Making Lemonade

Illinois officials are finding alternative uses for infested ash trees:

• Wilmette Village President Chris Canning is turning two ash from his own yard into bats for Wilmette's youth baseball program. (Evanston is also working on a baseball bats project)
• Wilmette also plans to use some ash wood as flooring when they renovate the public works facility
• Other suggested uses- decorative bowls, stained counter tops, furniture, cabinets, picnic areas in forest preserves
• Turning wood chips into electricity- Robbins Community Power- by the end of the year will be IL's first wood-chip energy plant, and may use ash wood chips

From: Ash borers kill trees, but wood still has life Town officials get creative in uses for rescued lumber
By Dave Wischnowsky Tribune staff reporter, Published May 27, 2007
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