2010/2011 Western Lake Erie Basin EAB Community Grant Program
This grant program has ended. Contact your regional Urban Forester for further information or assistance in preparing for future grant opportunities.
Ash-lined Woodmont Street in Toledo PRIOR to full EAB impact
The Ohio Division of Forestry developed a grant program to help communities remove hazardous ash trees along public rights-of-way, restore lost tree canopy cover, and enhace watershed health within the target area. Forty-five (45) communities took advantage of the two-year effort.
Woodmont Street in Toledo AFTER EAB
Ash Removal & Replacement Grant Program Review
Environmental Outcome: Maintained and functional urban forests will provide communities with clean air and water, increase property values, reduce erosion and stormwater runoff, create wildlife habitat, moderate urban climate, and lessen energy demands for heating and cooling.
Economic Outcome: Ohio’s devastated nursery industry will benefit from the sale of stock used to replace ash. The arboriculture industry will need to service the tree removal requests, and tree installation will be handled by landscape contractors. Preemptively reducing a community’s ash population will greatly lessen the economic burden that is an inevitable consequence of a full EAB infestation.
Safety Outcome: The removal of EAB infested and soon to be infested ash will lessen the safety hazards posed by dead and dying ash trees.
The 23 successful applicants in Round One of this grant program removed 2,240 ash trees and install 1,518 replacement trees.
The 12 successful applicants in Round Two removed 1,543 ash trees while installing 682 non-host EAB trees. |