With borer spreading, chains saws roar as towns sacrifice their leafy canopy

Bo Boddicker, of Family Tree Care, cuts down an ash tree, Monday, March 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daunted by the cost and difficulty of stopping the emerald ash borer, many cities are choosing to destroy their trees before the insect can. Chain saws are roaring in towns where up to 40 percent of the trees are ashes, and rows of stumps line streets once covered by a canopy of leaves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(The Associated Press)

A crew from Family Tree Care cut down an ash tree, Monday, March 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daunted by the cost and difficulty of stopping the emerald ash borer, many cities are choosing to destroy their trees before the insect can. Chain saws are roaring in towns where up to 40 percent of the trees are ashes, and rows of stumps line streets once covered by a canopy of leaves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(The Associated Press)

Logs from a recently cut down ash tree sit in front of home, Monday, March 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daunted by the cost and difficulty of stopping the emerald ash borer, many cities are choosing to destroy their trees before the insect can. Chain saws are roaring in towns where up to 40 percent of the trees are ashes, and rows of stumps line streets once covered by a canopy of leaves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(The Associated Press)

Bo Boddicker, of Family Tree Care, cuts down an ash tree, Monday, March 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daunted by the cost and difficulty of stopping the emerald ash borer, many cities are choosing to destroy their trees before the insect can. Chain saws are roaring in towns where up to 40 percent of the trees are ashes, and rows of stumps line streets once covered by a canopy of leaves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(The Associated Press)

Trevor Wager, of Family Tree Care, cuts down an ash tree, Monday, March 9, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Daunted by the cost and difficulty of stopping the emerald ash borer, many cities are choosing to destroy their trees before the insect can. Chain saws are roaring in towns where up to 40 percent of the trees are ashes, and rows of stumps line streets once covered by a canopy of leaves. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(The Associated Press)

DES MOINES, Iowa Since she was a child, the giant ash tree that towered over Rebecca Robinson's small home offered a cool refuge during sultry Midwest summer days. It was the same down her tree-lined neighborhood's block and throughout much of Waterloo, a leafy Iowa city that's home to about 4,000 ashes.

But work crews have toppled Robinson's tree and soon, nearly all of Waterloo's ash trees will be gone too though many are perfectly healthy as big cities and small towns from Pennsylvania to Colorado surrender to a small, shiny bug by preemptively eliminating a big part of their urban foliage.

With the loss of so many mature trees, some towns may not look the same again for decades.

"Is some places, you could have a pretty hostile environment," said Gary Johnson, a forestry professor in Minnesota, where thousands of lush trees are falling.

The emerald ash borer, which is native to Asia, was first spotted in the U.S. in 2002, when it showed up in the Detroit area. It devastated ash trees in Michigan and has spread to at least 21 other states as people haul firewood or other wood products from place to place.

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With borer spreading, chains saws roar as towns sacrifice their leafy canopy