Ash Tree Management

The Town of Jericho drafted a five-year plan for the town’s preparedness and management of Emerald Ash Borer infestation, dated April 2023, and recently updated it in January 2025. In that report, they cite Mills Riverside Park as having a significant population of white, black and green ash trees in our park.

Our park encompasses approximately 216 acres, and is predominately forested. We have a wide variety of tree species throughout the park. In conjunction with the town preparedness and management initiative, an ash tree inventory was done along the forested trails of the park by Don Tobi, Jericho’s Tree Warden, in 2024.

His inventory identified over 350 healthy white, black and green ash trees that he described being in close proximity to the trails, and as such, of possible future concern to the park. Additionally, the tree warden deemed 30 ash trees as dying or already dead. Ash trees can become brittle when dead, potentially snapping off and falling, posing a hazard to park visitors.

Each year, throughout much of our 216 acres, the park sustains fallen trees of all species. Trees fall for a variety of reasons – they can be dead or decaying, wind-sheared, blow-downs, etc. They fall across our trails, they fall adjacent to our playing fields, and they fall in our open spaces and into the river.

The Jericho Underhill Park District board’s tree management practices are both reactive and proactive. We react to downed trees on our trails as quickly as possible to keep our trails open and safe. We proactively take down trees that we know are hazardous - the so-called “widow-makers” and “leaners”. Most recently, we hired, at tremendous expense, a tree service to remove sections of a very large cottonwood that we felt potentially threatened the pedestrian bridge.

Acting in a proactive manner, we hired the Town Tree Warden to mark the inventoried ash trees this spring. These ash trees will be marked with blue paint. The board will then be able to identify any ash trees that could pose a threat of falling on our trails.

As these plans firm up through the spring, the board will continue to communicate with the public on next steps.

For additional information about the Town of Jericho’s tree policies and EAB, please click on this link.