REU Site: Mapping Beetles, Trees, Neighborhoods, and Policies: A Multi-Scaled, Urban Ecological Assessment of the Asian Longhorned Beetle Invasion in New England (HERO)

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The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) is an invasive wood-boring insect that is a grave threat to urban forests in New England, because it is unique among invasive forest pests for attacking a broad array of tree species. The 2008-present Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) infestation of central Massachusetts poses a greater stress on ecosystem services, as well as response groups ranging from federal/state resource managers to local residents, than any previous ALB outbreak in other localities due to the predominance of favorable host-species and the finely inter-connected nature of urban-rural forests as well as the presence of a competitive interaction at the federal-stakeholder-neighborhood level surrounding how the infestation should be treated and understood. Unanswered questions abound regarding the level of ALB impact at social and ecological levels. This REU Site renewal project is built on 12 years of success engaging undergraduate researchers at Clark University with the Human-Environment Regional Observatory--Massachusetts (HERO-MA) program on land change/vulnerability studies, which followed the REU Site approach (Polsky et al., 2007) since its inception, and as an official REU Site since 2008.Intellectual Merit: The Beetle Impact Assessment stream produces validated measures of spatial and temporal changes in tree cover composition in the ALB-infestation area. This team also evaluates impacts of ALB on forest diversity and cover at present and in the future. The Place-Making Assessment team assess management and policymaking responses to community concerns in response to ALB impacts, involving stakeholders throughout the analysis. They also evaluate ALB impacts by socio-economic status, race/ethnicity and management/governance regime to explore how a more engaged stakeholder group would respond to policy as a result of the ALB experience.Broader Impacts: This project integrally involves undergraduate students (with an emphasis on those from underrepresented groups in the implementation of established research design, and learning outcomes are assessed using a proven methodology within HERO-MA. It is expected to produce salient results that provide resources for practitioners and urban-rural communities experiencing changes associated with loss of urban forest; publications are expected to be produced for both scholarly and stakeholder (e.g., UDSA-APHIS, federal/state/municipal/community groups/elected officials) audiences.