Over the last several years, invasive plant and insect species have found their way into more and more social media feeds. From the tree of heaven, to Bradford pear trees, and the ubiquitous spotted lanternfly – home gardeners are spreading the word about problematic species to their networks.
Viral moments like these highlight that community plant enthusiasts can make valuable contributions to science as “citizen scientists” – and they can be more effective with training and science-based information.
A publication by Nick Goltz, assistant extension educator in the College of Agricultural Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), and Amelia Martin ’23 (CAHNR), highlighted this fact following a national survey. They published their findings in Frontiers in Plant Science.
Goltz and Martin crafted and distributed a survey to assess people’s desire to engage with their local Extension and outreach programs through citizen science.
“We were trying to identify those gaps a little bit better in terms of what the limitations are for people accessing our services and maybe collaborating with data reporting for us, so we know the movement of plant diseases across the country and across our region,” Goltz says, who is also director of the Plant Diagnostic Laboratory at UConn’s George Leigh Minor Plant and Soil Health Center.
They distributed the survey to social media groups for garden clubs and other similar groups, and through Extension newsletters.
“We wanted to connect with folks who were already familiar with our work, to find out how they engaged with us in the first place,” Goltz says. “We were also hoping to capture as many folks as we could with an interest in plants but who maybe hadn’t worked with their university.”
In total, the researchers received 233 responses. The study covered the area outside of the northeast as they distributed a second, more detailed survey in the region. The results of this study will be covered in a forthcoming publication.
Respondents indicated that they were interested in receiving training from experts to identify emerging diseases or invasive species.
“There’s not a formalized system for this training,” Goltz says. “The impetus is on the individual specialist, or group, or organization to go out into the community to spread that information.”
Some individual Extension programs are doing this kind of work. For example, UConn Extension’s Home Garden Education Office regularly answers questions from the public about emerging pests and how to identify them, like the spotted lanternfly. UConn Extension also offers regular trainings on integrated pest management, which emphasizes environmental and human health using a variety of pest management strategies.
But there is presently no national coordination. Developing a more coordinated approach could help protect ecosystems as the spread of pests and diseases doesn’t stop at state borders.
The findings from this study could help support future federal funding applications by demonstrating the need and desire for educational programming on pest and disease identification. There was a USDA program supporting such work, but it ended years ago.
Respondents also expressed an interest in contributing directly to research. Citizen science can help inform Extension specialists sooner about emerging pests and diseases. In turn, this allows them to better quarantine plants and exterminate invasive pests to contain the spread.
“By having more engaged communities, we can increase the quality and quantity of samples we can test in our labs,” Goltz says. “It can help folks be on top of outbreaks. That means that we can control problematic diseases earlier in the season, or if it is something new to a region, we can hopefully stop it from spreading thanks to those community engagements.”
This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Advancing Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate.
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