Congratulations to Eco Graduate Student Jared Starr who recently landed a contract with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to develop a series of insect pest identification videos!
Each quick informative video will teach the viewer how to ID the targeted pest and recognize infestation signs and symptoms on the host. The five unlucky invaders to be targeted are: the Asian Longhorned Beetle, Emerald Ash Borer, Hemlock Wolly Adelgid, Winter Moth, and Gypsy Moth. These videos are part of TNCs Healthy Urban Trees Initiative and will be used on a variety of platforms including UMass Amherst’s own smartphone-based Outsmart Invasive Species Project application (http://masswoods.net/outsmart).
The funding was a direct result of the extremely positive response by environmental professionals to five earlier invasive plant videos Jared previously created, with the help of Eco graduate students Lena Fletcher and Nate Bush, for the Outsmart Invasive Species project here in ECO. DCR Service Forestry Program Director and former Eco graduate student Jennifer Fish was instrumental in securing the project. Jared’s earlier training videos can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/user/OutsmartProject.