at the Stamford Village Library for a Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) Training Workshop
followed by establishing an Ash Monitoring Plot at the Preserve
A training workshop for the comprehensive MaMA program for emerald ash borer (EAB) management and ash conservation. EAB has already devastated ash trees in much of the Catskills and continues to spread rapidly.
MaMA (see www.MonitoringAsh.org), developed and directed by the Ecological Research Institute (ERI) in close consultation with US Forest Service scientists leading the fight against EAB, provides a framework of important actions that can be taken to conserve ash and mitigate damage from EAB. These include participating in MaMA’s projects that enable detection of “lingering ash” (EAB-resistant trees), which offer the best hope for ash conservation and restoration (see www.monitoringash.org/lingering-ash-info/).
The Catskill Regional Invasive Species Partnership (CRISP) is implementing MaMA regionally, and has funded this workshop so that land managers and the general public can learn how they can take part in these projects.
In this workshop, attendees will learn, among other things, how to establish ash mortality monitoring plots that form part of the MaMA Monitoring Plot Network extending throughout the Catskills and beyond. The data from this network are used to determine when particular areas are ready to search for lingering ash (this needs to be done at just the right time). Because of this network’s use of scientifically rigorous protocols, attendance at an ERI MaMA training workshop is required for participation. Similarly, this workshop is required for participation in MaMA’s lingering ash reporting project, given the importance of finding trees that meet strict criteria.
The workshop will also include training in how to report EAB so that its spread can be tracked in real-time, introduction to MaMA’s “Possible Lingering Ash Toolkit” (essential for protecting potential lingering ash from being unnecessarily cut down), and introduction to MaMA’s other tools and integrated approach to EAB management and ash conservation, including an overview of the factors to use when deciding whether to treat or cut trees.
The workshop will be presented by MaMA’s originators, Jonathan Rosenthal (Director of ERI) and Dr. Radka Wildova (ERI Senior Scientist). No fee for this event. Donations Welcomed