Citizen Science Month is a globally coordinated effort of scientists, organizations and curious/concerned community members that want to make a difference in protecting the environment. This year's efforts will be focused on online events and opportunities to contribute to initiatives from the safety of your own home. Photo credit: scistarter.org

While this time of sheltering in place has created some challenges to getting outdoors, there are still many ways of staying involved and engaging in nature-related activities. April is Global Citizen Science Month and this newsletter will focus on ways you can still participate in meaningful work and invasive species education and training from the safety of your own home or your own property. Keep reading this newsletter to learn more about ways of staying involved in our Lower Hudson PRISM-related citizen science, education and online volunteer opportunities!

Want to learn more about our citizen science programs? Take our Introduction to Citizen Science Opportunities webinar on April 25th!

LH-PRISM staff has created a 5-part tutorial series on two easy-to-use (and fun!) mobile apps, Seek and iNaturalist, that help explore the diversity of life surrounding us. Photo credit: inaturalist.org

Turn your curiosity for nature into environmental action in your very own backyard! iNaturalist and Seek are two free, easy-to-use mobile apps that are transforming the way we engage with the diversity of life we see outdoors. Once you start exploring, you won't want to stop! It's a fun and exciting way to learn about local biodiversity, figure out what's growing and living in your yard and inspire you to get outdoors for some fresh air. It's also a great at-home learning tool for kids wanting to interact with nature during this home study time period!

Invasive Species Citizen Science Program Coordinator, Brent Boscarino, has created a 5-part video tutorial series on how to explore nature with these apps, including step-by-step procedures on how to download them and set up accounts, field videos of how to get the species IDs you want, good troubleshooting tips and ways to get involved in protecting our local biodiversity. The series is intended to be accessible to people of all ages and technology skills.

Already an iNaturalist user and comfortable with how it works? We could use your help with an at-home project to help curate our online photo collection! Please send an email to Brent at [email protected] for more details!

Invasive Species Citizen Science Program Coordinator, Brent Boscarino, runs the Invasives Strike Force Survey Program training workshops. Even though historically these are offered as in-person trainings, we plan to offer them as online training sessions, if needed. 

Many of you may be wondering if we will still be holding our invasive species survey training workshops this spring and summer- and the answer is yes! We will most likely be moving to an online format (at least for the spring training workshops) but are still working out the details of how long the training will be if/when shifted to an online format. The goal is to still offer our regularly scheduled training programs on the dates listed below, even if shifted to online only. If you are interested in becoming an Invasives Strike Force surveyor and want to get involved and learn more, please sign up for one of the training sessions as it will help us to gauge interest on these dates and which regions are expressing the most interest. We will be in touch about the format of the workshop - online or in person- as the date approaches. We hope you will join us!

Registration dates for our Standard Surveys (for beginner surveyors)-

**In-person training locations are TENTATIVE and will be shifted to online format, if needed**

May 9: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Trail Conference HQ in Mahwah, N.J.

May 16: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Green Chimney's Clearpool Model Forest in Carmel, N.Y.

May 30: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Environmental Cooperative at Vassar Barns in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

June 20: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the New Weis Center in Ringwood, N.J.

June 27: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Black Rock Forest in Cornwall, N.Y.

July 11: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Mamakating Environmental and Interpretive Center in Wurtsboro, N.Y.

Registration dates for our Intermediate Surveys (experienced surveyors)

May 17: 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Trail Conference HQ in Mahwah, N.J.

July 18: 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Westchester Land Trust in Bedford Hills, N.Y.

Mile-a-minute and Morrow's (bush) honeysuckle are two invasive plants that are on New York's prohibited list. We are looking for help in determining which retail nurseries are still selling N.Y. prohibited plants without appropriate labeling. Photo credit: dec.ny.gov

Does it frustrate you when you see nurseries selling invasive plants? Now there is something you can do about it! We are looking for volunteers to help us perform online searches to determine which nursery retailers are selling N.Y. prohibited plants without a proper accompanying message. This volunteer work can all be done from your home computer!

We currently have 17 volunteers working on checking on online nurseries for this project and they have completed 19 of the 69 species on the prohibited list (with another 19 assigned). We still have many species left to search and could use additional volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send you details as to how to access the online search database and get started. We’d love your help!

Trainer Josh Beese and Conservation Dogs Dia (right) and Fagen (left) getting ready to help combat oak wilt at Cornell University this past March.   

Our Conservation Dogs Dia and Fagen have been helping to protect our forests from invasive plants, insects, and grasses for the past year. But detecting a tree disease? Is that possible? Last month, we set out to Cornell University to find out! Oak wilt is a disease caused by the fungus Bretziella fagacearum and can kill both white and red oaks. The fungus spreads through sap-feeding beetles and through root grafts that form between oak trees. White oaks can take years to kill, but our beloved red oaks can be killed in as little as a few weeks.  Once a tree shows visible signs of the fungus, such as wilting leaves and flagging branches, it’s already too late to save the tree. That’s why using our Conservation Dogs in early detection work is so critical!

Over the course of a few days, the dogs graduated from training with samples of the fungus in a controlled environment of a classroom to experimenting with detection of samples in forest edges and finally mastering detection in the field. They were able to detect the presence of the fungus hidden in a multitude of field experimental test locations and locate spots of possible infection on live oak trees (lab results with confirmation of their finding is pending!)  We couldn’t be more proud of the incredible job done by the dynamic duo, Fagen and Dia, who continue to amaze us with their powers of smell.

The white showy flowers of the invasive Callery pear will be in full bloom in the month of April. Its dark glossy green leaves will soon follow. Photo credit: tmdc.mo.gov

While our monthly EcoQuest Challenge is currently on hiatus, there is one featured species you can be on the lookout for along roadsides or while out on a "social distance walk": Callery pear! Native to China and Vietnam, Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) was introduced to the United States in the early 1900's. It became popularized in the middle of the century when it was specially cultivated and widely planted in both urban and rural settings due to its ornamental value and disease resistance. Unfortunately, these trees are increasingly escaping into natural areas and wreaking havoc on native habitats. Naturalized Callery pears can spread quickly by seed and vegetative means, forming sizeable patches within several years that shade out and outcompete native plants. It produces copious amounts of seeds that can be carried by birds and small mammals and generally lack insect and disease controls.

Callery pears become conspicuous this time of year! They begin erupting into a bloom of bright white, five-petaled flowers at the beginning of April in our PRISM region prior to leaf out. Dark-green, glossy, fine-toothed leaves will soon appear later in the spring and eventually turn a scarlet-purple in the fall. Native trees like serviceberry and crabapples are also blooming white around this time of year and make great native planting alternatives. Serviceberry petals tend to be brighter white and strap-shaped with space between the petals compared to Callery pear's rounder, closely packed petals. Crabapple tree flowers tend to be pinker and its branches are nearer to horizontal and less uniform when compared to the vertical growing structure of the branches of Callery pear. 

For more spring ID field tips, please watch this video (or click the green button below!) created by Invasive Species Citizen Science Coordinator, Brent Boscarino. And next time you are out and notice a naturalized Callery pear tree(s), snap a photo and post to iNaturalist to help us track its distribution in our region!

We would like to say thank you to Rich Rockwell who continues to lend extraordinary help in updating our species webpages. Rich has now added best management practice sections to over 65 species pages, written an oak wilt information page and has helped to collate photographs that will help our volunteers with species identification procedures. Thank you again, Rich! 

Great work by volunteer Susan Kavy who has powered through several species for our Part 575 nursery compliance project. Your efforts are really making a difference in protecting native biodiversity and keeping invasive plants out of the nursery trade! Keep up the great work Susan and all our Part 575 volunteers!

Finally, we would like to announce that both our Aquatic and Terrestrial Conservation Corps Crew positions have been filled! While the field work season is currently on hold, it is great to know we have two awesome invasives-focused Crews ready to go when the time comes. We will keep you posted on the latest developments regarding the Corps season as we know more.