Arbor Day of Service is all about the trees

March 30, 2014 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Kurtis Magnello watched with pride as overgrown branches and limbs crashed to the grounds of Wick Park, courtesy of professional foresters who volunteered their services Saturday morning.

Magnello, a board-certified master arborist from Warren, spearheaded the Youngstown Arbor Day of Service in which his fellow professionals applied their skills to a park desperately in need of them, at no cost to the city. This is the second-consecutive year he has organized the day of free service after seeing similar volunteer efforts in other cities.

“We’ve got some really experienced guys here today,” said Magnello about the group of 14 professionals who brought their bucket trucks, chain saws and other gear. “We hope to trim from 15 to 20 trees, and that’s a job that would have cost the city anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000,” Magnello said.

Dave Sturtz, the city’s only paid forester, said Youngstown employs just one crew to trim all of its trees, so Saturday’s turnout was more than welcome.

“This is a tremendous amount of help because there is a lot of work that has to be done in Wick Park,” said Sturtz, who trimmed dead wood and sawed limbs from high atop a bucket truck along Fifth Avenue.

Crews maintained constant communication between the “climbers” — the men in the buckets — and the ground teams. Sturtz said the use of rope and rigging was necessary to prevent injuries or damage to property, such as sidewalks. Many of the larger and heavier limbs were secured by rope and gradually lowered to the ground.

Though the oak trees in Wick Park generally are in good shape, according to the foresters, the same cannot be said for the ash trees, which already are being victimized by the emerald ash borer infestation, a condition always fatal to the tree. The volunteers discovered the infestation has spread to Wick Park.

“Once it starts, it’s done,” said Otis Gordon of Boardman, a forester with Adams Tree Preservation of Bessemer, Pa., one of the companies that volunteered its services. Gordon pointed out a sure sign of infestation, an S-shaped line in the bark of the first ash tree the group inspected.

“That line comes from the larvae, and there’s no way to stop it,” Gordon said. “This tree will have to be cut down or it will eventually fall over.” Magnello said the park’s remaining ash trees likely would fall victim to the EAB as well.

“You’ve got to do this before insects become active, so now is the best time to get started,” Magnello said.

The master arborist said he and his fellow foresters plan to offer another voluntary day of service next year.

“This is green infrastructure for cities,” Magnello said. “Consider it a cost investment.”