The emerald ash borer is back, and this time the city isn't taking any chances.

The ash borer is a species of beetle that hails from Asia and survives off the ash tree. Infestation not only kills the tree, but also poses a threat to people living near ash trees, because they become prone to toppling.

The city wants to remove nearly the entire population of ash trees in Ann Arbor, about 10,500, all of which officials say pose a threat to the public.

Ann Arbor voters rejected a proposal to raise taxes to fund the removal last November.

The proposal would have garnered a $4.2-million increase in tax revenue over two years to remove the trees.

But the city has pressed on with the project.

City Council member Leigh Greden (D-Ward 3) said the city now uses funds from other sources such as parks and recreation millage - money initially budgeted to spend on the maintenance facility on Ellsworth Road and the city's risk fund.

The project, which has already begun, is scheduled to take three years.

The damage the beetle can do is devastating because ash trees have no natural defense systems against them, according to City Forester Kay Sicheneder.

The city is planning to cut down all ash trees near populated areas. Efforts to cut down only ash trees that have already been infected proved fruitless.

"Now the city doesn't have the manpower or budget to remove them selectively." Sicheneder said.

She said it is extremely hard to find an ash tree in Ann Arbor not infected with the beetle. Even the healthy ash trees will eventually be infected.

The removal campaign will be costly. According to Sicheneder, some of the work will be contracted to private companies, which will amount to a cost of $3 million alone. Containing the infestation in all of southeast Michigan would cost about $100 billion.

Exactly how the beetle reached the United States is unclear.

It was first found in southeastern Michigan in the summer of 2002. Since then, it has been spotted in Ohio, Indiana and even Windsor, Ontario according to emeraldashborer.info - a website created by Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to provide up-to-date information.

According to David Cappaert, a researcher at Michigan State University who studies the beetles, there are two possibilities.

The first is that it arrived here from ship waste in Canton Township.

The second is the Detroit Metro airport. Cappaert said the insect might have been introduced in the U.S. multiple times, and the reason for this infestation is "just a statistics game."

Once the beetle took hold in the United States, it spread through firewood and landscape trees, Cappaert said.

Replanting plans entail using a wide variety of trees "so that if a new pest came we wouldn't lose a lot of our urban forest," Sicheneder said. The city plans on involving residents and civic groups in the replanting efforts.