Teamwork Tackles Tree of Heaven

Tree of Heaven, a high priority noxious weed, was discovered for the first time in Dakota County in 2025. Host Jennifer Burington talks with MDA weed scientist Tony Cortilet and Loni Anderson of the Minnesota Department of Transportation about its accidental discovery, the team effort happening to eradicate the problem, and how you can be on the look out for tree of heaven and other noxious weed in Minnesota on this episode of Smarty Plants. 

Smarty Plants is a podcast of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Visit www.mda.state.mn.us/plants-insects/smarty-plants for more episodes. Look for a new episode of Smarty Plants every month.

Transcript

Jennifer Burington: 0:19

Hello, everyone. I'm Jennifer Burington, and welcome to Smarty Plants, a Minnesota Department of Agriculture podcast that keeps you informed about invasive species affecting our environment and agricultural resources. Today, we're talking about a new invasive plant discovery in Minnesota. In September 2025, tree-of-heaven, an aggressive invasive noxious weed, was confirmed for the first time in Dakota County. Because of its location and because tree-of-heaven can be difficult to manage, this discovery prompted a coordinated response. Tree-of-heaven is also the preferred host for spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect pest that can damage a wide range of plants, including fruit and vegetable crops. Staff from several organizations worked together to assess the infestation, map the affected area, and develop a plan to manage and monitor the site. Joining us today to talk about this collaborative effort are Tony Cortilet and Loni Anderson. Tony Cortilet has served as a weed scientist with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture since 1998 and is currently the section manager for the Seed, Noxious Weed, Hemp, and Biotechnology programs. He has more than 30 years of professional experience working with plant species, habitat management, and ecological preservation. Loni Anderson has worked in maintenance with the Minnesota Department of Transportation since 2017. When she's not helping keep Minnesota's roads safe, she also works as a weed identifier and herbicide applicator. After earning her drone certificate and aerial pesticide applicator license, she now uses one of MnDOT's two agricultural drones to target larger patches of noxious weeds in hard-to-reach areas. Thank you both for taking the time to speak with me today. Thank you.

Tony Cortilet: 2:13

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Jennifer Burington: 2:15

To start us off, uh, Tony, can you explain to our listeners why tree of heaven is listed as a noxious weed?

Tony Cortilet: 2:23

Yeah. So tree of heaven is a species non-native to North America, and it has invaded the western, or excuse me, the eastern United States. Um, it's been spreading westward for the last several decades. First came to our attention in Minnesota. One of the members of our noxious weed advisory committee also worked for the Federal Transportation Board and had been watching these eastern U.S. populations spread westward. Um, and that was of concern because we have seen temperatures rising to the point where the growing zone in the upper Midwest now is getting closer to meeting the requirements for a tree of heaven to be able to establish. Um, and so it was reviewed by the Noxious Weed Advisory Committee, I believe, starting in 2014. Initially, it was recommended and, uh, further listed as a restricted noxious weed. Uh, we had only had a few populations, very small, single trees show up in Minnesota at that time, and it was not thought that it would readily establish. Eventually, in 2019, with, uh, some continued warmer winters in Minnesota, uh, it came back to the Noxious Weed Advisory Committee to re-review, and at that time, it was moved to the prohibited eradicate list, um, primarily because the threat was thought to be greater, uh, as our winters were starting to, to warm up a little bit, and that it may actually be more conducive to it establishing here

Jennifer Burington: 4:07

Perfect. And then in 2020, tree-of-heaven was designated as a prohibited eradicate noxious weed in Minnesota. Um, what does that mean for how the plant must be managed when it's found?

Tony Cortilet: 4:21

Right. So a prohibited eradicate noxious weed is our highest priority weed level of all of the listings on the noxious weed list. Those species have to be eradicated, which is defined as killing the plant above and below ground. So when you have a tree like this that is, uh, spreading by suckers through the roots, that's very important because that's one of its primary means of spread. So not only do we have to, you know, treat the above ground part of the plant, we have to make sure that we're doing some type of management that's controlling that, you know, below ground growth.

Jennifer Burington: 4:58

Yeah, that can be quite difficult for these. And so how, Loni, was this tree of heaven infestation discovered in Dakota County, and what did the site look like when it was first assessed?

Loni Anderson: 5:13

Well, it was a bit of bad luck for a coworker of mine that was out spraying some weeds and He got two flat tires, and he only had one spare. So our supervisor, John Sander, had to run out an extra tire to him, and he just happened to go by the site, and he thought, "Wow, look at those leaves. They're shiny. They're larger. They're really green. Let's turn around and look at that." So he did, he did think that it was tree of heaven, so he sent me out to also identify and put it into EDDMapS. And, um, you know, finding something like that is a little bit like having a piece of juicy gossip. So as soon as that gets verified in EDDMapS, then everybody that wants to know about tree of heaven in Minnesota gets an email saying, "It's here." So I went ahead and called our stewards office and talked to Christina Bash, who then contacted Department of Ag, who then contacted Dakota County, and I swear it happened within an hour of me putting in into EDDMapS. So that's kinda how that worked. Um, the area's, uh, on Highway 13 in Mendota Heights, and it is… The ditch is about 50 to 60 feet wide, and it has a parallel road next to the ditch that is actually a private driveway, I found out from the homeowner. Um, and it's-- the infestation is about 200 to 250 feet long in that ditch. And, um There is a state park that is pretty close by, so we really needed to jump on it right away. Um, but there's two houses that are on the opposite side of the driveway, and it's in their yard now. So it's beyond the right of way now. It's also in the private area, so everyone needed to work together and get it taken care of.

Jennifer Burington: 7:41

Yeah, we went over and looked at it a little bit too because of the, um, being a host, uh, for spotted lanternfly. And so our entomologist, Angie Amborn, that we've had on here a couple times talk about, uh, insects, uh, she was interested in knowing, like, oh, is it established? And can we… And inspecting the actual tree-of-heaven plants and looking for any egg masses that might be there as well. We didn't find any, but it was worth a look because it is a preferred host of that particular insect that is coming from the east of, over towards Minnesota. So yeah, it was a, uh, like you're saying, it's in the, in the ditch, and it looks kind of just like a, like a sumac. It does, yes. Like a weird, weird looking sumac kind of thing.

Loni Anderson: 8:24

It does. Uh, to me, it looks just s- very similar to sumac. And I failed to mention there is a power line that it is directly under, possibly how it got there. Um, and so that power line, they come through and do brushing every so often, so they did cut the tree-of-heaven on, um, the right of way. And so it just looked short like sumac and… But then on the other side, it's more tall, so I thought that was the older-- That's where it came from. But no, it's our side.

Jennifer Burington: 9:03

And do we know how long the trees have been in the area?

Loni Anderson: 9:08

Well, Department of Ag came out, and they did a core sample. And they figured out that the oldest trees were on the right of way. And, um, the results showed 2019 as the earliest ring, and so about seven years old. Okay.

Tony Cortilet: 9:27

And so to kind of go first full circle back to your first question, um, you know, that, that's why the listing was put in place because of the fact that tree-of-heaven has been spreading through right of ways in the Eastern United States westward, and there is a lot of work, uh, construction work, you know, whether it's fiber optics, it's, you know, clearing the rights of ways with, uh, tree management and the vehicles they, you know, they, they use in picking up seeds or, you know, any propagule, uh, that can spread and regenerate, and that's what we feel is happened here. And so it probably got established on the right of way and then h- you know, spread by suckered roots into the private land.

Jennifer Burington: 10:13

Thanks. And then who was all involved in responding? You kind of mentioned a few of them. And what role did each, um, of those groups play?

Loni Anderson: 10:24

Well, we come in, um, and we report it, and then we get a plan together to treat it, mon- and then we monitor, monitor it every year to make sure we're getting everything and how the treatments are going. Um, Department of Ag came in because it was on the private land, and it's the only known Tree of Heaven in Minnesota right now. And so they worked together with Dakota County to figure out funding to help, um, eradicate it on the private land

Tony Cortilet: 11:01

Yeah, and so this came to my attention from, uh, one of my staff brought it up, and, you know, we have a process in place at the Department of Ag for prohibited eradicate species. Um, we've done the same response in, in dealing with roundleaf bittersweet, um, Dalmatian toadflax in northwest Minnesota, palmer amaranth statewide, and a host of other high-priority weeds that we do not want to establish in Minnesota. And when this was brought up to me that this-- MnDOT had found this, um, I put my team together on rounding up everybody we needed in sort of an incident command structure that we use that, uh, you know, was really popu-popularized in food safety, health types of situations. And what it's allowed us to do is get all the players we need, uh, in one area of communication, for lack of a better way to describe it, so that we're not duplicating things, and we're also i-identifying the key people at each agency, including the private landowners in the county. Uh, it could include the townships or a city. Uh, anybody that's gonna be involved in the project or needs to be involved, and what their role is gonna be is also established. Um, and then we just keep a running tab of that on a case management system that we have, uh, over the course of the treatment. So we're really applying this to tree of heaven, and somebody listening may be thinking, "Why? You just said there's only two plants." So, well, it all starts with a plant with invasive species, and if you don't pay attention to it and get onto it, uh, all of a sudden you've got a big population. We've proven with palmer amaranth as an example, uh, in agricultural lands that if we use this incident command structure, which also, by the way, includes the people reporting it, um, then we can, we can enact some serious, uh, impacts to that plant from preventing it from establishing. And that's what we're trying to do here. And I think a-as Loni said, this came together really quickly, and that's a testament to everybody from MnDOT, DNR, the county, even the private landowners. They're familiar enough with this type of process. They've heard about it for these other weeds, and they've actually, w-with the private landowners, even been very susceptible to helping us out.

Jennifer Burington: 13:35

So what challenges arise when an infestation spans both public and private? You're talking the public, it's in the right of way, and then it's on private land as well. It seems like it moved into that secondly. And then how does management differ between those two areas?

Tony Cortilet: 13:53

That's a great question. The reality is management shouldn't differ, um, however, it does. You have public land, which is managed by land managers of some agency or, uh, entity, and then you have private land, which is somebody's private property. Um, and, uh, trying to go to a private landowner when something originates, let's say, on public land or can be thought to have originated there, and in this case, we really can't say for sure. Uh, we can only- Right … make our best guess, right? Um, but then trying to go to a private landowner who probably did not know this plant was on their property or that it w-- if it was, that it was something bad. And then all of a sudden, just overnight, bringing it up to him and saying, "We need to kill this plant right now," uh, and it's, you know, thirty feet, forty feet, fifty feet tall, that's expensive. Anyone who's had a tree dropped on their property or whatnot. So that becomes somewhat of a problem. Does the noxious weed law allow us to say,"Yes, landowner, you have to do this?" Sure, but is that the right thing to do? No. We want to work with that landowner. At the end of the day, the goal is to get rid of the, the, the problem, and it wasn't the landowner's problem. Uh, well, it, it is now, right? But it wasn't them who made this happen, and it wasn't MnDOT either. It was just a series of things that happened. So what we were able to do, in the past, we have graciously been appropriated money from our legislature, uh, to fight noxious weeds at the local level through our noxious weed, uh, grant. And that has come to an end, but some of the grantees have not spent all their money, and so some of that money has come back to us, and we were able to take, um, about fifteen hundred dollars, I think, and give it to Dakota County in order to treat the private landowners', you know, infestations. So, um, th- it's been awesome because Dakota County and our county ag inspector there, who's a, you know, just a, a really great partner of ours and a great asset to Dakota County, um, has agreed to make that part of a priority to work with those landowners, talk with them about, you know, this is what we're gonna do, this is how we're gonna do it, and this is what you can expect. By doing that, the landowners were super gracious about working with us, and so now they're part of the team

Jennifer Burington: 16:33

So perfect. What treatment methods are most effective for controlling tree of heaven, Loni?

Loni Anderson: 16:41

Well, we're gonna find out this spring. Um, I did do a folia- foliar treatment in October, and we did see some die back immediately two weeks after. Um, so that's promising. Um, but we used a foliar sp- spray with Garlon 4 Ultra, and we added a little bit of Milestone in. Uh, we also had some brush in the area, and then we, um, used MSO, uh, methylated seed oil, and we did a low volume, uh, just used a Hudson sprayer and went out and sprayed as much as we could

Jennifer Burington: 17:26

And what other type of, uh, treatment methods are used or not recommended?

Tony Cortilet: 17:33

Yeah. So for tree-of-heaven being a species that, uh, does sucker a lot, you know, we use something called cut stump treatment for things like buckthorn and other invasive woody plants. That's not recommended with this because of w- what cutting the plant does is increases suckering, and that's probably why it's been s- or spread off of so aggressively the right of way because it was probably mowed over and over again, and it just spread to the private land and then grew healthily. Um, so you don't want to make it mad, uh, by doing that. And you would think, well, you're gonna treat it after you cut it, right? Well, it doesn't translocate well. What you want is something living that over time a systemic herbicide is making its way into that root system, completely into that root system, and, uh, taking out what I mentioned before about the eradicate part of this, the below-ground, uh, part of the life form. So, um, anything that does, uh, basal bark treatments and, and Loni mentioned using a bark oil, which that helps penetrate into the cambium, so the, the chemical, the active ingredient actually gets into the, the system. And, um, also there's something called hack and squirt, where there's sort of a downward cut made into the, into the, you know, basically the bark and the outer tree. And then similarly, uh, uh, a concoction w- of herbicide active and bark oil are used, and that just helps it get down into those root systems. Generally, that's probably going to be used in the fall, uh, when a lot of the, the, you know, translocation will occur. So, uh, Loni talked about using a foliar. Those are really helpful when the leaves are growing, the tree is growing, right after probably flowering in the tree, sometime around July and then thereafter, and that can actually be really impactful too

Jennifer Burington: 19:35

So what key features should people look for when trying to identify a tree of heaven? We've talked a little bit about kind of what they look like or what they look similar to. Loni, if you wanna kind of describe a little more.

Loni Anderson: 19:47

Sure. Well, I had it confused with sumac. Uh, the leaf structure is very similar, um, but it can also be confused with hickory or black walnut. It's, um, the leaves are a lot longer than a sumac, and it's very dark green, shiny, and it's a smooth leaf edge rather than serrated. So that's really helpful seeing that.

Tony Cortilet: 20:16

Yeah, and I'm-- I think a person can Google, uh, you know, especially if they're, they come across it with a phone nearby and, uh, just do a simple Google for tree of heaven, and you'll see so many different pictures and ways to identify it. And there's some pretty cool AI tools out there, um, that like PlantSnap and different ID, uh, types of, uh, software that you can install on a phone, take a picture of it, and it'll give you a confidence level of, of where you're at. And tree of heaven's pretty common in those, so the databases have a ton of pictures, and it probably will give you a pretty accurate result

Loni Anderson: 20:58

Also, if you smell rancid peanut butter, that is kind of the scent that that tree gives off. So if you're smelling that, if you're breaking off leaves, you might smell rancid peanut butter, and that's a pretty good indication as well.

Jennifer Burington: 21:16

So if somebody thinks that they have Tree of Heaven ba- based off of some searching that they do and some pictures that they take and doing a little more research, um, what should they do?

Tony Cortilet: 21:29

Well, here's the great thing. There's so many opportunities to report pests now. Um, the one I'll start with is the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Report A Pest page. Um, you can Google that. It'll be the first thing that comes up, and then just follow the on-screen instructions as you go through it. Um, the other routes, uh, Loni mentioned something called EDDMapS, and I know the podcast has covered that before, but that is E-D-DMapS, and you can Google that too and come up, and you can click on Minnesota and zoom into where you're at or where you found the plant, and you can put, uh, information in there too that geocodes it. And then somebody in the EDDMapS system, whether it's, uh, a, you know, MnDOT personnel, Department of Ag, there are a lot of different people that look at that, will go in and say, "Hey, Tree of Heaven showed up. We need to get out to the field and verify that." So that's a secondary way to do it, but I would, uh, suggest using the Report A Pest 'cause that comes directly to us. And then don't just report it. Uh, take pictures of it. We love lots of pictures. Um, I always tell people, and I'm not insulting their intelligence, but we really love clear pictures. Um, I've gotten plenty, uh, uh, that are taken at 65 miles an hour on the interstate saying, "Hey, can you tell me what that plant was?" Uh, that is not gonna be successful for me to identify it for you. But we do have within MnDOT, uh, Department of Natural Resources, the Board of Water and Soil Resources, a network of folks that if I or my staff can't identify it, or Loni, Christina, uh, other good folks at MnDOT can't identify it, um, we throw it out there to a list of, uh, really good botanists who can look at those pictures and say, "Yeah, we're pretty sure that's what it is." So, um, Report A Pest is probably the easiest way to do it, and it's probably gonna get the quickest response.

Jennifer Burington: 23:32

Yep. And then what kind of, what should they take a picture of?'Cause I mean, these, we're talking about leaves that are, like, half as tall as me, and like, that's the whole leaf. Like, what, what should they take a picture of?

Tony Cortilet: 23:45

Well, we always tell people, and with a tree, yes, it's on a bigger scale, but just k- a rule of thumb is we like to see the stem, uh, the leaf, and any flowers that might be on the plant. For tree-of-heaven, I think the key characteristic is gonna be the leaves. Um, you know, and they're large, as, as Loni pointed out. Um, and you can also pull the leaf where it attaches to the stem, and that's called the scar, which is remaining. Those are usually heart-shaped, but just take a picture of that spot where the leaf came off of. That's a really helpful, um, diagnostic characteristic for us to use. Um, but if you've… You know, just take a picture of the tree and send it to us. We'll figure it out.

Loni Anderson: 24:33

Yep. Right. And you also wanna know how much of an infestation there is, so maybe a larger scale of, you know, back up and, and let us know how many are there, kind of, with your picture. So up close and out-

Jennifer Burington: 24:50

Yep, a little bit of everything. So what lessons from this, uh, tree of heaven infestation might help with future invasive plant infestation responses in Minnesota?

Loni Anderson: 25:04

Well, I feel like, um, I was super excited that there was a fast response, and that there was, um, a meeting. We decided what we're gonna do. Uh, they found money for the private property. That, that's just amazing that it's taken that serious. Um, w- I've dealt with other, um, invasives like European swallow-wort, and, um, yes, it was a fast response, but, um, this just… I think we're upping our game- Yeah … which is great.

Tony Cortilet: 25:42

Yeah, I'd agree. I, it, you know, we've, we've had so much success now over the last decade and a half with response to these high-priority species. Um, again, not all weeds are created equal on the noxious weed list, and we do only have so many people, so many resources to deal with this. Um, but if we can prioritize certain things like this, this is a no-brainer. It's a small population. Let's get rid of it. Um, a lot of people have, you know, maybe had somewhat of a cr- criticism that,"Well, why don't you do that for things like Canada thistle?" Or, you know. Well, we've been controlling Canada thistle for over 150 years, and it's pretty ubiquitous. Not to say that it's not important, but, um, this one we can actually prevent from establishing in Minnesota, and we've showed that with Palmer amaranth. We showed it with slowing the spread of things like Dalmatian toadflax and or- and roundleaf bittersweet. So you know, what we're learning from every time we do this is that it can be done, like Loni said. Um, it, it's not a f- you know, fluke thing. Uh, it works if you get everyone together and you get them committed. And so having the other partners is crucial, and having sort of this network established now and set up and ready to go at any time when something like this happens has been just awesome.

Loni Anderson: 27:07

I agree The sooner we can get it, the better. Then we're saving on cost for the effort of herbicide, of labor, um, and then we can use that for Canada thistle.

Tony Cortilet: 27:24

Absolutely. And the other thing, you know, I would say is that, um, by doing this and, and getting on these things quickly, you know, uh, the landowners don't need to worry about the spread in g- on one aspect, like the neighbors of these, you know, landowners now that have it are the neighbors to the right of way, uh, because we're working on it. We, you know, we have people out there. They can rest assured that we're, we're dealing with it. And we've already, by the way, went around a larger area surveying for more plants, so we covered a pretty good amount of acreage. Um, but also some landowners are tentative about reporting things if they find it on their property because they think they're gonna become the center of attention, and we have done everything possible to protect those landowners. It's not, like I said earlier, their fault, right? And I hope landowners understand that, that prohibited eradicate species, we're not coming out, you know, like the old noxious weed inspector to, you know, put a fine on your door and make you pay it. We have as much interest as a collective in the state to get rid of these species as you do as a landowner. So you can feel comfortable reporting to us. Um, we are not announcing that to the public and not putting you front and center. We just wanna get rid of the problem

Jennifer Burington: 28:52

So kind of going, expanding on that, why is early detection so important when dealing with invasive plants like tree of heaven? We've talked a little bit about a few of the things, but if Tony, you want to kind of give us a little bit more information?

Tony Cortilet: 29:05

Yeah, I mean, I use the Canada thistle example, and I know, uh, especially rural people listening right now know that's the bane of their existence in, uh, July and August when all the white fluff is spreading around. Um, imagine in the late 1800s, you know, when the noxious weed law was originally called the Canada Thistle Law, um, if we were able to do this for that plant. Um, we wouldn't be spending the money, as Loni pointed to, once a big infestation happens, and then, you know, we have to go out and we have to worry about controlling it so it's not spreading onto our neighbors and so on and so forth. That's the whole concept here. Um, which th-this example with tree of heaven, it really fits into what we did with Palmer amaranth. We haven't allowed populations to establish yet. Will they in the future? I don't know. More than likely they will, but what we're doing is buying time so that we can develop management scenarios for farmers, for example, to manage that weed. For this particular species, same thing. Our response to this will allow us to respond to it in other places if it does come in and get rid of it quickly. It's like putting out brush fires. It's that same model. Um, so I, you know, I think that detection early on is crucial because once it becomes widespread, it's hard. And we are dealing more and more with herbicide-resistant species, and that takes a huge toolbox, or I should say a huge tool out of our toolbox to use, uh, in management. Not that we're always all herbicide, uh, but it is an important part, especially for these perennial species that spread by roots to be able to kill the below, below-ground growth. So, um, the earlier the better

Jennifer Burington: 30:57

Yeah, it goes with most invasive plants, insects, diseases, early detection, rapid response, being able to identify it, and when somebody notices something unusual in their yard, to report it. Like you said, nobody's, nobody's mad. We'd rather be able to take care of it when it's a small problem before it gets to be a big problem and a big headache. So, um, what are, or where or what are some resources, um, that each of your agencies have, um, for homeowners to help identify what these, what tree of heaven looks like and possibly, uh, management of other noxious weeds? We've kind of talked about round leaf bittersweet, Canada thistle, things like that.

Loni Anderson: 31:38

Mm-hmm. Um, MNDOT has a website. They also have a booklet that, um, is all the noxious weeds, and it, um, it shows you pictures, how to identify. It also has a graph telling you to mow, not to mow, times of the year, uh, to treat it, um, and it's super beneficial to look at that and know timeline for the noxious weeds

Tony Cortilet: 32:10

We actually refer to it in Minnesota as the Weed Management Bible. Um, MnDOT took the lead on developing this as part of a larger consensus of our Noxious Weed Advisory Committee, which MnDOT is part of, uh, years ago, and it's just been a great tool for us to be able to hand out to not only our enforcement partners, uh, land managers at the state agencies. Um, it's a very, very useful tool. It's free. Yeah. Um, I think printed copies are available, uh, from, you know, you can talk to, you know, my staff at, at Department of Agriculture, "Hey, do you have one of those, uh, MnDOT Bibles?" You know. Uh, but, uh, at the same time, it's a PDF online that can be downloaded, and you can print it yourself. Um, and then our agency has our noxious weed pages. So if you google MDA noxious weeds, our, uh, homepage comes up, and there's a series of tiles you can click on and learn all about these different species. Each one is listed on the noxious weed listing page. So if you click on the name, it will open up, uh, biology and management pla- pages. Um, University of Minnesota Extension, great partner of ours, uh, they have information on these species, and they're also willing to take calls, and they can make actual recommendations to landowners. Uh, so I encourage people to reach out to their county extension, uh, uh, agent if, uh, at the University of Minnesota, if possible. And then obviously, Minnesota DNR has pages for this species, um, as well as some of our federal agencies in the state, um, that you can find information. So there-- it's just a lot of information out there, and again, if you google, a lot of other states' information comes up too, which, you know, yeah, I wanna give a, a bonus to our Minnesota stuff, but, uh, we live in a world where it's the same information and, uh, you know, maybe they have s- a different angle that they take on it that in Wisconsin, for example, that could help you. So but certainly Minnesota Department of Ag, DNR, DOT, uh, probably BWSR would be another source, our Board of Water and Soil Resources. So lots of information.

Jennifer Burington: 34:27

Well, thank you both so much. Uh, it's truly been a pleasure talking about tree of heaven, and I certainly learned a lot, and I'm sure our listeners did, too.

Loni Anderson: 34:36

Thanks for having me.

Tony Cortilet: 34:37

Yeah, thanks for having me, too.

Jennifer Burington: 34:39

This has been Smarty Plants, a podcast from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Our producers are Brittany Raveill and Sadie Anderson. Our editor is Larry Schumacher, and I have been your host. You can learn more about pests and other invasive species that affect our environment at www.mda.state.mn.us. And while you head to our website, we'll be working on the next episode of Smarty Plants. See you there.