Build community capacity to protect existing trees by one or more of:

Training & Certifications:

• Become a certified Forest Pest First Detector. 
• Details on becoming a MN Certified Tree Inspector from the MN Dept. of Natural Resources; recertification happens at the annual March Minnesota Shade Tree Short Course. 
• The International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) provides credentials for Certified Arborists but there are other certifications too. 
• The ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (ISA TRAQ) is a voluntary qualification program designed to train and assess candidates in a specialized field of arboriculture.
• ISA Certified Arborist Municipal Specialist® credential holders are current ISA Certified Arborists® who have chosen municipal arboriculture or urban forestry as a career path.
• TCIA’s Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP) program is the only individual safety credentialing program in the industry and is designed to address several of the safety challenges that tree care companies face.

Emerald Ash Borer: 

• The Managing Emerald Ash Borer: A Resilient Communities Project–GreenStep Cities Guide (RCP, 2016) helps local government agencies develop an emerald ash borer management plan based on the “acceptable risks” the community is willing to take ecologically, economically, and socially to manage the problem.
• The Model Request For Proposal Components for Emerald Ash Borer Management (2018) includes components that a city can incorporate into its standard request for proposal (RFP) form to obtain private company bids for preparing an EAB management plan and components that a city can incorporate into its standard RFP to obtain private company bids for ash tree injection services.
• See the Model EAB Management Plan (MN Shade Tree Advisory Committee: 2015), which provides background and direction to communities on how to deal with EAB through adopting landscape-based management policies and practices. The Plan is based upon minimizing total life-cycle costs of the EAB infestation by 'saving the best [about 20%, with Emamectin benzoate], replacing the rest,' and enlisting private owners of ash. 
• See a simplified EAB Cost-Benefit & Emissions Calculator produced in 2019 by the MPCA's RETAP program. 
• The Purdue University free, on-line cost calculator that enables a community to enter tree inventory and cost data so as to compare costs of three different treatment and removal strategies.
• Find EAB resources from the MN Dept. of Agriculture including Guidelines to Slow the Growth and Spread of Emerald Ash Borer. 
• The DNR Urban and Community Forestry program provides technical assistance and resources. 
• Learn more about Emerald ash borer resources from the UofMN Extension.
• Crowd-sourcing apps have been used that allow residents to participate in EAB protection efforts.
• A "5-10-15" tree-diversity rule-of-thumb for reducing the risk of catastrophic tree loss due to pests is to aim for city tree canopy with no more than 5% of any one species, 10% of any one genus, and 15% of any one family. See BPA 16.3 for "best native yard trees for our changing climate"
• See the 2019 state agency report Emerald Ash Borer in Minnesota, which has 4 recommendations and a hierarchy of ash tree material management. 

Tree Steward Program:  

• The University of Minnesota’s Tree Steward Program aids in the development of environmentally-focused residents through education and the promotion of volunteerism. Local governments request tree steward education to train volunteers in many topic areas.