MARQUETTE – Getting an ecosystem back in balance can come down to citizen scientists and their interest in creatures such as the solitary ground-nesting wasp.

The sixth annual Northern Great Lakes Invasive Species Conference, this year entitled “On the Horizon: Innovation, Integration, Motivation,” took place Thursday at Northern Michigan University. A workshop on sprayer equipment was held Wednesday at Van Riper State Park.

The conference was co-sponsored by the NMU Department of Biology and the Upper Peninsula Resource Conservation and Development Council.

The theme, according to Ally Dale, program manager with the Marquette County Conservation District, allowed participants to focus on new developments and techniques in invasive species management pertinent to the region.

“We all know that plants and animals ignore political boundaries,” Dale said, “and so it is natural for us to unite together and work collaboratively, pooling our knowledge and resources in the Great Lakes region.”

Teri Grout, executive director of the Alger Conservation District, said more than 100 people attended the event.

The high attendance could bode well for future conservation efforts as Grout said the local natural resources professionals can’t battle invasive species by themselves, so citizens need to be involved with identifying and controlling invasives species.

“We can’t do it with the money available,” Grout said.

The problem, as many pros will say, goes beyond spotted knapweed and garlic mustard, two invasive plants.

“We are dealing with ecosystems, not just plants,” Grout said. “You know earthworms, insects, wild boars, things like that.”

Although the average citizen probably can’t single-handedly handle a feral pig, groups of citizen scientists could make a difference.

“Our emphasis on citizen science does allow us to try to expand our efforts beyond an individual agency, beyond a group of agencies, into the private sector, and, you know, hopefully into the living rooms of the general public who ultimately are going to benefit from eradicating invasive species or controlling them, or suffer if that doesn’t happen,” Grout said.

One of the speakers was Art Wagner, pest survey specialist based in Wisconsin with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

His talk was “Citizen Science and Legends of Awesomeness – Cerceris fumipennis: How Can We Get the Public More Involved?”

The Cerceris fumipennis referred to in the title is a type of wasp being used to fight the invasive and destructive beetle, the emerald ash borer.

The native insect, called the solitary ground-nesting wasp, collects certain beetles for its nests where the eggs hatch on the beetles, after which the larvae feed and grow to maturity, he said.

They are non-stinging wasps that don’t use their stingers for defense, Wagner pointed out. Also, one of the beetles it collects is the emerald ash borer, another desirable trait.

“They’re very to difficult to look for and survey,” Wagner said of borers. “They don’t have pheromones. Traps for catching them are incidental.”

The wasp nests, which resemble mini-volcanoes, are easy to spot, he noted. The survey involves collecting beetles from the nests without harming the wasp populations.

“They like baseball fields that aren’t particularly well maintained,” Wagner said, noting the wasps prefer sandy, compacted soil.

The survey is simple, Wagner said. He uses the computer to perform an aerial survey to identify baseball fields, which he tags, numbers and eventually visits. A volunteer also could visit a field, he said.

The nests are located, and the beetle prey “drops” are sent to an identifier at Purdue University, Wagner said, which sends back a list of what it found along with taking those beetles to be part of the permanent research collection at Purdue.

However, Wagner stressed volunteers are needed because of the number of remote sites that need to be surveyed.

Online training was a big help in getting the volunteers up to speed, he said, plus they were receptive to the project.

“The volunteers, a lot of them, they’re highly motivated, so they want to learn, which makes the training go smoother,” Wagner said. “Volunteers can be widely distributed, so a volunteer may live five minutes away from a field that would take me three hours to get to, meaning they can inspect it and collect from it any evening they like.”

These community ambassadors, as he called them, also save taxpayer dollars.

“They know the areas,” Wagner pointed out. “They know the people involved. If there’s a city government or somebody from the park district that they need to talk to, they’re much more able to do that than I am, and they also have credibility locally.

“So, all kinds of great reasons to use volunteers.”

However, partnerships need to be formed to organize them, and volunteers must continue to be engaged and receive positive feedback.

“People need to know why their work matters,” Wagner said.

In the case of the wasp surveys, what matters is the search for the next emerald ash borer – the next thing that could come and take out an entire species, he said, “except this time we’re trying to get ahead of it, so we don’t discover it 12 years after it’s been established.”

Wagner had another bit of advice.

“So, when you’re doing a survey, make sure that there’s some way for your surveyors to be successful in finding what they’re looking for, even when it’s not specifically what you’re looking for,” Wagner said.

Other sessions at the conference centered on topics like invasive plant roadside surveys and mapping, recognizing common forest pests and boat-washing stations.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.