Winnipeg councillors say more money should be spent removing black knot fungus

Two Winnipeg city councillors are heading up a town hall meeting Monday about black knot fungus affecting the city's cherry and plum trees.

Couns. Janice Lukes and Brian Mayes are working together to fight the crunchy, twisted, black clumps that weigh down Winnipeg tree branches.

"It takes a long time. It's an ugly disease and unfortunately in Winnipeg it's really affecting the Schubert chokecherry tree," Lukes said Monday.

There are about 7,800 chokecherry trees in Winnipeg, Lukes said, adding that it's surprising that greenhouses are still selling the trees and that Winnipeggers continue to buy them.

Each year the city pays to remove between 200 and 300 of the worst-affected trees.

"With the current funding level, it's going to take about 39 years to get rid of these trees," Lukes said.

Lukes said she wants the city to find more funding in the budget for removing them, with somewhere between $250,000 to $300,000 allotted to be spent on removal this year.

"So it's a lesser budget than last year. Every year, you know, the tree huggers around city hall are fighting for the trees and that's the budget amount this year," Lukes told CBC's Information Radio.​

The town hall meeting is tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. at Collège Jean Sauvé (1128 Dakota St.).