Beech Leaf Disease: Research, Identification, and Forest Pest Hunter Training

Beech trees (Fagus spp.) are currently threatened by a new disease that weakens and kills trees over time by killing buds and causing distorted leaf growth. Aptly named beech leaf disease (BLD), this disease was first detected in Ohio in 2012 and has rapidly spread across the Northeast since then. Join APIPP and Mina Vescera, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County Extension Educator: Nursery/Landscape Specialist, for a presentation on the biology of the disease, symptoms, and the important ecologic role of American beech in our forests. Mina also discusses pesticide efficacy trials and upcoming trials regarding forest management.
After learning about BLD, APIPP Terrestrial Invasive Species Manager Ari Giller-Leinwohl provides an overview of how participants can put their BLD knowledge to work by becoming a volunteer Forest Pest Hunter. APPP’s Forest Pest Hunters adopt a trail to monitor for BLD in the summer and fall, and hemlock woolly adelgid in the winter, and report the results using the iMapInvasives app. Ari covers basic survey techniques, how to sign up for a trail to survey, and how to use iMapInvasives, New York state's invasive species database, to report the presence of BLD.