The City of Portage la Prairie is proceeding to spend about $21,000 to remove a number of Dutch Elm Diseased (DED) trees over the next year.

At its meeting earlier this week, council voted to proceed to tender for the removal of 42 DED trees on both public and privately owned property.

Under the Community Forest Grant agreement with the province, the city is responsible for all provincially marked Dutch Elm Diseased (DED) trees. The province issued a list of 75 trees within the city for removal over the next year. Thirty-nine of those trees fall on private property, and the city must remove them to receive provincial funding of $181 per tree for all the DED trees. That amount doesn't cover even half of the projected cost per tree. Administration's report estimates costs will be up to $500 per tree -- contributing to the tender estimate of $21,500.

Mayor Irvine Ferris says Dutch Elm is an insidious disease that needs to be dealt with, but the province needs to help alleviate the cost burden on municipalities. The previous NDP provincial government moved to offload DED tree removal costs onto to municipalities, Ferris explains.

"Doing nothing is not a choice, if you do nothing the diseased trees we have will further affect our urban forests and trees on private property," Mayor Ferris says. "Because of the costs that were downloaded, the (Association of Manitoba Municipalities) is still in discussions with the new provincial government, and we're hoping to get a better deal on fighting this disease."

"It's not only our community, there are a number of communities in Manitoba that are affected by this."

There is currently no city budget allotted to DOD removal, administration's report says, and it will include the need for specialized staff, equipment rental, climbing gear and saws. Many of the private trees identified for removal require tree climbers with specialized training that no city employee has, requiring the work to be contracted out.

Further, the report says the city will not be responsible for the removal of stumps from privately-owned DED trees, as it's not part of the Community Forest Grant agreement with the province. Also, the city will not be responsible for the cleaning and restoration of private yards -- including remaining wood chips, bark and damage to lawns -- as it proceeds with the DED removal program.