PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) —State forestry crews are moving fast to harvest the seeds of Oregon ash trees before the arrival of incoming invasive pests, which could eventually wipe out the native species entirely.
Using federal grant funding from the USDA Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) is working against the clock to collect and preserve the tree’s gene pool, in an effort to save the species from the devastating emerald ash borer.
“This is a first-of-its-kind effort in the long saga of invasive pests and diseases attacking North American trees,” stated ODF’s Invasive Species Specialist Wyatt Williams. “By the time scientists are funded and able to start looking for resistance, a large part of the gene pool of the species being attacked has already been lost.”
According to Williams, the state is lucky to have an opportunity to gather seeds from a wide variety of Oregon ash genes before the arrival of the emerald ash borer.
Since emerald ash borers were first spotted in Michigan in 2002, the Asian-native pests have continued to destroy ash trees in Oregon and throughout the nation.
‘Everywhere it invades, the insect kills almost all ash trees,” ODF said.
According to the agency, after the female borers lay their eggs on the trees, the larvae chew canals under the bark and into the cambium layer – cutting off the tree’s ability to access or shift water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves, effectively killing it.
“We know from field tests back East that emerald ash borer will attack Oregon ash,” said Williams. “Although not an important timber species, Oregon ash withstands flooding, stabilizes banks against erosion and provides crucial habitat for wildlife. Losing it will greatly harm the ecology of wetlands and streamside forests.”
ODF said the USDA Forest Service has partnered in the agency’s effort to preserve the species by storing the harvested seed at the Dorena Genetic Resource Center in Cottage Grove.
According to Richard Sniezko, a geneticist with the Dorena Genetic Resource Center, a sample of the seed will be held in storage while other samples are slated to be distributed to Midwestern research facilities which have already seen emerald ash borer infestations.
Sniezko said the goal of this transplant is to eventually plant Oregon ash trees in the invested locations to determine whether the seeds exhibit a natural resilience against the insects.
If successful, Sniezko suggests those trees could be sown to produce additional seedling batches which could be used in further restoration efforts.
“The hope is that we might be able to have some resistant trees already growing in the landscape by the time emerald ash borer gets to Oregon,” Sniezko stated.
The genetic seed preservation could also be used to restore and reintroduce the Oregon ash in regions where the trees previously grew, should the emerald ash borers successfully invade and kill off the native trees.
Additionally, ODF said if the pests take over as expected, the genetic seed pool could be crossed with resistant species to create stocks of genetically resilient ash trees.
“Since resistance is likely to be quite rare, there is a real danger that those few surviving trees won’t have the full range of genes a species has built up over hundreds of thousands or millions of years,” said Sniezko. “This effort is insurance against that kind of genetic loss.”
According to Williams, people unknowingly carrying in firewood which contains the borer larvae is the most common way for the invasive insects to arrive and spread.
Because of this, he encourages the public to “buy it where you plan to burn it,” and not move firewood from place to place.
For more information on the campaign to save the Oregon ash visit here.