Two Surveys Down and One to Go!
Who said survey work in the snow can’t be fun? The photos below are from our past two surveys of Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy sites. We are happy to report that both the Cassadaga Creek Preserve and the Elm Flats 1st Preserve came up clean, with no signs of the menacing Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA), the target of our search efforts. With two sites done, we now have one site left to survey: the Dobbins Woods Preserve. We will be meeting on site at 9am this coming Saturday and welcome anyone that is willing to volunteer their time and wants one more chance to enjoy the snow. I hope...
Read MoreIntern Presentation
Although winter has come in like a lion for the month of March, be assured that spring will soon be on its way. Warming temperatures and increased daylight will bring everything underneath the snow and ice back to life, including some remarkable reptiles that inhabit the waters of Jamestown’s Chadakoin River. The spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera) is a unique species that the Roger Tory Peterson Institute and Jamestown Community College students have been studying over the past year, attempting to better understand their habits and behaviors as well as the current conditions of their...
Read MoreSurvey Work Continues
Call us crazy, but we have done it again: bundled ourselves up and trudged around in knee deep snow to survey for the deadly Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. This time, our JCC/CWC/RTPI survey team traveled down to Warren County to visit the Hatch Run Conservation Demonstration Area for the second year in a row. This site is loaded with Eastern Hemlock trees that make up a beautiful and valuable riparian zone between the streams and upland forests. We are happy to report that we didn’t find the pest we were after (which is a good thing!) and being in that particular site made us really think....
Read MoreAnother HWA Survey
Don’t forget our Hemlock Woolly Adelgid surveys, with another coming up tomorrow Friday, February 27. This is not what you want to see covering the trees of Chautauqua County, killing thousands and devastating parts of the landscape. Please join us and help find the bug before it’s too late! See more information here.
Read MoreKick Off For NISAW
Happy National Invasive Species Awareness Week (NISAW)! As events are taking place around the country, spreading the word about invasive species, we teamed up with our friend Andrea Locke WNY PRISM Coordinator to kick things off with a training session on Asian Long-horned Beetle (ALB), Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) and Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). We had 16 people in attendance of the training session and had a brave few stay for the outdoor survey portion of the training, bearing the cold temperatures while searching for HWA here at RTPI. We are happy to report that we didn’t find any in...
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