Invasive Species - What's New on NISIC's Site

Despite the devastating impact of the invasive emerald ash borer on forests in the eastern and midwestern parts of the United States, climate change will have a much larger and widespread impact on these landscapes by the year 2100, according to researchers.

Many people in Vermont are encountering gypsy moths (GM) for the first time. This invasive species arrived in the United States over 100 years ago and has been expanding its range ever since. They can be significant defoliators (leaf eaters) of trees and shrubs. They prefer oak trees, but when there are a lot of caterpillars around they will eat any type of leaf, including maple and pine. Vermont has not seen an outbreak of GM since 1991. At that time a fungus called Entomophaga maimaiga became prevalent in the area and significantly decreased the GM population. But the dry weather that we’ve experienced over the last few years has not been good for fungi, and the absence of fungi has allowed the GM numbers to increase.

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has announced an addition to the state's invasive species list. Beech leaf disease, leading to the decline and mortality of beech trees from Ohio to southern New England, has arrived in Maine's forests. The disease was confirmed in leaf samples from a forest in Lincolnville (Waldo County) by Dr. Robert Marra of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. The Maine Forest Service is asking the public's help in identifying additional areas impacted by beech leaf disease. If you suspect you have found affected leaves submit photos using the MFS tree ailment form, email foresthealth@maine.gov, or call (207) 287-2431. Photos should include a clear shot of the underside of an affected leaf or leaves. However, please report concerns even if photos cannot be provided.

Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the opening of registration for the 2021 Florida Python Challenge® (July 9-18, 2021). Registration is now open and members of the public can take the online training and then compete to remove invasive Burmese pythons from the wild. Visit FLPythonChallenge.org to register for the competition, take the online training, learn more about Burmese pythons and the unique Everglades ecosystem, and find resources for planning your trip to South Florida to participate in the Florida Python Challenge®.

The National Park Service (NPS)'s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program offers webinar topics such as Invasive Species, Pesticide Safety, the Pesticide Use Proposal System (PUPS), and Museum Management. Provides archived webinars presented by NPS and other DOI agency employees, DOI contractors, USDA/USFS employees, and university professors.

Since arriving to the northern Atlantic Ocean less than 30 years ago, lionfish have quickly become one of the most widespread and voracious invasive species, negatively impacting marine ecosystems—particularly coral reefs—from the northeast coast of the United States to the Caribbean Islands. In a new study, an international research team including the California Academy of Sciences presents four new records of lionfish off the coast of Brazil, confirming the invasion of the predatory fish into the South Atlantic for the first time.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing its plans for combatting the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina in 2021. "Every year, APHIS evaluates and determines the most effective options to achieve ALB eradication," said Osama El-Lissy, APHIS' Plant Protection and Quarantine Deputy Administrator. "Complete eradication of this pest from the United States remains our goal, and our strategy this year will advance our efforts to eliminate this pest from where it is infesting trees."

In 2021, the ALB program will focus on inspecting trees in quarantined areas in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and South Carolina, and removing infested trees at no cost to property owners. The program will not apply insecticide treatments this year. Program officials will monitor for the beetle's presence inside and around each area, respond to calls for assistance, conduct training sessions for compliance agreement holders, and perform outreach.

Due to the impact of climate change, plant pests that ravage economically important crops are becoming more destructive and posing an increasing threat to food security and the environment, finds a scientific review released this week. The Scientific Review on the Impact of Climate Change on Plant Pests - A global challenge to prevent and mitigate plant pest risks in agriculture, forestry and ecosystems was prepared under the auspices of the Secretariat of the International Plant Protection Convention and is one of the key initiatives of the International Year of Plant Health, which is coming to an end this month. "The key findings of this review should alert all of us on how climate change may affect how infectious, distributed and severe pests can become around the world," said the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu. "The review clearly shows that the impact of climate change is one of the greatest challenges the plant health community is facing," added Qu.

CABI scientists have conducted the first comprehensive study on the economic impact of a range of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) on Africa's agricultural sector, which they estimated to be USD $3.6 trillion a year. This is equivalent to 1.5 times the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of all African countries combined – or similar to that of Germany. The average annual cost of IAS per country was USD $76.32 billion. Full details of the cost for individual countries are outlined in the paper published in the journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience.

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.