Kingsbury Conservation District was recently awarded funding from the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR), Resource Conservation and Forestry Division for an urban forestry project to address the emerald ash borer (EAB).

The insect was confirmed in the southeastern portion of the state in two counties in 2020, killing green ash in boulevards, parks and other public areas. The state is working to get ready for EAB by talking to communities, slowly removing the green ash, and replanting other species of trees.

The Kingsbury funds, received through the Coordinated Natural Resources Conservation Grant Fund, go toward community forestry projects to assist with tree inventories, replacement of ash trees to become prepared for loss due to emerald ash borer, developing community forestry action plans, and providing educational outreach.

Though Kingsbury wrote the grant, neighboring Miner County Conservation District also was able to utilize some of the funding for similar projects.

“We do a lot of projects together because our counties are adjoining and we have very similar communities, soils and conservation practices” Miner Conservation District Manager Tami Moore said. “Our conservation districts promote planting new species of trees to replace green ash that will eventually be affected by the EAB. Emerald ash borer will affect our green ash, maybe next year or maybe 20 years from now.”

Kingsbury and neighboring Minnehaha County also have combined efforts in the past.

“It is the role of conservation districts to bring the resources together – whether they be technical, financial, volunteer – to address the common concerns of the local people,” South Dakota State Association of Conservation Districts (SDACD) Executive Director Angela Ehlers said. “It’s especially encouraging to see what partnership efforts of conservation districts such as Kingsbury, Miner and Minnehaha have initiated to tackle their urban forestry needs. Whether it be our state’s largest community (Sioux Falls) or the town of Bancroft with a population of 19, each deserves their forest resources to be healthy and productive.”

As a rural area – the largest municipality has a population of about 800 – Miner County also has written grants and been awarded funding by DANR for other forestry-related projects including planting landscape trees near a football field as a kind of windbreak. Miner Conservation District planted a community tree belt to protect the town from the lagoon odors through a Governor’s Tree Planting Grant. They currently have multiple grants for planting trees at the campgrounds, in the communities and at the lake in the county.

Grant funding enables the district to bring on other partners, like the high school football team and fifth- and sixth-grade students to help plant the trees, providing an educational opportunity for youth. The continued efforts have led the district to request other grants. Grant applications have been submitted to the South Dakota Conservation Commission for public awareness and education. Other grants submitted have been through the Friends of NACD District Grants and the Central Electric Operation Round Up Grant. These grants will help cost-share the local 4-H clubs, community organizations and students from the local schools, enabling them to plant trees at the Howard High School Football Field, Lake Carthage Campground and other community project sites.

Miner, along with Roberts Conservation District in the northeastern most portion of the state, partnered with the DANR to implement the state’s TreePlotter inventory program slated to begin this summer. Last month, Moore said, the district received a call that the initiation of the project would be delayed until next year.

Each of the communities in Miner County supported the program, which will allow foresters to go in the field and train volunteers from each community to identify ash trees within the communities, determine their health, prioritize which should be removed, and, once replaced, take ownership of maintaining the trees. The communities can each subscribe to the state program long-term depending on the financial assessment of the EAB and the scope and strategy of replanting. Carthage is the first community Miner County plans to work with on the Tree Plotter, possibly sometime in 2022.

“South Dakota’s conservation districts are so successful because of our fabulous partnerships,” Moore said. “Not just the great partnerships with other conservation districts, but we also have great leadership in state and federal agencies who also provide training to each of our districts. We couldn’t get it all done without them.”

SDACD has deemed EAB the most significant threat facing South Dakota forestland, in part because ash encompasses one-third of communities’ canopies, 40 percent of windbreak species and 22 percent of non-forest woodlands, according to the 2021 South Dakota Coordinated Plan for Natural Resources Conservation.

Tags: Forestry, south dakota, insects