Photo by Deb Gau Marshall city workers take down a tree with a rotten, hollow trunk along part of Saratoga Street last week. On the same day, the crew also removed four ash trees infested by emerald ash bore

MARSHALL — Most area residents might think of winter as a season for snow removal. But for Marshall city workers, it’s also a time to do tree maintenance.

Last week, part of Saratoga Street was temporarily closed, while crews cut down several trees in the city right of way. The removals included one tree with a rotten trunk, and four ash trees affected by emerald ash borer.

“It went very well. We had everything on the ground by noon,” said David Callens, lead maintenance worker with the city of Marshall.

So far, Marshall has removed close to 200 ash trees on public property, said Marshall Parks Superintendent Preston Stensrud and Public Ways Superintendent Dean Coudron. But there are still a lot of trees at risk from emerald ash borer. There are more than 1,700 ash trees on public property in Marshall, Stensrud said.

“I would estimate we have close to 6,500 ash trees in total, including private property,” he said.

Stensrud said the city has worked on replacing ash trees in the parks over the past few years, even before emerald ash borer was confirmed in Marshall in 2023.

“We have removed 130 ash trees in the parks in the last three years and planted over 300 new trees. We have close to 700 ash trees remaining in the parks,” Stensrud said.

So far, the Marshall street department has also removed 68 ash trees, said Coudron. In addition to removing ash trees, city crews have also taken out four other trees that were dead.

The city had done work to cut down dead or dying ash trees along other segments of Saratoga Street and Sixth Street last spring.

City crews do tree removals in the winter when conditions allow. It’s partly because that’s when they have more time to do the work, Callens said. In the case of ash trees infested by emerald ash borer, it’s also important to remove them during the cold months, when the beetles are less active. Callens said the city doesn’t remove ash trees between April and October.

The options for fighting emerald ash borer include removing ash trees, or treating them with an insecticide that protects them from emerald ash borer. The treatments need to be repeated every couple of years.

While the city has been working to remove ash trees damaged by emerald ash borer, it has also tried to help residents with ash trees on private property. In October, Marshall launched a program to reimburse eligible residents for some of the cost of removing ash trees or planting new trees. Residents could be reimbursed for up to $100 of the price of a new tree, or up to $200 of the cost of removal. The program was funded by a roughly $329,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

As of Tuesday, the city has reimbursed residents for 28 ash tree removals, and the planting of 17 new trees, Stensrud said.

“We have been getting a lot of phone calls and emails, so I think this program will take off,” Stensrud said.

Stensrud said the city had funds to help with 400 ash tree removals and planting 800 new trees.