invasive species

SLF Sap Survey – Citizen Science Opportunity

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If you are a maple producer located within 25-miles of a confirmed spotted lanternfly detection (and we have a good mailing address for you…big caveat!), you should be receiving an SLF kit in the mail today or certainly by the end of the week.

That kit will supply you with some helpful identification resources, a pickled SLF adult to call your very own, a postcard asking for a few Brix value readings from your maple trees, and a QR code link to an instructional video.

If you do not receive a citizen science kit, but you still want to participate, please do so.  We would be honored to have you contribute.

First, download this file of the SLF Postcard (PDF).

Second, watch this instructional video.

Third, collect as much data as you can during your 2024 maple season.

Fourth, seal up your printed datasheet in an envelope and mail to me at:

Attn: Gabe Karns
Sch of Env & Nat Resources
2021 Coffey Road
210 Kottman Hall
Columbus, OH 43210

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please reply to this post or shoot me an email at karns.36@osu.edu.

 

Maple Cost-Share Assistance – NRCS EQIP Program

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Special thanks to Keith Libben & Timothy Fulks for writing this article for the OSU Maple site!

The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) has long been a well-known resource for agricultural producers in Ohio, especially with our livestock producers and our crop farmers.  Their Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is the flagship conservation program for NRCS and has provided millions of dollars in incentives to producers over the years to address resource concerns that negatively impact soil, water, air, and animal health.

EQIP works by providing farmers, ranchers, and forest owners financial incentives to install conservation practices that help address resource concerns.  Common practices funded include cover crops, manure storage systems, and nutrient management planning.  But did you know that EQIP can now assist Ohio’s maple syrup producers?  Recent changes to the practices available in Ohio intended to improve air quality can now provide some assistance in the sugar shack.  The practices available are intended to improve air quality by improving efficiency in the sugar shack and in turn reducing emissions from burning fossil fuels or wood.  Practices that are currently eligible include reverse osmosis systems, sap pre-heaters, and improved efficiency evaporators.

Interested in getting some financial assistance to make some upgrades at the sugar shack?  This is the general process:

  • Producers need to reach out to their local NRCS field office or Soil and Water Conservation District and get an application in for EQIP.
  • From there, NRCS will coordinate with you to set up a time to visit your sugar bush and assess your operation. Other professionals may be necessary to determine what practices may be appropriate for your operation.
  • NRCS will use this information to develop a conservation plan and cost share estimate. Once this is complete, your application will be submitted for ranking and consideration for funding.
  • NRCS will reach out to you if your application has been selected for funding. Now the ball is in  your court to decide if you want to sign a contract for the funding assistance.  If you sign the contract, you agree to install the required practices per all relevant NRCS standards and specifications.
  • Once installation of the practices is complete and verified, you’ll receive your contracted financial incentive.

It is important to not think of EQIP as solely a coupon to get a steep discount for a new evaporator or reverse osmosis unit.  Such narrow thinking will probably not result in a competitive conservation plan.  Rather, leverage EQIP to design a more holistic approach to improving your overall property.  Additional woodland, wildlife, or cropland practices can also be applied to increase your plan’s ranking score and up the odds of being successful.  Talk to your local NRCS office today to see how they may be able to help!

Additional Questions:

How much cost-assistance will I receive?  NRCS re-evaluates costs of implementing practices on a yearly basis.  For most successful applicants, they will receive their contracted payment of 75% of the projected cost upon completion.  For historically underserved applicants, the cost share rate is set to 90%.

What are the maple-specific EQIP practice codes?  Practice 228 Agricultural Energy Assessment and Practice 374 Energy Efficient Agricultural Operation are the codes that can be leveraged for evaporators, sap preheaters, and reverse osmosis units.

When do I need to get my EQIP application submitted?  NRCS accepts new applications on a continual basis, meaning there is no true deadline.  However, submitted applications do join a stack of documents for the next ranking session which typically occurs in late fall.

 

Remember to join us on Saturday, December 9th for the 2023 Ohio Maple Days.  One of our featured afternoon speakers this year will discuss EQIP’s cost-share opportunities for maple producers in detail.  Registration should go live in late July-early August.

Spotted Lanternfly: Monthly Maple REVIEW

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June’s REVIEW piece is going to come with a request, but first the topic – spotted lanternfly.  The main question of course is this – will spotted lanternfly impact sugarmakers?  The answer put simply and to quote Brian Walsh from Penn State University’s Extension team, “we don’t know, we don’t know, we don’t know.”  While that answer may not be comforting or assuring, it is absolutely certain that lots of work is being done to pursue better answers and there is plenty you can be doing as an individual producer to get ready for your likely “not if, but when” encounter with the invasive spotted lanternfly.  Why do I say “not if, but when”?  Look at this distribution map sourced from New York State’s Integrated Pest Management website.  Spotted lanternfly moves with efficiency and moves with coverage.  I don’t see many holes within the infested range where it has not been found.

“Impacts of short-term feeding by spotted lanternfly on ecophysiology of young hardwood trees in a common garden” was published in 2022 by Emily Lavely and a team of researchers among whom the aforementioned Brian Walsh is a co-author.  The paper can be found in the journal Frontiers in Insect Science.

Here is a webinar recorded through Penn State University last November that spotlights some of the key findings from this paper as it relates to maples and maple sugarmaking.  The recording is pushing 2 hours long, but the meat and potatoes of how this research experiment fits in to our current understanding of how spotted lanternfly impacts maples can be found between the 41:00-48:00 minutes mark.

Before I summarize the relevant take home message from the Lavely et al. study, it is worth noting that the experiment used small sapling-sized trees to document the following findings.  What would those findings have looked like if similar work was conducted on larger diameter tapping-sized trees?  In a nutshell, some short-term intense feeding by spotted lanternfly in the autumn impact stored sugars in silver maples immediately, but has no near-term effect on red maples.  Looking at the following spring after overwintering, silver maples rebound but the red maples in the study showed sugar reductions of up to 40%.  Unfortunately, sugar maples are an even larger question mark, but a fall feeding preference list for spotted lanternfly definitely includes the perennial gold standard species for making maple syrup.

So, what can you do in the near-term to brace for impact, be a tiny part of the solution, and be a first observer/reporter for your area?  Here are 3 practical things to consider.

1st – Learn how to identify tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) and CONTROL it.  Tree-of-heaven sits atop the summer feeding preference list for spotted lanternfly and is an excellent (or terrible, depending on your perspective) location to observe spotted lanternfly.  Tree-of-heaven is an invasive species in its own right and is notoriously aggressive and difficult to eradicate.  The Ohio Invasive Plants Council has a nice fact sheet that can help you learn how to identify tree-of-heaven, here’s the Ailanthus control sheet from Woodlands Stewards, and Rutgers University has another fantastic resource for how best to control this non-native pest.  Your first action item in short – identify tree-of-heaven and do your best to eliminate it.  By eliminating the preferred host for spotted lanternfly summer feeding, you reduce the chance of your nearby maples being next on the menu when autumn arrives. 

2nd – Indicate your support to the IR-4 project that you want to see more spotted lanternfly research conducted focused on potential impacts to maple and maple syrup production.  This requires you logging on to a website and formally indicating your support, but please scroll down to the bottom of this post and follow 6 quick and simple steps to engage IR-4 and put this topic front and center on the funding agency’s radar for the next round of awards issued in September.  Again, to hear more about this why IR-4 mechanism is so crucial, listen to minutes 41-48:00 on the Penn State webinar linked here.

3rd – Keep your eyes out for spotted lanternfly and report suspected observations immediately.  Here is a current map of Ohio counties with known spotted lanternfly infestations.  You can link to the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s reporting hotline through this ODNR webpage.  While most press releases show the adult winged spotted lanternfly, detections during the hottest summer months are more likely to be the nymphal stages (shout out to NCSU, my alma mater for the nice graphic below).  Being on the front line of early detection helps ensure agencies can respond as quickly as possible to new outbreaks and share information as effectively as possible.

 

6 Simple Steps to Support Spotted Lanternfly Research through IR-4. 

1) Visit this link: https://ir4app.cals.ncsu.edu/Ir4FoodPub/IS_Search

2) Click the down arrow on the upper-left yellow box labeled ‘IS Number’ and select the option ‘IS00441’

3) This will auto-populate Brian Walsh’s research proposal to pursue effective and safe spotted lanternfly controls on the bottom part of the screen.  Click the live link ‘IS00441’ under the box “SUPPORTING/SIMILAR REQUEST”

4) You will be transferred to a new page where you should enter your email address and go through the verification code process as directed.  You will be given the option to register for future use, or to not have your information saved for future use.  Your choice here does not impact your ability to voice support for this project.

5) Enter more information about yourself (enter “Individual Maple Producer” under Affiliation if you’re unsure how to fill in that field)

6) Finally, comment into the “Additional Reason for Need” box and click Submit.  The text box has a small character limit that won’t allow you to type more than a couple complete sentences.  This is what I submitted, feel free to copy-paste or create your own short indication of support.

Spotted lanternfly (SLF) is poised to impact maple producers, particularly those producers with a prevalence of red and silver maples in their sugarbush. Many Ohio maple producers fit this scenario and need options to combat SLF in order to preserve profitability and tree/forest health.

For more information: Look back at posts recapping Amy Stone’s presentation at 2021’s Ohio Maple Days on spotted lanternfly: Part 1, Part 2.

Borers, Feeders, and Galls Oh My!

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Ohio Maple Days 2022 did not disappoint.  The food was fantastic, the vendor room crowded, and the presenters shared a wealth of knowledge of expertise across a wide range of subjects. Dr. Curtis Young, Entomologist, Extension Educator, and Associate Professor, expanded our knowledge regarding maple pests.  Many that most of us were already aware of, spotted lanternfly or Asian long-horned beetle for instance, and lots of lesser known pests.  Before we get into a few highlights, be sure to mark your calendars for next year’s conference December 8th and 9th!

Any attempt to summarize Dr. Young’s talk would fail due to the sheer amount of information that he is able to share in such a short amount of time.  And no notes!  Truly a wealth of knowledge.  Rather than attempt a synopsis, this is a great opportunity to share some general resources and up-to-date information for some of the more alarming maple pests we face here in Ohio.

University of Kentucky Extension has a great webpage that quickly catalogs a wide range of known pests across 4 general categories – leaf feeders, sap feeders, borers, and galls.  While most maple pests are just that – pests, similar to how most of us view the average mosquito, a few present a real and present danger.  That said, if your maple trees are stressed already, a relatively harmless pest can be the proverbial straw that breaks a camel’s back.  Moral of that last sentence, practice healthy silviculture and sugarbush management to ensure your trees are healthy and vigorous.

Asian long-horned beetle are always mentioned in these presentations.  Thankfully, in Ohio at least, control and eradication of Asian long-horned beetle is a success story that we seldom get to herald in the fight against invasive species.  While we keep our eyes out for future infestations, spotted lanternfly has rapidly expanded its range and our state records now show several counties with positive detections.

An excellent website to stay abreast of issues facing plant, shrub, and tree health is Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine where Dr. Curtis Young and many other experts from Ohio State University Extension provide “timely information about Ohio growing conditions, pest, disease, and cultural problems.”

Ohio Sugarbush Highlighted by NRCS – New VIDEO

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As you brush the dirt off your knees and shake the cobwebs from your head (what a crazy syrup season!), here is a new video featuring one of our state’s own maple producers – Bill & Dee Belew of Messenger Century Farm in Chagrin Falls, OH.  You’ll remember that we have highlighted the EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) and other NRCS programs (such as the Conservation Stewardship Partners program) as excellent opportunities for maple producers to improve their woods AND their operations.  This video is a marvelous example of just that.

A special thanks to Brooke DeCubellis who produced the video.  Brooke DeCubellis serves as the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) public affairs specialist in Ohio.  In this capacity, she creates and leverages communication strategies and products supporting NRCS objectives throughout the state.  She maintains effective working relationships with regional partners, highlights local producer conservation efforts and shares technical and financial resources to further natural resource stewardship within the state.  Brooke is a skilled communications professional, with more than ten years of experience in federal and state government work, specializing in media relations, public engagement, photography and videography.  Thanks Brooke for shining a light on a fine example of what Ohio sugaring is all about!

Ohio Maple Days – Spotted Lanternfly, Part II

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Part I last week focused on the basics of spotted lanternfly.  What they look like, where they are, where they might be going, what to do if you see some, and more.  This week, I want to share a few initial findings (albeit preliminary results) of how spotted lanternfly impact maples.  A big thanks to Scott Weikert of Penn State Extension for relaying these great bits of information.

First let’s start with the good news.  One bright spot of optimism for most maple producers is that while monitoring efforts are seeing spotted lanternfly in the forest, the pest does not tend to have super high population densities there.  Rather, the heaviest infestations tend to be more on the edges.  That is perhaps reason to be encouraged for most maple producers, but certainly not all.  In my own mind, I would imagine a sugarbush surrounded by intact forest on all sides is at lower risk whereas a backyard sugarmaker tapping a few open-grown trees may face more of a threat.

Heavily infested silver maple trees are showing abnormal bud swelling during the fall and producing no seeds the following year.  It remains unknown what the implications are for sap quality, but anytime an insect pest interferes with a tree’s reproductive cycle there is cause for legitimate concern.

It is certainly worth noting that initial data suggest that spotted lanternfly favor silver maple more than red maple.  As sugar maple does not constitute much of the forest composition where spotted lanternfly infestations are heaviest in Pennsylvania, it would be conjecture to rank sugar maple’s preference to other maples just yet.  As the pest moves into more localities, more will be learned.

Finally, some researchers observed that feeding on red maples tends to be extremely intense and concentrated to just a few weeks in the fall.  While no actual mortality has been observed in maples at this time, discoloration of the xylem in branches is a suspected result of heavy feeding.  It is uncertain what that damage means for future sap flow, but it stands to reason that discolored wood may inhibit sap flow if the response is similar to when a tree compartmentalizes the wound of a taphole or other injury.

While this post leaves far more open gaps in our understanding of how spotted lanternflies may impact the maple resource in the future, it is a start.  As the pest continues to infest new locations and studies gather more data, we will be better equipped to anticipate and combat impacts from this novel forest pest.

For more information, see Part I from last week or check out Penn State’s resources for spotted lanternfly to learn more.

If you see spotted lanternfly or other invasive species, please report your findings!  That is the single best way to improve the efficiency of any efforts to fight back.  Click here for more information on reporting through the Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN).

Ohio Maple Days – Spotted Lanternfly, Part I

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Despite significant changes to the timing and schedule of Ohio Maple Days not to mention the ever-evolving challenges presented by COVID, we had a great turnout in Ashland back on December 11th.  A subset of maple producers, about 20 in number, also enjoyed an excellent syrup grading workshop on Friday night the 10th.

During the morning session, Amy Stone (an Extension educator from Lucas County) presented on spotted lanternfly and was kind enough to share her graphic-heavy slide deck with us.  You might consider this a Part I post and I’ll follow-up with a Part II next week.

This half is all about spotted lanternfly.  What do they look like, where did they come from, where are they now, where might they be going, why you should care about them, and most importantly – how to report spotted lanternfly if you do spot them.  Click here to access Amy’s whole slide deck from her presentation on 12/11/2021.

Spotted Lanternfly (Amy Stone) Slide Deck from Ohio Maple Days December 2021

An infestation of adult spotted lanternflies is pretty hard to miss or mistake for something else.

The adults are preceded by 4 instars of developing maturity.  Each stage has a diagnostic “look” and the season when they are active.  Familiarizing oneself with the life cycle and knowing how spotted lanternfly will manifest depending on the time of year is key for solid monitoring.

At first glance you may only notice the one egg mass but look up and you’ll see a second.  Egg masses immediately after a female lays is fairly easy to see, but with passing time, the shiny coat over the egg mass fades and the mass become far more cryptic and camouflaged.

Spotted lanternfly was first detected in Jefferson County, OH, but recently Cuyahoga County has been added to the list of known OH positives.

For a comprehensive dive into spotted lanternfly, dig through the slide deck.  It’s a great exploration of this novel invasive forest pest.

Part II next week will focus on some specific preliminary findings on how spotted lanternfly are believed to be impacting maples.  Because of where spotted lanternfly infestations are currently heaviest, most of the results are from Pennsylvania and most applicable to red and silver maples, but you’ll want to tune back in to hear what some researchers – including several from Penn State University – are starting to learn about the maple – spotted lanternfly interaction.

If you see spotted lanternfly or other invasive species, please report your findings!  That is the single best way to improve the efficiency of any efforts to fight back.  Click here for more information on reporting through the Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN).

Spotted Lanternfly on the Move

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BAD BUG NEWS ALERT!!  This is not exactly the sort of update we are excited to relay.  Spotted lanternfly was detected last week in Cuyahoga County.  More details can be found at this link.

From a broader perspective, this is a great chance to remind producers that we will addressing the spotted lanternfly issue directly at the December 11th Ohio Maple Days event in Ashland.  And not just talking about spotted lanternfly either – rather, the focus will be to equip Ohio’s maple producers to be trained early detectors of this nasty forest invasive insect pest that poses a very real threat to maples and other native Ohio trees.

Past posts and webinars are also available on spotted lanternfly:

 

Maple Story Map – Students Are Key to Maple Success

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Given that Ohio State is a university and has well over 60,000 students enrolled, making the statement – “students were involved” – seems like a needless statement of the obvious.  But in the case of the Mansfield Maple program and larger Ecolab initiative, the fact needs to be explicitly stated.  Students have been heavily involved.

The maple program itself is the fruition of a student report inventorying the Mansfield campus’ forest resources back in 2013.  A simple charge to “explore potential of the mature forest for a maple sugarbush” and subsequent student effort to do the project scoping have led to a whole host of tangible outcomes, not the least of which is a re-invigoration of the School of Environment and Natural Resources’ (SENR) commitment to non-timber forest products.

And student involvement has continued to this very day.  Ecolab student interns assisted in the Mansfield sugarbush installation and have participated annually in tapping and other system maintenance tasks.  Students have performed invasive species management in the maple stand and catalogued each individual tapped tree throughout the sugarbush.  A student research team helped establish the complimentary crop tree release demonstration area that targets sap-producing maples as one of the focal stand management objectives.  And last year, a Capstone group of SENR seniors explored new ways to assess and management for sugarbush tree health and vigor.  The deliverable outcome of their project was a well-crafted Story-Map linked here.  We encourage you to view the high-quality work of our Forestry and Wildlife seniors and learn about crop tree management, the threat of invasive plant species to our native biodiversity, and the potential effects of climate change on future sugarbush resilience.

Students have been an integral part of making OSU Maple a success.  By purchasing maple syrup and showing your support of the program, you can make sure student support remains a centerpiece of the initiative moving forward.  We are proud of our students and are thrilled to know that Ohio’s maples will be in safe hands for future generations.

Author: Gabe Karns

Spotted Lanternfly in Ohio

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Even though it is 2020, there is still lots for which to be thankful.  That said, spotted lanternfly’s detection in the state isn’t on the list of items to be grateful.  As many have likely heard already, Jefferson County registered Ohio’s first confirmed detection of spotted lanternfly in late October.

Since then, agencies and officials have been scrambling to assess and monitor the location searching for additional evidence of the forest pest.  Beth Burger of the Columbus Dispatch wrote a nice article yesterday providing more details about the initial detection site and subsequent actions taken to lock down further spread.

Ohio State’s CFAES website just released an informative article too about Ohio’s most recent member of the state’s confirmed invasive species list.

We have already been urging vigilance among maple producers and woodland owners due to the species’ sweet tooth for the Acer genus.  Now your focused attention is even more important!  Should you discover evidence of spotted lanternfly, you MUST report sightings to Ohio Department of Agriculture’s website or the Great Lakes Early Detection Network for invasive and noxious species.

You can expect to see more about the spotted lanternfly in coming months as the second ACER grant award contains support to equip and empower Ohio’s maple producers to be active participants in spotted lanternfly surveillance.  In the meantime, be thankful for Ohio’s fleet of professional agencies and organizations who are actively working to combat spread of spotted lanternfly and other invasive species to protect our state’s great forests.

Author: Gabe Karns