Check your car, kayak or a nearby rail car \u2013 it might be providing free transportation for an invasive pest or plant. And you can be part of a renewed effort to stop the invaders.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Midwest Invasive Species Information Network<\/a>\u00a0needs help finding and identifying invasive species. The organization leads several citizen science initiatives that provide information needed to identify and report invasive species the public may encounter.<\/p>\n Two of them \u2013\u00a0Eyes on the Forest<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0MI Paddle Stewards<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 are expanding their programs, looking for volunteers to cover more ground and water.<\/p>\n Michigan\u2019s Eyes on the Forest program focuses on catching invasive species before they become an infestation, said Julie Crick, a Michigan State University Extension educator who oversees the program.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to make people proactively aware of what could happen on their property,\u201d she said. Since 2016, over 100 volunteers have adopted trees that act as bellwethers for emerging invasive species. Eyes on the Forest calls these \u201csentinel trees.\u201d<\/p>\n Volunteers check their sentinel tree two or three times a year by running through a checklist provided by the program. That means checking for insect holes, recording the tree\u2019s canopy position and recording fungal growth that may be a sign of decay.<\/p>\n Crick said she hopes more people will notice changes in the health of the trees around them. Sick or dying trees are a clear sign that something is wrong in the local ecosystem.<\/p>\n Detecting\u00a0 underwater is more difficult because there are fewer visible clues, said Erica Clites, also an educator with MSU Extension.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes the impacts are harder to see,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not looking at what\u2019s underneath the water, you might not notice that something\u2019s invaded.\u201d<\/p>\n Clites oversees the MI Paddle Stewards program, which began in 2019 with a one-year grant from\u00a0Michigan Sea Grant<\/a>.<\/p>\n The program instructs volunteers on effective methods for decontaminating their boats before they transport them \u2013 and potential unwanted guests \u2013 somewhere else.<\/p>\n COVID-19 shut down most of MI Paddle\u2019s activities. The program moved online, offering a free self-paced course that shows users what to look for, how to properly sanitize their watercraft and how to use the\u00a0Midwest Invasive Species Information Network\u2019s app<\/a>\u00a0to report invasive species.<\/p>\n The course<\/a>\u00a0is still available as a prerequisite for the in-person training the program restarted this year. MI Paddle provides hands-on seminars and supplies to groups that are already engaged in detecting and eradicating invasive species.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be able to show people this is what they look like,\u201d Clites said. \u201cYou know, you can touch and feel it.\u201d Trainees then pass that knowledge on to their own organizations, such as paddling groups and local watershed councils.<\/p>\n Identifying Threats<\/b><\/p>\n Insects are the three biggest invasive threats to Michigan trees, Crick said. The Asian longhorned beetle, hemlock wooly adelgid and spotted lanternfly can destroy trees and crops central to the state\u2019s ecosystem and economy.<\/p>\n Hemlock wooly adelgid targets a variety of hemlocks, which \u201care keystone species in their ecosystems in which they\u2019re found natively,\u201d Crick said. The state has identified infestations in\u00a0six Michigan counties<\/a>, all along the Lake Michigan coast.<\/p>\n There have been no confirmed sightings of the Asian longhorned beetle in Michigan yet, but\u00a0Ohio authorities confirmed its presence in 2011<\/a>. Crick said catching this species early is vital to containing it and minimizing potential damage. The beetle attacks maples, the most common tree in the state and the source of its maple syrup.<\/p>\n Spotted lanternfly can destroy fruit and hops crops, damaging the wine and beer industries. Crick added that they are also a nuisance, leaving a sticky residue that can interfere with a tree\u2019s ability to photosynthesize. The insect \u201cwould very much disrupt things in the forest,\u201d Crick said.<\/p>\n The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development\u00a0confirmed a sighting of spotted lanternfly<\/a>\u00a0in Oakland County in August 2022.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0the Michigan Invasive Species Program<\/a>, spotted lanternflies cannot fly long distances. They rely on hitchhiking \u2013 most often on cars or trucks, sometimes on trains \u2013 to spread. The same is true for the adelgid, beetle and several aquatic invasives.<\/p>\n In 2019, state officials\u00a0updated<\/a>\u00a0the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act to require boaters to inspect, clean and dry their craft before entering a new body of water.<\/p>\n Clites said the state has taken great strides in addressing ballast water and freight ships, but there is less focus on small watercraft like kayaks and paddleboards.<\/p>\n Boats, large and small, can spread visible pests and invisible threats, like fish diseases.<\/p>\n MI Paddle asks boaters to follow the state\u2019s\u00a0invasive species watchlist<\/a>, which includes aquatic plants like European water clover, hydrilla and parrot feather.<\/p>\n Clites said which unwanted plants paddlers encounter depends on where they go.<\/p>\n Next steps<\/b><\/p>\n MI Paddle and the Michigan Invasive Species Information Network have little data about which species have already infiltrated the state\u2019s lakes and rivers.<\/p>\n MI Paddle Stewards is in only the first year of its new three-year grant and Clites said she hopes that with more training, more people will report what they find, whether invasive or not.<\/p>\n To get started, you can sign up for the three-hour, self-paced course MI Paddle offers online. For in-person trainings, sign up to receive alerts through\u00a0this survey<\/a>.<\/p>\n Eyes on the Forest\u00a0 tracks\u00a0over 200 trees<\/a>\u00a0across the state so far, but plans to increase that number. Crick said she is looking to expand tracking to\u00a0tree of heaven<\/a>, an invasive species that the spotted lanternfly favors.<\/p>\n