![]() ![]() The fact that some trees survived longer means there are heritable genetic differences among trees from different populations and seed parents, Steiner added. “This suggests that some ash genotypes, especially on favorable sites, will survive with lower densities of emerald ash borer beetles on the landscape,” he said. As of August of this year, only 13 trees remained of the 1,762 that were alive when the emerald ash borer arrived.”Īlthough final destruction was nearly complete, genetics moderated the rapidity with which emerald ash borers injured and killed trees, noted Lake Graboski, Steiner’s assistant, who earned a master’s degree in ecology at Penn State. “The effect of the insect was devastating. “We began measuring the decline in 2012, shortly after emerald ash borers arrived in the plantation, and we measured it every year through 2017,” said Steiner. ![]() This little-known ash plantation off Porter Road near Penn State's Swine Research Facility - the largest collection of green ash germplasm in one location in the world - may play a role in saving the species. Over the last few decades, researchers maintained the plantation to study the effects of climate change on trees. ![]() Steiner conducted a provenance trial - moving trees that had evolved in different climates to one location and carefully monitoring their growth and other characteristics - with the goal of understanding how species adapt to their environments. Mixed in were a small number of white ash trees. He grew the seedlings for two years before methodically planting 2,100 of them, all 12 feet apart, in a seven-acre plot. Steiner, who also is director of The Arboretum at Penn State, collected seeds from wild green ash trees in 27 states and Canadian provinces in the fall of 1975. ![]()
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