Future Vermont Pests to Watch Out For With Guest Speaker Ginger Nickerson, Forest Pest Educator

Zoom Webinar

Thursday 04/27/23

7:00PM - 8:30PM

Sliding Scale Registration

Invasive insects and pathogens pose threats to forest health, but early detection can make all the difference in terms of our ability to slow their spread and/or eradicate these pests to mitigate their impact on our forests. Guest speaker, Ginger Nickerson, will focus on three pests that have yet to be confirmed as established in Vermont. These include the spotted lanternfly, beech leaf disease, and oak wilt. Ginger will cover pest ID, life cycles, natural histories, and what you can do to help protect Vermont’s forests.

Presenter Bios:

Ginger Nickerson, Forest Pest Education Coordinator, Vermont Urban and Community Forestry Program (UVM Extension):

Vermont’s Urban and Community Forestry program, a collaboration between The Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation and UVM Extension, provides educational, technical, and financial assistance to support urban and community forestry across the state. Ginger joined the UCF team as the Forest Pest Education Coordinator in the fall of 2018, shortly after emerald ash borer was confirmed in Vermont.  Ginger has a bachelor’s in botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and graduate degrees in Natural Resource Management from the University of Michigan. At UCF Ginger coordinates the Forest Pest First Detector program, a network of volunteers who do education, planning and surveying for invasive forest insects in their communities. She also helps staff the VTinvasives.org website, where people can learn about and report invasive pests.

Savannah Ferreira, Forest Health Specialist | Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation:

Savannah joined the Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation as a forest pathologist in 2020 and runs the Forest Biology Lab at the Vermont Agriculture and Environmental Laboratory in Randolph. Savannah earned her bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Maine, where she focused her research efforts on documenting eastern white pine compartmentalization response to a native fungal pathogen.  After graduating, Savannah completed her master’s degree in plant pathology at West Virginia University. While there, her research focused on several fungal pathogens of oak and determining their contributions to oak-decline across the Mid-Atlantic region.