March 2006 

The NRCS Plant Materials Program newsletter for the conservation community 

Emerald Ash Borer Making Kindling Out of America’s Forests 

With no end in sight to the destruction wrought by 

the emerald ash borer beetle, the Rose Lake Plant 

Materials Center (PMC) is taking steps to see that 

ash trees don’t vanish from the American landscape. 

The PMC, located in East Lansing, MI has entered 

into an agreement to store ash seeds at the National 

Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort 

Collins, Colorado. In the event that the ash tree is 

completely wiped out by the ash borer, the stored 

seeds can be used to re-establish the ash tree for 

future generations. 

Ash Seed 

source: Rose Lake, Michigan Plant Materials Center 

An invasive species from China, the emerald ash 

borer has been decimating the ash tree population 

for over a decade. The wood-boring beetle is 

believed to have entered the United States through 

Michigan in the mid-1990s and has spread to 

surrounding states and Canada. 

The borer spreads both through natural propagation 

and from the transport of infested nursery stock, 

firewood and sawed logs. The borer lays eggs on 

the bark of ash trees and the larvae bore beneath it, 

starving the tree of nutrients. An infested tree will 

usually die within two or three years. 

Michigan has an estimated 700 million ash trees 

with four principle species; green, white, black and 

blue. The PMC hopes to preserve the genetic 

materials from all of these species in the event they 

are completely destroyed. 

Plant Materials Specialist David Burgdorf and PMC 

manager John Leif are counting on volunteers to 

collect seeds from throughout Michigan and the 

entire Great Lakes region. The PMC hopes to 

collect about 3,000 seeds from ash populations in 

every major land resource area. The PMC has 

developed and assembled identification materials to 

help volunteers identify and collect the seeds. The 

materials will be made available through NRCS 

Field Offices, Conservation Districts as well as online. 

The plan is for volunteers to identify and mark ash 

trees in the spring and summer and return in the fall 

to collect seeds. Unfortunately it will not be as 

simple as it sounds. Only female trees produce 

seeds and not all female trees produce seeds every 

year. “Hopefully we’ll get seed before the ash borer 

wipes it out,” said Burgdorf. 

Michigan’s Native American community has shown 

a strong interest in taking part in the seed collection. 

The black ash, used for basket weaving, is a 

culturally significant plant to tribes. According to 

Burgdorf requests for the ash seeds will be 

addressed by the NRCS- Rose Lake Plant Materials 

Center. The NRCS-PMC will consult tribes for 

information on the distribution of the seed they 

collected. 

For more information: Rose Lake, MI Plant 

Materials Center, http://plantmaterials.nrcs.usda.gov/mipmc/ 

Contact: Dave Burgdorf, 

dave.burgdorf@mi.usda.gov 

Plant Materials Program

Visit us: http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov 
Deep Planting Success Along the Rio Grande 

The Los Lunas Plant Materials Center (PMC) is 

demonstrating success with a new deep-planting 

methodology for native-shrub transplants on a 33-

acre riparian site on the Rio Grande in Bosque, New 

Mexico. What’s unusual about the process is that 

these shrubs are being planted into 6 foot holes 

where the plant’s root crowns are buried. Typically, 

to have at least the top three feet of the shoot above 

the soil surface so they are not shaded by other low 

growing plants.” 

Prior to the PMC planting this site, it was cleared of 

exotic phreatophytes (invasive plant species) using 

the cut stump method with ‘Garlon 4’ and vegetable 

this practice would 

kill most transplants. 

“Riparian shrub 

species have evolved 

over thousands of 

years in association to 

flooding and seem to 

be tolerant to being 

buried in sediments or 

planted deep in the 

soil,” said Greg 

Fenchel, PMC Rio Grande deep-planting site 

manager. “The roots source: Los Lunas, Plant Materials Center, New Mexico 

oil and was done with 

only minimal surface 

disturbance. This 

method involves 

felling the trees by 

hand with chain saws, 

painting the stumps 

with herbicide, then 

cutting the main stem 

and branches for 

firewood, and finally 

chipping the 6 inch 

diameter or less into 

of the transplants are placed to the depth of the 

capillary fringe of the water table. Because the root 

system is in moist soil, it will not be necessary to 

irrigate these plants unless the capillary fringe of the 

water table drops below the root zone.” 

The Bosque, New Mexico location being used in 

the study had an adequate stands of cottonwoods 

but only a few native herbaceous understory, (i.e. 

vegetation that grows under larger trees). 

Subsequently, only native understory shrubs were 

planted here. 

“With this new deep-planting methodology, that is 

exactly what you need for success,” said Fenchel. 

“We bury these plants four to five feet deep and try 

surface mulch. 

Continued monitoring and spot treating the sprouts 

of the exotic species with herbicide is necessary. 

The PMC planted 1,000 transplants using the deep 

planting methodology in 2004, and they recently 

planted 800 more in 2005. The plants are watered 

once after planting to provide for good root to soil 

contact. Those planted in 2004 were not irrigated 

during the 2005 growing season, and as of 

November 2005, show a 95 % survival rate. 

For further information: Los Lunas, NM Plant 

Materials Center, http://plantmaterials.nrcs.usda.gov/nmpmc/ 

Contact: Gregory Fenchel, 

gregory.fenchel@nm.usda.gov 

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