LANSING - Homeowners in southeast Michigan soon will be able to purchase a limited number discounted trees to replace those lost because of the emerald ash borer.

The program, Restoration of Our Trees (ROOT), allows homeowners to buy two trees for $21, according to Kerry Gary, Emerald Ash Borer restoration coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources. This cost is one-third the normal price for the same type of tree, she said.

ROOT will offer six types of trees including red oak and sugar maple. The variety allows for diversification of the tree population to decrease the impact of a future widespread outbreak of a disease, Gray said.

"A big problem with emerald ash borer was that ash was a popular landscape tree, so it was planted everywhere, and we're trying to encourage people to diversify the species they have planted in their neighborhood," she said.

"If a person has a lot of maple trees planted, they might want to consider planting a different type of tree so they can have a much more diversified landscape."

Emerald ash borer is an invasive species from Asia and was discovered in Michigan in 2002. The pest can infest all types of ash trees except mountain ash and has killed almost 15 million of the estimated 700 ash trees in the state, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Marlene Rogers, administrator of the Monroe Conservation District, said her organization will accept orders at the beginning of February and that the trees will be available in April.

She agreed on the need for diversification of the landscape by homeowners.

"With the diversification, if you have a disease effecting one tree it should not effect others," Rogers said.

ROOT has eight local partners made up of local governments and agencies in three regions in the southeastern part of the state.

They were chosen through an application process in May, she said.

Rogers said she is concerned each partner will have only 200 trees available to distribute.

"When the 200 trees are gone, they're gone," Rogers said. "There are eight different places where you can get these trees but I've been receiving calls from Ann Arbor with people already trying to get these trees.

"I think that they're going to be gone immediately when people see that they can get this quality of tree for that price," she said. "It's a really good deal."

In addition to selling people the trees, Rogers said partners will provide buyers with instructions to properly care for them.

"These trees are going to require a lot more care than a seedling would," Rogers said. "You need to make sure these trees are taken care of.

Richard Kobe, chair of the Michigan State University Forestry department, said the ROOT program will not have a large impact on the total amount of trees that have been killed by the pest but that it is a start in the right direction.

"This program sets the tone and helps communities get back on their feet," he said. "It does a lot to put things in motion to solve this problem.

"In many communities, ash made up a large amount of the street trees and many of those were lost because of the insect."

He added that he has not seen any research that shows the natural spread of the insect is slowing throughout the state but may find a solution with the increase of predator of the borer.

"We've seen what it does in the urban areas and in natural forests and if there are more and more emerald ash borer there might be more of an insect that preys on it and we can try to create a balance," Kobe said.