Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) talk: Lingering ash detection for resistance breeding – how you can help!

Although emerald ash borer (EAB) typically kills nearly 100% of mature native ash, a small percentage not only survive, but remain healthy years after the rest of the nearby ash have been killed. These trees, found for every widespread Northeastern species, are known as “lingering ash” and can be used to breed resistant native ash.

The Ecological Research Institute developed the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program, which facilitates lingering ash detection through data collection and appropriate management practices. MaMA has already achieved lingering ash detection in New York, with material collected for resistance breeding at Cornell University. The program is supported by the Tree in Peril initiative led by The Nature Conservancy in collaboration with the US Forest Service.

The MaMA program leaders, Jonathan Rosenthal and Dr. Radka Wildova, will give an overview of the program and how you can participate in it. If you have questions, please email them to outreach@MonitoringAsh.org.

Jonathan Rosenthal directs the Ecological Research Institute (ERI). Along with ERI’s Senior Scientist, Dr. Radka Wildova, he developed and oversees the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program as well as ERI’s research on hemlock decline due to invasive forest pests. Both he and Wildova are among the coauthors of the publication “Nonnative forest insects and pathogens in the United States: Impacts and policy options”, by Lovett et al. (Ecological Applications, 2016). In addition to his duties at ERI, he has taught environmental science at Vassar College and invasion biology, ecology and global change biology at the State University of New York, New Paltz.

Dr. Radka Wildova is the Senior Scientist at ERI. Along with Rosenthal, she developed and leads the Monitoring and Managing Ash (MaMA) program. Before joining ERI, Radka completed a post-graduate fellowship with Dr. Charles Canham of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies focused on modeling ecological and economic consequences of forest pest invasions while taking into account climate change. In addition to her work at ERI, she has taught invasion biology and environmental science at Marist College.

This event is hybrid. To receive a Zoom link, please register HERE.