KEENE VALLEY – The Nature Conservancy’s Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) is seeking volunteers to identify and report any occurrences of beech leaf disease in the Adirondack Park. Monitoring for this newly emerging invasive forest pest will begin on Aug. 2 with a free online training from 10-11:30 a.m. called “Forest Pest Hunters: Surveying for Beech Leaf Disease” and continue through October 10. The first confirmed case of beech leaf disease (BLD) in the Adirondacks was in Herkimer County in 2022; it was first confirmed in the U.S. in 2012.

“With most invasive species, we understand how they spread and how to manage infestations of the plant or animal,” said APIPP Terrestrial Invasive Species Coordinator Becca Bernacki. “Beech leaf disease is different—we don’t know what causes it, how it spreads, or how to manage it, which is why it’s so important for scientists to have as much data as possible about where it is and what its impacts are.” One thing scientists do know is how devastating BLD is to forests. It can eventually kill affected trees, with current data from the Midwest showing that saplings die after a few years and mature trees die in six to 10 years. The disease also moves fast. It was first confirmed in New York’s Westchester and Rockland counties in 2019, and since then its symptoms—which include dark striping between the leaf veins, leaf curling, and a leathery leaf texture—have been found on beech trees throughout that region.

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