Federal scientists now believe there are a few extra hardy ash trees out in nature that have — for reasons unknown — defied the odds and held up against the highly destructive, green metallic beetle from China known as the emerald ash borer.
They want the public’s help in finding those “survivor” trees — and are starting their research in seven northwest Ohio counties and 10 southeast Michigan counties.
Residents from Lucas, Fulton, Ottawa, Wood, Henry, Defiance, and Williams counties are asked to visit nrs.fs.fed.us/ SurvivorAsh and describe the whereabouts of ash trees they believe are surviving in infested areas that haven’t been treated with insecticides. Same goes for residents of Monroe, Lenawee, and Hillsdale counties, as well as Wayne, Macomb, Jackson, Washtenaw, Ingham, Livingston, and Oakland counties.
Ash trees used for landscaping planned subdivisions or office complexes, for example, may have been treated with insecticides. So might a private homeowner’s favorite ash tree in their front yards or backyards.
Those aren’t what scientists are seeking.
They’re looking for those rarities out in the wild, such as any surviving ash trees that hikers and birders might pass along trails in the woods.
“They just want to understand the mechanism,” said Jane Hodgins, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Minnesota.
There were an estimated 10 billion ash trees across North America before emerald ash borers were accidentally brought into the United States via shipping crates, possibly as far back as the 1990s. They first established themselves in southeast Michigan’s Canton Township, a Detroit suburb near Livonia, before fanning across the continent like wildfire. By the time they were discovered in 2002, it was too late. They were found in Ohio in 2003.
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