NORMAL - The Normal Parks and Recreation Department will be asking the City Council for more money to plant trees in the wake of the emerald ash borer infestation.

"We don't believe in clear cutting all the trees, but we want to start planting more trees now to lessen the impact six, seven or eight years down the road when the ash trees begin to die," said Garry Little, the parks and recreation director.

Bobby Jones, the town's horticulturalist, told the City Council during a work session Monday night that the department is proposing an additional $21,500 for new trees each year. The council will consider the proposed 2009-10 fiscal year budget in January.

Jones also recommended partnering with Illinois State University and the city of Bloomington to buy equipment needed to meet the expected Illinois Department of Agriculture guidelines for removal of trees infested by the emerald ash borer.

While those guidelines still are being designed, the general requirement has been to grind the infected wood into 1-inch pieces - a size not appealing to the borers, Jones said.

Scientists now believe the emerald ash borer, a beetle from Asia, has been in the United States for as many as 10 years. It was discovered in Michigan in July 2002 and was recently found in Bloomington.

The larvae of the beetle tunnel under the bark of the tree and essential strangle it to death.

To date no treatment is effective in stopping the death - only postponing it. Treatments are expensive and once started, have to continue each year.

Normal has 380 ash trees in its parks and 729 at Ironwood Golf Course. About 10 percent to 15 percent of the trees on the town's rights of way are ash.

Jones said the department would like to have a full inventory of its trees and suggested the town consider hiring a firm to conduct it - a process that could cost as much as $85,000. The town has 80 different varieties of trees.

While Bloomington has found trees infected by the borer along Riley Drive, Jones said he has only seen some potentially infested trees in Normal and they are on private property.

City Manager Mark Peterson said it is unlikely that the town will help homeowners with their infected trees.

"We believe it's here, it just hasn't shown up," Little said. "But it's just a matter of time."

Besides removing trees, the state agriculture department also could require that stumps be removed 8 inches below grade and covered with soil.

Peterson said the cost of the potential borer infestation is "a serious problem but not insurmountable. It's not millions of dollars but it will have a substantial budget impact."

The town plans to put information on its Web site for homeowners and will develop a policy for dealing with infested trees.