Invasive Species Resources

This guide contains a collection of hands-on activities that are easy for teachers to use in the classroom and in the schoolyard. The curriculum is designed for kindergarten through 12th grade and most activities are tied to the Georgia Performance Standards. The guide is available to all formal and non-formal educators online at www.gaeppc.org and through workshops offered in the metro-Atlanta area. Classroom teachers, park naturalists, environmental education specialists, and others can adapt these activities to fit easily into their programs.

The United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has analyzed the potential environmental effects of establishing an integrated management strategy to control cogongrass in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The draft environmental assessment is now available for comment. Cogongrass is an invasive exotic grass found on public and private property, along roadways, in forests, and on farmland. This federally regulated noxious weed grows rapidly, reducing forest productivity, harming wildlife habitat and ecosystems, and encroaching on pastures and hayfields. Because of cogongrass' impact on agriculture and forest industries, Congress has given APHIS funding to partner with Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina to control the spread of this weed. APHIS is proposing is an integrated management strategy that uses preventive, cultural, mechanical, biological, and chemical methods to control cogongrass in key areas of its distribution. APHIS invites the public to review and comment on this environmental assessment by April 1, 2020.

Click on "NH Laws and Rules Related to Aquatic Invasive Wildlife" to view list of prohibited wildlife.

A destructive, invasive beetle that kills ash trees, the emerald ash borer (EAB), has been confirmed in Delaware, making it the 28th state to have found the insect, the Delaware Department of Agriculture announced today. Delaware will be added to a federal quarantine already in 27 other states restricting the interstate shipment of all ash wood and wood products - ash nursery stock, green lumber, waste, compost and chips - as well as hardwood firewood of all species.

Be on the lookout for these up-and-coming invaders! They might not be in Delaware yet, but our best defense is early detection and rapid response!

Boxwood blight is a disease affecting plants in the family Buxaceae including boxwoods (Buxus), Pachysandra, and Sarcococca plants. First detected in the U.S. in 2011, it has since been found in multiple states and provinces from the East Coast to the West Coast. Boxwood blight has now been confirmed on boxwood nursery stock in New Hampshire. New Hampshire nurseries, landscapers, town officials and residents responsible for boxwood plantings should learn the symptoms associated with boxwood blight. Watch for black lesions on stems, "zonate" brown spots on leaves leading to chlorosis, and leaf drop. If boxwood blight is suspected on recently purchased boxwoods, or plants in proximity to recently purchased boxwoods, please contact the Division and collect a sample for analysis by the UNH Plant Diagnostic Lab.