About 50 county residents, including foresters and land owners, were joined by those representing Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Carl Levin, and Congressman Bart Stupak to hear about a pilot program to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer (EAB). The presentation took place in St. Ignace Tuesday, January 27. Speaking to the group is Jim Bowes, who is with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. He heads the state's EAB program. In the battle taking place across the U.S. and Canada to eliminate the emerald ash borer, the bug is winning, but a pilot program in St. Ignace and Moran could change that. The project has the potential to hold national significance on how the tree-killing bug, known as EAB, is managed.

Still in the planning process, the project is called SLAM, for slow ash mortality. The idea is not to eradicate the pests, but rather to slow the rate at which they kill ash trees in a given area.

"We're not trying to eradicate emerald ash borer, we're just trying to get the landscape in a better condition to weather the infestation as it comes through," said John Bedford, who is a pest survey field operations coordinator with the Michigan Department of Agriculture. He is a part of the SLAM work group.

If successful here, results would provide a solution for property owners and communities plagued with the insect or facing the future loss of hundreds of ash trees from an infestation, giving them the time they need to plan and budget for removal and replacement of their ash trees.

About 50 county residents attended an informational meeting at Little Bear East Arena in St. Ignace Tuesday evening, January 27, to learn about the pilot project.

Previous efforts across the U.S. and Canada involved a plan to completely eradicate the pest, said Mr. Bedford, but eradication has not been successful.

The new management project, if it works, could prevent ash tree devastation like that seen in Detroit and about to be seen in Grand Rapids.

"I lived in the Detroit Metro area," said Mr. Bedford. "One day I went to work and all the trees on my street were there. I came home that night and three-quarters of the street trees in my neighborhood were gone. Just gone."

Grand Rapids estimates it will cost $3 million to remove and replace some of its municipal ash trees, said Bob Heyd of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

"Some of these major cities have huge hits on their budget to handle their urban forest," he said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency "rejected it [EAB] as a natural disaster," meaning a loss of potential funding for the project. "So what we're doing is taking the limited funds we have and trying to develop tools and preparedness and do as much as we can for communities."

Funding for EAB work has been reduced. Four years ago, Michigan received more than $20 million to fight the pest, however, this year as more U.S. communities seek money, the state expects to receive about $1.3 million, said Jim Bowes, who is with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and heads the EAB program. He also is an enforcement and emergency response officer with the Pesticide and Plant Pest Management Division.

Those working on the project here, he said, are trying to secure more funding.

"Our job is to try to say that the U.P. and SLAM effort is important here, research is important here - responding to this pest - we're still on the front line," said Mr. Bowes.

The tree-killing bug now is known to reside in 10 states and in Quebec and Ontario. Last year, the bug was discovered in Wisconsin, Missouri, and Virginia. In Canada, many more discoveries of the insect were made in the Toronto area. Across the U.S., 155 counties are infested.

First identified in Michigan in 2002, EAB is estimated to have been in the state nine to 10 years before that. In the Upper Peninsula, Mackinac, Delta, Schoolcraft, Houghton, and Keweenaw counties are quarantined, restricted from the movement of ash wood products and firewood of any kind, and all of the Lower Peninsula is a quarantined area.

"This project has the potential to have national significance," said Mr. Bedford, "because the success or failure of this project will be evaluated. If successful, either parts or all of this will hopefully be implemented in other areas."

The plan is to reduce EAB growth in core areas in Moran and St. Ignace and slow the rate of spreading, prevent satellites (spots where wood from an infested area is moved to an uninfested area), and protect high-value trees like those in parks.

Outside the core area, the team will lower the food availability for the bug by reducing the number of ash trees.

This is a multi-agency, multiyear, and multi-faceted project. Agencies working on the project include the U.S. Forest Service, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, Michigan Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, and Department of Natural Resources.

The team will perform an EAB density survey, ash reduction, and ash survey.

In Moran and St. Ignace, the team will establish a zone of girdled detection trees, which are trees that are wounded. This makes them vulnerable and more attractive to the insect. Next, a buffer of insecticidetreated trees will offer a zone of protection around the girdled trees, which helps control any EAB that flies from the core area of infestation. The plan calls for an injection of a chemical called Tree-age (pronounced "triage").

Plans also include significantly reducing ash trees in the area, said Mr. Bowes, by providing a financial incentive to private landowners for removing ash trees through wood use projects and to help them develop woodlots that would recover quickly after EAB has invaded an area.

The idea of enticing woodpeckers to the area through feeders has encouraging possibilities, said Mr. Bedford. The birds attack the larva under the ash tree bark.

Although not a big factor in the SLAM project, under consideration is the release of three types of parasitic Chinese wasps that kill the beetle larva and eggs.

Installation of more than 2,400 sticky purple panel traps across the entire U.P. is scheduled this year. The traps contain manuka oil, which attracts the ash borers.

Quarantines also will continue. State fines for moving ash wood can range from $100 to $5,000. Knowingly moving the wood or otherwise fraudulantly interfering with the quarantine can result in a fine from $2,000 to $10,000.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture checkpoint at the Mackinac Bridge is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to stop the movement of ash wood. Crews work to make sure infested material is not brought to the Upper Peninsula.

Brimley State Park, where EAB was found in 2005, has remained free of the insect after three years of work with girdled detection trees and panel trap surveys. When EAB was discovered there, a half-mile cut of trees was made.

"That was a very young infestation," said Mr. Bedford. "It was no more than two years old and the area had very low amounts of ash. Because of those two factors and our swift movement to get in there and get it done, we believe that we might have caught that one."

Other speakers participating Tuesday evening included Jean Perkins with the Hiawatha National Forest, Roger Mech with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Bernie Hubbard, a forestry consultant, and Dean Reid, a certified forester.

What local property owners and residents can do to assist with SLAM

1. Allow and provide access to your property for project staff and
activities.
2. Allow use and destruction of some ash trees for detection trees.
3. Allow ash to be injected with insecticide for use as buffer trees.
4. Be able to identify ash trees.
5. Be able to recognize EAB and the signs and symptoms of an EAB
infested tree.
6. Report suspected infested ash trees to the EAB free hotline (866)
325-0023.
7. Understand and abide by quarantine restrictions.
8. Understand the purpose and use of a compliance agreement for
moving wood.
9. Do not move regulated materials from a property.
10. Report suspected and known quarantine violations
11. Understand the amount and location of ash trees you have on your
property.
12. Work to harvest and extract value from your ash.
13. Cut and burn ash for firewood rather than other tree species.
14. If not part of a timber harvest or used for firewood, cut and leave
ash where it is or otherwise properly dispose of it.
15. Consider treating valuable landscape ash trees with insecticide.
16. When planting or replanting trees, plant a diversity of tree species.
17. Work to enhance woodpecker populations in the area.
18. Work to inform friends and family.
More information can be found on the State of Michigan Web site,
www.michigan.gov.
Information provided by Michigan Department of Agriculture