KY FY24 SLF Outreach 5.0397.01

Un l recently, spo ed lantern?y (SLF) had been found in states bordering Kentucky such as Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia, but the known infesta ons were not close to Kentucky''s borders. However, a July 2021 detec on of SLF in Vevay, Indiana is only 4 miles from the Ohio River which separates Indiana and Kentucky. Carroll and Galla n Coun es have a nearly con nuous stretch of industrial and manufacturing sites on the Kentucky side of the river. In 2022, SLF was found in Cincinna , just over the Ohio River from Kentucky. With these new threats very close to the state border, we submi ed SLF Outreach proposals and received PPA 7721 funding for FY22 and FY23. These funds allowed us to hire and retain a dedicated sta? person to focus on SLF outreach. We were able to ?ll this posi on on June 1, 2022 with a highly-quali?ed individual who has experience with invasive pests and outreach. Con nued funding is needed in FY24 so that this individual can con nue this important work. His posi on is likely not sustainable without this funding. Our new SLF specialist will use several strategies to engage with and educate the public about signs and symptoms of SLF, pathways of movement, and ongoing survey and eradica on e?orts na onwide. As part of the FY22 and FY23 projects, he has implemented a ci zen scien st program to assist with a visual survey for SLF and its preferred host, tree of heaven. He will expand this program in FY24. He will educate the public and industry groups such as arborists, nurseries, and vineyards about SLF. In 2022 and 2023, he visited dozens of loca ons that could be poten ally a?ected by SLF. He has met with property owners and has distributed SLF informa on to them that can then be disseminated to the public through those businesses. Social media will also be used to educate the public about this pest. Publica ons and mailings may also be generated and distributed. The SLF specialist has also focused on training county extension agents about SLF in 2023 by crea ng an SLF training module that is included in the con nuing educa on that agents must complete each year. Each of Kentucky’s 120 coun es has an extension o?ce and these agents are o en the ?rst person contacted by ci zens when they see something of concern. By including SLF in the yearly training, each agent can educate the ci zens in their coun es. We will demonstrate the e ectiveness of this outreach program by keeping records of the following: numbers of citizens educated via the citizen scientist training, number of sites visually surveyed by citizen scientists, locations of tree of heaven in the state, numbers of county extension agents trained by the SLF module, results from a pre- and post-test on that training module, numbers and reach of social media posts, and quantities of outreach materials developed. We will generate survey maps from the data gathered by the citizen scientists.