Citizen Science: What’s Invasive! and IPANE

Native plants and animals have evolved to coexist in a balance where the animals use the plants as a food source and the plants use the animals to reproduce. Non-native invasive species disrupt

this balance that has taken eons to reach.

Invasive plants crowd out native ones, often by starting their growing season before native plants or growing faster. Most invasive plants are eaten by a very small number of native insects. With fewer insects there is less food for breeding birds to feed their nestlings. The fruit of invasive plants will be eaten by birds and other animals, but it is less nutritious.

Invasive insects can kill native plants. Connecticut has been hit by the gypsy moth, the Japanese beetle, and the hemlock woolly adelgid, and we have seen the damage that has been done. New on the scene is the emerald ash borer which can kill an ash tree in two to three years.

To combat invasive plants, experts need to know where to find them. That’s the main idea behind the What’s Invasive app, a joint effort by UCLA’s Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), the National Park Service and the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health at the University of Georgia.

The app displays local lists of invasive plants or animals (with images) that have been identified by the National Park Service and other management authorities. Users can help experts pinpoint invasive species by locating them and providing experts with GPS coordinates, accompanied by a photo and notes about the observation. The geotagged observations and photos are used to alert experts about the spread of habitat-destroying species. Users can also go online to whatsinvasive.com and set up their own site for invasive species data collection.

Visit whatsinvasive.com for more information or to set up your own site for invasive species data collection.

Another app for helping scientists map invasive species is from the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England. IPANE’s mission is to create a comprehensive web-accessible database of invasive and potentially invasive plants in New England that will be continually The database will facilitate education and research that will lead to a greater understanding of invasive plant ecology and support informed conservation management. An important focus of the project is the early detection of, and rapid response to, new invasions.

updated by a network of professionals and trained volunteers.

This app allows IPANE to become mobile and allow IPANE users to report sightings of invasive plants directly in the field.

For more information about IPANE and how to volunteer, visit eddmaps.org/ipane/.

Both apps are available for iOS and Android smart devices. Links to the App Store and Google play for the apps can be found at apps.bugwood.org/apps.html.

(From the May, 2014 newsletter.)

More Bad News

The  emerald ash borer has made its way into Connecticut. 

Environmental Headlines has the story: 

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station (CAES) announced today a series of strong, proactive steps aimed at preventing the spread of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), a destructive beetle which has now been detected in Connecticut.

DEEP will also maintain a ban that has been in place against bringing any firewood into state parks and forests.  Wood is made available at these facilities for campers.DEEP and CAES announced earlier today that EAS was detected in Prospect, the first record of this pest in Connecticut.  There is also a second probable detection of EAS in Naugatuck State Forest, with final verification from federal officials in process....
The EAB is a small and destructive beetle, metallic green in color, and approximately 1/2 inch long and 1/8 inch wide.  Adults emerge from the bark of infested trees leaving a small “D”-shaped exit hole roughly 1/8 inch in diameter.  This insect is native to Asia and was first discovered in the Detroit, MI and Windsor, Ontario regions of North America in 2002.  It has since spread through the movement of firewood, solid-wood packing materials, infested ash trees, and by natural flight dispersal.