Controlling an Invasive Plant in the North Country

Project Overview

Dr. Pearson's Kilmer Lab focuses on invasive plants in the North Country and implementing a biological control solution. Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is an invasive wetland plant that grows throughout the North Country, particularly along roadsides or in wetlands. Dr. Pearson has worked with more than a dozen SUNY Potsdam undergraduates since 2017 to map this invasion, documenting large areas of infestation along roadsides. Our research has shown how important road culverts are to increasing the spread of purple loosestrife. We’ve mapped a lot of areas and studied how that spread moves through the landscape. We had our research published in several articles (Scientific Reports and Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies) since we started work. In addition, to combat the spread of purple loosestrife, we’ve been studying a leaf-eating beetle, Galerucella species. We’ve grown a beetle hatchery each spring into summer at SUNY Potsdam – raising and releasing more than 20,000 beetles throughout our region. We expanded our delivery of beetles to the Akwesasne Mohawk reservation in summer 2022. We hope to analyze this beetle data and examine where there hasn’t been enough impact of those introductions to decrease purple loosestrife.