Join APCAW and GMRI for a field-based training on how to contribute to a collaborative effort to monitor and preserve ash trees
As the emerald ash borer moves through the Northeast, help is needed to support basketry as a Wabanaki cultural lifeway and ecological resilience. Through monitoring for signs and symptoms of the emerald ash borer and sharing information on healthy ash trees in your area, you could help preserve ash trees into the future. On the morning of July 22nd, 8:30am-12pm, join the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) and the Ash Protection Collaboration Across Wabanakik (APCAW) to practice ash inventory protocols and learn how to contribute data from your own community to a broad community science effort. Land trust or conservation staff, conservation volunteers, citizen scientists, and private landowners are encouraged to join. During this training, we will:
- learn about collaborative efforts to preserve ash trees on the northeaster landscape
- cover how to find ash trees using google maps and habitat characteristics
- practice identifying ash trees, signs and symptoms of emerald ash borer, potential seed trees, and collecting additional field site data
- contribute data directly to Protecting Ash: A Preservation Focused Inventory Project
- share resources to take back to your community
- connect to a broad community of land stewards, scientists, community members, and basketmakers dedicated to preserving ash
In the afternoon, Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) will lead a training 1-4 pm about lingering ash and how to set up a MaMA monitoring plot. Land trusts and landowning groups may consider establishing one of these plots to contribute to species range-wide research on lingering ash. Their purpose is to monitor ash tree mortality due to EAB by collecting yearly data from at least 40 ash trees in a plot, which can reveal possible resistance over a long time scale. Registration for this training is coming soon.
If you have questions, reach out to Ella at ella.mcdonald@maine.edu or Meggie at mharvey@gmri.org.