Spotted lanternfly control in Berks set back by funding cuts

May 3—Eight thousand trees at M&E Sporting Clays in Perry Township stand each marked with a painted blue X awaiting the next phase in a project to control the invasive spotted lanternfly.

But the fate of the project is up in the air.

Berks County Conservation District officials fear they have lost state funding to help control the pest that threatens agricultural industries and businesses like M&E, a shooting range at the 185-acre Wing Pointe hunting preserve.

If funding is found, it will be too late for a large-scale attack this year, said Evan Corrondi, conservation district outreach specialist.

The bugs are more than an inconvenience to M&E's roughly 150 customers a week, said Jen Biegler, co-owner of the business.

"The lanternfly excrement gets all over our machines. Customers are smacking them with clipboards. They are killing our trees," Biegler said. "We are just having a blast with them, let me tell you."

As the next hatch of the invasive plant-hopper approaches in May, Biegler wonders what will happen.

Berks is not alone.

The conservation district in Lancaster County faces a similar loss of funds, as the state eyes shifting resources to transportation corridors to hold back the spread of the insect native to Asia. It was first discovered in Berks County in 2014.

It has since spread, and 34 counties in Pennsylvania are under a quarantine. Cornell University reports spotted lanternfly infestations in four states and sightings in four additional states.

Corrondi said that for the last two years, the conservation district has received a state grant that averages about $200,000 a year. If a new grant does come the district's way, it will have limited impact. Control efforts begin over the winter by marking trees before the spring hatch.

"Once the treatment season begins on May 1, contractors treat tree of heaven with herbicides to kill the trees and also a select few with insecticides to kill spotted lanternfly," Corrondi said. "At this point it would be difficult to carry out a large-scale control effort throughout the county because of a limited treatment window (May-September) and the needed prep work, but smaller control projects could still be implemented."

The spotted lanternfly uses its piercing-sucking mouthpart to feed on sap from more than 70 different plant species, but the invasive tree of heaven is its favorite. Recent research indicates spotted lanternflies may obtain toxic chemicals from the tree, making them unpalatable to predators.

It has a strong preference for economically important plants including grapevines, maple trees, black walnut, birch and willow.

The money-go-round

The grants were funded by a combination of state and federal monies, according to Shannon Powers, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture press secretary. She said the properties that are a priority now aren't those that conservation districts usually help.

Since July 2018, the agriculture department has designated a block of funds for distribution to conservation districts in the quarantine area for them to assist the department with local control of spotted lanternflies, Powers said in an email.

This year there are 34 counties within the quarantine area. Conservation districts were asked to submit a proposal with a budget for education and control efforts in their respective counties for each program year.

The department provided grants to conservation districts for work spanning two growing seasons: 2019 and 2020. Grants were funded with a combination of state and federal funds.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has allocated Pennsylvania $6.5 million, according to Erin Otto, national policy manager for the spotted lanternfly working for Plant Protection & Quarantine in the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

It notified the state on April 7 of the allocation.

Nationwide, is providing an additional $6.9 million in support of spotted lanternfly research, outreach and eradication efforts this fiscal year, Otto said.

Powers said the state is in the process of negotiating with the about how to spend the money.

"The quarantine has expanded to eight more counties, also expanding the area in need of treatment," Powers wrote in an email. "Together, the USDA and the PA Dept. of Agriculture are focusing control efforts on transportation corridors to prioritize areas that pose the greatest risk, and on areas where new populations are establishing in order and to limit further spread of the insect."

In other words, the types of properties that will have priority for government-funded treatment are not necessarily the types of properties accessible to conservation districts, she wrote.

This will likely limit funding to conservation districts.

Berks could receive some funds but that depends on passage of the state budget, Powers said.

"As to whether conservation districts are still receiving grants, state fiscal year 2020-21 funds have not been made available yet," Powers said. "The Legislature has not yet passed Gov. (Tom) Wolf's proposed budget."

Powers pointed out that quick, aggressive treatment to newly identified populations of lanternfly in Pennsylvania has been funded through the Rapid Response Disaster Readiness line of the state Farm Bill for the past two years. The 2021-22 PA Farm Bill proposes another $3 million to combat the spotted lanternfly.

Since 2015, the department has received more than $34 million to combat the lanternfly in Pennsylvania: $20 million in federal funds and another $14 million in state investment. The department also awarded more than $260,000 in January for four priority research projects.

"Once federal and state funding levels are known, the department will be able to determine what treatments will continue and where," Powers wrote.

The Berks effort

Corrondi said in 2019 the conservation district spotted lanternfly control was conducted in nine projects, three of which were at homeowners associations.

The district follows a process recommended by the state department of agriculture to kill trees of heaven with herbicides but leave a few, and treat them with insecticides to kill spotted lanternfly when it feeds on the tree.

Nearly 4,000 trees of heaven were removed and 58 such trap trees established in 2019 in Berks. Another 4,000 trees were removed with funding from another source, with 48 trap trees established.

In 2020, seven properties were involved in the program, including a high-risk site. Five thousand trees were removed and 224 trap trees established, encompassing 317 acres.

Corrondi said there are 150 properties on a waiting list for the program, and those were people who signed up in 2018. He hasn't sought new candidates since the initial 200 applicants.

Properties are selected based on location in a heavily trafficked area or near a commodity such as an orchard or vineyard.

"The demand is certainly there for control efforts," Corrondi said.

To treat a whole county?

"It would take an army to treat an entire county," he said.

The success of the program is hard to gauge, he said, and that's another reason why the loss of funding is such a blow.

"It's definitely looked at as more of a long-term process," said Corrondi, who also oversees mosquito monitoring in the county. "To gauge success with two seasons is very difficult. I have no problem saying it definitely helped. In order to see some sort of prolonged control this is a program that needs to be continued."

Meanwhile, Corrondi and the conservation district will continue education and outreach when possible.

On April 28, the district held an educational session at the Berks County Agricultural Center. Penn State Extension has held webinars as well.

In the thick of it

James Keenan is another landowner who has worked with the conservation district to tamp down the infestation at his 53-acre Bern Township estate.

The district's help was just a start, and he's spent thousands of dollars of his own money to protect his trees, including 15 maples that line the driveway off Grange Road.

He worries that the fight against the lanternfly lacks enough financial support.

Keenan grew up in St. Paul, Minn., where Dutch elm disease devastated what he remembers as a green cathedral of street trees.

He wouldn't like to see something like that happen in Pennsylvania.

Keenan volunteered the first year the conservation district was removing and establishing trap trees.

He's called the district every year since for advice as he supervises crews on his property.

At best he's holding steady. He credits the expertise of the conservation district for that.

"We have seen no change with our best efforts with magnitude or count (of lanternflies)," Keenan said. "I've been told by experts that they don't think it will kill a tree, but if the trees are stressed by the spotted lanternfly it will weaken the tree and open it up to other invasive pests. So far, thank God, I don't think they have killed our trees."