A chat with APIPP’s new director
After more than three years as a specialist focused on aquatic invasive species in the Adirondacks, Brian Greene this fall became the new leader of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP).
Greene, a recent transplant to the region, will now direct a small but central organization in the region’s long-running fight against invasive plants and animals. The program is housed with The Nature Conservancy and funded by the state. It was the first so-called PRISM within the state, which are regional collaborations focused on invasive species prevention.
Greene dropped by our Saranac Lake office last week to discuss his background, the new role and the state of invasives in the park. He emphasized the role of APIPP in forging collaboration and partnerships and empowering local organizations and residents.
We touched on what he thinks are overlooked invaders, how the herbicide ProcellaCOR has dramatically changed how managers are thinking about the region’s most pervasive aquatic invasive and the outlook for the park’s iconic hemlocks in the face of hemlock woolly adelgid.
In the debate over using chemical methods in Adirondack lakes, Greene said it is important to use every tool available to manager infestations and balance the benefits and risks. He noted that not doing something is as much a management decision as pursuing a new strategy.
He highlighted what he called the Adirondacks’ “two former superpowers” holding many invasives: frigid winters and remoteness. Unfortunately, those powers are weakening as climate change alters our weather patterns and improved brings more visitors from farther afield.
“Climate change is going to have these impacts and unintended feedback loops in our forests with invasive species. There were so many species that just couldn’t survive in the past,” Greene said. But that’s starting to change as pests like hemlock woolly adelgid move into the southern part of the park and longer growing season give plants more time to run rampant in lakes and on the landscape.
Toward the end of our conversation, I read off a list of invasive species either already in the park or threatening to come soon I didn’t have time to ask about. If only we had days, I joked.
“It’s a never-ending list,” Greene said. “There’s always a new species, there’s always a new challenge. Sometimes our local communities can get invasion fatigue. For me, it’s not so much focusing on the individual species, but thinking about what it is that we can do to reduce the threat. It goes back to messaging these easy things people can do.”
Top photo: Brian Greene demonstrating how to do a rake toss during a training for volunteers on Follensby Clear Pond in August 2023. Photo courtesy of Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program
This first appeared in Zach’s weekly “Water Line” newsletter. Click here to sign up.