Litchfield trees have had a rough decade.

A June 2001 wind storm felled more than a thousand trees throughout the city of Litchfield. Last summer, Litchfield Public Works employees cut down 225 elm trees along city boulevards, all infested with Dutch elm disease.

Now, a new disease could threaten Litchfield’s ash tree population.

Litchfield City Council members agreed Monday to take a proactive approach and protect its ash trees by forming a committee to study a response to the emerald ash borer threat.

After reviewing information provided in the council packet, council member Connie Lies suggested the city form the committee to develop a strategy to deal with emerald ash borer before it strikes.

“I’m afraid if we wait much longer we won’t need a plan,” Lies said. “It will be an emergency response. This will be ugly and this will come.”

Emerald ash borer is an exotic beetle from Asia discovered feeding on ash trees in southeastern Michigan in July 2002. Borer larvae tunnel and feed between the wood and bark, disrupting the tree’s transportation of nutrients and water, eventually killing off branches and the tree.

Since 2002, the emerald ash borer has killed more than 20 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. While it has yet to be discovered in Minnesota, the state has the third largest volume of ash timber in the nation, as ash trees were used extensively to replace elms lost to Dutch elm disease in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Read more about emerald ash borer and why the city plans to defend against it in the Nov. 8 Independent Review.