Volunteers and Invasive Strike Force Crew members help to clear a range of invasive species at a volunteer work event on Iona Island this past August. Photo credit: Chris Quirin

Volunteers are clearly at the heart of our stewardship efforts to protect native biodiversity and help manage our natural landscapes. So far in 2019, over 260 volunteers have generously given over 3,600 hours of service work to our stewardship programs. These cumulative efforts have resulted in the surveying of over 100 miles of trails for invasive species, dedicating over 500 hours to invasive species removal efforts, and planting and maintaining native species as part of our Habitat Helpers program. 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.  

Native virgin's bower looks similar to the invasive Japanese Clematis, but has toothed and lobed leaves (right, or below on mobile devices) compared to invasive C. terniflora's small heart or spade-shaped leaves that have a smooth (no teeth) margins (left, or above on mobile devices). C. terniflora also blooms a few weeks to a month later than the native virgin's bower. Photo credits: https://wimastergardener.org/article/sweet-autumn-clematis-clematis-terniflora/

The Trail Conference Conservation Corps is at the center of many of the invasive species and stewardship programs, including the Invasives Strike Force. On August 15, we celebrated the special work of these AmeriCorps members with a group hike up Bear Mountain, followed by a "Camp Olympics" fun day at the Welch Trail Education Center. Photo credit: Christel Walker

While much of our stewardship work is evident in our volunteers' efforts in the field, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes in data processing and organization that is just as important to our mission of protecting native landscapes. Bryan Sachse has been working tirelessly in programming our volunteer database to allow for our survey programs to run efficiently and smoothly. Keira Congo and Bridget Connolly also recently finished up their summer GIS internships. They each volunteered over 80 hours of their time implementing different mapping techniques to enhance our understanding of the distribution of invasive species in our region and help optimize resources for our stewardship efforts. A special shout out also goes to Brian Hughes who spent a great deal of extra time and effort (in addition to over 15 hours of survey-related work) to develop a detailed and colorful ID guide to supplement our Invasives Strike Force survey training materials. Thank you to all the computer champions for all you have done (and continue doing) for our programs!   

A big thank you also goes to Arden Blumenthal who has given over 200 hours of volunteer time to the Conservation Dog program. Arden is behind the great photos and engaging Instagram posts for @diasavestheforest. She has also collected field data, helped write a grant application, assisted with training and searching with the conservation dogs, and contributed to the removal of targeted invasive plants. Thank you Arden for all of your efforts!

The Aquatic Invasives Program would like to thank the Taconic Trail Crew members, Alex Thomas, Dana Griffin, Ed Zubrowski, and Kathy Galarza along with amazing volunteers, Peter Wimmer and Rob Griffin, for their tremendous efforts in helping with water chestnut pulls in Rockland Lake. We would also like to thank Nicole White from the DEC Croton River Hydrilla Control Project for bringing the Aquatics Crew out on such a fun and important snorkel survey to detect Hydrilla.

The Habitat Helpers program is now up to 66 volunteers that have provided over 500 hours of service work! Thank you to Willard Dye and Carole Baligh for putting in more than 20 hours each over multiple work days. A special welcome and thank you also goes to the new Habitat Helpers volunteer crew leaders Elaine Silverstein (leading the Sunday morning work days), Tom Bender (leading the Monday evening work), and Diane VanKempen as co-leader. The native gardens are looking great!

Survey work is well underway this summer. With about one month left in the survey field season, we are getting close to wrapping up another productive season. Photo credit: Adrienne Popko

The Invasives Strike Force Survey Program had an extremely productive month of August. In the year to date, over 50 surveyors have logged and submitted over 713 volunteer hours for standard and intermediate surveys alone, covering over 100 miles of trail. Over half of these hours came within the month of August. The following survey teams have logged over 20 hours of survey work each in the month of August and most will still be hard at work in the coming weeks: Janet Cooper-Wetherly, Loretta Tito, and Toby Perlmutter; Elinor Stapylton and Nicholas George, Greg Smith and Erika Schneider-Smith, and Louise Peterson, Lucy Eldridge, and Jane Peck. The top individual surveyors in the month of August were Raido Oja, Rich Rockwell and Michael Lovell who each completed surveys for over 3.5 miles of trail.

For the Blockbuster program, we’ve surveyed 29 blocks with 91% of assigned blocks completed already. Adrienne Popko, working in Dutchess County, is our most prolific BlockBuster surveyor again this year with data submitted for 6 blocks so far. A close second is Meredith Taylor from NYC DEP and her interns Albert Perez, Jayce Blasso, Raveena Kaul, Keely Terpening, Emily Lyman, Becca Tamanga, Sarah Bickler, and Ethan Pierce who completed 5 blocks.

Surveying for invasives across such large regions of New York and New Jersey is no small feat and would simply not be possible without the help of such dedicated volunteers. Your efforts are critical in protecting natural areas and in helping us to make informed management decisions in our valued parks and forested areas. Keep up the great work - the final push is on! 

Trail Conference Conservation Corps Invasive Strike Force member Jackie Valadares and Trail Crew member Alex Thomas remove mile-a-minute vine from Iona Island. Photo credit: Chris Quirin

The Invasives Strike Force Crew team had a busy month full of travel in the Lower Hudson Valley. Volunteer work days involved removing a range of invasive plants on Iona Island, treating Japanese angelica trees in Red Hook, Pound Ridge, and Black Rock Forest, and doing battle with sticky sage in Dover, N.Y. Iona Island, normally closed to the public, is the host of a number of invasive species like Japanese stilt-grass, the aptly named aggressive vine mile-a-minute, the "not-so-heavenly" tree-of-heaven, and Chinese bush-clover. Our volunteers made quick work of these infestations and we're always incredibly grateful for their hard work and dedication. In addition, volunteers at Carolin's Grove in Pound Ridge got some ID experience with Japanese angelica tree, sapphire berry, and Linden viburnum as well. This trip represented a follow-up visit from our initial work in June of this year and it was rewarding to see all of the volunteer and crew efforts paying off.

The Trail Conference Conservation Corps Aquatic Invasives Strike Force Crew and volunteer Pete Wimmer relax after a day of removing water chestnut from Rockland lake. Photo credit: Ed Zubrowski

The Aquatic Invasives Strike Force Crew has had an exciting month! The crew teamed up with New York State’s Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation and the Trail Conference’s very own Taconic Trail Crew to remove 12,462 Water Chestnut plants from Rockland Lake. Each plant was hand pulled and piled up to show the difference every helping hand makes! The Aquatics Crew also made a splash when they assisted in a snorkel survey for the DEC Croton River Hydrilla Control Project. Hydrilla verticillata is a submersed aquatic invasive plant that has been discovered in the Croton River but with programs like this, there is hope to  prevent the spread of this species into the Hudson River and other waterways!

Dia (left, or top on mobile devices) and Fagen (right, or bottom on mobile devices) spent a large part of August learning to detect spotted lanternfly both in the field and at high risk check points.  Photo credit: Arden Blumenthal

August has been an eventful and productive month for the Conservation Dogs Program. Dia was trained to detect the highly invasive insect, spotted lanternfly (SLF), joining Scotch broom and slender false brome as the third invasive species Dia has learned to identify. Handler Josh Beese, Director of Land Stewardship Linda Rohleder, and intern Arden Blumenthal were joined by Working Dogs for Conservation’s co-found Aimee Hurt in Chester County, Pa. to train.  In addition to Dia, Josh’s dog Fagen was also trained to detect adult SLF in Pa.  Fagen is a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois and a certified live find canine for FEMA.  We are excited to welcome Fagen to the program and to begin deploying both dogs to checkpoints and sites in the Lower Hudson Valley that are at high-risk of SLF infestation.  We are equally excited by the recent media attention the program has garnered as it grows! Associated Press writer, Mary Esch, has written a wonderful article that highlights the Trail Conference’s commitment to fighting invasive species with the help of Dia.  The article has been published in over 100 news outlets across the country including The New York Times and The Washington Post. 

Most of our active weevil sites are nestled in DEC lands and NYS parks so if you happen to come across our sign (see above!), you’ve spotted our weevil release point! Photo credit: Kiara Proano

Following last month's successful weevil releases, the MaM program continues to conduct surveys throughout the 26 release sites. This month highlights the importance of awareness and action. We were approached by a number of property owners in Warwick, N.Y. that were connected by the same unruly infestation of mile-a-minute. It was great to see a community of people creating a dialogue on how to attack this infestation together and using other resources, such as the Trail Conference, to help educate them on best management practices. Prior to this conversation, the property owners were handling the infestations separately, potentially delaying effective results, and now, they’ve become a community that can tackle this infestation as one! Along these lines, Rockefeller State Park Preserve is calling on the public to help fight the mile-a-minute war. Our weevil release sites in the preserve are doing well but other areas continue to be under attack!  Tackling invasive species like MaM requires an “all hands on deck” approach and this month's focus on awareness, action, and community development are great steps towards making a difference!