The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) has released its 2024 annual report.
The report celebrates the accomplishments of APIPP staff, volunteers, and partners while also providing updates on the presence of invasive species in the Adirondack region, special initiatives, ongoing research, and more.
The report also underscores the 39 partner organizations and more than 150 volunteers that contributed to advancing APIPP’s mission to work in partnership to minimize the impact of invasive species on the Adirondack region’s communities, lands, and waters.
APIPP’s 2024 Annual Report highlights include:
Protecting Adirondack Lands
Volunteers with APIPP’s Forest Pest Hunters program were out in both winter and summer looking for invasive pests like hemlock woolly adelgid and beech leaf disease.
In 2024, 81 trails were adopted with the vast majority reporting no observations of the targeted species. Forest Pest Hunters have spent more than a collective 1,480 hours of their time with survey efforts since the program’s inception in 2020.
Protecting Adirondack Waters
APIPP created a new Adirondack PRISM AIS database that combines iMapInvasives data with Lake Protectors surveys to track and report where AIS are distributed across the region. Seventy percent of the 509 water bodies have no observed AIS from the species that APIPP tracks.
Community Engagement
APIPP held its biennial invasive species summit in North Creek in October. The event drew an audience of about 80 people who learned about climate change and how it affects the spread of invasive species and about three genetic technologies that could help detect or treat infestations of invasive species.
Research and Innovation
The second year of the Lake Champlain Boat Launch Spread Reduction Project was completed, with active management at three boat launches in 2024. Extensive data collected by APIPP and Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute demonstrated reduced Eurasian watermilfoil at some boat launches, but high variability in boats leaving the launches with this species present.
The full Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program 2024 Annual Report can be found online.
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) serves as the Adirondack Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), one of eight partnerships across New York.
APIPP is hosted by The Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and receives financial support from the Environmental Protection Fund administered by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
APIPP’s mission is to work in partnership to minimize the impact of invasive species on the Adirondack region’s communities, lands, and waters.
Learn more about them at www.adkinvasives.com.
Read more about invasive species around New York State.
Read more about the Adirondacks.
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