YELLOW SPRINGS-- A small bug is drastically changing landscapes in our area. Now hundreds of trees had to be cut down at John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs.
Grace Kline-Schultheiss and her husband along with their two dogs have been coming to the park for years. She couldn't believe what it looks like after 500 trees had to be cut down.
"I was absolutely devastated when I saw it about a month ago. I made him [my husband] turn around and leave. And like I said, it reminded me of a battlefield, you know limbs of trees everywhere and just stumps where there had been glorious trees," said Kline-Schultheiss.
The Emerald Ash Borer has destroyed trees across the state and experts do not see that trend reversing any time soon.
"I don't estimate or anticipate it will be a complete wipeout of the Ash species but large trees will eventually die and there will be young trees that grow but over time those will be infested too," said Gregg Maxfield, the District Forest Manager for the Findlay District Office in the Division of Forestry in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
Many of you have ash trees in your yard. Arborist Paul Burns says you have to keep a very close eye on them. Most can be saved if the beetles are caught early enough but if you do have a dead tree, don't wait to get it out of the ground.
"You want to have it removed within a year of the death of the tree. If you wait any longer than that you're running a risk of large limbs falling, or the tree failing which can cause a large amount of damage."
Back in John Bryan Park, the stumps will be ground down and about 100 trees will be replanted in the coming months.
"It will be fine with the nice little young trees but it's not like seeing these twisted, crazy, gnarled trees that have probably survived for a few centuries and they're just gone like that," said Kline-Schultheiss.