Emerald ash borer hits Michigan's Aloha State Park

Michigan DNR image

Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials recently have found evidence of the emerald ash borer, an invasive species that targets ash trees, at Aloha State Park near Cheboygan. Aloha State Park is a popular northern Michigan destination for many campers during the summer.

This season, because of the damage to the trees, campers will see a change in the campground. Ash trees once made up about 85 percent of the trees within the campground. Over the past six months, approximately 400 dead ash trees have been removed from the park.

“The speed at which these trees have died is the most striking thing to me,” said Aloha State Park Supervisor Jeremy Spell. “Trees that looked healthy during the summer had bark falling off this winter.

"The DNR recognized years ago this could happen. The department has planted around 200 trees within the past five years thanks to grant funding received from the Odwalla Plant-A-Tree Program. We will continue to plant a diversity of trees each year but also recognize it will take a long time before the park looks like it did last year.”

Since these trees were in the campground area, the park worked during the winter to remove the dead trees for campers' safety. Park staff is now removing stumps and doing general cleanup at the campground. The extremely harsh winter has made these efforts more difficult, leaving the park buried with more snow than usual. Spell says the campground will be ready for the main camping season, but the park will look very different to those who regularly camp there. Replanting trees is a top priority for the park.

For more information about Aloha State Park’s efforts to restore the campground from the emerald ash borer, please call the park at 231-625-2522.