Bluestem Prairie's editor is old enough to remember southern Minnesota's small towns before Dutch elm disease struck the state's urban forest. I remember riding in my dad's car in Mankato, observing that the tree branches arching over the street looked like a French cathedral.
Not that I'd ever been to France-- I'd just seen a picture in one of my older sister's library books. But even that analogy was gone before the next generation of Greater Minnesota kids got to dream under the cathedral of the elms.
Here in Summit SD, many of the tiny town's trees are ash. EAB has reached us yet that anyone knows, though the evil borers are in the news. Just a week ago, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) Forest Health Team issued a statement that Emerald Ash Borer Confirmed in Brandon, the latest location in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties.
To our west on Highwy 12, the Aberdeen American News reported two weeks ago, 60 to 80 Aberdeen ash trees to be removed this year to limit emerald ash borer problems. "About 35 to 40% of the boulevard trees in Aberdeen are ash trees," the paper reported.
While forested land makes up less than 4% (1.95 million acres) of South Dakota’s total land, the South Dakota Forest Action Plan National Priorities Section & Five Year Review notes:
. . . The EAB infestation, and costs associated with treatment and/or removal of ash trees, will have a large impact on cities and towns throughout the state as many communities widely planted ash as street and park trees. Based on our most recent data from 85 communities inventoried, 32.8% of the urban canopy in South Dakota is made up of ash trees, while some communities have as much as 60% of their urban canopy comprised of green ash alone. . . .
Our urban forest resembles that of our neighbor to the east, Minnesota, though South Dakota's urban canopy is provided by a greater percentage of ash trees--and there is a much small percent of land in forest overall than in Minnesota.
Thus we clicked through this tweet in our feed this morning:
Great piece in today’s @StribOpinion by House Environment Chair @reprickhansen detailing the importance and urgency of addressing our Emerald Ash Borer crisis. #EAB #PlantTrees #ForAHealthyThrivingMinnesota https://t.co/D71pSSMULx pic.twitter.com/xBzG7HNhNk
— Kelly Morrison (@Morrison4MN) July 27, 2022
In Wednesday's op-ed section at the Star tribune, the chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul and Harmony, calls for action on EAB.
What can South Dakota learn from Minnesota? Certainly that the fight isn't a partisan thing.
Here's the column:
We must address emerald ash borer like we did Dutch elm disease
by Rick Hansen
"Storms make trees take deeper roots."
Dolly Parton's words should ring louder now more than ever to Minnesotans as we stare down the storm of our trees from emerald ash borer (EAB) and the devastating effects of the climate crisis.
EAB, an invasive insect that attacks and kills ash trees, is the most destructive invasive forest pest Minnesota has ever encountered. Think about that for a second. Even more destructive than the Dutch elm disease that ravished elm trees in the 1970s?
Our efforts to stem EAB must take root fast.
Minnesota is home to an estimated 1 billion ash trees. One in five community trees are ash. In some communities, ash trees make up 60% of the trees.
The ecological benefit of ash trees is unquestioned. According to the University of Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center, urban ash trees help reduce air pollution, stormwater runoff and cooling costs, while also increasing property values, and natural ash stands have significant economic, ecological and cultural value. Significant loss of ash trees undoubtedly poses a climate threat.
Throughout Minnesota, EAB continues to spread and decimate ash trees. It has reached an ecological crisis facing our cities and counties as they struggle to keep up with the pace of infestations. All you have to do is look across our state in rural, urban and suburban communities and you'll see dead ash trees all around.
First discovered in Minnesota in 2009, EAB is compared by many arborists to Dutch elm disease. According to a 2019 EAB Interagency Report, Minnesota invested more than $70 million (which would equate to about $290 million today) to combat Dutch elm disease, which affected 140 million Minnesota elm trees. With an estimated 1 billion ash trees, EAB's impacts are on a much larger scale.
Compare that with what the state has so far invested in EAB. Since 2009, the Legislature has appropriated roughly only $18 million to combat EAB, with a bulk of it coming in recent years. We need to do more.
Since the House DFL came into the majority of the Minnesota House in 2019, we have made EAB response a top priority and have pushed the issue to be at the forefront of environmental budget deliberations.
Throughout the past few years, we have invested more than $12 million toward EAB, with a bulk of the funding going toward grants to local units of government to address this crisis. Given the recent increase in the spread of this destructive pest, more investments are critical.
Additionally, the Legislature also grappled with the question of where EAB-infested trees go after they are taken down.
In 2021, the Legislature passed a bill that I chief-authored to help handle tree waste in Minnesota. The bill, after years of negotiations between Xcel and District Energy, enables District Energy to continue to use wood from trees cut down to prevent the spread of EAB as a fuel source. Xcel Energy will continue purchasing some of the electricity the plant produces. This will help communities dispose of tree waste and deal with the devastation wrought by EAB. However, this is a short-term solution.
As you can see, addressing EAB is a multifaceted issue. Strong, problem-solving action is needed.
Yes, we have made some progress in slowing the spread of this disease, but now, more than ever, we need to make this a top priority of the Legislature. To make meaningful progress, Republicans must join DFLers in our commitment to addressing the urgency of the problem by delivering greater investments.
To weather this storm, we need to plant more trees and deal with the rapidly increasing numbers of dead trees.
Now is the time to act. We can begin now.
Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, is the chair of the Minnesota House Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committee.
Related posts:
- Watch MNHouse Environment Committee hearing on CWD, EAB & local government water grants
- Just as EAB confirmed in Cottonwood County, MN House hearing takes close look at pests
- Emerald ash borers reach South Dakota
Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture / Flickr / CC BY 2.0.
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