Lingering Ash Information
Introduction
As many are aware the Ash trees of North America have been devastated by the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), an invasive beetle. What some people are not aware is an effort to help save the Ash. Research has shown that some trees seem to be more resistant to the EAB and these have been referenced as "Lingering Ash". While resistant, they still tend to eventually succumb to the EAB, but they put up a better fight.
Researchers are working on taking these Lingering Ash which may be spread far apart and bringing them closer together to breed. Since it isn't practical to move large trees in any number, they take cuttings (scions) from the Lingering Ash and graft them into trees in proximity of one another. Then taking the a second generation of grafted trees, they find that from each generation there are trees where the resistance is greater. The hope then is that this process will produce trees that are able to defend themselves from EAB without chemical treatment and without creating hybrids with non-native trees.
A key part of this work is to identify the lingering ash. This is where citizen scientists enter the picture. There are various research groups involved in this. One of them, Ecological Research Institute (ERI) is leading several projects where the community can gather and share information that would be helpful. Collectively, these projects are referred to as Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA).
MaMA - Monitoring and Managing Ash
Rather than try to explain everything here, let me point to some material that would be helpful.
Science Background:
If you're interested in the science behind Lingering Ash and the early work in this area, starting around 2005, I'd recommend watching the following video. For some, you might want to skip this and watch one of the overview videos and then if still interested come back and watch this one. Note: there are some technical difficulties in the first few minutes but they clear that up.
General Background:
Locally in the Southern Tier of New York, I learned about Lingering Ash through work kicked off by Broome County Cornell Cooperative Extension in conjunction with Waterman Conservation Education Center. Cam Winzinger and Chris Audette did a webcast that covers the importance of saving Ash and the background for these projects. Watching this video will give you a better overview. Cam does touch on the research from the Science Background video.
Other References
Below are various links that may be of interest:
The Home Page of the MaMA - This is the heart of the projects and has a lot of material on it, everything from explaining EAB to why get involved to tutorials for the tasks/projects involved. If you only look at one web page, it should be this one.
The Anecdata Tool - This is the website for "Anecdata" which is a platform used to collect data for various community projects like MaMA. On it you'll see 100s of various projects. You'll need to create an account and then select projects. If you do a search on "MaMA", you'll see the four related projects listed.
Ash Tree Identification Cheat Sheet - This 2-page PDF bulletin was produced by Penn State University and is helpful in identifying Ash trees in general and lists trees that look similar to Ash, such as Boxelder.
Ash Canopy Health Classes Cheat Sheet - This 2-page PDF helps when recording information on monitored Ash trees to judge the health of the tree's canopy. There are five canopy health classes, ranging from 1 (full & healthy) to 5 (dead dead).
Broome County Cornell Cooperative Extension Website - I was amazed at how many programs they offer for all ages.
Waterman Conservation Education Center - Waterman is participating in this project, as well as many others. Besides their various programs, Waterman manages six properties in Broome and Tioga counties.
New York State DEC EAB Page - Some additional information from the NY Department of Environmental Conservation.