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Invasives Free USA is a new campaign focused on building collaborative partnerships to protect important natural areas from invasive species. Invasives Free USA works to create initiatives to protect both large and small landscapes to keep them free of invasive species to support the restoration of natural habitat, plants and wildlife. Inspired by the Predator Free 2050 program from New Zealand, this campaign requires local engagement and organization to prevent and control invasive species.

This year’s unusually warm winter and spring has led to the early hatch of spotted lanternfly (SLF) in states to our south.  Reports have come in over the past couple of weeks of SLF hatching from Virginia to Pennsylvania, and we anticipate them following suit here in Massachusetts in the next month.

"Over the recent decades globalisation has increased the movement of people and goods around the world, leading to a rise in the number of species introduced to areas outside their natural ranges. A 2017 study found that over one third of all introductions in the past 200 years occurred after 1970 and the rate of introductions is showing no sign of slowing down. In fact, a 2020 study predicts that the number of established alien species will increase by 36% between 2005 and 2050."

IUCN has launched a global standard for classifying the severity and type of impacts caused by alien species, known as the Environmental Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (EICAT). This tool will alert scientists, conservation practitioners and policy makers to the potential consequences of invasive alien species, guiding the development of prevention and mitigation measures.

The Air Potato Patrol is a citizen science project that involves scientists and researchers with the USDA and the State of Florida and of course you — citizens concerned about the effects of invasive species on our economy and environment. We’re looking for volunteers who are willing to go through our training and report data to the researchers on what is happening to the air potato growing on your property. This citizen science project is open to anyone who wants to help and is easy to become involved with.

The topic of invasive alien species accounts for nearly 14 per cent of published peer-reviewed uses of data from the GBIF network, with almost 1,300 papers relating to invasives recorded in the archive of GBIF-enabled research compiled through its literature tracking programme.