Aliens in Our Uplands: Managing Past Mistakes, Preventing New Recruits

March 21, 2015

Presented byLinda Rohleder, Ph.D.

Director of Land Stewardship

New York – New Jersey Trail Conference

Coordinator, Lower Hudson Partnership for

Regional Invasive Species Management

Invasives Strike Force - Introduction

• USDA / Rutgers study 2006-2009– Dr. Rebecca Jordan & Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld– citizen science and research– focus on proof-of-concept, research quality work

• Invasives Strike Force 2011-present– focus on monitoring and training a volunteer force– northern NJ and lower Hudson Valley NY areas– use data for management

Our Goal

• Preserve our natural areas and forests that we love to hike in and enjoy

• Preserve the plant and animal diversity and the species that are endemic to this area

• Prevent the trails from serving as an avenue of invasion

Monitoring

• Collect baseline data on all trails over 4-5 years, then repeat

• Phased approach– Phase 1 : look for 14 common widespread invasives

Phase 1 Species • Norway maple • tree-of-heaven • autumn olive • Japanese barberry • burning bush (winged Euonymus) • multiflora rose • bush honeysuckles • wineberry • oriental bittersweet • Japanese honeysuckle • Japanese knotweed • garlic mustard • Japanese stilt-grass (Nepalese

browntop) • purple loosestrife

• Phase 2: look for a select set of emerging invasives

• Phase 3: NJ ISST list of 79 emerging invasives– http://njisst.org

Phase 2 Species • Japanese maple • Japanese angelica tree (devil’s

walking stick) • Bradford pear • common buckthorn • linden viburnum • Siebolds viburnum • Wisteria spp. • porcelainberry • English ivy • mile-a-minute vine • black swallowwort

Training for Monitoring Volunteers

• over 200 trained volunteers• More than 925 miles of trail surveyed (~ 11,000 acres)

Jeremy ApgarBill Males

Management - ISF Trail Crew

• Since 2011• Approximately a dozen volunteer weekend work days/year• ~ 800 volunteer hours/year• Average 90 volunteers /year

ISF Summer Crew• 4 summer crew members (2000 volunteer hrs)

– Become trained to apply herbicides

– Learn techniques for environmentally sensitive invasive species removal

– Work with volunteers

– Work across the region with many different partners– Earn education credits

• 2014:– worked at 20 parks and preserves

– Impacted 100 acres

– Ran 8 volunteer work days

Top Invasives along our Trails

Japanese barberry

Japanese stiltgrass

Multiflora rose

Garlic mustard

http://fieldbotany.pbworks.com/w/page/5987176/FrontPage

The Stewardship Network: New England

Burning bush

James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Some Emerging Invaders

Japanese angelica treeAlso known as devil’s walking stickAnd Hercules’ club

© 2008 Nick Kurzenko

Sona Mason

Black swallowwort

Porcelainberry

Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org

Mile-a-minute vine

Jil Swearingen, USDI National Park Service, Bugwood.org

Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org

Prioritization at the Local Level

• Principles– Protect the good areas !– Prevent new invaders

• Understand where new introductions are likely• Remove any new invader that is not already established in the

preserve

– Restrict spread • By focusing on boundaries• By focusing on larger, seed-producing individuals

Targeting Management Action

BEFORE

Richard Pillar

After

Richard Pillar

NY PRISMs

• 8 partnerships for regional invasive species management

• Hosted by non-profit organizations• Lower Hudson PRISM is hosted by the NY-NJ Trail

Conference

• Coordinator, Linda Rohleder

• funded by NY state through

the Environmental Protection

Fund

Purpose of PRISMs

• coordination among partners• facilitating information gathering and sharing• education and outreach• surveying, monitoring and mapping

• early detection and rapid response (ED/RR)

• control of invasives (containment or eradication)

• supporting research, including citizen science• communication with the other PRISMs & NYS DEC• recruiting volunteers

• obtaining funding

Lower Hudson PRISM

• Funded starting in 2013• Coordination, planning and

cooperation between partner organizations, agencies and individuals

• Currently 41 signed partners

For More Information

• http://LHprism.org• Join our listserve and see upcoming events• Read our strategy and meeting minutes• View our 2015 action plan • See our partner list and read our partner agreement• Find out more information about invasives in our region• Jobs, internship and volunteer opportunities

• Follow us on Facebook for invasive species news and information• http://www.facebook.com/LHprism

Our Next Meeting is Thursday March 26

at Black Rock Forest

Prioritization at the Regional Level• Protect the good areas

– Conservation Target areas• Audubon IBAs• Nat Heritage Program

Element Occurrences• HREP Significant Biodiversity

areas• TNC Portfolio and Focal

Areas• NYS Parks and Protected

areas• Forest blocks > 500 acres• Landscape-scale

connectivity

• Protect the Good areas (continued)– Identification of Species threatened by Invasives– Identification of Relatively Un-invaded areas to Protect (Invasive

Species Prevention Zones -ISPZ)

• Strategically Manage Invasives– Prevent new introduction

• Removal of Emerging species not yet established in the region

• Prevent spread– For species already established in our region, prevent spread

into regions where they are not yet established• E.g. Mile-a-Minute – established in NJ and Lower Hudson southern

areas– On CT and Catskills and northern NY early detection list

• Black swallowwort – not yet established in NJ• Porcelainberry – established in areas east of the Hudson but not yet

established west of the Hudson

• Mitigate the Pathways of Introduction– Work to educate appropriate audiences to prevent introductions

via specific pathways

Invasive Species Observations

• From iMapInvasives database

• From EDDMaps database• From our Invasives Strike

Force

Better Understand the Distribution of Species in our Region

• 5 x 5 km grid squares• Collect presence AND

absence data • Include border areas in

NJ, CT, & other PRISMs

• Will help direct our survey efforts

• Help identify ISPZs• Provide data for modeling

& predicting spread