Dead ash tree removal in Toledo: why you don’t climb it

What did the emerald ash borer do to Northwest Ohio's ash trees?

It killed nearly all of them. The beetle was first identified near Detroit and Windsor in 2002 and detected in Northwest Ohio in 2003; by 2016 it had been confirmed in every Ohio county, according to the Ohio Division of Forestry's Invasive Insects of Ohio. Its larvae feed in the layer just under the bark, cutting the tree's water and sugar transport, and white and green ash typically die three to six years after infestation. Ohio State University Extension's EAB fact sheet estimated that one in ten Ohio trees was an ash before the die-off.

The Toledo corridor was the front line. The Lucas County detection in 2003 was the first in Ohio, a year after the Michigan discovery 60 miles north, and the mass mortality here ran roughly 2006 through 2014. What followed is the current condition: standing dead ash in every woodlot, fencerow, park edge and older subdivision from Monroe to Bowling Green, most of them now dead for a decade or more.

Why is a dead ash the tree you do not climb?

Because a dead ash has no reliable tie-in point. A climber's life depends on the limb the rope runs over, and on a dead ash the crown limbs dry, crack and shed first. Bark falls off in sheets, the wood underneath checks and splits, and a limb that looks solid from the ground can snap under a person's weight — or under the shock of a piece being cut and lowered. The tree-care industry's safety standard, ANSI Z133, requires that a tree be assessed for structural defects before anyone climbs it and that dead trees be handled with alternative methods where climbing is unsafe.

"From the ground" means one of two things. Where a bucket truck can park on firm ground within reach of the whole crown, the cutter works from the bucket and the pieces are dropped or lowered without anyone in the tree. Where the bucket cannot reach — the tree is too tall, behind the house, or too close to a structure to drop anything — a crane holds each section from above while it is cut, and the climber works from the crane's man basket rather than from the tree. The crane guide's first section sets out the four conditions that make a tree a crane job; a dead ash meets the first of them by definition and usually one or two more.

Dead-ash removals for this site are performed by the partner crew, which plans them from the ground with a bucket or crane and owns the cranes it uses, so a dead ash can be scheduled without waiting on a rental yard. Size is not the trigger; condition is. The size guide explains how the two combine.

How do you tell an ash from the ground, and how dead is dead?

Ash has opposite branching, compound leaves with five to nine leaflets, and diamond-furrowed gray bark; an EAB-killed ash shows D-shaped exit holes, heavy woodpecker flecking, bark falling away in plates, and sprouts from the trunk or base. This site does not diagnose trees, and none of these observations replaces an on-site look. They tell you what to photograph for the estimator.

Opposite branching is the quick test: twigs and buds come off the branch in matched pairs, directly across from each other. Only a few common trees do this — ash, maple, dogwood and buckeye — and maple has simple leaves while ash has compound ones. If the tree has been dead for years and has no leaves, the bark and the branching still tell the story. The Ohio DNR's white ash page has the identification detail.

How dead is dead? For removal planning the answer is binary. A tree with any significant dead wood in the crown is treated as a dead tree for method purposes, because the climber cannot tell from the ground which limbs will hold. Photograph the whole tree from a distance, the trunk at chest height with something for scale, the base, and whatever is under the crown. That is what the planning guide asks for, and it is enough to tell you over the phone whether this is a bucket job, a crane job, or something the city should look at.

Does a dead ash cost more to remove?

Often, yes — not because it is an ash, but because it is dead. A dead tree rules out the cheapest method for its size, climbing, and moves the job to the bucket or the crane. It is also taken down in smaller, more careful pieces, because shock-loading a rotten trunk is how sections come off unexpectedly. And a dead ash that has stood for ten years frequently has a hollow or punky base that changes where the last cuts can be made.

The offsetting factor is weight. A tree that has been dead for years has lost most of its water, and dry ash weighs roughly two-thirds of what green ash does, so each section is lighter for its size and there is less to haul. Whether that offsets the method premium depends on the tree and its surroundings. The crane guide's cost section gives the multipliers by size, access and method, and the cost resource separates the line items. No dead ash should be priced from a photo.

Silver maple: the other big-tree crane job

Silver maple is the most common large-tree crane removal in Toledo because there are so many of them, they are so big, and their wood is so brittle. The Ohio DNR's species page gives a mature size of about 80 feet tall and 60 feet wide, a flared base with surface roots, and wood that is "brittle" and subject to "significant storm damage throughout its life."

The city's older neighborhoods — the Old West End, Westmoreland, the Library Village blocks of Sylvania, the older streets of Maumee and Perrysburg — were planted with silver maple in the early twentieth century because it grew fast. A hundred years later those trees are 30 to 48 inches in diameter and have two, three or four co-dominant leaders rising from a single point a few feet up the trunk. Co-dominant leaders are joined by included bark rather than solid wood, and that junction is where silver maples split in a windstorm. When one leader is over the garage and another over the neighbor's roof, there is no drop zone in any direction, and the removal is a crane job in six to twelve picks.

Silver maple also produces the most storm calls. After the June 2022 derecho and the March 13, 2026 windstorm, most of the trees on houses in the Toledo area were silver maple leaders that had split at the union; the storm history guide has the record.

Cottonwood and willow: fast, heavy, wet-site trees

Eastern cottonwood and the large willows grow on the wet ground along the Maumee, the Ottawa River, Swan Creek and the Monroe County drains, reach 100 feet, and shed limbs constantly. Their wood is soft, weak and very heavy when green, and they are the trees most likely to have a trunk over 40 inches on a residential lot.

Near a structure they are bucket or crane jobs for the same reason as silver maple: the sections are too heavy to lower on a rope and too big to drop. In the open they are climbed. The complication is the ground: cottonwoods grow where the soil is wet, and a crane or bucket truck needs firm footing. Timing a cottonwood removal for a dry stretch or frozen ground is normal, and the estimate should say what ground protection is planned.

Oak on the Michigan side: the oak-wilt window

Between April 15 and July 15, do not prune, cut or wound a live oak in Southeast Michigan. The Michigan DNR's April 2026 notice, Put that saw down: delay pruning oaks until mid-July, explains why: the beetles that carry the oak-wilt fungus are active in that window and are drawn to fresh wounds, trees in the red-oak group can die within weeks of infection, and the fungus then spreads underground through root grafts to neighboring oaks. Michigan State University Extension's oak wilt resource covers the biology; the disease is established across the Lower Peninsula, including Monroe County.

What that means for a removal in Bedford Township or Temperance: removing a dead oak is fine at any time of year, because a dead tree cannot be infected. Removing a live oak in the window is possible but the crew should avoid wounding the live oaks around it, and any wound made — including storm breakage — should be sealed immediately, which is one of the few situations where wound paint is recommended. Pruning a live oak in the window should wait. Oak firewood from a wilt-killed tree should not be moved; the fungus survives under the bark.

Oaks are also crane jobs for a reason that has nothing to do with disease: the wood is dense. Green red oak weighs roughly 64 pounds per cubic foot against 45 for silver maple, so a 36-inch oak section weighs half again what the same-size maple does, and the old oaks in Ottawa Hills, Sylvania and the Bedford Township subdivisions stand within a few feet of the houses built around them.

What should a Toledo-area homeowner do with a dead ash now?

Keep people and vehicles from under it, photograph it from a safe distance, note what is under the crown, and find out whose tree it is before calling anyone. Then request an estimate that names the method.

If the tree is on the tree lawn between the sidewalk and the curb in Toledo, it is a public tree. The city manages more than 90,000 of them, Toledo Municipal Code 917.01 requires a city permit to remove one, and the Street Trees FAQ directs residents to Engage Toledo at 419-936-2020 for a dead or damaged street tree. In Sylvania, Maumee and Perrysburg the same rule holds under each city's own chapter; the Sylvania, Maumee and Perrysburg pages have the sections.

If a wire runs through the crown, the utility comes first. On the Ohio side, FirstEnergy's Toledo Edison prunes for its own lines and states that large wood and debris at the base are the property owner's responsibility; its trees page lists the contact numbers. On the Michigan side, DTE trims only pole-to-pole lines and leaves the service drop to the homeowner, per DTE's guidance; its emergency line is 800-477-4747. A dead ash leaning on the service drop needs the utility to drop the line before any crew starts.

If the tree is yours and clear of lines, request the estimate with the photos above and ask two questions: what method, and what is under the drop zone. A crew that says it will climb a dead ash is telling you something. The tree removal page is the starting point; a tree already on a structure goes to the storm and urgent service page.

Frequently asked questions

How long will a dead ash stand?

There is no reliable number. Ash that died in the 2008 to 2014 wave are still standing in Toledo-area woodlots and fencerows, and others fell within a couple of years. What is predictable is the order of failure: fine limbs first, then the crown leaders, then the trunk as decay reaches the base. A dead ash next to something you value should be treated as a scheduled removal, not a wait-and-see.

Can a dead ash be left in the woods?

If nothing is under it — no trail, no fence, no structure, no place people stand — a dead ash in a woodlot is habitat and can be left. The same tree along a driveway, a property line or a play area is a hazard with a known failure pattern. The question is the target, not the tree.

Is the wood safe as firewood, and can I move it?

Ash is good firewood. USDA APHIS ended the federal emerald ash borer quarantine in January 2021 because the insect had already spread across the range, so there is no longer a federal rule against moving ash wood within the corridor. Moving any hardwood firewood long distances is still discouraged by both states' forestry agencies; burn it near where it was cut.

Does insurance pay to remove a dead tree before it falls?

No. A standard homeowners policy pays to remove a tree that a covered peril — wind, lightning, ice — drops onto a covered structure. Preventive removal of a standing dead tree is a maintenance cost, and a known dead tree that later falls can weaken the claim. The storm and insurance guide covers the rules.

Are there any ash trees left?

Yes. Some ash were protected with trunk injections and are alive; a small fraction survived on their own; blue ash is less affected than white and green ash; and young ash keep sprouting and growing until they reach a size the borer attacks. But the mature ash canopy of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan is gone, and what is standing dead is what this page is about.

Is emerald ash borer still active?

Yes, at lower levels, because most of its food is gone. It continues to kill young ash as they reach attackable size, and it has spread far beyond the Great Lakes. The mass-mortality phase in this corridor ended years ago; the standing-dead phase is what remains.

Who removes a dead ash on the tree lawn in Toledo?

The city. Trees between the sidewalk and the curb are public trees under Toledo Municipal Code 917.01, and removing one without a permit violates the chapter. Report a dead street tree through Engage Toledo at 419-936-2020.

Sources

• Ohio DNR Division of Forestry, Invasive Insects of Ohio.
• OSU Extension, What is EAB? (Herms, rev. 2007).
• Ohio DNR, White ash and Silver maple species pages.
• Michigan DNR, Put that saw down: delay pruning oaks until mid-July (April 13, 2026); MSU Extension, Oak wilt in Michigan's forests.
• Toledo Municipal Code 917.01; City of Toledo Street Trees FAQ.
• FirstEnergy, Homeowner rights and responsibilities; DTE, DTE tree trimming questions answered.
• ANSI Z133, Safety Requirements for Arboricultural Operations; USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook (green densities).