Warren County School District has written a letter and is enlisting help in its pursuit of the harvesting of ash trees.

In response to the forthcoming devastation of essentially all ash trees in the Allegheny National Forest by emerald ash borer, the school board has taken steps.

The district and other municipalities whose territory includes the ANF split a 25 percent cut of the receipts for timbering on the forest. Board members have asked ANF officials directly to increase the cutting of ash — ideally to as close to 100 percent as possible.

At the board’s committee meetings in September, ANF officials said that they have taken the anticipated 100 percent mortality into consideration in their efforts for years and that the amount of cut is dramatically up. But, there are limits.

Times Observer file photo Distinctive damage to an ash tree in the City of Warren shows some of the early effects of emerald ash borer. In the long run, the insects almost invariably cause the death of the tree.

“There are ash trees scattered across the forest in low numbers,” Silviculturist Andrea Hille said. “It’s not feasible to salvage all that.”

“We’re not going to be able to get every bit of ash,” Bradford District Ranger Rich Hatfield said. “Economically, it is not feasible to get probably the vast majority of ash.”

While the board would like to see essentially 100 percent of ash cut, “the ANF will only harvest 15 percent of its white ash,” according to the letter. “The remaining 85 percent of ANF ash will fall, rot, and waste in the woods.”

“When the ANF allows trees to fall over and rot, the ANF is frittering away resources intended for our schoolchildren,” the letter states.

The board has unanimously approved the letter to be sent to the ANF, the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and to elected federal officials whose constituencies include the forest.

“When you speak with the Forest Service about our plight please insist on results — not just more placating talk,” the letter requests.

The letter asks that, even if it is too late to radically change ash harvest practice, the forest more aggressively manage other species to promote a healthy forest and allow schoolchildren to “enjoy the monetary benefit of the old trees — before they fall over and rot.”

Board Member Jeff Labesky said on Monday that he has been in touch with board members and officials in districts in Forest County, Ridgway, Kane, and Smethport, and he expects that they will also send correspondence supporting an increased harvest to officials at the federal level.