The city is offering to treat ash trees on private property for free as part of Montreal's ongoing battle against the emerald ash borer.
Native to Asia, the green beetle has already destroyed 28,000 local trees and cost the city $19 million.
A massive cull had to take place on Mount Royal last year to rid the insect from the landscape.
The city is hoping it won't be the case on private property as well, instead aiming to treat trees against the invasive bug.
“To tell you the truth, it would have been better to do it to start with,” said Luc Ferrandez, the city’s executive committee member responsible for parks.
The emerald ash borer infects and eats trees from the inside out, and keeping up with the small bug is extremely difficult.
“The populations keep growing,” said forest ecologist Dan Kneeshaw. “It just has to find one tree that's not protected and then it can turn into thousands of other bugs that can spread to other trees.”
Until this year, the city offered to pay up to 66% of the bill for residents to treat their trees – about $800 each – and it has to be done every two years.
In 2018, though, only 735 people applied for the funding.
“Had we known that some people wouldn't have gotten into the program because of the administrative problems, maybe we should have made it free to start with,” said Ferrandez.
As many as 121,000 trees have already been treated, but the problem persists.
“You have to diversify the city. Make sure that we have 10-20 different species, not just four to five different species,” explained Kneeshaw.
Last year the city planted 29,000 saplings, and none of which were ash.
Homeowners have until July 31 to sign up on the city's website.
