Three Invasive Species In Your Yard — And What to Do About Them

You may think that all the invasive species you have heard about lately have to do with climate change. Nope. According to Jessica Cancelliere, a research scientist in the DEC’s Forest Health Diagnostic Lab in Delmar, NY, you can only blame some of the pests on that issue. Species are always staking out new turf, and if you want a reason why they’re getting better at it, this, too, is human-caused, since the global shipping industry offers first-class transit to all sorts of creatures that previously would have had to wing or crawl their way to our backyards.  

But you are correct in assuming that climate change plays a few important roles. First, according to Frank Molina, an arborist in the Hudson Valley office at the Davey Tree Service, which operates across the region and tracks invasives they see in the field, parasites can now overwinter more easily because we no longer have consistent and lengthy hard frosts, which would normally have wiped them out or significantly lessened their impact. And more exotic pests means our trees and plants may not have natural defense mechanisms to parry away their threat.

To understand which landscape scourge should really be most concerning—and to understand ways to fight back—we reached out to Molina, since his company conducted Rhinebeck’s 2020 Tree Survey we told you about a few weeks ago, and to the DEC’s Cancelliere. 

To read more of Frank's information, click here.

For more information, contact the Elmsford Davey office.