No easy solution

The forest looks broken.

And it’s going to be awhile before it mends itself.

The nature trail in Portland’s Hudson Family Park has been closed since the end of October after high winds took down dozens of dead ash trees that had fallen victim to the emerald ash borer.

“It’s just so dangerous,” said Jay County’s Ben Myron of Myron Terrain Management.

Myron, who has consulted with city parks superintendent Tom Leonhard on the problem, said there’s no simple way to address the fallen trees and the potential for more to come down.

“There’s still a lot of dead ash trees there,” said Leonhard.

High winds in September brought down many of the dead trees, and winter winds have felled even more since then.

“It’s not safe,” said Leonhard. “A lot of them are leaning over on other dead trees.”

While a city crew did some work with chainsaws to start to clear the trail, dead trees continued to come down. “We don’t need to go back there,” said Leonhard. 

“You’re not alone,” Myron said of the problem. “It’s spread all across the state.”

Emerald ash borer moved into this part of the United States about 2012, usually spread by the sale of firewood from infected areas. 

The result is that virtually any wooded area in Indiana has at least a few dead ash, and some — like the wooded area along the Salamonie River that is home to the nature trail — have more than their share.

Myron calls them “zombie trees.”

In the wintertime, it’s hard to detect whether a tree is dead or dormant. But with ash today, it’s a safe bet they are dead.

Cutting them down almost guarantees damage to other nearby trees, said Myron. 

And using excavators, as Myron’s Louisville-based company does, is expensive and not a particularly good fit for the nature trail woods.

“I can’t give you an answer as to what the city should do,” said Myron, other than closing the trail for public safety.

“They’ll just come down,” said Myron. “Let them rot in the woods.”

In other words, for now, let nature handle it.