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Hi everyone, I'm Mitch O'Neill,

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I'm with the New York
Natural Heritage Program.

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And in New York we also do
some invasive species work.

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So I'm part of the team

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that works on the
invasive species database.

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So today what I'll be talking
about is our monitoring

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efforts for spotted
lanternfly in New York State.

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So essentially, how we
leveraged community scientists

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to kind of get better
coverage of the state.

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So as an example, here's our survey data

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for spotted lanternfly from 2018 to 2020.

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The yellows are not detecteds
and the greens are presences.

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And how leveraging
volunteers, starting in 2021,

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we were able to get better
coverage in the state.

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So I'm sure many of you have
heard of spotted lanternfly,

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invasive insect from, came in from Asia,

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showed up in Pennsylvania a few years ago,

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and since then has been spreading

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to other Northeastern states.

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Vermont, I think it's known in,

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it was seen in one county.

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Lots of efforts to try
to monitor the spread,

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to try to limit the spread,

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quarantine zones in Pennsylvania,

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there are detector dogs that
sniff out spotted lanternflies,

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and there's actually
another, there's a talk

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about that right now in a different room.

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Let's stay here please, I guess.

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(audience laughs)

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And there are bag traps, survey efforts,

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lots of efforts going
on in New York State.

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Ag and Markets is leading efforts,

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but they work with a bunch of
organizations and agencies,

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including the PRISM Network.

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So I might mention PRISMs a couple times.

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I'm saying P-R-I-S-M,
not prisons like jails.

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So it's PRISM, Partnership for Regional

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Invasive Species Management.

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New York State's divided
into these eight regions,

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where there's an organization

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that sort of leads and
coordinates management efforts.

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But no matter, so lots
of great organizations

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doing a lot of great work, but even so,

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New York State is huge, we can't possibly

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cover the whole area with staff alone.

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And that could be said for any state.

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But luckily there are often
people from the general public

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who are interested in natural resources

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and can help fill these data
gaps if you work with them.

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And before I get into that, I want to give

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a basic intro to what iMapInvasives is.

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so it's an online
invasive species database

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and mapping system powered by NatureServe.

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And it's used in several states

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and provinces across North America.

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In New York it's administered

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by the Natural Heritage Program.

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And one really cool thing about iMap

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is the the wide variety of
people who could use it.

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So anyone from general
public up to professionals,

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agency staff can use
iMapInvasives to track invasives

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and help their work to
protect our natural resources

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from the negative impacts
of invasive species.

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And it has a bunch of features,

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but I'll mostly be talking
today about the ability

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to report to iMapInvasives,
and to view distribution data

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in iMapInvasives, and also in a moment,

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I'll touch on email alerts as well.

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So,

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Ag and Markets is trying
to monitor this really fast

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spreading species that's
suddenly here and moving around.

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We can't cover everywhere.

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We need to look, with just agency staff,

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and we need more eyes on
the ground and we need data

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from those people surveying
to go into a centralized

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database where Ag and
Markets can review reports.

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And so Ag and Markets has these needs,

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New York Natural Heritage Program

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administers this database
for invasive species.

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So naturally conversation started,

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and we realized what we
want, what would help

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all of us would be a network
of trained iMap volunteers

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who pick locations to survey and check

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for spotted lanterfly and tree of heaven

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throughout the year and
then report presence

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and not detected back to iMapInvasives.

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And so that's where this
idea was kind of born,

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this thing to ask volunteers to do.

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So to go through a couple pieces of it.

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So we want people to check
for spotted lanternfly,

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that's of course the priority species.

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Lots of impacts.

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The main impacts of concern
are mainly agricultural

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at this point, but there are are potential

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for other impacts as well.

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It spreads so quickly,

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it's not known in most of the states.

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So in a lot of the state,
a new spotted lanternfly

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record is a really big deal.

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Tree of heaven is a little bit different.

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It's already pretty widespread.

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It's not much of a surprise if we find

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tree of heaven in most
counties in New York,

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besides maybe the northern
part of the state.

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But it has a really strong connection

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with spotted lanternfly,
so it's the preferred host.

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Spotted lanterfly really loves
to get their favorite foods.

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They tend to be healthier when

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they're associated with
the tree of heaven.

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So it's a really good place to
check for spotted lanternfly.

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So if people find tree of heaven,

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that's a good place to check
for spotted lanternfly,

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'cause they're often
drawn to tree of heaven.

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Another piece is reporting presence

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and not detected records to iMap.

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So even if they don't find something,

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we want them to report it.

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So we have the survey documented,

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so they can report the time
searched, stuff like that.

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But if it's presence, they
report a presence record.

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So those go in as unconfirmed,

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since this database can be used by anyone,

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general public, professionals.

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And people often include a
picture, that's encouraged.

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And so when reports come in,
email alerts are triggered

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to our partners for them to
see that there's new records

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of this species in this
county and whatnot.

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And then they're reviewed by experts.

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So for spotted lanternfly
records, those are reviewed

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by Ag and Market staff, and
for tree of heaven records,

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those are reviewed by some
other partners we have,

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like PRISM staff often
confirm these as well.

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And then one important piece

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which I haven't talked about yet

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is the whole pick a location
idea and where that came from.

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And this isn't a new idea that
we came up with ourselves.

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It has been done before.

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So I think in New York we
have the Breeding Bird Atlas,

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where people pick a
grid square and survey.

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And there are other other groups

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that have done this as well.

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But essentially picking
a location to survey

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is a form of a commitment
which has been identified

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in social science and behavioral science

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as a really important
factor in getting people

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to actually carry out on an
action that they intend to do.

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And Ken Donnelly is a social
scientist who has a website

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called Beyond Attitude where you can

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learn more about that sort of stuff.

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So we came up with this
claim a grid Square idea.

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So Ag and Markets, Parks,
DEC, Heritage Program,

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we worked together and made
this this map, this public map,

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for volunteers to go and
pick a location to survey.

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It has one kilometer grid squares

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across the state identified
where we need volunteer help,

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where that volunteer help
would be most effective

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in complimenting our professional efforts.

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So that means areas where
we want people to look.

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So areas that Ag and
Market staff have picked

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as somewhere we want volunteers to look

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that they won't be sending their staff to.

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Grid squares with public access land,

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where volunteers can check,
grid squares with known

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confirmed tree of heaven,
based on iMap data.

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'Cause those are great places to check

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for spotted lanternfly, but
also excluding the areas

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where we don't really
need to direct volunteers.

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So areas where we already know

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spotted lanternfly is everywhere there.

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Like Staten Island was kind of the first

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big infestation in New York state,

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or areas that we know are
already covered by staff.

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'Cause we really want volunteers
to build on and increase

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our coverage rather
than duplicate efforts.

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I'll skip the technical details of that.

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Just to give an idea of what
we are kind of aiming for.

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This is data from over the
summer, if I remember correctly.

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So those gray grid squares
are squares that volunteers

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went in and claimed as their spot.

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They clicked the signup
and put in their name

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and their email so we
can send the reminders,

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and they reported not detected records.

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And you can see a lot of
the not detected records

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in this region are falling
in the grid squares.

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So that's what we're trying to get to.

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We're trying to drive
volunteers to these areas

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which have been identified as places

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where we want their help.

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And of course volunteers are also

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looking at other locations as
well, and that's great too.

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So we launched it in 2021,
and repeated it for 2022.

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A lot of what we did was leverage

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existing volunteer networks.

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We didn't create this whole
new group of volunteers,

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we kind of built off of other projects.

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So we pushed out the request to like

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the Master Gardeners program, and PRISMs

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have their own volunteer networks as well,

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to try to get people to join
in on this statewide effort.

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And so far it's been
producing some useful data.

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So we've gotten reports in most

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of the counties in New
York state at this point.

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So in 2021 I know we had data
in at least 169 grid squares.

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For 2022 it was 95 back in September.

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I just haven't incorporated
the fall data yet.

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And to give context for what we had

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before 2020, before
2021, so most of the data

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was coming in from professionals,

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and most of it's not detected
'cause spotted lanternfly

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was only known in a couple
of places back then.

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Now spotted lanternfly
has spread in more areas,

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but still not in most of the state.

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And so there was definitely an increase

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in the professionals, if you
look at the left hand column.

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But if you look at the
right, there was really

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a more dramatic increase
in data from volunteers.

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And just to highlight that a little bit,

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so from the 2018 to 2020 period
to the 2021 to 2022 period,

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when we tried to garner more volunteers,

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we went from over 200
records to almost 3,000,

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and it went from about 17% volunteer data

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to about 85% volunteer data.

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So the volunteers really
helped give us better coverage

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and get a better idea of where

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spotted lanternfly is popping up.

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And one thing that's not
necessarily on this map are,

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there's also survey efforts going on by Ag

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and Markets agency staff as well.

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And so these were some things we have

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found useful in trying this for two years.

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So the idea of a commitment
has been helpful,

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getting people to sign
up and claim a location

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gives them a concrete goal

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and something they feel ownership over.

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It's a grid square with their name on it.

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Also, we've been trying to
set up volunteers for success.

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So we really need concrete,

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achievable and measurable goals for them.

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This is something we did
better in 2022 than 2021,

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and I'll talk about that in a second.

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And we also want to make
sure that our volunteers

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have the skills that they need to do

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whatever we're asking them to do.

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So in this case, they need to know

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how to identify the species.

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They need to understand the life cycle

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of spotted lanternfly, how to identify it,

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how to do surveys, and
also how to report to iMap.

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So for that sort of information,

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we did some webinar
trainings that we recorded,

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and we maintained a
webpage with resources.

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We sent reminders throughout the season,

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that was really helpful for volunteers

254
00:12:47,700 --> 00:12:49,800
who might sign up in March.

255
00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:52,350
We want them to remember
that they signed up

256
00:12:52,350 --> 00:12:55,530
for this project when spotted lanternfly

257
00:12:55,530 --> 00:12:57,843
season comes around in July.

258
00:13:00,570 --> 00:13:03,870
We found that volunteers,
they like to know

259
00:13:03,870 --> 00:13:05,340
that they're a part of something greater.

260
00:13:05,340 --> 00:13:06,900
So we've been trying to do a better job

261
00:13:06,900 --> 00:13:09,210
of keeping them updated on the progress

262
00:13:09,210 --> 00:13:11,760
of these monitoring efforts as a whole,

263
00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:13,713
so they understand how they fit in.

264
00:13:15,186 --> 00:13:18,002
And rewarding participants
is also really important.

265
00:13:18,002 --> 00:13:22,170
So far we've kind of been
stuck at just sending

266
00:13:22,170 --> 00:13:25,950
thank you emails and thanking volunteers.

267
00:13:25,950 --> 00:13:29,070
But ideally going more,

268
00:13:29,070 --> 00:13:30,960
going farther there would be helpful.

269
00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,560
So giving volunteers who
completed their surveys

270
00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:38,490
certificates or giving a
prize to the top reporter,

271
00:13:38,490 --> 00:13:40,710
that sort of thing really helps

272
00:13:40,710 --> 00:13:44,763
incentivize volunteers
and make them feel valued.

273
00:13:46,322 --> 00:13:48,240
And also it's been important
to collect feedback

274
00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,193
and integrate that into the program.

275
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:54,063
So, for an example of
some of those points,

276
00:13:56,010 --> 00:13:59,673
we sent out a survey to our
volunteers at the end of 2021.

277
00:14:00,960 --> 00:14:03,300
Some highlights, luckily most of them said

278
00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:06,780
it was a positive or
mostly positive experience.

279
00:14:06,780 --> 00:14:08,760
Some of them reported
that claiming the location

280
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,580
was what motivated them
to actually do the survey.

281
00:14:11,580 --> 00:14:14,160
But one weakness was that a lot

282
00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,050
of our volunteers were
unclear on the goals.

283
00:14:16,050 --> 00:14:20,160
So we basically asked
volunteers to go out and survey

284
00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:21,810
for spotted lanternfly and tree of heaven

285
00:14:21,810 --> 00:14:23,340
multiple times through the year.

286
00:14:23,340 --> 00:14:26,400
And that was like, that was
all the details in our request.

287
00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:31,400
So we gave like a goal of
like 10 records I think.

288
00:14:31,740 --> 00:14:34,710
But there's a lot of question of,

289
00:14:34,710 --> 00:14:35,970
throughout the year, what does that mean,

290
00:14:35,970 --> 00:14:37,950
do I go in June and then again in July,

291
00:14:37,950 --> 00:14:41,313
do I go in June and then
October, do I go every month?

292
00:14:42,300 --> 00:14:45,426
So we tried to improve that for 2022.

293
00:14:45,426 --> 00:14:47,730
And that also made it
hard for us to assess

294
00:14:47,730 --> 00:14:50,430
how many of our volunteers actually did

295
00:14:50,430 --> 00:14:52,050
what we asked them, because what we asked

296
00:14:52,050 --> 00:14:53,940
them was not very specific.

297
00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:56,700
So this year, in 2022, we created

298
00:14:56,700 --> 00:14:59,340
these four distinct survey seasons.

299
00:14:59,340 --> 00:15:04,140
Spring, early summer, late summer, fall.

300
00:15:04,140 --> 00:15:06,030
Those were kind of framed around different

301
00:15:06,030 --> 00:15:08,580
life stages for spotted lanternfly,

302
00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:12,210
so the egg masses versus the
nymphs versus the adults.

303
00:15:12,210 --> 00:15:14,553
And then laying egg masses again.

304
00:15:15,780 --> 00:15:18,750
And we gave a more
concrete goal of reporting

305
00:15:18,750 --> 00:15:20,640
presence and not detected records

306
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:24,150
in your grid square for
at least two seasons.

307
00:15:24,150 --> 00:15:27,420
If you could do all four,
that would be the main goal.

308
00:15:27,420 --> 00:15:31,620
But at least two seasons was
the minimum we encouraged.

309
00:15:31,620 --> 00:15:34,530
And then those four
distinct survey seasons

310
00:15:34,530 --> 00:15:38,850
helped us time out our
education and outreach

311
00:15:38,850 --> 00:15:42,271
and our reminders to kind of
be scheduled with those seasons

312
00:15:42,271 --> 00:15:46,173
and which life stages are
active at those times.

313
00:15:48,210 --> 00:15:50,790
And so what that's gonna
allow us to do this year

314
00:15:50,790 --> 00:15:52,050
is we're gonna actually be able to,

315
00:15:52,050 --> 00:15:54,720
so last year we knew that 169

316
00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:57,420
grid squares had some data in them.

317
00:15:57,420 --> 00:15:59,629
This year we'll be able
to more specifically see

318
00:15:59,629 --> 00:16:03,360
what's the number of grid
squares that were successfully

319
00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,760
monitored for how many seasons.

320
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:10,760
So I know there were like
25 that were completed

321
00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:13,740
in the early summer season,

322
00:16:13,740 --> 00:16:16,800
and then 57 that were partially completed.

323
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:19,800
And then there's a different
number for each season.

324
00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:21,390
And we'll be able to see
how many grid squares

325
00:16:21,390 --> 00:16:24,213
had like continued monitoring
throughout the summer.

326
00:16:27,060 --> 00:16:29,649
And so I've been talking
about spotted lanternfly,

327
00:16:29,649 --> 00:16:34,649
which is, the agricultural
impacts are very well known.

328
00:16:35,790 --> 00:16:39,510
But this whole, this sort of
concept of claiming locations

329
00:16:39,510 --> 00:16:41,250
to go report iMap records has

330
00:16:41,250 --> 00:16:44,913
also been applied to forest pests.

331
00:16:46,110 --> 00:16:51,110
So HWA, BLD, the Adirondack
Park Invasive Plant Program,

332
00:16:51,150 --> 00:16:53,100
they're one of the PRISMs.

333
00:16:53,100 --> 00:16:55,980
They use these Adirondack
trail adoption maps

334
00:16:55,980 --> 00:16:59,280
for their forest pest
hunters volunteer program.

335
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:04,280
And so for HWA, hundreds of
trails adopted by volunteers

336
00:17:05,010 --> 00:17:07,953
which led to over 400 iMap observations.

337
00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:13,410
And then in this year they also
started a beech leaf disease

338
00:17:13,410 --> 00:17:16,653
monitoring program, and they
used this signup map as well.

339
00:17:17,970 --> 00:17:19,050
So there's definitely a lot of potential

340
00:17:19,050 --> 00:17:22,050
for this to be applied
to spotted lanternfly

341
00:17:22,050 --> 00:17:23,403
as well as other species.

342
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:28,110
So some quick take home messages.

343
00:17:28,110 --> 00:17:32,310
Community science offers concrete
help to filling data gaps.

344
00:17:32,310 --> 00:17:34,950
And we found that claimable
locations can serve

345
00:17:34,950 --> 00:17:37,920
as concrete commitments
for volunteers to make.

346
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:39,420
And we've also found it really important

347
00:17:39,420 --> 00:17:41,850
to leverage existing volunteer networks.

348
00:17:41,850 --> 00:17:44,850
So, it's really hard to
build one on your own.

349
00:17:44,850 --> 00:17:47,643
Luckily there are some that
exist in a lot of places.

350
00:17:49,140 --> 00:17:51,720
Another important thing
is that you always have

351
00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,030
to start somewhere and improve each year.

352
00:17:54,030 --> 00:17:56,340
So the program was not perfect last year.

353
00:17:56,340 --> 00:17:57,390
It's not perfect this year.

354
00:17:57,390 --> 00:17:59,430
And it won't be perfect next year.

355
00:17:59,430 --> 00:18:02,490
But I think each year we are
producing some useful data

356
00:18:02,490 --> 00:18:05,370
and it keeps building from there.

357
00:18:05,370 --> 00:18:08,850
And also collaboration between agencies,

358
00:18:08,850 --> 00:18:11,640
conservation partners from
local to regional scales,

359
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:14,160
and database managers is essential.

360
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:15,990
So I have a quote on the slide

361
00:18:15,990 --> 00:18:18,894
which is from Thom Allgaier,
who's actually here.

362
00:18:18,894 --> 00:18:23,040
But essentially Ag and
Markets has found the data

363
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:27,360
from this project useful in
helping direct their staff.

364
00:18:27,360 --> 00:18:31,650
So I've seen a lot of cases
where spotted lanternfly

365
00:18:31,650 --> 00:18:34,350
might be reported somewhere,
like a single individual,

366
00:18:34,350 --> 00:18:38,370
and then Ag and Market staff
are sent out to go check

367
00:18:38,370 --> 00:18:41,670
if it's just that one dead
adult sitting on the sidewalk,

368
00:18:41,670 --> 00:18:44,700
or is there an infestation
nearby, that sort of thing.

369
00:18:44,700 --> 00:18:46,610
And it also gives you
an idea of where people

370
00:18:46,610 --> 00:18:51,450
have at least checked, our
volunteers may or may not

371
00:18:51,450 --> 00:18:53,900
have checked for spotted lanternfly.

372
00:18:55,500 --> 00:18:58,080
And I'd like to acknowledge
a lot of our partners.

373
00:18:58,080 --> 00:18:59,730
So my colleagues Colleen and John,

374
00:18:59,730 --> 00:19:02,220
who did the the web mapping for the state

375
00:19:02,220 --> 00:19:05,040
grid square project,
Thom at Ag and Markets,

376
00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:06,873
and some of our other partners.

377
00:19:07,980 --> 00:19:11,340
So yeah, I might have talked sooner--

378
00:19:11,340 --> 00:19:13,602
One minute, one question.

379
00:19:13,602 --> 00:19:15,333
Okay, yeah.

380
00:19:15,333 --> 00:19:17,010
[Audience Member] Going
back to the beginning,

381
00:19:17,010 --> 00:19:19,680
your map of where iMapInvasives,

382
00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,590
actually you don't have to
go, I'm just gonna ask you,

383
00:19:22,590 --> 00:19:27,120
but where iMapInvasives
has active programs,

384
00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:30,330
it looked like there
was a gap in part of it?

385
00:19:30,330 --> 00:19:31,883
Yeah, yeah, it's not all--

386
00:19:31,883 --> 00:19:35,370
I'm sorry, not all states
have an active program.

387
00:19:35,370 --> 00:19:36,203
Right, yeah.

388
00:19:37,234 --> 00:19:39,151
-And we don't--
-Okay.

389
00:19:41,746 --> 00:19:44,514
[Audience Member] The FEMC
is New York and Maine.

390
00:19:44,514 --> 00:19:49,514
-Yes.
-But the rest of the--

391
00:19:50,250 --> 00:19:53,540
Areas are reporting on
recording invasives.

392
00:20:01,506 --> 00:20:02,730
[Audience Member] Do you
leverage your dataset

393
00:20:02,730 --> 00:20:05,400
with other programs
that already have a huge

394
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:09,330
like client base for species
monitoring detections

395
00:20:09,330 --> 00:20:13,530
like the iNaturalist, have
you tried collaborating

396
00:20:13,530 --> 00:20:15,569
with them to try and have
them adopt basic monitoring

397
00:20:15,569 --> 00:20:18,290
as part of their like web application

398
00:20:18,290 --> 00:20:19,390
or anything like that?

399
00:20:20,322 --> 00:20:24,870
Yeah, we do, so in, yeah, a lot of people

400
00:20:24,870 --> 00:20:28,020
use iNaturalist, and so we
try to leverage that data.

401
00:20:28,020 --> 00:20:31,110
So there's, the data from
iNaturalist can be viewed in iMap,

402
00:20:31,110 --> 00:20:35,973
like you can turn on the layer
to view iNaturalist data,

403
00:20:36,818 --> 00:20:39,660
and a lot of spotted lanternfly
was reported in iNaturalist

404
00:20:39,660 --> 00:20:42,603
'cause it's a big showy
species, it's brightly colored.

405
00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:49,110
And we do, like, there is a lot

406
00:20:49,110 --> 00:20:51,030
of data sharing that happens.

407
00:20:51,030 --> 00:20:54,063
So for like aquatics, we
send data to the USGS, NAS,

408
00:20:57,270 --> 00:21:01,110
the non-indigenous
aquatic species database.

409
00:21:01,110 --> 00:21:03,180
We send data there and they send it to us.

410
00:21:03,180 --> 00:21:07,530
And there has been talk
for the past couple years

411
00:21:07,530 --> 00:21:09,480
of hopefully trying to get to this place

412
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,710
where the data sharing
is more streamlined.

413
00:21:13,710 --> 00:21:16,830
So like our iMap data is served

414
00:21:16,830 --> 00:21:18,810
as a live web mapping service,

415
00:21:18,810 --> 00:21:20,430
so you can like pull the live data

416
00:21:20,430 --> 00:21:23,670
into other web mapping platforms.

417
00:21:23,670 --> 00:21:25,830
So there's an idea that hopefully

418
00:21:25,830 --> 00:21:27,030
that's gonna exist everywhere.

419
00:21:27,030 --> 00:21:30,914
And so like you can see
everyone's data in every database,

420
00:21:30,914 --> 00:21:32,673
but that's not happening yet.

421
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:35,190
[Audience Member] Are
these data being used

422
00:21:35,190 --> 00:21:38,490
-for any kind of management?
-The iMap data?

423
00:21:38,490 --> 00:21:40,818
-Yeah.
-Yes, yeah,

424
00:21:40,818 --> 00:21:43,350
we work closely with state agencies

425
00:21:43,350 --> 00:21:46,740
like Ag and Markets and
also with the PRISMs.

426
00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:50,340
So a lot of the PRISMs
use iMap for, like I said,

427
00:21:50,340 --> 00:21:52,560
reports from volunteers
kind of serve as part

428
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:55,830
of their early detection network and helps

429
00:21:55,830 --> 00:21:57,780
them prioritize where to do management.

430
00:21:58,770 --> 00:22:01,320
And it is the official database

431
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,922
for invasive species for New York state.

432
00:22:03,922 --> 00:22:04,755
-Yes.
-And New York state

433
00:22:04,755 --> 00:22:07,650
Department of Transportation also uses it.

434
00:22:07,650 --> 00:22:08,483
Yes.

435
00:22:09,810 --> 00:22:12,386
All right, well it's transition time,

436
00:22:12,386 --> 00:22:15,753
-so, thank you very much.
-(audience applauds)