ridgeline
In This Issue 1 MFFC Introduces Mushroom Packaging On the Watch for the EAB
2 Upcoming Community Events and Sheep Dog Trials
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Unplugged at MFFC
Summer 2015 a publication of the Merck Forest and Farmland Center “Teaching, demonstrating & sustaining a working landscape”
Mushroom Packaging A Note From the Director By Tom Ward, Executive Director Many of you are aware that we are in the process of making our maple syrup packaging and shipping more sustainable. Last year, we moved away from plastic containers for our organic maple syrup and are now using glass containers. The next step was to find a more sustainable shipping product than even the recyclable foam peanuts. Over the past few years, we have cultivated a relationship with Ecovative Design, LLC, of Green Island, N.Y. The company designs Mushroom ® Packaging, which
Ellie and Daisy Update
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is made from agricultural waste material infused with fungal mycelium (root-like structure). We are very close to finalizing the design specifics of a sustainable, highperforming, molded shipping container manufactured by Ecovative and designed to fit our glass syrup bottles. The result of this collaboration between MFFC and Ecovative will be the first use of Mushroom ® Packaging in the Maple Industry, and it will lead to our organic syrup product being stored in a recyclable container and shipped in stable organic packaging,... (continued on page 6)
Human Animal
On the Watch for the Emerald Ash Borer
What’s New at the Visitor Center
By Melissa Carll, Communications Coordinator
5 Recipe from the Lodge: Blueberry Coffee Cake You-Pick Berries, How to Tell What’s Ripe
6 “Mushroom” and “EAB” continued
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About Us & Membership
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New Faces at Merck Forest
3270 Route 315, PO Box 86, Rupert, Vermont 05768 www.merckforest.org p. 802.394.7836
What’s iridescent green, nearly 3/8ths of an inch long, a native of eastern Asia, and currently causing problems for the ash trees of the United States? If you guessed the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis), you are correct! The Emerald Ash Borer (or EAB, as it is sometimes nicknamed) is an invasive pest that was inadvertently introduced to the United States and Canada just over a decade ago, possibly transported in wooden containers that came from Asia. The insect preys on ash trees (Fraxinus spp.), a common type of hardwood species used in making furniture and baseball bats and as a food source for cardinals, finches and other woodland species. Since the EAB entered the North American ecosystem, it has destroyed approximately 50 million ash trees between Minnesota, Arkansas, Virginia, and Maine
Figure 1: The Emerald Ash Borer. Image is not to scale. Image from www.emeraldashborer.info/files/eab_id_guide.pdf
(see Figure 2). Currently, Vermont is the only state in the northeast that claims to not have the Emerald Ash Borer within its boundaries, but neighboring New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Quebec have declared sightings and the ill effects of the insect, and one wonders when the EAB may appear in the Green Mountain State. With nearly 160 million ash trees in Vermont [1], the invasive pest could cause problems for timber harvests, sawmills, and others that rely on the ash tree for commercial reasons. The environment could certainly see negative ramifications: “The loss of ash from an ecosystem can result in increased numbers of invasive plants, changes in soil nutrients, and effects on species that feed on ash.”[2]. However, the state is actively preparing for the Emerald Ash Borer. Programs exist statewide to watch for and hopefully mitigate the species’ arrival. Forest Pest First Detector is one such program (continued page 6)... Figure 2: Image of an ash tree after it was attacked by emerald ash borers. The insect eats the ash tree’s cambium (the layer just under the bark which transports nutrients through the tree). Essentially, the EAB will eat around the circumference of the ash and girdle it, eventually killing the tree. Image from: blog.blaircountylawnservice.com