# DNR Awards Emerald Ash Borer Tree Planting Grants



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

For Immediate Release May 11, 2005

Contacts: Kerry Gray at 517-241-1833 or Mary Dettloff at 517-335-3014 

DNR Awards Emerald Ash Borer Tree Planting Grants

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials today announced the award of grants totaling $538,505 to 38 communities and non-profit organizations for tree planting projects. (See attached list.)

The Emerald Ash Borer grant program, with funding from the USDA Forest Service, was established to help communities in southeast Michigan replace trees lost due to the Emerald Ash Borer.

"Trees play a vital role in the health and beauty of Michigan's communities," said Lynne Boyd, DNR's Forest, Mineral and Fire Management chief. "Through this grant program, communities will be able to replace trees lost to the Emerald Ash Borer and take steps toward creating a healthy community forest through diversity."

Affected communities and non-profit organizations within the 20 quarantined counties in Michigan were eligible for financial and technical assistance in support of tree planting projects through this grant program.

Since the Emerald Ash Borer was identified in this state during the summer of 2002, it has killed more than 15 million ash trees in southeast Michigan, as well as parts of Ontario, Canada, northwest Ohio and northeast Indiana. State officials remind travelers of the quarantine prohibiting the movement of all ash trees, materials and firewood. Moving firewood can spread the Emerald Ash Borer and puts Michigan's 700 million ash trees at risk. Firewood should be purchased at their destination.

For more information about this program or a list of approved grants, contact Kerry Gray, DNR's Emerald Ash Borer Restoration Coordinator, at 517-241-1833, or visit the DNR Web site at www.michigan.gov/dnr. For more information regarding the Emerald Ash Borer, visit the Emerald Ash Borer website at www.emeraldashborer.info, or contact your regional Michigan Department of Agriculture, Michigan Department of Natural Resources or local Michigan State University Extension offices.


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## sporty (Jun 24, 2004)

Now isn't that just like the D.N.R., and Feds., replant trees when the little bug still remain active.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Ash seeds being saved
If borer kills species, it can be reintroduced 

http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/may/31ash.htm

By KEITH MATHENY, Record-Eagle staff writer

TRAVERSE CITY - Federal agriculture officials are preparing for a doomsday scenario with the Great Lakes region's ash trees, collecting and safekeeping seeds to reintroduce the tree years from now if the invasive emerald ash borer eventually wipes it out.
The seed collection program began earlier this year with the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The service's Rose Lake Plant Materials Center in East Lansing is undertaking the project.
Center manager John Leif said the program asks state residents to identify ash trees in their vicinity, down to one of the four species of ash common to Michigan - black, green, white and blue ash. The center's Web site provides information on identifying ash species.
Later in the fall and early winter, when ash tree seeds darken and begin to fall to the ground, people are asked to send them to the center, Leif said. There they will be inventoried and sent on to the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo., he said.
Saved ash seeds, Leif said, could be used in the future - through cloning, direct planting or in some other way - to begin restoring the Great Lakes region's ash population, should the emerald ash borer's destructive spread decimate existing groves.
"If that worst-case scenario were to come about, this would be one of the means of preserving those ash tree genetics for many generations," he said.
The Colorado facility is one of the largest gene banks in the world, storing more than 450,000 separate samples of plants comprising more than 10,000 species important to agriculture and the environment. The center also keeps genetic material of some cattle and other farm animals.
"It's a very secure location, and has all the necessary environmental controls to be able to successfully store seeds for several decades," Leif said.
The emerald ash borer was discovered in southeast Michigan in July 2002. State officials believe the beetle came to Michigan from Southeast Asia in packing materials. An estimated 15 million of the state's 700 million ash trees are already dead or dying due to ash borer larval infestations in southeastern Michigan counties.
Wood-moving quarantines exist in 20 Michigan counties and 19 other areas of infestation. Infested areas in northern Michigan include Peninsula Township in Grand Traverse County; the Lake Skegemog and Torch Lake areas of Kalkaska and Antrim counties; Boyne City and Evangeline Township in Charlevoix County; the Forest Township area of Cheboygan County; Bear Creek Township and Petoskey in Emmet County; and the Tippy Dam area of Manistee County.
Leif said the Rose Lake center hopes to get a mix of ash seeds from various regions of the Great Lakes, in the hope there is genetic diversity.
Officials are seeking to guard against a decimation such as occurred when Dutch elm disease wiped out most of North America's elm trees in the first half of the 20th century.
"We can't collect them after they are gone, obviously. We want to collect them now," said Natural Resources Conservation Service spokesman Brian Buehler.
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On the Web: www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/pmc.html


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## Bmac (Jul 7, 2002)

A very large ash tree in my neighbor's yard has been infested. I have a smaller ash tree and a few saplings in my yard. So far no signs of the beetle on mine but I have seen a few adult ash borer beetles in my yard. I'll collect seeds for this project in the fall. Thanks for the information!


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