Approximately 100 city-owned ash trees will be removed as part of a plan that was made in 2011, as a contingency should the Emerald Ash Borer make it to Oneida County.

Now that it has, as of last fall, the city plan is in effect. This week the city began the removals.

According to a DNR grant-funded inventory in 2011, there are 214 publicly owned ash trees bordering streets in Rhinelander. About 12 percent of all city boulevard trees.

Gunder Paulsen, City Parks Director, said the plan is to remove about half.

“We need to start doing some plantings, but to be honest, the main thing right now is some of these removals,” Paulsen said.

Some of the most hazardous trees have been removed in the past few years following the inventory, but now ash trees are the  priority.

“I’d rather get rid of some of them now, while there’s not such a mad rush to do it,” Paulsen said.