Emerald Ash Borer Prevention, Mitigation, and Restoration Grants

Program Objective(s): 

To provide information and technical assistance to municipal governments, other non-federal public landowners, and consultants about the impacts of the emerald ash borer (EAB) in the Northern Lower Peninsula and the Western Upper Peninsula. In the Northern Lower Peninsula, the project is focused on restoration of EAB damaged trees and stands in the following communities: Traverse City, Petoskey, Cheboygan, Gaylord, and Alpena. In the Upper Peninsula, the focus is on prevention and preparedness of cities, other non-federal landowners, and consultants for the arrival of EAB.

The EAB impact prevention, mitigation, and restoration program is a cost-share program that has two thrusts:

1. To encourage the evaluation of private forestlands for EAB impact mitigation by payment for site evaluations for EAB planning and prevention.
2. To pay a portion of the total costs in creating a Forest Stewardship Plan to a Michigan Certified Plan Writer. The landowner pays the remainder of the cost of the plan.

Criteria: 

Eligible lands include city parks and stands of upland hardwood with an ash component equal of 10 basal area or greater with commercial harvest potential now or in the next five years. The landowner must indicate willingness to follow a Stewardship Plan prepared for the property.

Eligibility: 

In the Upper Peninsula, land must be owned either privately or by a non-federal governmental unit and lie within the un-quarantined counties (Ontonagon, Baraga, Iron, Dickinson, Marquette, Gogebic, and Menominee). In the Lower Peninsula, qualified land includes city parks and forestland that is privately owned or owned by a non-federal unit of government, and it must lie within a 25 mile radius of the cities of Cheboygan, Alpena, Gaylord, Traverse City, and Petoskey.

Application Process: 

Consultants may apply for site visit grants and stewardship plan preparation grants. Planning and prevention site visit grants of $150 are available to Forest Stewardship Certified Plan Writers to provide technical assistance to landowners. If a landowner proceeds with a Forest Stewardship Plan, that plan must have an additional component addressing upland ash management, (in stands with 10 or more basal area/acre of ash) to qualify for the 50% cost-share reimbursement similar to the general Forest Stewardship Plan. An initial limit of 5 site visit grants per consultant will apply. Once a consultant has filled the 5 site visits, he/she may apply for another 5 grants, etc.

Deadline(s): 

Applications may be made at any time prior to the end of the grant period (September 30, 2012 in the Lower Peninsula, and September 30, 2013 in the Upper Peninsula).

Timeline(s): 

Project duration: Approximately one year (through September 30, 2012 in the Northern Lower Peninsula and September 30, 2013 in the Upper Peninsula).

Dollar Amount(s) Available: 

Grant requests may be up to $20,000, depending on the project type

Source(s) of Funds: 

U. S. Department of Agriculture - Forest Service - Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (Upper Peninsula) and Pest & Disease Loan Fund (Lower Peninsula)

Authority: 

Annual appropriation by the Michigan Legislature

Contact(s): 

Forest Resources Division/Shawna Meyer (517-335-3355) meyers6@michigan.gov.

Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriation: 

Approximately $50,000 for grants