Adopt-a-Tree
Help us save the Ash Trees at the Spring Valley Sportsmen's Club by adopting a tree in the name of a
dearly departed family or club member, your family or a company. Our beautiful canopy of Ash trees at the club is in danger of being wiped out within a few years.
We have identified nine (9) Ash trees on our property for treatment. Your adoption will cover the cost of treating your selected trees for two years. Each tree will receive a tag identifying the tree was saved in the name you specify. Any donation to help our trees is greatly appreciated, but to adopt a tree: Click here to Print and Complete the Adopt-a-Tree Program Form and mail in your check for $175 per tree for a 2 year adoption.
What is an Emerald Ash Borer?
The emerald ash borer is a 1/2 inch long metallic green, wood-boring invasive insect that feeds exclusively on ash trees. Its larvae feed under the tree bark. They remove the bark from around the entire circumference of either a branch or tree trunk and kill trees within four years of infestation.
The Asian beetles moved rapidly in North America after being first identified in 2002 in Michigan. Emerald ash borers showed up in Pennsylvania in 2007 and now are in every county of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. While the bug itself isn’t harmful directly to humans or animals, it's larvae can do quite a bit of damage to the ecosystem and our economy.
Signs of an infestation:
Economic Impact
White ash was the seventh most abundant tree species in Pennsylvania in 2011. The insect currently infests forests from Colorado to Vermont to Georgia with damage to the U.S. economy exceeding $10 billion in 2019 across the 25 affected states, according to DCNR.
U.S. timberland has an estimated 8 billion ash trees, 300 million of them in Pennsylvania forests with more than 100 million ash trees that have been killed by the emerald ash borer in PA.
Additionally, dead ash trees pose a serious threat to humans, as falling branches and trees can result in serious injury or death and potential lawsuit. Some states have even issued warnings about placing your tree stand in ash trees.
Treatment of Ash Trees
It can be less expensive sometimes to treat ash trees than to have them removed in the long run. Due to the sheer number of Ash trees on our property we have selected 7 key trees to save. Our trees will be sprayed using Safari 20 SB Insecticide, Merit 75 WSP Insecticide and Pentra Bark. It will be applied to the bark from ground level to 6 feet up the trunk. This treatment will protect the 7 trees for two years at a cost of $1,500.
The thought is that in another five to six years the large population of emerald ash borer will have moved out of the area simply because there's no food source. The population of insects is going to collapse. In four years, we may be able to scale back on the time of treatment because there won't be the insect pressure there is now.
