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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261216T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261216T143000
DTSTAMP:20261016T171302
CREATED:20261008T122603Z
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SUMMARY:Webinar: Extension Successes and Failures for Biocontrol
DESCRIPTION:NAISMA’s Biocontrol Webinar will be held virtually on December 16\, 2026\, and will focus on “Extension Successes and Failures in Biocontrol.” The webinar will explore lessons learned from university extension efforts to implement weed biocontrol programs. Presenters include Carey Minteer\, University of Florida; Ikju Park\, UC Riverside; and Jenn Andreas\, Washington State University Extension. \n\n\n\n\nREGISTER NOW\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCarey Minteer\, University of FloridaDr. Minteer develops solutions for controlling the Florida’s invasive plant problems through classical biological control and integrated pest management. Dr. Minteer is currently working to control the Brazilian peppertree\, one of the state’s most wide-spread invasive plant species and earleaf acacia\, a large tree from Australia. \n\n\n\nDr. Minteer’s familiarity with geographic information systems\, or GIS\, and remote sensing brings an innovative approach for invasive species research to the UF/IFAS Fort Pierce laboratory. Minteer utilizes satellites to collect spectral signatures\, or light reflectance\, from plants. With these tools Dr. Minteer can select a large swath of land and collect data about the extent of an infestation of an invasive plant species and\, over time\, monitor changes in that infestation. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIkju Park\, University of California RiversideDr. Park is an assistant professor at the Department of Entomology\, University of California\, Riverside. At the Insect Sensory and Behavioral Ecology Laboratory (ISABEL)\, his team develops healthy insects for field release and studies how weed biological control agents find their host plants in a quarantine facility and field sites. ISABEL’s main focus by 2030 is to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15. This goal aims to “protect\, restore\, and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems\, sustainably manage forests\, combat desertification\, halt and reverse land degradation\, and biodiversity loss.” \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJennifer Andreas\, Washington State University ExtensionJennifer Andreas is a Professor with Washington State University Extension where she leads the Integrated Weed Control Project (IWCP) and acts as the state weed biocontrol specialist. Jennifer started working in biological weed control in 1998 at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Lethbridge Research Centre while completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge. She continued with biocontrol research at CABI – Switzerland and then completed a Master’s of Science in Entomology at the University of Idaho\, where she investigated the environmental safety of the houndstongue root weevil. In 2005\, she joined WSU and shifted her focus onto invasive species education\, biocontrol implementation and education and is the primary biocontrol resource for Washington State. In addition to this work\, Jennifer is chair for the Flowering Rush Biocontrol Consortium\, co-chair of the Columbia Basin CWMA\, and conducts research for several weed-biocontrol systems. To learn more\, please visit: www.invasives.wsu.edu.
URL:https://naisma.org/event/webinar-extension-successes-and-failures-for-biocontrol/
CATEGORIES:NAISMA Webinar,Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270120T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270120T140000
DTSTAMP:20261016T171302
CREATED:20261015T114606Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261015T114808Z
UID:311315-1800450000-1800453600@naisma.org
SUMMARY:Webinar: The Cover-Up: Restoring biodiversity and resilience through innovative invasive species management
DESCRIPTION:Invasive species pose significant threats to wetland ecosystems by reducing biodiversity\, altering habitat conditions\, and limiting the ability of native species to thrive. This presentation explores how the South Coast Conservation Land Management Program\, Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Nature Trust of British Columbia are utilizing benthic barriers to suppress yellow flag iris and Himalayan blackberry in wetlands across British Columbia’s South Coast region. By combining low-impact invasive species management with native species planting and willow staking\, we have been improving habitat quality\, enhancing biodiversity\, and strengthen wetland resilience in a highly urbanized region. \n\n\n\n\nREGISTER NOW\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlison Martin\, Program Coordinator\, South Coast Conservation Land Management ProgramAlison is the Program Coordinator for the South Coast Conservation Land Management Program (SCCLMP)\, based out of Surrey\, BC. She has been with the program for the last five years and leads the management of over 37\,000 hectares of provincially designated conservation lands throughout BC’s South Coast region. Her work includes supporting restoration efforts\, invasive species management\, and field operations across the diverse ecosystems that make up the Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley regions. As well\, a key aspect of her role is to support collaboration and relationship building between program partners\, local First Nations\, volunteers and other organizations working with the conservation lands.
URL:https://naisma.org/event/webinar-the-cover-up-restoring-biodiversity-and-resilience-through-innovative-invasive-species-management/
CATEGORIES:NAISMA Webinar,Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270217T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270217T110000
DTSTAMP:20261016T171302
CREATED:20260917T143152Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260925T115321Z
UID:311146-1802858400-1802862000@naisma.org
SUMMARY:Webinar: Expanding Monitoring Capacity for Potential Invasive Species in Arctic Canada With Environmental DNA Metabarcoding
DESCRIPTION:To date\, environmental conditions have been enough to act as an effective barrier to prevent non-indigenous species from arriving and establishing in Arctic Canada. However\, rapidly changing climatic conditions are creating more suitable habitats for non-indigenous species to potentially establish and become invasive. Concurrently\, shipping traffic in parts of Arctic Canada has increased by over 250% since 1990\, providing an effective vector for transporting non-indigenous species to the region. Arctic Canada has been historically undersampled\, so Arctic biota inventories are incomplete\, hampering efforts to establish if a species is new to the region (and potentially invasive) or newly discovered. In this study\, we utilize environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding and ships of opportunity to assess eukaryotic community composition and potential invasives along one of the busiest shipping routes\, the Northwest Passage. One liter seawater samples were collected in triplicate at 27 locations\, targeting touristic hotspots frequently visited by passenger vessels. Eukaryotic DNA was amplified from the 18S rRNA V9 and COI regions\, resulting in 126 unique Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) detected with COI and 391 ASVs with 18S\, providing an important snapshot of current community composition. Copepods\, dinoflagellates\, and diatoms were the most abundant taxonomic groups\, correlating well with previous net sampler surveys\, validating the efficacy of eDNA for biodiversity surveillance. We also report the first detections of a prolific invasive species\, the bay barnacle (Amphibalanus improvisus)\, in Arctic Canada. Further work is currently in progress to establish whether these detections represent transient barnacle larvae or sessile adults capable of recruiting and reproducing. Our study demonstrates the utility of eDNA for the detection of non-indigenous species in a data-poor area\, which\, if combined with citizen science initiatives and local communities\, could provide a vital monitoring tool for the detection of new invasives in this rapidly changing area. \n\n\n\n\nREGISTER NOW\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nElizabeth Boyse\, Molecular Ecology Research Fellow\, University College London (UCL)Betty Boyse is a molecular ecologist specializing in the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) technologies to support biodiversity monitoring and conservation management. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Joanne Littlefair’s lab at UCL\, where she is investigating the potential of airborne eDNA for terrestrial biodiversity. In particular\, she is working on samples collected from the Swiss air quality monitoring network to investigate how terrestrial communities have changed over the past 20 years in response to environmental factors and human impacts. \n\n\n\nPreviously\, she worked as a postdoctoral research associate at the British Antarctic Survey\, where she collected marine eDNA samples along the Northwest Passage in Arctic Canada to detect invasive species that may have arrived as a result of increasing shipping traffic. She also provided a current baseline of community composition\, facilitating the detection of new arrivals in the future. \n\n\n\nFor her PhD at the University of Leeds\, she investigated the use of marine eDNA to simultaneously detect marine mammals and their key prey species\, improving understanding of fine-scale habitat use. She also explored the reconstruction of ecosystem networks (food webs and co-occurrence networks) from eDNA data across the tree of life (e.g. from plankton to whales).
URL:https://naisma.org/event/webinar-expanding-monitoring-capacity-for-potential-invasive-species-in-arctic-canada-with-environmental-dna-metabarcoding/
CATEGORIES:NAISMA Webinar,Webinars
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270317T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270317T140000
DTSTAMP:20261016T171302
CREATED:20260908T125032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260910T113831Z
UID:311132-1805288400-1805292000@naisma.org
SUMMARY:Webinar: Population Genetics of Eurasian Watermilfoil Throughout the Lake Champlain Basin of New York and Vermont: Insights into Clonality\, Reproduction\, and Management
DESCRIPTION:Eurasian watermilfoil is a charismatic invasive species and has been found within the Lake Champlain Basin for well over 50 years. As such\, they have spread widely and caused havoc throughout the basin; millions of dollars are spent annually on management and control. An important and often underappreciated aspect of management is the genetic ancestry of the organism\, or population\, in question. Newer genome-wide sequencing approaches have the resolution to expand upon current knowledge by using thousands of molecular markers\, rather than a handful. This project generated genome-wide sequence data for hundreds of Eurasian watermilfoil from 30 waterbodies throughout the Lake Champlain Basin. Across all sampled Eurasian watermilfoil populations\, over 100 unique clones (i.e.\, MLGs) were identified\, demonstrating considerable genetic diversity despite the dominance of a small number of successful regional clones. One clone was detected in most waterbodies\, making them the most widespread MLG identified during this project. In contrast\, most other MLGs were private to individual waterbodies or found in only a few waterbodies\, indicating that local genetic diversification is an important contributor to genetic ancestry. Further\, we identified the Lake Hortonia area as a regional hotspot of genetic diversity\, as Lake Hortonia contained many unique MLGs and consisted of multiple genetically distinct hybrids lineages. Further\, our data suggest that Eurasian watermilfoil sexually reproduce at higher rates than is currently appreciated. Our findings demonstrate that Eurasian watermilfoil is considerably more genetically diverse than currently recognized\, and multiple independent hybrid populations have been formed in a narrow geographic region. As hybrids and different clones can have variable responses to management practices\, knowledge of their ancestry and follow up studies to understand their response to control should drive future Eurasian watermilfoil management. \n\n\n\n\nREGISTER NOW\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlex Sotola\, Assistant Professor\, SUNY OneontaAlex Sotola is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at SUNY Oneonta. He teaches classes in genetics\, evolution\, and bioinformatics\, and works collaboratively with both undergraduate and graduate students on evolutionary genetics of fishes and plants\, with a specific interest in hybridization and ecological genetics. This work was funded through the Lake Champlain Basin Program\, and this presentation is the culmination of a two-year research project\, led by master’s students Darian Paul and Caliegh Millette\, with the assistance of many undergraduate researchers. Through his work\, he wants to not only better understand the evolution of invasive species\, but to also spread the word of how genetic projects should be incorporated into management and conservation work.
URL:https://naisma.org/event/webinar-population-genetics-of-eurasian-watermilfoil-throughout-the-lake-champlain-basin-of-new-york-and-vermont-insights-into-clonality-reproduction-and-management/
CATEGORIES:NAISMA Webinar,Webinars
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270519T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270519T143000
DTSTAMP:20261016T171302
CREATED:20261015T115518Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261015T115522Z
UID:311321-1810731600-1810737000@naisma.org
SUMMARY:IPM\, Pesticides\, and Risk: Musings on Messaging
DESCRIPTION:Pesticide applicators get many questions about pesticides from concerned individuals\, so they can benefit from having an understanding of how to talk about pesticide exposure and risks to customers and the public. Dan will talk about how the public perceives risk and how common messaging from industry\, regulatory agencies\, and academia can actually mislead people into rejecting IPM solutions\, resulting in poor pest control and/or increased risk. \n\n\n\nThis webinar is being hosted in partnership with the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE).Image Credit: Big Hole National Battlefield\, NPS Photo. \n\n\n\n\nREGISTER HERE\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nDan Wixted\, Pesticide Safety EducatorDan Wixted recently retired after being a pesticide safety educator for over 34 years\, first with Wisconsin’s program and then with the Cornell Pesticide Safety Education Program. In addition to developing pesticide applicator certification training manuals and exams and being a resource to the public\, Dan provided information and outreach support to Cornell researchers investigating the environmental fate and health effects of glyphosate as well as pesticide effects on pollinators\, the latter earning him a share of the Outstanding Accomplishment in Extension award as part of Cornell’s Pollinator Health Team. He served on EPA’s Certification and Training Assessment Group\, was an invited presenter at several EPA Risk Communication Workshops\, and earned a Professional Recognition Award from the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators for his efforts in risk communication.
URL:https://naisma.org/event/ipm-pesticides-and-risk-musings-on-messaging/
CATEGORIES:NAISMA Webinar,Webinars
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