Assessing the Hazard of Emerald Ash Borer and Other Exotic Stressors to Community Forests

Exotic stressors such as emerald ash borer are an increasing concern to many communities across North America. One means of assessing the hazard these stressors may represent to a community’s publicly managed trees is through an inventory of their street trees. The South Dakota Division of Resource Conservation and Forestry conducted street tree inventories in selected communities across the state and, from these data, have placed communities into stability categories based on the percentage of full stocking that each genera represents within the street tree population. The majority of surveyed communities are in the low stability category as a result of the dominance of green ash in their street tree populations.