Tracking the Wild Invasives
Updated 3/24/2008

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Tracking the Wild Invasives - Year Three:

• Like to Hike but Trail Building Not Your Thing?
• Want to learn plant identification and how to use a Global Positioning System (GPS)?
• This volunteer opportunity is for you!

The Trail Conference and Rutgers University are looking for 60 or more hikers who are interested in helping to identify common invasive species in state park lands and track the occurrences using GPS units. In return, these volunteers will be offered extensive training in plant identification and the proper use and care of GPS devices.

This is the third and final year of a three-year project supported by the USDA, which aims to better understand the spread of invasive plants in forested parklands that have high conservation value and high levels of public use. There is very little information about this in our region, which makes it difficult for park managers to determine the magnitude of the problem or how to manage it.

In a novel approach for scientific research, the field data will be collected by volunteer “citizen scientists” drawn from the membership of the Trail Conference and member clubs. Also, an explicit part of the research is to test whether hikers can collect accurate data regarding invasive plants. We’re betting that Trail Conference volunteers will indeed prove this to be true!

The training portion of this project begins at the end of May (see below), so sign up soon to ensure your place. You can register online or speak with Annie Osborn, the Project Coordinator, at the office, (201) 512-9348, ext. 24. If you have or can borrow someone's GPS unit we will be able to train more volunteers. There are 30 GPS units, but welcome more!

The actual field work will occur during the month of June when teams of two will be asked to hike a two-mile trail segment while recording the invasive species and documenting the location with the GPS device. Volunteers will be trained in plant identification as well as the survey protocol, which basically consists of walking slowly along the trail, scanning the woods and noting the presence, identity, and density of any invasive species seen. Not a bad day in the woods!

The survey sites will be located in Bear Mountain/Harriman State Parks and Wawayanda State Park. The research is being conducted in cooperation with Palisades Interstate Park Commission (PIPC) and New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection. The principal investigators are: Dr. Rebecca Jordan, Rutgers Assistant Professor of Environmental Education and Citizen Science; Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld, Rutgers professor, invasives expert, long-time Trail Conference member and contributor; and Dr. Edwin McGowan, science director currently at PIPC and formerly of the Trail Conference.

Schedule

Pre-Field Research Training:

We will provide both online and hands-on training sessions covering plant identification, monitoring protocol and global positioning systems (GPS) and will combine both classroom instruction and fieldwork. This year, there will be an opprotunity to train online.

Where:

HEnRI (Highlands Environmental Research Institute) in Sterling Forest

When:

Saturday, May 31st; Sunday, June 1st; Wednesday, June 4th and Saturday June 7th.

Invasive Field Research

After volunteers have attended a training session, they will self-schedule their actual research in the field during the 3-4 weeks following the initial training.

Post Field Research Debriefing

Once the trail monitoring is complete, volunteers and professional scientists will return to HEnRI for a half-day debriefing session. 

When:

Wednesday, June 25th OR Saturday, June 28th

Register