4.1 Tree Study/Grant Opportunity

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ITflDEPARTMENT OF 2023 NATURAL RESOURCES ReLeaf Community Forestry Grants • NGO's with total annual revenue of over$750,000 must submit their most recent certified financial audit Beginning January 1,2024, Minnesota state agencies must perform a financial review on all grant recipients, including all local units of government. Due to the length of time needed to create and sign contracts,it is possible that local units of government may need to undergo a financial review as a part of this grant program. Questions: Submit questions to ucf.dnr@state.mn.us.Answers will be posted weekly online. Questions must be submitted no later than September 4,2023,to be included on the website. Data Privacy and Trade Secret Notice The information provided by an applicant will be used to assess the applicant's eligibility to receive a grant. The decision to apply for this grant is voluntary,and applicants are not legally required to provide any of the requested information.Applicants may decline to complete this application without any legal consequence. However,only completed applications will be considered for a grant;incomplete applications will not be considered. Applications are private or non-public until opened. Once the applications are opened,the name and address of the applicant and the amount requested is public.All other data in an application is private or non-public data until all agreements are fully executed.After DNR has completed the evaluation process,all remaining data in the applications is public with the exception of trade secret data as defined and classified in Minn. Stat.§13.37.A statement by a grantee that the application is copyrighted or otherwise protected does not prevent public accessto the application (Minn.Stat.§13.599,subd.3). Liability and Project Implementation DNR will not be held liable for any costs incurred by any firm for work performed in the preparation and production of a proposal, nor for any work performed prior to the execution of the contract.Project work and expenses that are eligible for reimbursement with grant funds CANNOT be started or incurred until the grant contract is fully executed.Grant agreements are expected to be finalized by January 1,2024.Related grant project work can begin after all signatures are obtained.Interim reports and final reports will be required for all grant-funded projects. Minnesota Department of Agriculture considers May 1—September 30 to be the flight season for EAB.This means that EAB adult beetles are emerging from infested wood or trees and flying in search of new hosts during this time.The best management practice is to not remove ash trees when EAB are actively flying (May-September),to avoid the risk of EAB emerging from this material in transit or at a processing location. Emerald ash borer(EAB)infestations are difficult to identify in the early stages of the infestation.Emerald ash borer infestation areas grow via human-assisted movement and through natural dispersion. For these reasons,when new emerald ash borer infestations are discovered,quarantines are enacted on a large scale (county)with the assumption that the infestation is spread beyond what is observed. However,while the quarantine necessarily covers a large area where emerald ash borer may be present,the distribution of emerald ash borer is likely not uniform throughout the quarantine and may be in areas outside these boundaries. These guidelines ideally should be followed 100 percent of the time when working with ash trees throughout the state of Minnesota. However,once a community is heavily infested with EAB(the point at which EAB-infested ash are so numerous that year-round removal of hazardous trees is necessary to mitigate risk to public),conducting ash tree removals during the emerald ash borer flight season may be Page 7 of 9 July 2023