Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program June 2026 Newsletter

New York’s Invasive Species Awareness Week (NYISAW) is underway, and APIPP has some exciting news to share! For those out of the loop, NYISAW runs from June 8-14. It is an annual statewide campaign organized by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation with the goal of educating the public about invasive species and how to stop their spread. Those are particularly important messages as we head into summer, and APIPP kicked off the week with an invasive species walk at Boquet River Nature Preserve, pictured above, on Monday morning. But there’s more! We also launched an updated website, and we partnered with Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute and the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation to create the new Love Your Lakes and Lands event, happening this Thursday from 4-8 p.m. at Dewey Mountain Recreation Center in Saranac Lake. If you are going to be in the Champlain Valley, you can also check out the Look Out for Invasives: Educational Walk & Work Day On the Vialls Crossing Trail, hosted by our partners at Champlain Area Trails, happening from 10 a.m.-noon on Friday.

Love Your Lakes and Lands will feature about a dozen organizations, all there to teach the public about being good stewards of nature through various workshops, talks, walks, and hands-on activities.

Here's a brief agenda of the event:

4 p.m.: Interactive tabling begins

5 p.m.: Three short talks covering aquatic invasive species, native seed collection, and aquatic invasive species management on Upper Saranac Lake.

6 p.m.: Native seed collection walk along the Dewey Mountain trails

7 p.m.: Guided birding walk along the Dewey Mountain trails

There will be food and drinks available for purchase and live demonstrations that will occur every half hour, including how to properly wash fishing waders by Ausable Freshwater Center, how to use a boat wash station by Adirondack Watershed Institute, how to prepare for a paddle by Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and a microplastics workshop by The Wild Center. There will also be an ongoing lead sinker tacklebox check by the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation—anyone who brings a tacklebox can have their lead sinkers replaced, free of charge!

We invite you all to take a look at our newly improved website, which features a long list of technical and aesthetic upgrades including an updated design and improved user experience, and we hope to see you at Dewey Mountain on Thursday!

APIPP's Events Page

Species of Concern: Japanese Stiltgrass
Microstegium vimineum

Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) is not known to be widely distributed in the Adirondacks but it does warrant concern. It can adapt to a wide variety of habitats but tends to thrive in more open, disturbed, and damp areas. Once established, Japanese stiltgrass can form dense mats that compete with native vegetation, impede forest regeneration, and leave behind a dead thatch layer that presents an increased risk of fire.

Japanese stiltgrass is an annual grass that has shallow, stilt-like roots. It germinates in spring, often with multiple sprawling stems. Mature leaves are 2-4 inches long, narrow and pointed (lanceolate), with an off-center silvery midrib. Tiny flowers form on slender stalks later in summer, and the seeds are viable from late August to September.

The seeds can remain viable in the soil and can be transported by wildlife as well as by people, gear, and equipment, which means the best way to avoid spreading invasive species like Japanese stiltgrass is to practice Play, Clean, Go. Before and after being in the woods, always brush off all of your gear, especially items with deep treads like boots and bike tires, to make sure any dirt, seeds, and plant fragments are removed.

The APIPP team appreciates everyone practicing Play, Clean, Go and keeping an eye out for and reporting Japanese stiltgrass with the iMapInvasives app—this really makes a difference with prevention, early detection, and rapid response to emerging populations.

Learn More

APIPP in the Field

2026 Summer Seasonals

Please join APIPP in welcoming Rhoda Peterson, Alexis Long, and Liv Mollo, our three summer seasonals who will be working to protect Adirondack lands and waters from the worst impacts of invasive species. Rhoda, pictured below on the left, is joining APIPP for her second summer as our Terrestrial Invasive Species Assistant and Alexis, pictured in the middle, will be spending her first summer with APIPP as our Terrestrial Invasive Species Steward. Liv is also joining APIPP for the first time this summer as our Aquatic Invasive Species Seasonal Assistant. The Adirondacks are fortunate to have Rhoda, Alexis, and Liv on board!

Partner in the Field

AWI Boat Stewards

As you are out recreating in the Adirondacks this summer, it is likely that you will encounter boat stewards from the Paul Smth’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) stationed at many launches and boat wash sites across the park. This map shows where you can expect to find stewarded launch and decontamination sites . Be sure to Clean, Drain, Dry all watercraft and equipment this summer to help stop the spread of aquatic invasive species. The AWI stewards are a great resource for learning more about the risks of introducing invasive species, as well as helping to ensure that you are following Clean, Drain, Dry requirements. Pictured: A boat wash demonstration at the 2025 New York Invasive Species Expo

Ask APIPP

A: Each summer, partners and volunteers from across the Adirondack PRISM sign up to adopt a lake to monitor annually for aquatic invasive species. The standard window for conducting these surveys is between July and September. You can sign up by visiting the Lake Protectors Sign Up Mapper , then you can either search for the waterbody you plan to adopt or zoom in on its location on the map. To adopt the waterbody, click on the waterbody and a pop-up box will appear with its name. Click on the arrow on the top right side of the pop up, and you will see an option to “adopt this lake.” Click on those words to navigate to the short Survey123 form. Filling out and submitting this form completes the process of adopting a lake to survey and will show your chosen lake on the map as an adopted waterbody for the 2026 survey season.

Throughout the summer, APIPP holds trainings and workshops designed to outline the survey process and provide an overview of aquatic species identification. Our first one is a virtual Lake Protectors training from 9-11 a.m. on Tuesday, June 23. More information about these events can be found here on APIPP's website. If you have questions about our workshops or would like more information about adopting a lake, please reach out to APIPP Aquatic Invasive Species Manager Anna Hardiman at anna.hardiman@tnc.org.

To learn more about all of our volunteer opportunities, click here.