Two stately ash trees that have long adorned Gardiner Public Library’s garden and Water Street were cut down Thursday out of fear they could threaten public safety.

The removal was a precautionary move to ensure the safety of the historic library and people walking by on Water Streetor through the library’s garden. A limb or branch dropping from the tree could cause damage or injury.

“They’re beautiful, especially in the fall. We’ve always loved admiring them, they catch your eye and are a lovely adornment to the library,” Dawn Thistle, library director, said. “I’m just heartbroken. It’s not something I wanted, but I understand the circumstances.”

Thistle said part of a limb came down in a recent storm, and the limbs are very close to the library and travel corridors around it.

“We’re doing this out of an abundance of caution,” she said.

An additional concern with ash trees in particular is the threat of the invasive emerald ash borer, a highly destructive beetle that is spreading across the state.

Thistle said initial concerns were the trees may have been infested with the beetles that munch on their bark.

She said a library association member who lives about a block away on Vine Street had an ash tree in their yard taken down late last year.At the time, it was thought to have been damaged from the top down by emerald ash borers.

If it was, it would have been the first confirmed discovery of the beetles in the Gardiner area, according to state tracking data.

However Maine Forest Service entomologist Mike Parisio said it was never confirmed whether that tree was infested with emerald ash borers, or had died from something else.

Parisio visited the Gardiner library trees Wednesday, and he saw no signs the trees had emerald ash borers in them or had been impacted by them.

“They appeared mostly healthy,” Parisio said. “So there is no confirmed emerald ash borer in Gardiner.”

Parisio said the trees had some smooth bark disease, and are shedding some limbs. So he understood why the trees would still be removed, even without any signs of emerald ash borers.

Thistle noted emerald ash borers are spreading widely and rapidly in Maine, and specifically eat ash trees, so the library’s trees could, eventually, have been threatened by them. She also said the trees were not in good enough condition to be worth inoculating them against emerald ash borers. She said the trees haven’t been well-maintained over the years, so they present both a public safety concern now, and a concern down the road, if left standing.

Kory Peckham, an arborist with Peckham Forestry Products of West Gardiner who also took down the ash tree on Vine Street, recommended the library trees come down, and took them down with the help of a crane operator.

Peckham said he knows removing trees that have been a long-standing downtown feature is never an easy decision.

“I share the disappointment around having to remove them,” he said. “Unfortunately, with emerald ash borer moving closer to Gardiner in recent years, and given the age and overall condition of these trees, addressing them now is truly the safest and most responsible option.”

Peckham said when he assessed the trees, he did not find evidence of emerald ash borers in them or neighboring ash trees. But he did find the trees were declining in health due to age.

The state continues to track the spread of the invasive emerald ash borer into Maine, with Parisio noting it has spread to nearly 50 communities, most in the southern part of the state, and another, smaller group in the northern part.

“We’re still on the hunt for them,” Parisio said. “Augusta is kind of in the middle. It’ll be here; it’s just a matter of years at this point. We’re looking hard for it. But there’s no smoking gun yet.”

The closest confirmed emerald ash borer sighting to Gardiner was one in Bowdoin. So far, neither Gardiner nor Augusta has had a confirmed emerald ash borer. Those municipalities are, however, within a state quarantine area meant to help control the spread of invasives. The quarantine areas place restrictions on the movement of items such as firewood.