Just outside Cottage Grove at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Dorena Research Center, scientists are playing a numbers game: They’re growing thousands of Oregon Ash, sourced from up and down the West Coast, hoping to find the rare tree with genetic resistance to the Emerald Ash Borer. About one in 1,000 trees, or five of the 5,300 seedlings here, may be able to survive the beetle infestation, according to Dorena Center geneticist Richard Sniezko. “We’ve labeled each seedling, so when they’re planted out, there will be a tag on it. So we’ll know which parent tree it came off of.” It’s a gamble, but it could put the West Coast a step ahead of many other states, where people are now finding a few so-called “lingering,” living ash trees, and propagating them. …Oregon Ash grows from British Columbia to southern California.