NORTH CREEK — Invasive species and climate change both pose a serious threat to Adirondack lands and waters. New technologies can help local communities by providing ways to detect invasive species, find trees that are resistant to forest pests and manage invasive species infestations.

To dive further into these topics, the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program is hosting a day-long event called “Adirondack Invasive Species Summit 2024: New Science Offers Hope in a Warming Climate” from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10 at Tannery Pond Center in North Creek.

The summit, which will be geared toward the general public as well as those who manage forests and waters, will be divided into two parts.

The morning session will cover invasive species and climate adaptation, New York state’s Climate Impacts Assessment and an overview of concerns that Adirondack forests face.

The afternoon session will discuss how environmental DNA (also called eDNA) can be used by invasive species managers, how RNA can be used to develop innovative treatments for a tall invasive grass called Phragmites, and how genomics can help in the search for hemlock woolly adelgid-resistant hemlock trees.

Finding hemlock trees that are resistant to HWA is particularly important in the Adirondacks, as the invasive forest pest has been spreading northward from where it was first discovered in the southeastern region of the park.

HWA feeds on hemlock twig tissue and can cause a healthy tree to be damaged or killed. This makes finding new technologies imperative as APIPP and others work to protect our forested landscape.

The invasive species summit’s speakers are Bethany Bradley, Regional Invasive Species and Climate Change Management Network; John Foppert, Head Forester and Assistant Professor of Silviculture and Economics at Paul Smith’s College; Aaron Maloy, geneticist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Fisheries Center; Kurt Kowalski, U.S. Geological Survey — Great Lakes Science Center in Ann Arbor, MI; and Karl C. Fedder, University of Connecticut, Plant Computational Genomics Lab.

The Society of American Foresters has approved 5 Continuing Forestry Education credits in Category 1 for this workshop. Participants who desire credits must attend the entire event.

To register for the Adirondack Invasive Species Summit 2024, visit www.adkinvasives.com/events.

APIPP is a program of The Nature Conservancy and is funded by the Environmental Protection Fund as distributed by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation.