Transcript:

Poison Ivy Meets Citizen ScienceAmbience: Dawn chorus, Stone Ridge Spring is at hand, the season of new growth, including some plants you'd just as soon not see,like poison ivy. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet. Here's a way you as a citizen scientist, could make a difference in helping to control poison ivy.Jelesko: We are initiating a Poison Ivy Citizen Scientist website where people can observe poison ivy and transmit pictures of the poison ivy to us, or a description of the poison ivy and the precise GPS coordinates of where the poison ivy is growing, and that way, we have a clear sense of where poison ivy is, what forms of poison ivy are in different places. It looks very different in different parts of the country. John Jelesko is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, Physiology, and Weed Science at Virginia Tech. He's working on new methods for controlling poison ivy. Have a pencil and paper ready and we'll give you the URL for the citizen science website in a moment.Jelesko: Anyone who comes into contact with poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac is invited to share where they see it, when they see it, and if they see any insects that are eating it, we're really excited to see pictures of those. or if they see any diseased plants, we're really excited to see that as well. And people can upload images from their cell phones. We designed the website so that you can actually be out in the field and interact with the website and transmit data. The website is PoisonIvyResearch.ppws.vt.edu. We'll have that URL posted on our Facebook page as well. Remember: observe, take pictures, but don't touch! I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.