Emerald ash borer grants, training available

By Craig Johnson

Two grants are available from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to prepare for and respond to the newly discovered tree pest, emerald ash borer (EAB). The two grant programs are the Planning and Preparedness Grant and the Incident Response Grant. They are competitive, matching grants available to local governments and other entities.

The $2 million funding for the grants was made available through legislation passed during the 2009 legislative session. The League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) worked with the Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Council, the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and the Minneapolis Park Board to pass legislation for the new one-time funding for cities to deal with EAB.

The deadline to apply for the two grants is Nov. 20. To help cities meet this short deadline, a training workshop will be offered on Oct. 29 in Stewartville (see sidebar below).

To combat the threat posed by invasive forest pests, Forest Protection Reserve funds were appropriated to the MDA from the Outdoor Heritage Fund. The priority of the state is to prevent or slow the spread and subsequent impacts of emerald ash borer in Minnesota.

The Planning and Preparedness grant program has $875,000 available, with a $100,000 cap on proposals. Any community in the state can apply. Areas with documented infestations closer to them will get bonus points on their scoring. Those areas include a radius around the St. Paul EAB site and much of southeastern Minnesota because EAB was found just across the Mississippi River from Houston County. For more information about the Planning and Preparedness grant, visit the MDA website.

The Incident Response grant program has $1 million available, with a $1 million cap on proposals. Only communities with a documented infestation of emerald ash borer are eligible, which currently limits the program to the City of St. Paul and Ramsey County. Both grants require at least a 15 percent local match, which can be in-kind. For more information about the Incident Response grant, visit the MDA website.

To apply for either grant, citied must request the request for proposal and grant application form from Robert Koch, MDA, who can be reached at robert.koch@state.mn.us or (651) 201-6549. However, MDA claims that under new state grant guidelines, their representatives cannot answer prospective applicants’ questions or participate in the Oct. 29 training workshop.

For more information, contact Craig Johnson, LMC, at cjohnson@lmc.org or (651) 281-1259.
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Workshop to provide guidance on applying for EAB grants

The League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) has teamed up with the Southeast Minnesota League of Municipalities and Minnesota Shade Tree Advisory Council to provide training for cities that wish to apply for emerald ash borer grants available from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (see main story on this page for information about the grants). The deadline to apply for the grants is Nov. 20.

The workshop will provide cities and counties with training on how to apply for these grants and information on what components their forest management and planning proposals should include to be competitive under the state scoring criteria. Forestry experts will be available to help explain what types of efforts are eligible and what steps will be most beneficial as cities prepare for this new forest pest, as well as what proposal components are needed to generate good scores in the grant programs.

The workshop will take place at 11 a.m. on Oct. 29 at the Stewartville Civic Center, 120 City Center (intersection of Minnesota Highway 30 and U.S. Highway 63). An LMC Regional Meeting will follow the training. (A $40 registration fee is required for the Regional Meeting, but no registration is required to attend the free EAB grant training.)

For more information, contact Craig Johnson, LMC, at cjohnson@lmc.org or (651) 281-1259.

Editor:
Claudia Hoffacker