A homeowner in Marshall noticed something off about a tree in the yard and picked up the phone. That single call, made to the city rather than to a tree service, is the reason Lyon County has an official emerald ash borer record at all. The city superintendent walked out to look, recognized the tunneling patterns from training sessions on the pest, and called in the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. State staff found live larvae. Federal labs confirmed the species. That was the moment emerald ash borer stopped being a problem happening somewhere else in Minnesota and became a Lyon County problem.
Ghent's own city website already reflects this. It tells residents plainly that the DNR has identified emerald ash borer-infested trees in Lyon County, and that once the insect reaches town, the city's ash trees will likely be dead within ten years. That's honest messaging. It's also, in one specific way, misleading about timing, and understanding why matters if you have an ash tree in your yard right now.
The Gap Between "County-Wide" and "In Town"
Ghent's site frames the threat as something still on approach, an event that happens "once" the insect arrives. But the county-wide confirmation that started this whole record happened after that Marshall phone call, and emerald ash borer doesn't recognize city limits. Left alone, the insect typically spreads at a rate of about a half mile to a mile per year from an infested site. It moves faster, and farther, only when people carry it there themselves, usually in firewood.
That distinction matters for anyone with ash trees near Ghent. A confirmed case somewhere else in Lyon County doesn't mean your specific tree has it today. It does mean the natural spread radius has already been ticking for a while, and "once it reaches our city" is less a hypothetical and more a matter of which growing season, not which decade.
What the Insect Actually Does, and to Which Trees
Emerald ash borer larvae tunnel under the bark and feed on the tissue that moves water and nutrients between roots and canopy. The tree starves from the inside before it looks sick from the outside. Early signs are subtle: light-colored bark flecking where woodpeckers have been probing for larvae, twisting tunnels called galleries, and eventually small D-shaped exit holes where adult beetles emerge. By the time canopy dieback is visible, the tree has often been infested for several years already.
Not every tree with "ash" in the name is at risk. The insect attacks green and black ash, which make up a large share of yard and boulevard trees across this part of the state. Mountain ash, despite the name, belongs to a different tree family entirely and isn't a target. If you're not sure which one is growing near your foundation, that's worth confirming before you spend money on either treatment or removal.
The treatment math is unforgiving once a tree is compromised. State guidance holds that trees with more than half their canopy already gone are poor candidates for treatment, meaning the insecticide investment gets made before symptoms are obvious, not after. For healthy trees, injection is the most effective method, and anything over 15 inches in diameter is generally better handled by a licensed applicator than a store-bought soil drench. Treatment isn't a one-time fix either. It has to be repeated every two to three years for the life of the tree, which turns a shade tree into a recurring line item on the home maintenance budget.
Where the Money Actually Is, and Isn't
Here's where the local picture gets specific in a way that matters for anyone budgeting around this. The City of Marshall runs its own Ash Tree Removal and Replacement Reimbursement Program: up to $200 back per tree removed, capped at two trees per property, opening for applications in October. It's real money, and it's the kind of program a lot of homeowners assume exists everywhere nearby.
It doesn't. The program is explicit that you have to live in Marshall to qualify. Ghent is a separate incorporated city. A Ghent homeowner watching that $200-per-tree reimbursement roll out ten minutes down the road isn't eligible for a dollar of it.
The other piece of funding moving right now works differently, and it points toward Ghent's city government rather than individual homeowners. The Minnesota DNR opened applications on August 3 for $1.7 million in Protect Community Forests grants aimed at removing, treating, or replacing ash trees lost to the insect. The eligible applicants are local units of government, cities, counties, and similar bodies, not individual property owners. The DNR is holding informational sessions around the state to walk applicants through the process, and one of them is close to home: Monday, August 24, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Marshall Lyon County Library on C Street.
That session is nine days from today. It's also the kind of window that only means something if someone with the authority to apply for a municipal grant actually shows up. Ghent is a small city with a small government, and a $1.7 million statewide pool split across every eligible community in Minnesota isn't going to wait around for a second round of interest. If Ghent wants a piece of that money for its own boulevard and park trees, the clock on that decision is shorter than the ten-year clock on the trees themselves.
Who's Already Doing This Work Locally
If you'd rather handle a tree on your own property directly, there's a genuinely local option. SW Tree Treatment is based in Marshall and run by someone who grew up in Lyon County, which means the person answering the phone already knows the tree density and species mix in this specific area rather than reciting statewide averages. Their own estimate puts Marshall's ash population at around 10,000 trees, in a state that has more ash trees than any other, somewhere north of a billion.
That scale is worth sitting with for a second. Minnesota isn't dealing with a pest that affects a handful of ornamental trees. It's dealing with a pest that affects one of the most common yard and boulevard trees in the region, which is exactly why cities plan removal budgets in installments rather than all at once. The reasoning state agriculture officials use is straightforward: spreading removal costs over several years is far more manageable for a city budget than absorbing everything in one season once trees start dying en masse. That logic is part of why the Marshall program and the DNR grant exist as separate, staged efforts rather than one lump payout.
What This Actually Means If You're in Ghent
If you have a green or black ash tree on your property, the practical sequence looks like this. Confirm the species first, since Mountain Ash isn't at risk and shouldn't be treated or removed on the insect's account. If it is a true ash and it's still healthy, this is the window to decide between ongoing treatment, which is a recurring cost for the life of the tree, or planned removal now, while the wood is still sound enough to make the job straightforward instead of hazardous.
If you suspect a tree is already infested, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Arrest the Pest line takes reports directly, and public reports have been how several county-level detections got started in the first place, including the one that put Lyon County on the map. And if you'd like Ghent's own city government to pursue its share of that DNR grant money before the window closes, the informational session on August 24 is the place that conversation is happening. A short call to city hall now costs a lot less than watching the money go to a neighboring community that showed up.
None of this is a reason to worry about your home's value or its curb appeal. It's a reason to know what's actually available to you and what isn't, and to make a decision about a tree in your own yard before the tree makes it for you.
Cynthia Rogers has spent more than 25 years walking these towns, from Ghent's Main Street out to the acreage on its edges, and knows the difference between what a city website says and what's actually happening on the ground. If you have questions about your property, your trees, or anything else about calling Ghent home, Cynthia Rogers is glad to talk it through. Let's move forward, together.
