Alien invasive forest insects—threats to our Vermont forests

1. What they are, where they come from, and how they get here
2. Why invasive insects succeed and what can be done about them
3. On the horizon:  “The big three”

1. The emerald ash borer (EAB)
2. The hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA)
3. The Asian longhorn beetle (ALB)

Speakers: 

Barbara Schultz has been a forest health specialist for the State of Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation since 1980, and has been the Forest Health Program Manager since 2009. The program oversees forest insect and disease surveys, health monitoring, and pest management She has a bachelor’s degree in Forest Science from Cornell University, a master’s degree in Forest Pathology from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and spent several years working on US Forest Service insect and disease projects in the northeast.

Kyle Lombard is a Forest Entomologist/Pathologist with the NH Division of Forests and Lands and Program Coordinator of the Statewide Forest Health program.  Kyle is a graduate of the Thompson School and the University of NH with 23 years of experience working on a wide variety of forest damage causing agents throughout the diverse forests of New Hampshire.  Duties include field investigations, monitoring projects, control strategies, quarantines, outreach, pesticide applications and other suppression activities.  Kyle is currently the Chair of the Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters Forest Health Committee, immediate past Chair of the Northeast Forest Pest Council and past education Chair and recipient of the Forester of the Year award with the Granite State Chapter of the Society of American Foresters. Previous to working in the forest health arena Kyle was a licensed forester, marked timber in northern Maine for the Maine Bureau of Public Lands, in northern NH for International Paper, in southern NH for Dave Noyes Forestry, and spent 3 years with the U.S Forest Service in Michigan and Kansas.

Michael Bohne  is an entomologist and forest health group leader with the U.S. Forest Service in Durham, N.H. He has a Masters in Entomology and Chemical Ecology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry where he studied pine bark beetles in Minnesota and the Asian longhorned beetle in China.  Mike joined the US Forest Service in 2003 working on the Asian longhorned beetle eradication program in New York City and has been the Forest Health group leader at the Durham Field Office in NH since 2008. The Forest Health program provides technical assistance on forest health-related matters across all land ownership, particularly those related to disturbance agents such as native and non-native insects, pathogens, and invasive plants. 

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