered first in the Ravenswood neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has said the city will pay for the removal of trees on private and public property in the Ravenswood area.
In DuPage, the county’s Highway Department will take the lead in seeking bids for removal of the trees, Jenisch said.
Nearly all of the infected trees in DuPage are on private property, and Jenisch said tree removal would cost homeowners about $750 a tree without county aid.
