MILLSTONE – A $10,000 grant from the state is being sought by Millstone Township officials to help protect trees from an invasive insect species.
On Dec. 20, the Township Committee passed a resolution authorizing the township administrator to apply for a state grant to further fund a resiliency planning grant received from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Community Stewardship Incentive Program. The township was awarded a $10,000 resiliency planning grant earlier in 2017.
If the latest grant being sought is awarded, the township administrator will execute an agreement with the state, according to the resolution.
During the summer of 2017, Millstone was one of 18 New Jersey municipalities to be awarded a grant from the DEP and one of five municipalities to be awarded a $10,000 resiliency planning grant.
The awards, which totaled $391,741, were issued by the New Jersey Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry program through Community Stewardship Incentive Program grants with the intent of promoting stewardship of community trees and forests and combating the emerald ash borer, a beetle regarded as an invasive species that can be destructive to ash trees.
State officials consider the biggest issue facing forests in New Jersey to be the emerald ash borer, according to the DEP. The grants allow local governments to manage emerald ash borers by conducting inventories to identify ash trees in their communities, develop mitigation plans for the insect and reforest their communities if ash trees are removed, according to state forester John Sacco.
When the grants were awarded in 2017, emerald ash borers had not been detected in the Millstone, according to the DEP.
However, the insect was detected in neighboring municipalities Allentown in 2015, Manalapan in 2017 and Monroe Township, Middlesex County, in 2015, as well as nearby Mercer County municipalities West Windsor in 2015 and Robbinsville in 2017.
Allentown and Manalapan were the only Monmouth County municipalities identified as having emerald ash borer detections from 2014-17.
According to Millstone officials, the initial $10,000 resiliency planning grant was used to hire a contractor to perform street tree and tree risk assessment on Carrs Tavern Road, Paint Island Springs Road, Red Valley Road, Olde Noah Hunt Road, Baird Road, Haviland Road, Wagner Farm Lane, Conover Road, Lyle Farm Lane, David Court, Clover Road, Hickory Drive, Carriage Way, Fountain Lane, Michael Court, Lisa Court, Disbrow Hill Road, Huneke Way, Meadow Court, Autumn Court, H. Vanderveer Lane and Timmons Hill Road.