What Ever Happened with the Purple Traps?
Cautious Good News...

This past summer, NorthWoods participated in a trapping program to determine the presence of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) - a small, shiny, green insect responsible for the death of roughly 60 million ash trees in 15 states since its arrival from China in 2002. Funded by the USDA in cooperation with Forecon and the State Agency of Agriculture, most of Vermont was hung with baited purple lures on a grid of one trap every two square miles. Other methods, one using girdled ash trees as lures and the other employing the search services of native beetle-feeding wasps, were also used on a small scale.

Thankfully, despite this intensive effort, no EABs were found in Vermont, however while the state has yet to see an infestation, we are on the prevention front lines of one of the most destructive forest pests that the US has ever seen! The spread is rapid, now ranging as far east as New York and as far south as Tennessee, as well as north into two Canadian provinces. Quarantines imposed on the movement of ash products - especially firewood - in states to our west seem to have at least slowed the spread of the EAB in our direction.

For more information about preventing the spread of the EAB, click to see the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation EAB Fact Sheet.

NorthWoods' Conservation Science
Department Joins Fight Against EAB
April 28, 2011

“Expect to find Emerald Ash Borer—it’s probably already here.”

On Tuesday, April 19, in White River Junction, US Forest Service entomologist Nate Siegert presented information about the pest he called “the most destructive forest insect in North America.” His audience was mainly foresters—professionals familiar with the devastation caused by Dutch elm disease and the American chestnut blight—gathered in White River Junction for the Vermont Department of Forest Parks and Recreation’s annual Forest Health Information conference.

Usually an overview of forest health issues in the state, this year’s program instead focused almost entirely on one looming threat – emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis), referred to as EAB. The take home message from this year’s conference: if you aren’t worried about EAB, then you don’t understand it! 

EAB is an invasive exotic beetle that infests ash trees by boring into the stem and laying eggs which hatch and feed, eventually killing the tree as the infestation spreads.

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Jayson Benoit Presented with 2010 Tree Steward Award
Dec. 8, Montpelier -

NorthWoods' Operations and Land Management Director Jayson Benoit was presented early this month with the Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Council's Tree Steward Practitioner Award.

The award is presented annually to one industry practitioner alongside honorees from volunteer groups, youth organizations, and townships that contribute to the urban and community forestry initiative throughout the state.

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Vermont Community Foundation Awards Community Fund Grant to NorthWoods

Dec. 10 - The Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) has selected the NorthWoods Stewardship Center from among 200-plus applicants for its Fall 2010 round of funding. The award of $4,000 for general operating funds will give NorthWoods critically-needed support to continue serving the conservation, land management, and educational needs of communities in the Northeast Kingdom.

"We really appreciate NorthWoods' ability to integrate environmental and conservation work with workforce and economic development. We have a

priority to support under-served areas, and NorthWoods' location right on the border of Orleans and Essex counties is a plus," says Christopher Kaufman-Ilstrup, a Philanthropic Advisor at VCF.

NorthWoods is honored to have been selected among so many deserving and needful organizations, and we greatly value the opportunity to be working with VCF, which is doing great work to strategically support non-profits in Vermont and whose mission and vision are so closely aligned with our own.

NRCS staff in Vermont announced last week that they have $850,000 to assist in forest land planning and management. The deadline for applications for this round of funding is June 18. "Many [species of fish and wildlife] depend on large contiguous forest blocks," says Rob Allen, Acting State Conservationist for NRCS. "These vast forests are at risk, however, with tracts of land being subdivided and sold."

The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is extending 2010 funding for a second round of applications, due by June 11. "The purpose [of CSP] is to reward good stewards for high levels of stewardship they are already doing, and to encourage further adoption of new conservation activities," says Heather Wetzstein, program staff at the Vermont state office.

Eligible projects for CSP include (but are not limited to): crop tree release enhancement, extending existing buffers, and patch harvesting. Wetzstein estimates there will be funding for an additional 10,000 acres of enhancement work in Vermont, and funds for contracts will be available in mid-August to mid-September.

For more information on WHIP, click here.
For more information on CSP, click here.