The City of Grand Junction continues to care for the city's ash trees. The city is currently protecting the health of 1,150 large and valuable public ash trees on streets and in parks through trunk injection treatments. Approximately 20 percent of the trees in Grand Junction are ash trees, which face serious threat due to drought and insects such as the Lilas Ash Borer and Ash Bark Beetle.

Since 2021, more than 2,000 ash trees have suffered insect damage, prompting a multi-year initiative involving the removal and replacement of affected trees. The Forestry Division has identified more than 150 ash trees in poor condition necessitating removal due to declining health. City staff will track the removal of these trees and designate suitable areas for replacements with irrigation systems in place.

In response to the communities' concerns about the volume of dead and dying ash trees, the city and Forestry Division will be supported by a local licensed tree service company to increase tree care maintenance through the end of 2024. The Forestry Division's tree crews continue to work through pruning requests from the community. Additionally, the city forester has identified more than 175 poor condition ash trees that will be removed or pruned through the support of contracted services. Since 2021, the city has planted more than 1,000 new trees in an effort to mitigate the loss of Grand Junction's urban tree canopy. The Forestry Division will be installing more than 100 new trees this autumn with several hundred planned for spring of 2025.

Residents interested in directly supporting city efforts can get involved in two ways. First, the city offers free street tree planting to all residents of Grand Junction that have available space in public rights-of-way and a commitment to water the trees to sustain their health. Property owners interested in this program can apply for a new tree by completing a street tree planting request form.

Secondly, for those ash tree owners who reside in city limits, the city offer the Root for Our Trees program a cost-share program to treat ash trees. The city covers half the cost of treatments of these private ash trees. Residents interested in signing up or finding out more information can visit the City's Root for our Trees webpage.