Emerald Ash Borer

EMERALD ASH BORER

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is an invasive insect pest of ash trees. It attacks all species of North American ash trees, which are very common in Central Minnesota. Stearns County is home to nearly 16 million ash trees.

Since 2019, the Cooperative has identified thousands of infested and dead ash trees in pockets of our service territory and we anticipate that number to climb quickly over the next several years. Because the recent infestation is so serious and expected to get worse, Stearns Electric needs to update its policies regarding Right-of-Way (ROW) tree clearing and infested ash trees. If we don’t take these steps now, it will become very costly for the Cooperative and our member-owners.

Learn more with these additional resources:

TREE CLEARING POLICIES:

Stearns Electric will continue its normal four-year vegetation management tree-clearing cycle, which clears danger trees and brush out of the ROW distance.

However, if an ash tree is identified as at least 30% infested or dead within the normal ROW or outside of the normal ROW but is a threat to our primary power lines, our clearing crews will top (or cut) the tree to below our power lines. The remaining tree and cleanup are left to the property owner to take care of.

Trees that are infested and identified as a threat to our secondary power lines, even if in the ROW distance, will be the responsibility of the property owner.

In some cases, Stearns Electric will offer to temporarily drop the primary or secondary power lines to allow property owners or their tree contractor to safely remove trees that are outside the normal ROW clearing distance.

Please note: our arborist will attempt to contact all property owners at least three times before any trees are removed on member property.

Contact the Cooperative at (800) 962-0655 during regular business hours or email our arborist with any questions.