Since August of 2020, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has conducted 64 different hunting seasons covering a variety of animals, seasons, and locations. But there’s one animal in particular that the DNR is very interested in, which has no hunting restrictions. For this species, you won’t need a spring trap or a rifle. A net to catch it with and a camera works much better.

The species in question? The spotted lanternfly. It looks harmless enough, and it is to humans. But to many species of plants that we rely on for food, lumber, and shade, this invasive species is deadly.

In spring, spotted lanternflies hatch from eggs often laid on the invasive tree-of-heaven, but they can be found on anything flat and vertical. The newly hatched nymphs are black with white spots, and starting in July the oldest nymphs will also have patches of red. Shortly after, they will begin to assume their adult forms, which have wide colorful wings.

Spotted lanternflies mostly eat phloem—the vascular tissue in plants that conducts sugars and other metabolic products down-ward from the leaves, basically transporting the energy created through photosynthesis. Especially in the fall, spotted lanternflies will gather together and eat the phloem of an unsuspecting plant, eating the plant’s food and excreting honeydew. This by-product can create the perfect condition for mold to grow on leaves, stopping plants from photosynthesizing, and can cover and discolor manmade surfaces.

Spotted lanternflies can cause branches to fall off or can outright kill plants if the damage is great enough. And spotted lanternflies like to eat a lot of different plants. They can literally eat your lunch by feeding on almonds, apples, apricots, basil, blueberries, cherries, cucumbers, grapes, horseradish, nectarines, peaches, plums, and walnuts. They can eat the wood that makes up your table by noshing on hickory, maple, oak, and pine; and they could even mess with happy hour by snacking on hops. What’s more, there’s no easy way to deal with large numbers of spotted lanternfly. They can be killed by insecticides, but survivors are able to quickly return to sprayed areas. And physical traps that kill them also tend to catch other species that could be beneficial. Since the eradication of spotted lanternflies is such a complicated undertaking, the best defense against the spotted lanternfly is prevention.

And that brings us to some positive news and what you can do to help. Spotted lanternflies are not widespread in Maryland—they were first seen in the state in 2018, and Harford and Cecil counties in northeastern Maryland are under a quarantine order covering items that might inadvertently transport the pest. If you’re traveling out of Harford County or Cecil County, check your clothing and vehicle to see that you’re not harboring a hungry bug. We can’t stop them from traveling on their own, but we can stop them from using us for a free ride, and their weak flying ability makes this more effective than you might think for a winged insect.

Across the state of Maryland, if you see something that looks like a spotted lanternfly, take a picture and send it to DontBug.MD@maryland.gov or call 410- 841-5920. If you can, try to catch the bug, place it in a bag, and freeze it. Eradicating invasive species is a costly and challenging task, but stopping them from spreading and keeping tabs on where they are makes that job a lot easier. 

GSCHE Conference 

 With a theme of “The future is …”, this year’s Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education reflects the uncertainty about the future that many feel and invites participants to recommit themselves to the urgent work of building a future that is sustainable, equitable, and resilient. We seek to highlight inspiring examples of higher education leadership that empower participants to envision and create such a future. Ultimately, the future is ours to make. Are you committed to leveraging the power of higher education to forge a brighter future? Join us at GSCHE!

Schedule at a Glance: https://www.aashe.org/conference/schedule-at-a-glance/

Sustainability & Facilities 101 : Maximizing Collaboration

UMBC's Asst. Dir. of Sustainability, Ryan Kmetz, is facilitating a session at this year's GSCGE aimed at helping sustainability and facilities professionals better communicate and collaborate. 

Topic Areas: Coordination & Planning, Buildings

Sustainability and Facilities Management (FM) professionals and departments often are tasked with working closely together on various projects throughout campus. Many of these professionals, by nature of their work, are already experienced systems thinkers; yet, sometimes it feels like FM and Sustainability are speaking different languages or living in different worlds. By understanding each department's missions the two stakeholder teams can effectively implement cross-disciplinary collaboration to complete projects that achieve maximum sustainability and operational key performance indicators. Specifically, attendees will learn common concepts unique to each field and how to translate those concepts for application to their discipline. Concepts will include: Deferred Maintenance (DM), Total Cost of Ownership, Risk Management, and Project Scope. For example, when the session discusses DM sustainability professionals will learn what DM is and how it applies to sustainability work; whereas, FM professionals will learn how DM relates to sustainability. Each core concept will feature a simple case study and examples of synergistic overlap between sustainability and FM systems. Attendees will leave this session with a better understanding of strategic concepts and the tools to effectively communicate with their other disciplinary colleagues.

This session provides the opportunity for sustainability professionals to better understand the more technical world of facilities. It will allow participants to gain a basic understanding and to identify tools and resources to utilize at their home campus to more effectively engage and work with facilities to achieve maximum sustainability gains.

The audience will learn how to understand facilities jargon and translate it into a sustainability (and vice versa) context. The goal is to empower sustainability professionals to increase their interactions with facilities staff to identify and implement opportunities to increase sustainability on their campus.

About the survey 

Do you know an advanced-degree/graduate student who is attending the upcoming Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education (GCSHE)? Are they also doing interesting sustainability/environmental research or leading an exciting campus sustainability project? The session is looking for 8 graduate students to give super short 3min. presentations on their sustainability/environmental work as part of the live Sustainability on Tap (SoT) networking session I'm hosting at the conference. SoT is designed to be a fun, informal opportunity for grad students to present their research or projects to a supportive audience. Students can submit their presentation proposal here, preference given to proposals received by Sep. 19. More details below – please spread the word to any grad students you work with!

·         Session title: Sustainability on Tap! at the Global Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

·         Date/Time: Thursday, Oct. 14 at 3-4pm (Eastern)/2-3pm (Central)

·         Description: Busting through academic silos can be tough. Enter - Sustainability on Tap! For the past 4 years, this University of Texas at Austin event has brought together graduate students from every college on campus (yes, all of them!) to network and learn about sustainability research and initiatives that are typically buried inside an institutional silo. In this session, we'll give attendees the opportunity to experience the fun of a virtual Sustainability on Tap. Enjoy speedy student presentations, a beverage of your choice, and more cowbell! By the end, you'll not only learn a bit about sustainability initiatives across the nation, but you'll also have all the knowledge and experience you need to bring this event to your own campus. Cheers!

·         Ask: We're looking for advanced-degree/graduate students to present during this session. Use this form to submit a proposal to present your sustainability or environmental research, project, or passion to your peers in 3 easy minutes. All you need is 5 slides, an environmental/social sustainability angle, and a sense of fun. Any and all presentation ideas are welcome! Priority given to submissions received by Sep. 19. Sustainability on Tap will be limited to approximately 8 graduate/advanced-degree student presenters who will be selected to best showcase the diversity of sustainability and environmental fields and to represent a range of universities/colleges. Remember, you must be registered to attend GCSHE in order to present at or attend Sustainability on Tap.

·         Don't want to present? Not a grad student? That's OK! All GCSHE attendees are invited to join the Sustainability on Tap session! It'll be fun (did we mention the cowbell?)!

For more information please contact: 

Brianna Duran | Campus Environmental Center Coordinator | Office of Sustainability 

The University of Texas at Austin | 512-232-7840 office | 512-906-5503 cell

Pronouns: she/her/hers

FB: Texas Sustainability | IG: texassustainability | @KeepTexasGreen

https://sustainability.utexas.edu/

Bleed Orange. Live Green.

UMBC now offers collection and recycling of all clean plastic bags, films, and wraps! These items can be placed into one of the 35 yellow bins located throughout campus. The bins will be placed on campus over the next two to three weeks. 

These plastics require a special process for recycling and cannot be recycled in single stream recycling (blue bins).

To view a full list of items that can be recycled in the yellow bins visit the Plastic Bags & Films Recycling Page on Sustainability Matters. 

Locate a plastic film collection bin near you!

"How" Plastic Film Recycling - Sustainability - Long from UMBC commonvision / inet on Vimeo.

Welcome back retrievers! To welcome our community members back to campus, we invite you to embark on a sustainability scavenger hunt using our (UMBC) Sustainability Campus Map Application.

You have an opportunity to do the scavenger hunt completely virtually or in-person around campus. If you successfully figure out all the clues and finish the hunt during Sept 6th-24th, you will receive a UMBC Sustainability Matters water bottle!

In order to win the prize, please email sustainability@umbc.edu once you have completed the scavenger hunt. You will receive a response on how to pick-up your prize.

LEARN MORE: 

https://sustainability.umbc.edu/?p=3387