WEEK OF JULY 3, 2025
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 1
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Arvada Beer Garden gears up for opening day Latest addition to Ralston Creek neighborhood eyes July 7 debut BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
America in 2002, with a population in Michigan that has killed tens of millions of ash trees in the state, according to the Michigan Invasive Species Program. Colorado is one of the westernmost satellite population sites for the EAB, though populations have also been found in Utah and Oregon. The beetle’s presence in Boulder slightly predates its arrival in Arvada; the EAB was found there in 2013. Boulder has approximately 70,000 ash trees, and through a variety of mitigation efforts — including chemically treating at-risk trees, introducing EAB predators and community educational outreach — the city was able to limit the impact of the pest, only removing 3,100 ash trees from 2013 to 2018, according to the city’s 10 year report on the EAB invasion. MacDonald said that Arvada is working on utilizing some of the same procedures Boulder did in its mitigation efforts, treating at-risk trees and letting community members know that if they own ash trees, they should seek out trunk injections for larger trees and root system treatments for smaller ones.
As the Ralston Fields urban renewal tract nears completion of its 25-year redevelopment, residents in the up-and-coming neighborhood will soon have another local hotspot, the Arvada Beer Garden, which is set to open on Monday, July 7, pending final inspections. The beer garden, located at 9248 W. 58th Place, was built in partnership between the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority and City Street Investors, who have overseen construction of the Lowry Beer Garden, Edgewater Beer Garden, Green Valley Ranch Beer Garden and the recently opened Schoolyard Beer Garden. In addition to offering local and regional beers, the beer garden will offer a full food menu and be home to 44 trees and over 1,000 perennial plants and shrubs. Joe Vostrejs, one of the founders of City Street Investors, said the goal is for the beer garden to become a community gathering place. “I like to describe it as a little bit like going to a great park with a really, really good concession stand,” Vostrejs said. “It’s really going to be a nice, lush environment with lots of flowers and trees that we’re going to be looking forward to growing into big shade trees in the coming years.” The beer garden is accessible from the Ralston Creek Trail, and its location within the budding Ralston Creek neighborhood brings a different dimension to the community, AURA Executive Director Carrie Briscoe said. “It’s part of the Ralston Creek master plan, which includes The Shops at Ralston Creek; the Five Guys, Tokyo Joe’s, the Wingstop…So, we have the national tenants, kind of the larger food chains on the other corner,” Briscoe said. “The beer garden is kind of a nice complement, a regional offering, and really the cornerstone, I guess, ‘the living room’ of that master development. “It’s a really great location there at Ralston Central Park, Ralston Creek Trail, the new Garrison Garden Paseo,” Briscoe continued. “So it’s really like a nice placemaking opportunity
SEE ASH TREES, P2
SEE BEER GARDEN, P6
Galleries left by Emerald Ash Borer larva. COURTESY CITY OF ARVADA
The invasive beetle gutting Arvada’s ash trees Five years after the emerald ash borer arrived in Arvada, the city’s forester warns of a dying period ahead BY RYLEE DUNN RDUNN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Arvada’s 97,000 ash trees are in danger. The culprit? A green jewel beetle native to northeast Asia, called the emerald ash borer, which feeds on ash trees and reproduces in their bark crevices. The borer’s larvae feed even more, wreaking havoc on the tree’s vascular system and causing dieback and eventual death. The emerald ash borer (commonly called the EAB) was first discovered in the Homestead Park neighborhood near 64th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in 2020, but has now spread across town, according to Arvada’s City Forester Ian MacDonald. “The spread has increased dramatically,” MacDonald said. “Last year, I would say, 64th and Pierce, it was pretty obvi-
ous that it was in that area. And then on the east side of town, the Tennyson and Bowles neighborhood, but now I’m seeing trees at 72nd and Sims that have symptoms of emerald ash borer. “The time it took to go from the Homestead Park area to 64th and Wadsworth, it took about four years to get there, but now the difference between year four and year five is dramatic,” MacDonald said. “Everywhere I’m driving now, I’m seeing it. For sure on the east side of town, north to south, I’m seeing trees with symptoms or just dead trees.” MacDonald said that the EAB typically takes five years to spread throughout a given area, and added that after that initial period, trees typically begin dying en masse. “We’re five years into it, and the ‘mortality curve’ is what they call it; other states that have dealt with this have a pretty good tracking of how this moves,” MacDonald said. “The first five years is generally the build-up of emerald ash borer. And then five to 10 years is when you really start seeing the trees to start dying. “We’re at that five-year mark, and mortality has really picked up,” MacDonald continued. The EAB was first discovered in North
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