Applying for grant to get inventory of ash trees affected by emerald ash borer
As emerald ash borer are close to returning to chew their way through trees, the City of Tracy is working on a plan to fight back. But the noble effort to preserve trees comes with a hefty cost.
That’s why the City is applying for something called a ReLeaf grant through the Minnesota DNR in October. The focus of the application will be to fund a complete tree inventory for the town, including public trees on boulevards, in parks, and those on other city-owned property. The City will be reaching out to a certified arborist to develop an estimated cost for the work; once completed, the inventory will serve as a foundational step in preparing a future tree-planting grant application.
“We don’t want a park with no trees,” City Deputy Clerk and one of Tracy’s leading park advocates Diane Campbell said at a recent city council meeting.
“I have reached out to two certified arborists to get quotes for a city-wide tree inventory and management plan,” said Val Quist, the City’s go-to grant writer. “We have to work with a certified arborist on this, we can’t just have our local nursery do it. We’re hopeful that later on when it comes to planting, we’ll be able to source the trees locally.”
IF YOU HAVE A TREE with leaves that look like this, beware — emerald ash borer is coming.
The invasive emerald ash borer is a small, iridescent green beetle, roughly onehalf inch long, that attacks ash trees. In the adult stage, it nibbles on ash foliage but does not destroy the tree. In its immature larvae stage however, the insect tunnels through and eats an ash tree’s inner bark, preventing the tree from transporting water and nutrients, ultimately killing the tree.
No local match is required for the grant, Quist said.
“It’s probably going to run around $20,000 to complete this,” she said. “We would have to pay upfront, and the DNR would reimburse it when the work is completed.”
Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter said not only does the City know the problem is coming, it might already be here.
“You can save (a tree), but the amount of money that it costs to save a tree from ash borer is huge,” Carpenter said. “You might be able to do it once in your yard, but as for us, we’ve got hundreds — there’s no way.”
The middle of next year is the target date to complete the assessment, Quist said.
“And hopefully next fall, we can apply for a tree-planting grant, or another ReLeaf grant, in order to do some removal and planting,” she said.
The City found certified arborists in White, SD, and Brooking, SD, Quist said.
The grant application is due Oct. 28, with awards being announced around the end of January. Work on the trees would likely begin in the spring of 2026.
The DNR estimates there are 1 billion ash trees in Minnesota. Emerald ash borer, which are much smaller than a penny, was first discovered in North America in southeast Michigan in 2002, and has spread to many other U.S. states and some Canadian provinces. In Minnesota, it was discovered in 2009 in St. Paul, and a year later in Minneapolis and southeast Minnesota. Cities in Minnesota have an abundance of ash, making up 60% of the trees in some communities.
