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WVLT Seeks Volunteers to Map Invasive Species
July 26, 2021
The effort is part of an Open Space Institute (OSI)-funded project to collect data at the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary and Joppenbergh Mountain.
Wallkill Valley Land Trust (WVLT) intern Marguerite Royo, a recent SUNY New Paltz graduate, is working to gather data at the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary and Joppenbergh Mountain as part of an OSI-funded project that will result in an invasive species management plan.
The WVLT is seeking volunteers to help capture data for Royo’s project. Interested participants need to create an NY iMapInvasive account and download the app, which is part of an online database used for recording invasive species. While walking the trails at the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary in New Paltz or the Joppenbergh Mountain in Rosendale, volunteers simply upload images of invasive species found.
A visual representation of the steps to register can be found below.
“This is an important project for the WVLT, and an easy way for volunteers to help mitigate the negative impact of invasive species,” said Christie DeBoer, Executive Director of the Wallkill Valley Land Trust. “Observations uploaded to NY iMapInvasives before August 15 will be used in Marguerite’s project, and will help guide our invasive species management now and for the future.”
Royo is a 2021 Open Space Institute (OSI) Barnabas McHenry Hudson River Valley Award winner in the Environmental Conservation category for this joint project, “Regional Invasive Species Management & Climate Adaptation Disturbance Preparedness Plan,” with the Mohonk Preserve. Royo completed a five-month internship at the WVLT in 2021 and has returned this summer to complete an innovative project on some of WVLT’s protected lands in Rosendale and New Paltz.
Royo graduated in May from SUNY New Paltz with a major in Geography with Environmental Concentration and a minor in Disaster Studies and Sociology. During her internship with WVLT earlier this year, she assisted with land stewardship operations, including field site monitoring, writing reports of field visits, and use of GIS to make field maps.
For the “Regional Invasive Species Management & Climate Adaptation Disturbance Preparedness Plan” project, Royo is focusing on invasive species management through planning, as this encourages the health of the natural spaces that WVLT protects. She will use the existing invasive species management plan created for WVLT’s Joppenbergh Mountain in Rosendale and expanding this on it to other public lands that the WVLT stewards, including the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary.
Royo’s presentation to the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) can be viewed by clicking the button below. This 5-minute video walks you through this project in more detail. Results of the project will be released later this year.
