Clark Baston spent his childhood coming to the plot of ash trees along Route 9, cutting a path through the brush with his father to access the Royal River.

Over five decades later as North Yarmouth’s Public Works director, he was forced to cut them down.

“Pretty much every tree we picked, the bark popped off. There wasn’t a healthy one in the bunch,” said Baston, 64.

This week, North Yarmouth downed approximately 80 ash trees in Baston Park that were infected with the emerald ash borer, a highly invasive wood-boring beetle that was killing the trees.

The park was created in 2002 when Clark Baston’s parents Richard and Rosalyn Baston donated the land to the town. A small parcel located between the town’s larger Old Town House Park and Chandler Brook Preserve, it has been used by the public for fishing on the Royal River and picnicking in the shade of the ash trees. Now, stumps cover what is mostly an empty patch of grass.

“This park looks completely different,” said Laurie Gilman, co-chair of the North Yarmouth Parks Committee.

EMERALD INVASION

The emerald ash borer is a green beetle about half an inch in length. Native to Asia, it was first discovered in North America in the early 2000s and in Maine in 2018. The invasive insect has spread to nearly the entire state and was first detected in North Yarmouth in 2023, according to the Maine Forest Service.

The beetle damages ash trees by boring beneath the first layer of bark to lay eggs. When the larvae hatch, they eat away at the inner layer of bark that transports the tree’s water and nutrients. With its circulatory system cut off, the tree dies from the inside out as it dries over the course of two to five years.

As trees infested with emerald ash borer become increasingly brittle due to their water supply being cut off, they are more likely to drop limbs or topple in high winds. Removing them from Baston Park was a matter of public safety, said Gilman. Almost all of the trees in the park were ash and concentrated together in the recreation area.

The town was alerted in September by the Royal River Conservation Trust that the ash trees in Baston Park appeared to be infested. Consulting with the land trust and the state, the town decided to act quickly both for the safety of the public and surrounding ash trees.

“They’re dying, and the quicker you can get rid of it in one spot, the more chance you might have of the trees across the river still being okay,” said Gilman.

The extent that other ash trees in North Yarmouth have emerald ash borer beneath their bark has not been surveyed. While this is likely not the only infestation in town, the ash trees in other parks are more spread out from each other and isolated from foot traffic, so the town is not as concerned about people getting hit by them falling and will likely not have to remove any or as many.

The small crew of the Public Works Department took down, cut up and hauled the 80 trees over several days, with the help of Higgins Tree Service. As the trees came down, their bark fell off and revealed the intricate, curved paths that the emerald ash borer had burrowed into the wood.

THE FUTURE OF THE TREES

In addition to 15 truckloads of brush, the felled ash trees left up to 12 truckloads of logs. This became approximately three dozen cords of firewood for the Cumberland Wood Bank.

When the town was planning to cut down the trees, it wanted to donate the ash to the wood bank, which provides free firewood to residents in need much like a food bank.

Town staff said they got mixed messages from the state on whether repurposing the infested wood as firewood is advisable, but ultimately got the green light from the district forester to bring the ash to the wood bank.

While the Maine Forest Service has not developed specific guidelines for wood banks and invasive species, it advises that is it okay to burn firewood from ash trees that is infested by the emerald ash borer if precautions are taken to avoid spreading the insect. Guidelines include knowing where firewood comes from and ideally using wood harvested within 10 miles of where it will be burned, moving infested wood after Oct. 1 to reduce risk of spread during transport, and storing firewood away from living trees where possible.

“I’m just really glad we could clear it up,” said Rebecca Rundquist, leader of the Cumberland Wood Bank and founder of the Maine Wood Banks Network. “North Yarmouth was so responsive. They were totally on board once they got the go-ahead.”

The ash trunks will be cut into rounds and split and stacked by wood bank volunteers. After it dries for a year, the firewood will be delivered to residents of Cumberland, North Yarmouth, Falmouth, Gray and New Gloucester who request the heating assistance.

“At least it all goes back to the people of Cumberland and North Yarmouth,” said Gilman. “I’m trying to make lemonade.”

The three dozen cords of wood is the most that the Cumberland Wood Bank has ever received. Rundquist said she has been preparing for this quantity of trees since she first heard about the spread of the emerald ash borer across Maine. Through the Maine Wood Banks Network, Rundquist encourages towns across the state to create local wood banks, particularly in anticipation of high quantities of trees that will eventually have to come down in their community as a result of invasive species.

“I started this four years ago for this very reason, because I knew in four or five years we were going to have this windfall. We’re going to have an avalanche of wood available,” she said.

More local wood banks would mean that trees would not have to be transported as far to be turned into donated firewood, said Rundquist. This would lessen the amount of labor and energy required to distribute the heat resource and decrease the chance of emerald ash borer spreading more than it already has.

“The more it stays within the community it serves, the safer and better off we all are,” Rundquist said.

As for Baston Park, the town plans to plant a diversity of trees in the plot that are more resistant to invasive species, a common tactic after invasion to prevent another wipeout. As they have felled the trees this week, the Public Works staff and Parks Committee also collected seeds from ash trees that could potentially be replanted someday.

While the town is planning a future tree canopy for Baston Park, there is also a present reality: 80 fresh stumps, and a lot less shade.

“It’s going to be a different park for a while,” said Gilman.