Seasonal Invasive Species Strike Team Launches
This summer, Genesee Valley Conservancy added a seasonal invasive species strike team to its programing for the first time.
The strike team is tasked with managing and improving the Conservancy’s nature preserves with its primary focus on invasive species removal efforts.
Invasive species cause a variety of harm locally: they impact the local environment by decreasing biodiversity as they replace a mix of species with a monoculture; they negatively impact human health (ie. Giant Hogweed); and they cause financial losses through the destruction of crops like the loss of ash trees in working forests due to the invasive emerald ash borer beetle.
In 2024, Conservancy staff completed an inventory of each nature preserve, documenting the number and location of invasive species. This data was then processed and prioritized, considering each species’ harm to the environment, impacts to human health, ability to spread, density and other factors. With this ranking in hand, unique to each nature preserve, the organization began planning ways to use this data and begin deliberate and long term removal efforts.
The Dedrick Family Foundation at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo supported the invasive species strike team with a $25,000 grant to help pilot this new program. Sharing a distain for invasive species and the harm they cause, the Dedrick family supported this program not only to help improve the Conservancy’s nature preserves environmentally, but also to provide individuals jobs and the ability to develop their conservation skills.
The strike team also received support from the New York State Conservation Partnership Program, administered by the Land Trust Alliance, funded through New York’s environmental protection fund. This program matches private investments to public funding to enhance local conservation efforts.
The strike team was setup to provide good paying jobs to individuals over the summer (paying living wages, not just a minimum wage) and targeted college students and recent graduates as a means of providing real-world experience and training to help advance the careers of future conservationists.
This $90,000 pilot program includes payroll for the six seasonal hires, a pickup truck rental, and gear necessary to help turn the tide on invasive species.
The strike team will map their progress so the positive impact of their work can be documented and demonstrated over time
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Genesee Valley Conservancy is a nationally accredited non-profit conservation organization working to protect the habitat, open space and farmland in the Genesee River watershed. Over 39,002 acres of natural habitat and productive farm and forest land have been conserved by Genesee Valley Conservancy in partnership with private landowners. The organization also owns nature preserves open to the public for recreation and education. For more information visit www.geneseevalleyconservancy.org