- Good evening and welcome to "You're Uninvited" Stopping the spread of invasive species, screening and panel discussion.

Tonight's event is brought to you by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, WXXI and WSKG Public Media Stations.

I'm your host, Nancy Coddington, Director of Science Content for WSKG Public Media.

We have a special event planned for you tonight, including a preview of selected segments from the newly released documentary, "Uninvited: the Spread of Invasive Species."

We will hear from a panel of experts from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

We also have joining us, the filmmaker from Westfield Productions.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself in the chat and tell us where you are tuning in from.

We have participants from all over the country and the world attending our events and we love to know where you're tuning in from, so please introduce yourself.

I wanna also encourage you to ask questions of our guests panelists tonight, throughout the talk.

We are streaming on New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Facebook, WSKG's YouTube, and we are on Zoom this evening, and we have chat moderators waiting for your questions.

At this time, I would like to introduce the State Forester of New York, Rob Davies.

Welcome, Rob.

- Thank you, Nancy.

It's happy to be here.

Thank you for inviting us.

- And Rob, can you welcome our guests?

- Sure.

Well, as you said, I'm Rob Davies.

I am the State Forester for New York, and DEC's Director of Lands and Forests.

That's the division that actually houses the Bureau of Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health that promoted and developed this documentary that we're here to talk about tonight.

So I first just wanna thank WSKG and WXXI for hosting this event, to review some clips from the new documentary, "Uninvited" which showcases New York's diverse and abundant natural resources and the risk those resources face from invasive species and the comprehensive program and responses we've developed to address those risks.

The documentary highlights the many partners, DEC's Invasive Species Program works with and relies on across New York State.

Partners like our Sister State Agency, the Department of Agricultural and Markets, who's on the panel tonight, the eight partnerships for regional invasive species management or PRISMs, the New York Natural Heritage Program and the New York Invasive Species Research Institute.

We're all major players in the development of this documentary that you'll see tonight.

Something DEC and all our partners realize is none of us can meet the challenges presented by invasive plants, pests, and diseases alone.

It takes an all hands on deck approach, that very much includes the public at large.

It's for that reason, DEC's Division of Lands and Forests started, pre pandemic, to develop the "Uninvited" documentary.

the documentary to help inform and educate the public about the problems invasive species pose to New York's ecosystems, all the work being done by a myriad of organizations, individuals, and volunteers to fight these problems, the science and tools being employed in this fight.

And most importantly, to encourage the public, to get involved because even with all the ongoing efforts by New York state DEC and its partners, we can't be everywhere.

We need as many boots and eyes on the ground that we can get, and we need the public to help us.

One of our primary goals and sayings in the invasive species program is early detection and rapid response.

The sooner we find a new outbreak or infestation, the quicker we can attack it and hopefully eradicate or control it.

The longer an infestation festers without our knowledge, the bigger the problem becomes to fight.

Our best weapon for early detection and waging a successful fight against the spread of invasive species and thereby protecting New York state's forests, farms, parks, waters, and its people.

It is informed, involved and inspired public.

We hope that this "Uninvited" documentary will inspire the audience tonight and all those that watch the documentary to report and help stop the spread of invasive plants, pests, and diseases in their yards, their local parks, or their favorite outdoor recreation spot.

Again, thank you for inviting us tonight.

We hope everyone enjoys the clips and watches the full documentary on DEC's YouTube page.

Thank you very much.

And back to you, Nancy.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Rob Davies.

We will preview three stories from the documentary, "Uninvited: the Spread of Invasive Species" with our panelists perspective on each segment.

And then we will also take questions about the film for our panelists to answer during that timeframe.

And then we'll also come back and answer questions near the end of the show at the top of the hour.

I would like to introduce our panelists tonight.

Steve Powers is director and producer for Westfield Production Company.

Steve is an award-winning director and co-founder of Westfield films.

He has been making movies with and directing with his directing partner and brother Jim Powers since they were kids growing up in Avril park, New York.

Welcome Steve.

- Hi there.

- Jessica Cancelliere is a research scientist with the DEC Forest Health Program in the bureau of invasive species and ecosystem health.

Jessica received her bachelor's in science, in wildlife science from SUNY ESF and her master's in entomology from the university of Nebraska Lincoln.

Welcome Jessica.

Chris Logue is the state plant regulatory official with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Chris has been in this role since 2014, prior to this, he worked for Cornell Cooperative Extension for over 20 years.

He has worked in the greenhouse and nursery and landscape sectors in the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest.

Welcome Chris.

- Thanks for having me tonight.

- So these are our panelists who we will be asking questions of in just a few minutes.

One of the most prominent emerging invasive species in New York state is the spotted lantern fly.

It has taken over Pennsylvania and New Jersey and has finally found its way to New York city, Ithaca, Broom County and the Hudson valley.

In this segment that we're going to watch, we will hear from Pennsylvania vineyard owner, Richard Blair about the dangers that the spotted lantern fly poses to New York wineries and apple orchards.

(soft music) - We bought this site in 2007 and opened a winery here in 2010.

Best grade for this area is probably Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay, but a lot of other things do fairly well or very well most years.

One of those things where you never knew how popular you were until you owned a vineyard.

First thing you noticed there was no lantern flies here.

There's one right there.

So we got one, but he's not gonna be living too long.

Every plant has a few on them.

Some have more than a few like this guy right here, probably at the point where they stay on here for a couple of weeks and this plant is probably gonna be dead.

So we can see that that's a spiral lantern fly.

(soft music) - [Narrator] Spotted lantern fly is showing just how destructive they can be.

- They just keep it moving in and moving in.

And it looks like swarms of locusts.

That's how heavy they come in here to.

- [Announcer] Did lantern flies and one live, one more found at a tree nursery in deer park.

They say the bug arrived at a shipment from Pennsylvania where the fly is most prevalent.

- [Narrator] A spotted lantern fly feeds on the sugary SAP of over 70 different plant species, including grapevines.

- Yeah, they're just a not very nice bug.

- The New York state has been really watching the spot Atlanta flag closely as it's been moving in from more Southern states.

This is something that was introduced just a few years ago to North America.

And here in New York state, we have a lot of commodities that at stake.

So agriculture is a big example.

We have, you know, lots of wineries, but they can go after grape vines, after tree fruits.

And so those areas can be deeply impacted.

It can destroy the crop for that season for that farmer.

And so that's a big economic impact.

- It was a couple of vineyards south of here that lost most of our all their grapevine.

So some people quit, you know, other people were decided to buy fruit somewhere else and not replanting until they know what's, you know how to take care of it.

It's kinda like, you know, once you leave the genie out of the bottle, pretty hard to put it back in.

So that means it's unless you get the stop is gonna be a problem for everybody.

So.

(soft music) - So we're looking for a spotted lantern fly, particularly the egg masses, they'll lay their egg masses on just about anything that sits outside for any period of time in a known infested areas, they're shiny and gray.

So we can pick them up pretty easily with the camera.

I'm using the zoom camera so I can fly pretty close and then zoom right in on anything that doesn't look quite right.

This is basically the process is trying to keep the aircraft steady over the trailer in the breeze, and you can see it moves back and forth a lot.

So if there's anything really suspicious, we can always bring it back and look at it on the computer before we left the truck drive away.

So I was interested in some of these dark spots.

So you can see I zoom the camera in just to get a better idea, their shape and color.

They didn't really match for a egg masses so we can let the truck go.

- But the issue is, and why we're going through all this trouble is, is the economic impact and the impact to the state in terms of its storage.

You look at what's going on in Pennsylvania and the problems that they're having.

We don't wanna have that same issue here.

So, you know, prevention is worthwhile.

You know, if we can educate these guys about the impacts of spotted lantern fly, get them under compliance.

That goes a long ways in terms of preventing it, and also determining where it may be, one of these truck drivers maybe at their home later on, and they may see spot lantern fly.

So the outreach that we do to them is also critically important, not just for New York, but for other states, because they're coming in from all over the place.

- [Producer] What was the first time that you heard about any kind of invasive species quarantine and all that.

- This is it.

- [Producer] First time you've heard about it?

- This is the first time ever.

I'm going to give it to my boss, the pamphlet they gave me and have them keep an eye out for it.

I like my wine.

So let's get this under control.

- [Announcer] Getting invasive species under control is easier said than done, and it gets more difficult the longer that they are here.

- Being on the cusp of this invasive pest is rather sobering.

I'd like to welcome the division of plant industry coordinator for New York State Ag and Markets, Chris Logue.

So, Chris, what is the current status of spotted lantern fly in New York state?

- So thanks for having me Nancy, so we're kind of in a different time than when some of this was filmed.

At the time when this was filmed, our main focus was really on prevention, preventing spotted lantern fly from becoming established or introduced into New York state.

And, you know, the clip that you saw with the DEC and ag and market staff doing the truck inspections was just one of those activities that we do early on when we're trying to assess how an invasive species might come into New York and how it might establish.

There was a great deal of outreach that was done and then the other thing that's very interesting about that clip is, is that that was the first time that we had used the UAV for this type of work.

And so there was a big safety advantage for us in using those because our inspectors didn't have to climb up on top of vehicles or loads on trailers to assess whether there were any pests in there.

As I said, we're in a little bit of a different time now than when this was filmed.

Currently we have populations of spotted lantern fly out in the landscape in 13 counties as we've have closed out the growing season this year.

It's really important to keep in mind when I refer to 13 counties however though, that it's not that a whole county is infested, but that there is a discrete infestation in a particular county.

You did mention in the introduction, a couple of the locations where we found this and documented it in the landscape, Staten island was our first find in New York state in August of 2020.

And that was a find by staff with the office of parks, recreation, and historic preservation at a park on Staten island called Clay Pit Pond State Park.

And from there, we actually found it in a number of additional places between August and October of last year, including the Ithaca location that you mentioned, which we actually did some tree removals in an effort to reduce the number of egg masses in that particular location.

The other thing that I'd say about the clip is, and probably one of the more sobering things in why our agency at ag and markets is so concerned about this is just the impact that has been observed down in Pennsylvania on their grape industry.

Important to keep in mind, New York is number three in grape production in the country.

There's been huge investment into the wine and grape industry, as well as the juice industry here over the past 10 or 20 years.

And I think the truck driver said it really well by saying he, you know, he liked his wine and he wanted to protect that resource here in New York.

And certainly, you know, we're committed to that.

We have a lot of partners in this effort, you know, and Rob mentioned that in his introduction and certainly folks in his shop have been shoulder to shoulder with us all along here, but also our partners at the United States Department of Agriculture Plant Protection and Quarantine, their staff have been side-by-side with us as well with survey.

And as we develop our management plans going into 2022, they're an integral part of that as well.

I think the other thing that I'd like to just say a little bit about is you know, early detection is really, really important, and we put a lot of resources into early detection.

We have a really great relationship with our partner agency down in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, we speak probably weekly or sometimes more frequently than that.

And Pennsylvania did a fantastic job of holding this infestation back over the past I guess now seven years, they found it in 2014.

And in reality, you know, our expectation was that we probably would see it a little bit sooner than we did, this gave us a little bit more time to plan, but, you know, the old saying about the best-laid plans going astray, a lot of our plans really focused on that.

We anticipated that we would have perhaps a discreet introduction and in one or two places in the state and be able to manage and control this fairly quickly.

And what we've wound up with is multiple introductions.

And I think this really plays into the type of insect that this is, it has ability to develop a large population quickly.

We don't have a really effective trap and lure in particular, when the populations are very, very low and you have a new introduction, having a good trap and lure is really, really important.

And so those early detection efforts are very, very challenging for this particular insect.

The other thing that we find very, very challenging about it, and that's different about it from the standpoint of many of the other insect and disease issues that we've dealt with in the past, through our division at ag and markets is that this moves on so many different conveyances and on so many different commodities.

And often time it's moving on commodities that we don't have all that much experience regulating.

And we may not have the relationships with the industry.

This did not come into Pennsylvania on an agricultural product.

It came into Pennsylvania, or it is thought to have come into Pennsylvania on a stone that was imported from Europe or Asia, and that the eggs were actually laid on the slabs of stone, which are shipped on pallets sort of on edge vertically.

And so it's a very difficult cargo to inspect in the port and just very, very challenging for folks to get out there and survey and look for.

So this has been really, really challenging.

I will say also from the standpoint of feeling as though we were very prepared also to a certain extent, humbling and certainly brings into focus the fact that we started on this journey with spotted lantern fly with not a lot of research behind us.

I think some of the good things that have come out of this is some really fantastic research collaborations between Cornell, Penn state, several private universities, as well as USDA and the forest service.

So longterm, the hope is that a natural control can be developed for spotted lantern fly with the hopes that we'll get to a place where the population can be maintained at a level where we're not seeing a great deal of damage in grapes and some of the other commodities.

You did also hear in the introduction that this spotted lantern fly can feed on about 70 different plants.

The only one where we've really seen a great deal of economic damage at this point is grapes.

And then the other really very interesting thing that we found about spotted lantern fly so far is that it really has a preferred host in the tree of heaven, Atlantis, which is an invasive plant that is pretty prevalent in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and also in the Southern parts of New York state.

As you go further north and in Western New York, it's a little bit less prevalent, but it seems as though at certain times of the year, certain points in the spotted lantern fly lifecycle, the insect goes and feeds on that particular tree.

And it almost acts as a Sentinel tree for us.

So we can focus in our survey efforts.

- Chris, thank you so much.

That is a lot of really great information.

We have a question, is there information that's being widely shared and communicated so that people are aware of what to do if they see one of these as far as how to report it or even aware that they are in the state?

- Sure.

So we've done a great deal of outreach on this as has the DEC and the partnerships for regional invasive species management and our partners at Cornell cooperative extension.

So that information can be found on our agency website, as well as on the DEC website, also on the New York state IPM website.

And so the most important thing as far as engaging the public at this point in time is that if folks were to see this, and again, we've had a couple of hard frosts.

And so the adult activity has really dropped off and our reporting has dropped off over the past couple of weeks.

But if folks were to see these and you still might see some dead ones out there in the landscape or some really lethargic ones too on for instance today in Albany was a pretty warm, nice day.

And if we had them in Albany, we probably would see them on a day like today.

We don't have them in Albany.

I just want to be clear on that, that we know of at this point, but really important in particular upstate that if folks were to see these, that they report them to us, there's a number of different ways they can do that.

They go onto our website, we have a GIS form that they can fill out.

They can upload a picture, it'll date stamp it.

It'll put the GPS coordinates on it, and that's the most effective and quickest way to get your report in.

- And I believe that link is being put into the chat for people's reference.

One last question, before we move on to our next segment, when is the best time to find each part of the life cycle?

You know, you talked about the eggs, the larva and the adults.

Can you walk us through that?

- Sure.

So egg-laying happens in the fall of the year.

So between probably I wanna say maybe September 10th through until first and the eggs are laid in masses on all types of different locations and materials that can be on plants, it can be on tree trunks, that type of thing.

They're gonna be dormant through the winter.

The eggs are gonna hatch probably in mid May or so.

And the nymphal stage will come out.

It's quite small and then the adults you'll begin to see probably in August and the adults are as folks who've have seen very, very colorful.

And one of the things that's really kind of interesting about this is that because this is such a unique insect, and there are not all that many lookalikes as far as native insects are concerned.

When people report this to us, it's about 90% of the reports are accurate.

And with some of our other citizen reporting, the accuracy level on those is a little bit lower.

So this from day one, we recognized it as a really good one, as far as public outreach and engaging the general public and helping us with survey and reporting this.

- Yeah, that's great.

It definitely is very noticeable with those red coloration on the wings.

We can circle back with additional questions near the end of our program, but thank you very much Chris.

- Thank you.

- In our next segment, we hear some of the innovative ways that New York state DEC is tackling invasive species across the state.

They are using cutting edge technology, keen observation skills and getting a little help from our four legged friends.

- Once invasive species has been here and becomes established it's really hard to get rid of.

And so when we're thinking about being strategic, we think about things in the terms of this invasive species curve, where at the top end of the curve, that's when a species has been here, it's established its population.

Numbers are really high and there's really no way to get rid of it completely.

Really what we wanna be doing is we wanna be focusing on this bottom parts of the curve, where you know, those populations are really low, where we're detecting things early, you know, have that good return on investment, where we find something we're able to stamp it out before it becomes established and becomes a big problem.

- [Announcer] When it comes to detecting invasive species early, sometimes it helps to get creative and it never hurts to enlist a little help from a friend.

(upbeat music) - Today, we're working with DIA conservation detection dog and Josh, our handler looking for scotch broom.

Scotch broom is a tier two invasive species in the lower Hudson, which means that it's emerging as an invader.

It's not yet widespread.

It's at low enough numbers that we actually have a chance of eradicating it.

And DIA is one component of that effort to eradicate a scotch for him and the lower Hudson.

There in among other plants.

It's harder for the humans to find visually.

We use visual cues and when it's among other plants, it's hard to find it, but the dogs can actually use a scent cue.

We think we'll be able to progress a lot faster with the dog because she'll be finding plants when they're smaller and we won't have to wait another year or two years before humans would be able to see those plants.

- You know, what we see is that the dog is coming into what we call scent cones.

And you could probably see from watching her she'll be searching.

And then you'll just kind of see this change in the position of her body or her head will jerk and go back.

And you'll see, she kind of just has our nose down.

She's sniffing around because of the sun can get caught in little pockets in the grass or other trees, and then she's going and she can smell it.

But she's trying to find basically the source, right?

So in certain circumstances, there were a couple of plants together.

So you see she's going, oh, this one, this one, this one, and this one is the one I'm going to indicate on this.

So where the most sense is coming from.

- 10, 20 years ago, who would've thought that we have drones that we might be able to use for this kind of work.

Yes we knew that dogs could do search work, but who would've thought that we could have gone here?

I don't think we can predict what we're gonna have next, but I think we're always going to have invasive species, especially with a global world.

And if we wanna protect our native habitats, we're gonna have to have tools and mechanisms that allow us to do that.

- By using dogs, we're bringing awareness to this issue because you know, people really, really love dogs.

And so they see, oh, she's doing this well, what's she doing?

She's looking for invasives.

Oh, well, what are invasives?

So it's also a good way for us to educate the public about what's going on and why this is an issue.

And if we can attach the face of a dog to the program that helps pick people's interests, there's nothing more than she loves than just running and smelling stuff.

So I just feel like this is the perfect job for her.

(soft music) - [Announcer] Unlike DIA, Brent Kinal and his invasive species prevention team can not rely on their sense of smell.

So they have to use a different method.

- We're gonna be surveying for Southern pine beetle.

So the Southern pine beetle is first detected in this area in September of 2014, we began aerial surveys in December of 2014.

And we conduct these surveys about four times a year.

Then you guys do the on the ground management for that.

So your job today will be a photographer.

I'll be sketching polygons of new infestations if we see any.

And I'll just let you know what side of the plane to be taking pictures out of as we fly, we'll probably fly for about two hours.

- [Narrator] One of the telltale signs of a Southern pine beetle infestation, are the red tops of trees in the pine barons, which is what the team is keeping an eye out for today.

(indistinct) - So, basically I'm just taking pictures of the landscape and eventually if there's anything, any like, red rapped trees and later on, I'll go down survey the area by ground so that I can identify how exactly how many trees there are and how much we have to cut.

And I have a tablet with an aerial photograph on it and I also have polygons of previous recordings from our aerial surveys so I can see if there's any new infestations of Southern pine beetle out there.

- There are so many tools available to us to slow the spread of invasive species.

That was really interesting to see how drones, planes and dogs are used in conservation efforts.

I'd to welcome the Director and Producer of this film, Steve Powers.

And I would like to welcome Forest Health Diagnostic Lab Coordinator, Jessica Cancelliere.

Welcome.

- Thank you.

- Steve, tell us how you filmed this segment with the conservation dogs, you know, was it difficult to do?

- The hardest part of the entire process of making this documentary was ending up not featuring the dog for the entire hour?

Our first cut was we had an extra about five minutes in there that we had to cut out 'cause we just loved it so much and if there's one thing you learn pretty early on is if you wanna peak an audience interest, just add a dog and you're pretty much covered.

So it was great.

It was one of the interesting things was just how much fun it was for DIA.

They spend most of the time just playing and it was at the beginning of the program.

And they're really just trying to kind of get her to enjoy the process and just try out the different techniques and just watching her go.

She was just having a great time.

So it was nice to see such a unique idea on kind of stopping in detecting plants.

- Yeah, it really was.

I wasn't even aware that that was something that was being done.

So, Steve, what was it about working with the conservation dog DIA and her handler that really stood out to you?

- I think just the idea that when we first started, it was just such the early detection phase is such a sweeping issue that there's like, no, there's no cookie cutter way to do it.

You have to cover so many different bases.

And it's kind of a daunting process to look everywhere and be vigilant at all times for all different types of species that react different ways and come in different ways.

So just seeing the creativity and the focus of just like let's use these dogs that have been used for, you know, dogs have been used for sniffing drugs and bombs and other things.

So retooling that idea to attack invasive species that was very interesting.

And just the idea that the issue is so wide ranging that you have the micro view of it, where you have a dog literally sniffing out, scent cones of one individual plant, and then you go much wider and you have them doing aerial surveys all over the pine barons in long island.

It's just such a, there's just no one way to do it.

And it was very impressive to see how much action they're taking and just there's no bad ideas when it comes to detection.

It's such an important issue.

- Yeah, absolutely agree.

Jessica, they talked about tier two invasive species in this segment.

How dangerous is a tier two?

What does that mean?

- A tier two invasive species is one that's here and somewhat established, but is not widely distributed.

And so we consider it potentially still eradicable.

So Linda Rohleder had mentioned specifically a scotch broom, I think, as the tier two species, meaning that early detection is even more crucial at that point because we still have a chance to do something about it.

- Jessica, what other new technology is being used in invasive species management?

- There's so much technology and the invasive species community is the most creative community I've ever worked with.

So of course we have the detector dogs and we have the aerial surveys, but you know, one thing our lab actually works on is new methods of early detection.

We like to collaborate with the scientific community to come up with new and creative ways to find things.

So, you know, EDNA is really big these days, environmental DNA it's been used for aquatic invasive species and for aquatic and dangerous species for a while already, maybe 10 to 15 years, but it's use for terrestrial invasive species such as spotted lantern fly or terrestrial plants or Emerald Ash borer is really very new.

And so currently the DEC is working with a whole suite of other agencies that trying to develop this technology.

And essentially EDNA is the DNA that an organism leaves behind after it's moved through an environment.

And we can capture that in a few different ways and extract it and test it in a molecular lab and figure out exactly what's there.

And you can look for a specific species, or you can find out everything that's in a potential area, or that has been in an area.

So it's a really powerful tool.

You know, I think it's still several years away from real full-scale implementation.

Another interesting thing we do is we work with the arborist community and the city Forester community to collect pruned material.

And we sequester that material in emergence barrels and then allow any wood boring insects that might be inside to come out.

And there was a project that happened in Greenwood cemetery a few years ago in Brooklyn, which is a real hot spot for invasive species.

And the U.S. Forest Service found a brand new species to science down there, infesting European beach that was actually related.

The beetle was related to the Emerald Ash borer.

And that beetle ended up having to travel all the way around the world before we figured out what it was.

And then they had to describe a new species.

Another thing that we do is outreach.

And so I love how, you know, Josh Beese, the dog handler talks about DIA and he says that he loves to put a phase two invasive species in such a warm, lovable phase, such as a dog.

And it's so true, you know, if the public isn't invested in this and if they can't feel it on some level, then they just might not care.

You know, we all have a lot of other priorities we're dealing with.

And I think it's really important to find ways to connect with the public because there's a lot more of the public out there than there are of us.

And we need everyone looking for these things and paying attention.

It's like the more eyes in the forest concept, you know, so for example, in our lab, we also do the Asian Longhorn beetle pool survey, where we ask citizen science to monitor their pool filters each summer for the Asian Longhorn beetle during the month of August.

And we get a lot of participation and people get really excited about it, and they're just really eager to have an opportunity to help.

So I think Josh's mission is really great.

And I did hear on the dog website, you know, he's housed in the New York, New Jersey trail conference, and you can go to their website and learn more about DIA and everything that she does.

But I did notice that they're looking for strays and that they'll actually consider stray dogs to become future conservation dogs.

So if anyone out there knows of any strays that need a home.

- That is great.

What a great second life, right?

And having everyone's participation is really crucial and helping to combat this.

Thank you, Jessica and Steve, we will come back to you in just a few more minutes.

Invasive species pose a huge threat to New York's beautiful landscapes and unique biodiversity.

However, it isn't all doom and gloom.

If you own land, visit our local parks, if you boat hike, hunt, or fish in New York state, you can be on the lookout for invasive species and do your part to help win the fight against invasive pests.

- So when I first started working for the heritage program, I went on one of the trips to help our state partners look for some of the rare plants that have been growing and had been documented in the salt marsh tidal Creek systems in the Peconic river area on long island.

And so I was really excited to be able to see these rare plants that have been assessed many years ago.

But once we got there, we realized that the site had been completely overgrown by frag ladies.

And it was very heartbreaking to see because we knew that those rare plants that we were there to look for really didn't have a chance within this big dense patch of the invasive species.

- It's also been said that another word for invasion is change.

Sure enough, ecosystems change a lot.

The question is, do they change for the better or for the worse.

When an invasive species comes in and it doesn't only knock out one plant, it typically knocks them all out.

If you look at a kudzu invasion, it's just blanket of kudzu and all the plants that used to live there are now gone.

Same thing with Frank mighty, same thing with porcelain Berry and auto all, they just blanket the area that they invade.

So you're not losing one plant species.

You're losing pretty much everything that used to live there.

Nature is primarily made up of creatures, plants, and animals that have been interacting with each other for years.

And they have found the best way to interact is to develop specialized relationships with the plants and animals around them.

So most of the creatures out there are our specialists.

What I think is the most important type of specialization is the relationship between the insects that eat plants and the plants themselves.

So we can use the Monarch butterfly as an example.

It is a specialist on milkweeds, and it has had to specialize in milkweeds because milkweeds protect themselves.

They've got cardiac, glycosides Milky latex SAP.

Those are good repellents to other insects, but over the years the Monarch has developed the physiological ability to store and excrete and detoxify cardiac glycosides.

And they have behavioral adaptations that allow them to avoid contacting the sticky latex SAP.

So now they can eat milkweeds, but in developing all those specialized adaptations to milkweeds, they have not spent any time developing adaptations to eat the tannins that are in oak trees or cucurbit tastings and cute curb cuts, or the nicotine and tobacco and on and on.

The Monarch butterfly has actually done us a huge favor in the last 10 years or so, by pretty much disappearing, because what it's done is point out how important these specialized relationships are.

When we take milkweeds out of our landscapes, we lose the monarch.

So if you wanna world it with no butterflies, let's keep doing what we're doing.

But if you want a world with butterflies, we've got to have the native plants that support them.

Our invasive species are not going to do it.

- Invasive species are here because of us.

We're the one that brought this problem.

We're the one that have carried them either on purpose or by accident from one country to another, and introduce them into a new place where they were able to flourish and take over and cause us all kinds of economic, environmental, and health problems.

But we're also part of the solution.

We understand how they're getting here and we need to take real action to prevent more from coming in.

I know it seems like we have a lot now, but there's a lot more species that could be introduced if we don't act now and stop them from coming in.

- Now, one of the issues we have is that we humans have stopped thinking of ourselves as part of the natural world where something separate and we've fallen into the trap of thinking we don't need the natural world.

Well, in fact, we are very much a part of the natural world.

We're a product of it, and we need it every single day.

You may live in a city, but your clean water, your air, your food, your moderate weather systems, all of these things are produced by functioning ecosystems that all do better when they have a lot of species in them.

And they all do more when we take those species away.

And that's what invasive plants are doing.

They're reducing the number of species in our local ecosystems.

Again, in so many cases, it's not necessary.

We don't have to buy a plant from Asia that's going to become invasive and reduce our ecosystem productivity, the costs are enormous and the benefits are comparatively few.

- I'd say right now, it's all short term, just a kill the bug as they land on your plant.

My feeling is I'm gonna replant and I think I can control the situation.

And then I'll be ahead of everybody else when they got the answer to the problem, if they get the answer.

- So I grew up in the Midwest in Ohio, and that's one of the early states that had the Emerald Ash borer which first popped up in Michigan.

And so my parents still live at are the same home that I grew up in.

And we always had amazing trees all through the backyard.

But over the last few years, my dad has been one by one having to cut down and remove all of our Ash trees because the Emerald Ash borer has been killing this off.

- So for me, I just I have a really hard time imagining what New York would be like without the hemlock trees.

I think with forests, insects pests in general, it's like, you don't know what you got till it's gone.

And if you just go out in the woods and you don't really notice the hemlocks, I think now you need to sorta like, think about that, look over your shoulder and think, oh, this is a hemlock tree.

What would it be like if it was gone?

I think that it would be astounding to most people.

And I do that all the time.

- I don't live at the Ponderosa, but this year I say, I used to look back on back here.

When I first bought this property, it was bad.

There was tree, no we chopped down the trees so I can make a lawn, I kept it down for the longest time, this year, I said, no more.

I'm gonna see how bad it gets.

And it got bad.

- All of the life that we know about in the universe and probably all the complex life that is out there occurs in a thin little film called the biosphere on the surface of the earth.

And we've chopped up that biosphere and said, you know, Tom owns this, dick owns this, Harry owns this and Mary owns this okay, that's done.

But along with that ownership comes the responsibility of maintaining all of the life in the universe.

That's an awesome responsibility.

We've had a heavy hand and all of our ecosystem.

So now we have to manage them so that they stay in balance so that they remain productive.

I think we can do that.

86% of the U.S. is privately owned east of the Mississippi.

So you don't have to think about invasive species problems everywhere.

Just think about the invasive problems on your property.

And if everybody controlled them on their own property, we'd be 86% done.

So that's a much more manageable goal.

And I think everybody does have the responsibility of addressing.

- Well, we struggle across the state with invasive species.

There are things that we can do to help.

Jessica, I'm outside I find an insect.

I'm not sure what it is.

Maybe it's invasive, maybe it's not.

What do I do?

- Can you hear me?

- Yes.

Yes.

- Yes.

I'm here.

Thank God.

This is a great question for me, obviously, because I manage the forest health diagnostic lab and we offer free diagnostic services to the public.

So we want your insects and your plants, and we want to idea it for you.

So you can, there's a lot of ways to get ahold of us.

You can email us at foresthealth@dec.ny.gov.

You can simply Google DEC forest health diagnostic lab, and we'll come up.

You can send us samples in the mail.

You can send us photographs and we will help you figure out what it is.

We also diagnose tree diseases.

So if your trees are dying and you don't know why it could be insect-related, it could be disease-related.

It could be invasive.

It could be native who knows, but we will help you resolve that.

There's also a huge framework for invasive species support in New York state.

So if not us call your local PRISM, New York is set up.

It's broken up into different regions for invasive invasive species management.

So you can just Google local PRISM, or just stands for partnerships and regional invasive species management.

And they work on a more local level and they can assist you as well.

And if they don't know what something is, they'll pass it on to us.

Also, I notice local soil and water conservation districts can be really good resources as well for the public.

But, and then of course, there's the species specific websites like Chris Logue mentioned earlier, spotted lantern fly is conspicuous and easy to identify.

We have a website for that.

APHIS has a website for Asian Longhorn beetle.

So if it is one of those conspicuous insects, and you know what it is, you can Google it and find the right person pretty easily, but everything unknown send to us or contact your local PRISM.

- Thank you.

And the organizations you mentioned, I think the links are being put into the chat right now to help you identify those different critters that you're finding out there.

Steve, this was a really complex and interesting documentary to put together.

What were some of the personal stories that really stuck with you through filming?

- I think the last one that you saw in that clip with the homeowner Bill, one of the things that we thought would be the biggest issue with this documentary, the biggest goal is to get people to care, but we found out while we were shooting that that wasn't always the issue.

We thought it would be apathy, but it was really just recognition.

That was instance the reason that we have that interview is because we were filming not way down the road and Bill actually just walked down the street and saw us filming and then started asking us what we were doing.

And we said, we're filming that weed.

And then we showed him what it looked like.

You said, oh, I have that in my yard.

And then we ran back to his house and he showed us this personal battle that he's been waging for years that he had no idea what it was, any identified it as a problem, but he didn't know what to do about it.

And unfortunately he was doing by actually trying to fix the problem, he was making it way worse.

'Cause he was mowing back the knotweed and each fragment that a mow that gets mowed or ripped off of a knotweed can become its own plant.

So he was really exacerbating the problem way more than he would have if he had just left it.

But it was just kind of shows you that it's not always people not caring, but it's more just, he didn't know what to do.

And once he knew what it was and he saw people out there, he could actually take action and learn that how it actually get rid of it and who to contact.

- That's really great to be able to help share that information because he was trying to be active about that.

Steve, what were some of the challenges of producing this documentary?

- I think the number one thing was just how much information and how much ground do you wanna cover.

It's such a big issue and we could have made 10 documentaries or whole seasons of a DOCU series about this problem just in New York and just in certain areas, but there's just such a wide ranging issue.

And it's so individualized and localized.

So there's just different problems in different areas of New York.

And the PRISM system really helps kind of personalize those fights and detection to the area that they're in, but just realizing what we can show.

And just one of the things that we realized when we were researching is just once you kind of identify these plants, you start seeing them everywhere.

So like I've been seeing that weed, in fact, my days, my whole life, but I've never really thought about it.

It was just never recognizing them.

So once you kind of break that glass and show people what they are, you start noticing, oh, that's I noticed that done at my neighbor's house and we just kind of started seeing these different things.

So just kind of introducing as many invasive species of different issues as possible in the documentary, and then use that as a jumping off point for viewers to research and find things that resonate with them.

- Yeah.

That's so that's so important just knowing this is more than half the battle.

Thank you.

Chris, how much of a threat is the spotted lantern fly to Maples and other of our dominant force trees in New York?

- So good question.

Thanks for that.

So, we don't think that that spotted lantern fly probably poses a great risk to forestries, may be able to feed on some of our forestries.

The bigger issue outside of the great production and some of the other fruit production is that in very, very large numbers, they create a lot of honeydew, which is the excrement from the insect.

It's just a sugary substance that gets on the leaves of other plants.

And on that, you can also get something called city mold.

So there are outdoor recreational issues associated with the presence of spotted lantern fly.

Potentially if you have reduced photosynthesis from the honeydew and the sooty mold, you might have reductions in fall color, perhaps reductions and how well some of the trees grow, but certainly the impacts on tourism, the impacts on outdoor recreation and people's ability to enjoy their property are all things that have been reported out of areas in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and just a real frustration for the general public on a nuisance basis, as well as the issues around grapes.

- Thank you very much.

Jess, we have a question for you.

Can you speak a little bit about the Asian jumping worms?

- Sure.

There's a small team of researchers working on the Asian jumping worms and they have a lot of work ahead of them.

It's been, you know, they've been documented throughout New York state at this point.

We know that they're basically everywhere and they're working with the European jumping worms and causing a lot of damage.

Some people think that Asian jumping worms are perhaps more damaging than European earthworms, but in fact they're not.

And for those of you that don't know, we don't really have any earthworms that are native to New York because during the last glaciation, all earthworms basically became extinct from this region.

And then some of them very slowly started colonizing.

Again, ones that survive to the south know kind of started moving up here very slowly again.

So we do have a few native species that are starting to come into this area, but you know, all the earthworms generally that you see are non-native and invasive, they're harmful to the environment.

So in the case of jumping worms, you know, they just eat the leaf litter layer, you know, on top of the soil and they just eat and eat and eat and they don't stop.

And what sort of happens is the top layer of soil.

The top few layers of soil become homogenized.

And it goes from being three, you know, two or three separate layers to just to one layer.

And that really, it changes the way plants can grow.

You know, it especially seedlings and saplings are very susceptible to this and oftentimes it just downright kills them or slows their growth dramatically.

And they think there's a big role with jumping worm activity and mycorrhiza fungi on tree, on the roots of trees and other plants, which are symbiotic and beneficial.

And they're moving around really easily on, you know, especially in the horticultural industry on potted plants and trees that we buy from nurseries.

And so if you have it on your property already, there's really not a lot of control options at this point.

But if you don't have it, you have a lot of power in preventing it from coming to your house.

And I would say it is well worth the time and effort to try to do so.

So try to buy as much bare root nursery stock as you can, if you wanna buy a tree or a Bush, try to buy the bare root type, or if you're bringing mulch into your backyard, you know, at the beginning of gardening season, I've heard that if you Solarize it first, that'll kill any potential worms.

So you just cover it with a tarp for like three or four days and leave it out in the sun and it should do the trick.

And there's some information online, you know, you can just Google jumping worm and some of these preventative strategies are out there.

And I'd say, that's really your best bet 'cause if you already have it, you have a pretty big problem with it and that's okay.

- Thank you.

And we have that link that is going to be going into the chat.

We've had lots of great questions coming in.

I have one more on the spotted lantern fly.

I'm gonna ask Chris, what recommendations do you have for homeowners that already have spotted lantern flies and how can they help to reduce those populations?

- So good question.

So a couple of different things, you know, removal of the egg masses is really really one way to reduce the populations.

And I think particularly can be effective early on as the population builds.

So if you find those egg masses out on trees or other places, you can scrape them off, there's also a particular kind of a soybean oil.

So a vegetable oil that can be to smother the eggs that has to be used when the temperatures are above 40 degrees.

And then during the growing season, when the population of nymphs or adults are out, there are some other treatments that one can use on various types of plants to reduce the populations and a good place to get good treatment information for spotted lantern fly is the New York state IPM program or the local Cornell cooperative extension in your county.

They can help with advising on how to use those types of products safely.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We've had a lot of wonderful questions coming in tonight.

Thank you so much for asking those.

We will continue to put some of the answers up on our social media platforms to answer the ones that we didn't get to tonight.

I would like to thank all of our panelists this evening.

Steve Powers, director and producer of 'Uninvited: the Spread of Invasive Species" with Westfield Production Company.

Jessica Cancelliere is a research scientist with the DEC Forest Health Program and the bureau of invasive species and ecosystem health.

Chris Logue is the state plant regulatory official with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

And Rob Davies, who's the New York state Forester.

You can watch the entire documentary "Uninvited: the Spread of Invasive Species" online at the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation YouTube page.

The link is in the chat.

This event will be archived and available to be viewed on WSKGs YouTube channel.

And that is also going into the chat.

Thank you to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation WXXI and WSKG.

I'm your host, Nancy Coddington.

Thank you for joining us.

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