Volunteers Wanted: Help Find ALB!

You help is needed this fall and winter in the search for the Asian longhorned beetle! The Greater Worcester Land Trust is enlisting volunteers to survey conservation land in the Worcester area for signs of the wood-boring invader. The initial goal of the GWLT is to cover a 150 acre parcel of conservation land, a mere 10% of the land that the trust is charged with protecting.

The survey crews meet every Thursday at noon to head out into the woods and look for signs of ALB damage. There is also a weekend event coming up soon for those of you who cannot make it during the work week. Any suspect trees are tagged and have their positions recorded by GPS. The information is then passed on to the ALB Cooperative Eradication Program for confirmation.

The GWLT is happy to train new volunteers on how to recognize the beetle, its host trees, and the damage it can cause. So far, the volunteers have had a pretty good track record at finding infested trees, but there is a lot of work left to do.

To sign up, contact the Greater Worcester Land Trust at 508-795-3838 or email anne@gwlt.org. You can read more about the GWLT's volunteer effort in this Worcester Telegram article.