Mile-a-minute (MaM) is an aggressive herbaceous vine that can smother the forest understory and even climb trees. Pictured here is an MaM infestation in Dutchess County, NY at the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club, who we are partnering with to manage the further spread of MaM with biocontrol weevils. Read more about this partnership and our other weevil release sites later in the newsletter! Photo credit: Kiara Proano

The sweltering temperatures of July have not seemed to slow down our amazing invasives volunteers! So far, our volunteers have logged close to 3,000 hours of service work so far in 2019. Whether helping to remove invasives with the Invasives Strike Force (ISF) crew, recording common and emerging invasives on the trail as an ISF surveyor, or helping to preserve native biodiversity through the Habitat Helpers and Rare and Endangered Plants programs, our volunteers have managed to accomplish some incredible stewardship work this summer despite the heat.  

Keep reading to learn more about how you can become involved and stay apprised of the latest management and survey efforts of our volunteers and our conservation and stewardship program accomplishments. 

Quick, important note to all ISF surveyors: When logging Avenza waypoints on the trail, please do not make custom changes to the names of the pinned points, as it makes the processing of the points more challenging. Thanks for helping us to streamline the data processing procedure on our end!   

On July 12th, the Habitat Helpers team welcomed volunteers from Almanac Realty Investors (pictured above) to the Trail Conference. The group added more native plants to the front garden, fixed existing tree protector tubes next door at Ramapo Reservation, landscaped and planted natives in the rear of the building, and helped maintain the riparian habitat for endangered wood turtles nesting by the Darlington Schoolhouse! Check out the time lapse video of some of their work!

We would also like to specially thank Dylan Finley, Eric Feeney, Sofia Rodas, and Morgan Hayman for all of their hard work helping to detect and clear out sapphireberry, castor aralia and linden viburnum at Vassar College in late July. Together, they dedicated over 20 hours to the effort!

Occasionally, there is an opportunity for other Trail Conference Conservation Corps members to switch roles and come out to volunteer with other crews. Christel Walker from the terrestrial Invasives Strike Force came out with the AISF to help perform an aquatic plant survey. The conditions were mucky and not at all glamorous, but Christel was a real trooper! Ed Zubrowski normally spends his work days breaking up rocks and building trails as a Trail Crew member, but he traded in his hard hat for a day and assisted in pulling over 22,000 water chestnut plants at Rockland Lake. Thanks so much Christel and Ed!

The top two standard and intermediate surveyors for July were Joseph Perrelli and Barbara Mistler, who have together dedicated over 80 hours to surveying over 15 miles of trail in July alone - an incredible feat! They have been focusing primarily on trails in Ramapo Reservation, Pyramid Mountain and the Appalachian Trail in Dutchess County, NY. A special congrats also goes out to Tim Reuther, Claudia Esker, John Steward, Elizabeth Stewart, and Rich Rockwell who all completed their first ever standard survey work. We had a total of 12 standard and intermediate surveys completed, including full data submitted, in the month of July and many more are nearing completion.

Special thanks also to Meredith Taylor of NYC DEP, and her team including Sarah Bickler, Emily Lyman, Becca Tamagna, Ethan Pierce, Albert Perez, Jayce Blasso, Raveena Kaul, and Skylar Lawrence for completing 3 blocks. Blockbuster surveyors have completed 9 blocks this year in total. Thank you to ALL survey volunteers for your hard work and efforts thus far this season!

Heather Platt, Ed Zubrowski, and Erin Carrus in a sea of water chestnut at Rockland Lake. Photo credit: Lindsay Yoder

The Aquatic Invasives Strike Force Crew has really made a splash this season! The program consists of three main components: AIS surveys of Lower Hudson lakes, the Watercraft Inspection Steward Program, and invasive species removals. So far, the crew has surveyed 18 lakes and recorded 1,300 species observations. The most common species recorded are Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum), Variable-leaf milfoil (Myriophyllum heterophyllum), and Carolina fanwort (Caroliniana cabomba). The crew has also inspected 677 boats and educated more than 1,098 people about preventing the spread of aquatic invasives between waterways through boating. The crew has also removed 56,000 invasive water chestnut plants from three lakes. Check out this video the crew made to learn more about what they do!

Castor aralia, known for its 5-7 lobed, toothed leaves and sharp thorns on its bark, has only been reported in New York in a few locations, so eradicating this plant at known sites is of utmost importance. Photo credit: Chris Quirin

The Invasives Strike Force Crew managed 4,197 invasive plants from six different sites in July! At Granite Mountain, the crew partnered with Hudson Highlands Land Trust to tackle an infestation of Japanese Angelica Tree and scout for Linden viburnum, in addition to removing 59 pounds of yellow archangel, an emerging invasive plant commonly used in landscaping for ground cover. The team also spent four days working at Vassar College at their Ecological Preserve, focusing on castor aralia, an emerging invasive that forms dense thickets that shade out other plants. The crew also detected the emerging invasive sapphireberry, a shrub commonly used as an ornamental that has the potential to alter forest landscapes via bird dispersal. Large fruiting stands of sapphireberry were removed in an effort to reduce the seedbank in the upcoming years.

Dia and trainer Josh Beese getting ready for some detective work!
Photo credit: Arden Blumenthal

July was another great month for the Conservation Dog Program! Lower Hudson PRISM partners all got to meet Dia at our most recent partners meeting at Orange County Land Trust, where she performed a demonstration on how she is able to hunt for and detect Scotch broom. In July, Dia was also successfully trained on her first invasive grass, slender false brome! During training in Letchworth State Park, she discovered a new infestation which prompted our team to send photos and GPS waypoints of the sites she had detected over to Western New York PRISM to help them manage the site. We also started training with our second conservation dog, Fagen. Fagen is preparing for a very special mission and will play a crucial role in our program going forward. For August, Dia will be heading out to Dutchess County, NY to search for slender false brome. Check out @diasavestheforest on Instagram and read this NYS blog article to learn how she works her magic!

These weevils (left, or above on mobile devices) are a type of beetle that are host-specific to Mile-a-Minute. Weevil herbivory causes major reproductive damage to the plant while leaving all other nearby species unharmed .If you see these "shotgun" holes in the leaves (right, or below on mobile devices), know that there is an army of weevils eradicating Mile-a-Minute one munch at a time! Photo credit: Kiara Proano

It’s “Weevil Madness” this month for the Mile-a-Minute Invasives Program! The Trail Conference received 4,000 weevils from the Phillip Alampi Beneficial Insect Rearing Laboratory and, with great excitement, released them throughout 5 sites: Iona Island, Hudson Highlands State Park, Stewart State Forest, Cranberry Wildlife Management Area, and the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club. As an invasives management program, we are interested in minimizing the spread of Mile-a-Minute over long periods of time, without the use of harmful chemicals. Weevils as a biological control is a great cost-effective method to reduce the reproduction potential of this invasive vine. We anticipate this year’s release to boost the weevil population at each site and increase the overall consumption of Mile-a-Minute leaves.