Watkins Glen State Park is in the heart of the Finger Lakes wine region, surrounded by roughly 10,000 acres of vineyards, as well as orchards and fields full of other important crops.
That's why the state parks office wants to use it as a trap for the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect that will feed on grape vines, hop vines, and fruit and nut trees, damaging the plants in the process. Finger Lakes winemakers fear that the lanternflies could decimate their vineyards.
"Any spotted lanternflies that are on site will be going to these trap trees for sustenance, and then also ideally any that are hitchhiking through or are in the adjacent areas that are, you know, flying through," said Dave Rutherford, Finger Lakes regional biologist for the parks office.
The effort starts with another invasive species, the tree of heaven. Both the tree and spotted lanternfly are native to parts of Asia, where the plant is the insect's primary food source.
The parks office is in the process of hiring a contractor to manage trees of heaven in the park, which in most cases means removing them or applying herbicides, Rutherford said. It's even targeting the gorge — a ropes team will remove trees from there.
The Watkins Glen project also includes creating a trap — not to capture the lanternflies but to kill them. Crews will leave about a dozen larger male trees standing and will inject them with a systemic insecticide, Rutherford said. When the lanternflies feed on the trees, they'll consume the insecticide.
"We can prevent them from, you know, reproducing and spreading and being more of a potential hazard," Rutherford said.
Managing trees of heaven in public parks is not unusual — in some cases, the fast-growing trees were intentionally planted many years ago. Some Monroe County parks contain trees of heaven, and crews address them when they find them, as they would any invasive plant, according to a county spokesperson.
Similarly, the Finger Lakes Land Trust has been trying to eradicate trees of heaven on its preserves, a spokesperson said. It's also given permission to a vineyard that neighbors one of its preserves to control trees of heaven there.
The state parks office project is happening in Watkins Glen for a few reasons. The park has an established tree of heaven population, and the plant causes its own environmental problems. Also, potentially thousands of spotted lanternflies are already in the park, Rutherford said.
Watkins Glen is also the most visited state park in the Finger Lakes region, Rutherford said, and it draws lots of tourists, including visitors from Pennsylvania, which has a huge spotted lanternfly population.
The insects can fly only a few miles, but they are known to travel.
"They are professional hitchhikers, both in their adult phase, you know, jumping into cars and stuff, and traveling, but also laying their egg cases on like RVs, stuff like that," Rutherford said. "And then it gets trucked around, they hatch and take off."
Rutherford said he hopes that any lanternflies that visitors bring into the park meet their demise through the trap trees.
He added that the state could take a similar approach to managing trees of heaven and spotted lanternflies in its other Finger Lakes region parks.
