Close
About
FAQ
Home
Collections
Login
USC Login
Register
0
Selected
Invert selection
Deselect all
Deselect all
Click here to refresh results
Click here to refresh results
USC
/
Digital Library
/
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
/
SoCal critters: invasive species in Southern California
(USC Thesis Other)
SoCal critters: invasive species in Southern California
PDF
Download
Share
Open document
Flip pages
Contact Us
Contact Us
Copy asset link
Request this asset
Transcript (if available)
Content
1
SoCal Critters: Invasive Species in Southern California
by
Jeanette Alexandra Kazmierczak
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTERS OF SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM
May 2015
Copyright 2015 Jeanette Alexandra Kazmierczak
2
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the members of my committee—Professors Cole, Bustamante and
Hedgecock—for their encouragement and advise during this process. I would also like to thank
the Counsel for the Advancement of Science Writing for its support through the
Taylor/Blakeslee Fellowship.
3
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements 2
Table of Contents 3
List of Figures 4
Abstract 7
Introduction and Selection of Medium 8
Website Walkthrough 11
Homepage 11
Introduction 12
Map Page 19
Stories Page 21
The Clock is Ticking for the California Citrus Industry 15
Oak Tree Killer 32
Crayfish Creek 35
Weeding the Watershed 42
About the Project and the Author 43
Conclusion 46
References 47
4
List of Figures
Figure 1: Screenshot of SoCal Critters homepage 11
Figure 2: Screenshot of “Introduction” page 12
Figure 3: Second screenshot of “Introduction” page 14
Figure 4: Third screenshot of “Introduction” page 15
Figure 5: Fourth screenshot of “Introduction” page 16
Figure 6: Fifth screenshot of “Introduction” page 18
Figure 7: Screenshot of “Map” page opening 20
Figure 8: Screenshot of “Map” page marker 20
Figure 9: Screenshot of “Stories” page 21
Figure 10: Screenshot of “The Clock is Ticking for The California Citrus Industry” page 22
Figure 11: Incubation tents 23
Figure 12: Sugar spirals 25
Figure 13: Saplings 30
Figure 14: Screenshot of “Oak Tree Killer” page 32
Figure 15: Wyatt Rovera (left) and Anders Reimer, restoration technicians at the
Mountain Trust Restoration, wake up every morning and don waterproof waders.
Between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. they slog through over two miles of creek in the Malibu
Creek Watershed, checking 300 traps for red swamp crayfish. The Mountain Trust's
goal is to completely eradicate the invasive species from the entire watershed, an
unprecedented scope. 35
Figure 16: Red swamp crayfish are native in much of the southern United States
5
and were introduced to California in the early 1900s. Reimer said they were probably
introduced to the Malibu Creek Watershed as bait for largemouth bass, also non-native,
or for mass production. The crayfish threaten native wildlife though, because they eat
the eggs of native species, like fish and insects. And they attack and kill the threatened
California tree frog. 36
Figure 17: The Mountain Trust has placed 300 traps in two creeks in the Malibu
Watershed. Staff and volunteers check the contents every day. The traps are tied off to
trees and branches and are baited with chunks of fish and dog biscuits. Reimer and
Kyle Troy, another restoration technician, said they had to change the kinds of traps
they use because the previous versions were too easy for raccoons to open. They said
the raccoons would fish the traps out of the creek, pry them open, eat the crayfish and
the bait and then throw them back into the water. 36
Figure 18: Reimer and Rovera pull the crayfish out one by one and measure them. They
said since they've started pulling the crustaceans out of the creek, the size has gradually
dropped off, although as they move to spots further downstream they start getting big
again. Rovera said the largest ones they've found have measured around 9 centimeters
long. 37
Figure 19: Reimer and Rovera pull the crayfish out one by one and measure them. They
said since they've started pulling the crustaceans out of the creek, the size has gradually
dropped off, although as they move to spots further downstream they start getting big
again. Rovera said the largest ones they've found have measured around 9 centimeters
long. 38
Figure 20: Navigating the creeks is no mean feat. Sunken branches and hidden rocks
6
and deep pools are constant obstacles. Reimer and Rovera wade through these areas
every day, but they say everyone eventually takes a fall and gets soaked. 38
Figure 21: Wyatt Rovera measures a crayfish. 39
Figure 22: Anders Reimer. Reimer said he's always surprised they don't draw more
attention when they're working. One creek location is behind an office building, which
requires them to clamber down behind the parking lot. The other is in the middle of a
suburb. 39
Figure 23: Reimer and Rovera work mostly in silence, besides the almost rhythmic
declarations of, 'Female. Three [centimeters],' as Rovera measures and Reimer records. 40
Figure 24: The Mountain Trust received $800,000 from the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife to remove the crayfish. The area is 109 square miles and the project
progresses in 100-yard increments, but Troy, Reimer and Rovera think they're already
starting to see some progress. 40
Figure 25: Screenshot of “Weeding the Watershed” page 42
Figure 26: Screenshot of “About the Project and the Author” page 43
7
Abstract
This thesis explores the presence and effects of invasive species in Southern California through a
multimedia website featuring text, audio and visual element. I coded the SoCal Critters
(sciencekaz.com/home.html) website myself using basic HTML, CSS and JQuery elements.
SoCal Critters is designed to be a platform with the potential for expansion over time, perhaps
even to include stories about invasive species from across the United States, with three live
stories and a fourth in production.
I first became interested in invasive species during my undergraduate degree at the University of
Georgia, covering science for the independent student newspaper The Red & Black. Spotted
Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) was a growing concern among Georgia blueberry farmers
and research scientists, including Dan Horton who was on the faulty of the university’s
entomology department. Spotted Wing Drosophila, which is native to eastern Asia, was attacking
ripe blueberries and costing farmers a substantial amount of money. As I covered this and other
stories about invasive species in Georgia—kudzu bug, emerald ash borer, tawny crazy ant—I
became deeply interested in what I viewed as the underappreciated work of conservationists
struggling to stem the seemingly endless tide of invasive species in the United States.
This website is an attempt to engage the general viewer in that passion by connecting them to
people who are actively working with invasive species through multimedia story telling. The
SoCal Critters website reveals that invasive species are not some distant problem. They can be
found in our own back yards.
8
Introduction and Selection of Medium
Invasive species cause over $120 billion in environmental damage in the United States every
year (Pimentel, Zuniga, and Morrison. 2005). They are the primary threat to almost half the
threatened or endangered species mentioned in the Endangered Species Act because invasive
species out-compete native species for habitat, water and other resources (Wilcove, et al. 1998).
Invasive species can be insects, plants, animals, diseases and fungi. They can injure, cripple or
destroy. And they’re everywhere.
In Presidential Executive Order 13112 defines an invasive species as “an alien species whose
introduction [to an ecosystem] does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or
harm to human health.” An alien species is “any species, including its seeds, eggs, spores or
other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to [an]
ecosystem” (Executive Order 13112. 1999). An alien, or non-native, species is not necessarily an
invasive species. Many of the major food crops in the United States are not native to the areas
where they are grown on an industrial scale, such as corn, wheat, rye and potatoes (Invasive
Species Advisory Committee. 2006).
Many invasive species were originally introduced to a new area for a specific reason. Kudzu
(Pueraria montana) was heavily marketed in the southern United States as an ornamental vine
for porches, forage for livestock, and a good means to control soil erosion. Without the natural
enemies found in its native Asian habitats, though, the plant flourished at the expensive of other
native plants and agricultural fields (Everest, et al. 1999). On Santa Catalina Island, off the coast
9
of California, flax-leaved broom (Genista linifolia) was planted in front of a hotel as a decorative
bush in the 1920s. The plant presented no obvious problems to the island ecosystem for decades
until a fire jumpstarted reproduction. Now many of the hillsides appear to be entirely covered in
the silvery green shrub with tiny yellow flowers, threatening the existence of native species
(Roberts. 2003).
Researchers, land managers and conservationists have several different ways of approaching the
control or eradication of invasive species. Constant monitoring of at-risk ecosystems can provide
early detection of potential invasive species, which makes eradiation easier. After an invasive
species has been introduced and proliferated, the species can be: physically removed; sprayed
with pesticides; controlled through habitat management; or controlled by introducing its native
enemy from its original habitat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2012). In the Santa Anna
Watershed, for example, conservation groups physically remove arundo (Arundo donax), a giant
reed, from beside creeks and streams by cutting it down with weed whackers and chainsaws
(Zembal, 2013). Then they spray the stumps with a pesticide to keep it from growing back.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are experimenting with biological control
for the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri), which can carry the citrus killing bacterial disease
huanglongbing, or citrus greening (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) (Citrus Pest and Disease
Prevention Program, 2015). They have introduced two tiny, parasitic wasps that attack Asian
citrus psyllid in its native environment, in the hope that they will help stop the spread of the
insect and the disease before it devastates the California citrus industry the way it has devastated
Florida’s (Latzman, 2015).
10
In many cases, though, invasive species control and management is only done on a grant-by-
grant basis, when land managers and conservation groups have the time and money necessary to
provide the chemicals and physical labor required. But the general public can help stop the
spread of invasive species by being aware of basic steps they can take, such as cleaning their
hiking gear and not releasing exotic pets into the wild. For many people, though, invasive species
seem like an issue that doesn’t touch their lives in any way. A website that shows how invasive
species can be found in people’s own backyards, creates awareness and incentive to be proactive
about preventing the spread of invasive species. While the website at the moment is restricted to
invasive species in Southern California, there is the potential for broadening the area to all of
California and maybe even the entire United States.
11
Website Walkthrough
Homepage
Figure 1: Screenshot of SoCal Critters homepage
The homepage for the SoCal Critters website is a photograph of Santa Catalina Island, which is
about 47 miles west of Los Angeles. The island’s invasive plants are the focus of one of the
stories included in the website and the dramatic scenery makes for an engaging opening image
while also being representative of the Southern California landscape which is the region of
interest for the website. A small box in the center of the page contains a short introduction that
reads: “Invasive species. Like many residents in Southern California, they’re not originally from
here, but they like the weather so much they decided to stay. Now they’re raising the price of
living for native Californians—plants, animals and humans alike—and they’re not leaving
anytime soon.” The page was coded with basic HTML and CSS. There is a button in the center
of the text box that reads: “Meet the New Neighbors.” When clicked, it leads the viewer to the
next page, an interactive introduction to invasive species.
12
Introduction
While the color scheme and arrangement of much of the website is consistent, the introduction
section, which lays out the definition and examples of invasive species, diverges from that
prevailing scheme in order to reflect the content of the text.
There are not many examples of invasive species in popular culture, but Star Trek the Original
Series provides one while conveniently having been filmed in Southern California. When the
viewer clicks the button following the text in the opening box, a tribble appears. As boxes and
buttons are clicked, the tribbles move and multiply, reflecting the prolific nature of invasive
species. A skip button is affixed to the top, left-hand corner of the page so return viewers can
pass through the content if they wish.
Figure 2: Screenshot of “Introduction” page
13
The Trouble with Tribbles and Other Pests:
When Captain Kirk looks desperately at Mr. Spock over what should have been his chicken
sandwich and coffee but is instead a pile of cooing hairballs, you can get a sense of how farmers,
foresters and researchers sometimes feel about invasive species.
"I want these things off the ship," Kirk says, a little frantic. "I don't care if it takes every man
we've got."
The hairballs are tribbles. Lieutenant Uhura buys one as a pet and the crew of the Enterprise
quickly discovers tribbles are prolific and soon the little hairballs are climbing the walls, filling
the food processors and invading the storage compartments full of quadrotriticale--a valuable
grain being taken to aide the Sherman's Planet colony. The tribbles eat all the grain, but die
shortly afterwards because it's been poisoned. Shenanigans ensue; the Klingons are to blame;
Kirk, Spock and McCoy save the day.
"The Trouble with Tribbles" is a classic episode from Star Trek: The Original Series and
provides one of the few well-known examples of invasive species in popular television and
literature. And, conveniently, tribbles meet most of the descriptions of what makes a species
invasive.
14
Figure 3: Second screenshot of “Introduction” page
A Tribble, A Drabble, A Flood:
Tribbles are what we would call an invasive species. In federal government parlance, that's any
"alien species whose introduction is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to
human health." Essentially: non-native species that society considers pests or nuisances.
Tribbles meet the qualifications for invasive species almost perfectly:
- Tribbles tolerate a variety of habitats, from their home world Iota Geminoum IV to
spaceships.
- Tribbles grow and reproduce rapidly. Mr. Spock says one tribble has an average litter of
10, producing a new generation every 12 hours
- Tribbles compete aggressively for resources.
15
- On the Enterprise, tribbles have no natural enemy. On their home world, their
populations are kept in check by alien lizards.
Figure 4: Third screenshot of “Introduction” page
Aye, they're in the air vents, too:
David Gerrold, who wrote the "The Trouble with Tribbles," says he got his inspiration from an
example of the real world damage invasive species can do--rabbits in Australia. Rabbits were
brought to Australia in the 1800s for food and sport hunting, but they did so well that they
devastated plant life and shouldered aside other, native mammals.
So, the rationale for introducing the rabbits was reasonable enough. As long as the rabbits'
usefulness as food and entertainment outweighed the negative effects they had on the
environment, people didn't think of them as an invasive species. Species used for food or
16
livestock are considered non-native--but not invasive--species as long as they remain under
control in the circumstances for which they were intended. Essentially: non-native species that
society considers beneficial.
Back in the twenty-third century on the Enterprise, quadrotriticale fits the definition of a non-
native species. It's going to be introduced on Sherman's Planet as a food source for the colonists.
Corn, wheat and cattle have been introduced to many areas on Earth where they're non-native,
yet not invasive.
Figure 5: Fourth screenshot of “Introduction” page
Who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?
Kudzu, 'the vine that ate the South," was originally brought to Pennsylvania in the 1800s and
heavily marketed as a good way to control soil erosion. It turned out to thrive in the hot, humid
environment of the South; but without any natural enemies the plant can--and will--grow up to
17
12 inches a day during the summer. Kudzu changed from a useful, non-native species to a
devastating, invasive one. By one estimate, the vine spreads over 150,000 acres annually,
swallowing any stands of trees and patches of open spaces in its path. An Auburn University
researcher estimated electric companies alone spend $1.5 million annually trying to keep it from
choking power lines.
Then there's rye. It's non-native, but farmers think it's a very valuable--$49 million a year--field
crop. But along Colorado's Poudre River, conservationists consider it an invasive species
because it outcompetes native plants and destroys animal habitat. So while there are guidelines,
the distinction between non-native and invasive is sometimes a matter of location.
Some researchers estimate that it costs farmers and governments in the United States $120
billion a year to combat and control invasive species. But farmers also make around $800 billion
every year in largely non-native crops and livestock. So in some ways, there is an economic line
between non-native and invasive, too.
But when individuals think about the difference, it often comes down to personal experience.
Pythons are much-beloved, non-native pets in many Florida homes. They are not so loved by
Florida residents who fear for their dogs, cats and small children. Ever since a few snakes
escaped their cages and began proliferating and prospering in the Everglades, they've attacked
everything including alligators.
18
You can never know how a species is going to respond when you remove it from its native
environment, which is why you should never try to make that judgment call for yourself.
Lieutenant Uhura is an accomplished and intelligent officer and linguist. She thought that first
tribble would make a good pet, but those harmless looking furballs nearly caused the collapse of
an entire colony.
So the next time you take a vacation, whether it's to Japan, Australia or Rigel IV, keep in mind
that if the pet or plant you decide to bring home with you gets out of control, we really don't have
any Klingons around to foist them off on.
Figure 6: Fifth screenshot of “Introduction” page
Tribbles make for a good example for a star ship far, far away in the twenty-third century, but
let’s move on to some twenty-first century Earth instances of invasive species in Southern
California.
19
Once the “Boldly Go” button has been clicked, the viewer is taken to a map showing individual
stories about invasive species. The introduction section was coded with HTML, CSS and JQuery.
Map Page
The map on this page displays markers at the latitudes and longitudes of invasive species
research or outbreaks that are incorporated in this project. Once each marker is clicked, a small
box appears with an image and a button. Once clicked, each button takes the viewer to the
related page for that invasive species. Directions are provided in a small popup box that appears
when the page is loaded in the web browser. A map provides a way for the viewer to visualize
where invasive species outbreaks are in relation to their own location. The goal of this website it
to show viewers that invasive species are a problem in their own back yard.
The map page is the only page to include a JQuery plugin. Google API presented a coding and
programming challenge beyond that of the coding skills learned during the course of the
semester. Gmaps.js is an open source coding format available via Gethub and other sources that
bypasses some of the more difficult aspects of Google API.
20
Figure 7: Screenshot of “Map” page opening
Figure 8: Screenshot of “Map” page marker
21
Stories Page
At the bottom of each page, except the home page and the introduction page with the tribbles, is
a navigation bar. The navigation bar provides easy access to all of the major pages of the
website, including the home, introduction, map, about and stories pages. The stories page is
intended as an alternative way to look for stories from the map page. It lists the available content
by title along with a picture—the same picture used in the marker boxes on the map page. Each
box is a link to the story it represents. The stories page was coded with HTML and CSS.
Figure 9: Screenshot of “Stories” page
22
The Clock is Ticking for The California Citrus Industry:
The image on this page was taken by the author on the University of California, Riverside,
campus in front of the Citrus Experiment Station. Once the page is loaded, the user clicks the
button “But researchers hope to buy time with help from some little friends” and an article in a
textbox appears. The viewer scrolls through the text of the box to read about the Asian citrus
psyllid and huanglongbing and the effects they are having on the California industry. The author
captured all of the images in this article. The page was coded with HTML, CSS and JQuery. The
text in full is below. Once the viewer reaches the end of the article, she can click the button to
close the popup box or return to the map or stories section of the website via the navigation bar
to select another story to view.
Figure 10: Screenshot of “The Clock is Ticking for The California Citrus Industry” page
A lab-coated man shuts the door to a short hallway and locks click behind him. The walls of the
hallway are black, the ceiling is black, the floor is black. The only source of light is from an LED
23
bulb affixed in the nook where the wall meets the ceiling. The inside of the light fixture is
covered with sticky paper. The man's lab coat is embroidered with the name 'Mark Hoddle.'
Hoddle's hair is shorn close to his head and his blue eyes stand out unnaturally in the dimness.
He pulls open the door at the opposite end of the hallway to reveal an identical black space on
the other side. Everything is designed to keep the creatures here from escaping, he says. This
whole floor of the building is a maze of dark, segmented stretches of corridors. The air
circulation is designed to flow inward. Any item brought inside has to be fumigated before it
goes back out.
As Hoddle traverses the maze, he opens a few of the doors along the hallway. The spaces inside
are brightly lit and filled with little clear plastic tents on wireframe racks. Little potted trees are
growing inside the tents and from some of their leaves dangle tiny spirals of sugar.
Figure 11: Incubation tents
24
It's a scene straight out of a low-budget Syfi Channel movie except for how it isn't. In reality, this
is the third level of the Insectary and Quarantine Facilities at the University of California,
Riverside. Mark Hoddle is a biological control researcher who imports exotic parasites and
brings them here, to what he says is one of the largest quarantine facilities in the United States,
for study.
Hoddle's work revolves around the uphill, prolonged battle against invasive species, which are
basically any non-native plants, animals or insects that causes economic or environmental
damage. Think kudzu, fire ants or zebra mussels. Biological control is the strategy of fighting
back against invasive species by purposefully introducing their natural enemies to wherever it is
they've invaded.
That may seem counterintuitive, introducing an invasive species to fight another invasive
species. But Hoddle, and other researchers across the country, view biological control as a vital
part of their toolkit. In the quarantine facility in Riverside, the target is the Asian citrus psyllid, a
major threat to the California's $2 billion citrus industry.
Psyllids are tiny insects. Hoddle's team grows this particular invasive type on the potted plants in
the plastic tents. The best way for the untrained eye to spot them is to look for those little spirals
of sugar, which is what they excrete as they chew on the leaves.
25
Figure 12: Sugar spirals
Just like a mosquito bite doesn't amount to much for a human unless it's carrying something like
malaria, Asian citrus psyllid doesn't do much damage to citrus trees unless it's carrying a
bacterial disease known as citrus greening or huanglongbing - Chinese for yellow dragon
disease.
If a psyllid infected with huanglongbing, or HLB, nibbles on a citrus tree, the insect will most
likely transmit the disease to it. Over the course of 10 or so years, the tree will slowly waste
away and the fruit will stop fully maturing and will develop the green discoloration from which it
got its original name in the United States.
"A public relations company did surveys with people to see what their reaction was to a disease
call citrus greening and public opinion was citrus greening was good for citrus because we want
26
to have green citrus," Hoddle said. "So we're not using that common name for the disease
because it has the wrong connotation."
HLB, the shorthand for huanglongbing, reminded people of HIV, so Hoddle says people
assumed it was like "AIDS for trees." That was the right connotation, so now that's what it's
largely called in California.
Asian citrus psyllid was first discovered in Florida in 1998, and the disease was first found in
trees there in 2005. Joseph Patt is a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. He has a grave, methodical way of speaking over the phone and it lends weight to
his predictions about the future of oranges, grapefruit and other citrus in the sunshine state.
"It's likely that the citrus industry in Florida is going to collapse in a few years," he says from
Fort Peirce, Fla. "We're a juice-based economy unlike California - California's fresh fruit."
Because HLB keeps citrus fruit from fully maturing, it doesn't produce the same quantity of
juice. Juice manufacturing plants have to have a reliable stream of produce, he says. "When you
fall below that level then these juice plants start going out of business, so it's a kind of cascading
effect."
In 2012, the University of Florida estimated citrus greening cost $3.63 billion in lost revenue and
6,611 jobs. But where Florida's industry was blindsided, California's had the chance to be
prepared and acted on it.
27
Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell is the director of the Lindcove Research and Extension Center in
Parlier, Cal., and she works with citrus growers to respond to invasive insect pests that attack
their crops.
"Before the Asian citrus psyllid even got to California, I saw what was happening in Florida,"
she says. "I got a grant and went out there in, like, 2004 and took a bunch of photographs and
interviewed people and developed a brochure explaining to our citrus growers what was coming
and how serious it was."
Researchers and industry members teamed up to develop a task force. So when Asian citrus
psyllid was discovered in San Diego and Imperial Counties in 2008 everyone reacted quickly to
establish a quarantine of the area.
And then the citrus industry took another critically important step. It opened its collective wallet.
MaryLou Polek, vice president of the Citrus Research Board, says every year citrus growers
leverage what amounts to a voluntary tax on themselves. It's called an assessment, and it's based
on the number of harvested field boxes of citrus each grower produces. The money goes to the
board, which distributes it to research focused on pests of citrus, including Asian citrus psyllid
and HLB.
28
"Every five years there is a vote, it's called a referendum, where the growers have to respond
whether they support the activities and mission of the Citrus Research Board or they don't,"
Polek says.
The last referendum has a 97 or 98 percent approval rate.
"That is unprecedented by any other commodity group," she says. "If you get 60 to 70 percent
approval you feel pretty good. But a 98 percent approval rating, that was phenomenal."
Mark Hoddle's office is in UC Riverside's Chapman Hall, a wing adjacent to the old Citrus
Experiment Station, established in 1906. Outside on the edge of the lawn are healthy specimens
of citrus trees - oranges, limes, grapefruit. Hoddle says the campus is usually where he starts
releasing his biological control critters. Much of that research gets funded by the Citrus Research
Board.
He navigates through the images on a PowerPoint, many of them are from an excursion he and
his wife took to Pakistan to look for and collect parasites of Asian citrus psyllid that could be
used against the pest here in the United States. One specimen, Diaphorencyrtus aligarhensis, is
tightly locked up in the quarantine facility, awaiting final approval for release from the USDA.
Another, Tamarixia radiata, is being mass-produced for widespread release by the California
Department of Food and Agriculture in greenhouses 15 minutes down the road.
29
Hoddle stops on an image of two decimated psyllid exoskeletons. Both parasites lay their eggs
on young psyllids. The eggs hatch and then bore into the underside of the insect, eventually
wiggling their way inside where they fully mature. They emerge as adults like the chest-burster
scene from Alien, Hoddle says with relish, punching a hole through the top or bottom of the
empty carcass depending on the species.
But why bother? Industry uses pesticides to control Asian citrus psyllid, so why go through the
trouble of complying with the USDA's endless rules for releasing a new species on purpose?
The problem is that while industry has had an organized response to the psyllid, the general
population of California hasn't. Grafton-Cardwell says researchers estimate around 60 percent of
Californians have one type of citrus tree in their yard.
"There are more urban landscape citrus trees than there are commercial citrus," she said. "There
are about 300,000 acres of citrus in California and there are about 100 trees per acre so you can
do the math there, but there are literally millions of trees in backyards."
While the Asian citrus psyllid has spread through several counties in southern California and
parts of the Central Valley, there has been only one known instance of HLB. In 2012 it was
found in Los Angeles, in Hacienda Heights, where Hoddle says a Chinese church’s
horticultural club shared infested grafting material that had been smuggled in from China.
"I think everybody agrees there are probably more HLB-infected trees in California, we just have
not found them yet," Hoddle says.
30
And unsurprisingly, people who live in residential urban or suburban areas are not really
enthusiastic about spraying pesticides. Although Grafton-Cardwell says most neighborhoods
responded well, with a few exceptions. That's where the parasites are handy. They don't sting and
if someone didn't tell you, you probably wouldn't even notice they were there.
Figure 13: Saplings
The greenhouses where the Tamarixia parasites are being raised are a bright, open contrast to the
dark quarantine housing Diaphorencyrtus. The little plastic tents are a constant, though, because
it would be hard to find the tiny warriors otherwise. The greenhouses are run by the CDFA, and
so is the release of the parasite. In the office across the way, there are maps tacked to the walls
showing every point where Tamarixia has been released so far. It's a massive undertaking.
Research workers are given little plastic jars or vials with the parasite inside and fan out in cars
or trucks to let them go on trees on people's lawns or gardens. A parasite species will never
31
entirely kill off its host species, that would be self-defeating, but Hoddle says Tamarixia has
been thriving.
"We're confident now that the parasite Tamarixia has established," he says. "It's spreading to new
places on its own and that it's killing Asian citrus pysllids. And part of what we're doing now
with our research is trying to figure out how many psyllids are being killed year round."
The new parasite will hopefully compliment Tamarixia, filling in the gaps where it hasn't been
established. Joseph Patt in Florida is also working on a dispersal method for a common fungus
that kills Asian citrus psyllid and could be used in conjunction with Hoddle's work.
In the meantime, there are always other invasive species to battle. Back in his office, Hoddle
rubs his eyes and sighs, talks about goldspotted oak borer and other emerging threats to the
native California ecosystem.
"I'm constantly stamping out all these fires," he says, a little exhausted, a lot frustrated. "And I
would say 98 percent of them shouldn't have been started in the first place."
For Asian citrus psyllid and HLB, all California can do now is hold its breath and wait.
32
Oak Tree Killer
The image for this page is property of the Center for Invasive Species Research at the University
of California, Riverside. They were taken by Mike Lewis. This story was done as a radio story
with interviews from attendees of the seventh Oak Symposium in Visalia, California, in
November 2014. The page was coded with HTML and CSS. The radio story was embedded on
the page from the author’s SoundCloud account. The image accompanying the embedded story is
property of the U. C. Riverside’s Cooperative Extension.
Figure 14: Screenshot of “Oak Tree Killer” page
VO: Something is killing the oak trees in San Diego County by the tens of thousands. A
dastardly villain that spreads so quietly it can take years to be discovered. If left unchecked, it
could spell the doom of the coastal live oaks of Southern California. What is this menace? It’s
the goldspotted oak borer, an invasive beetle smaller than a penny. When scientists first found
33
this insect in San Diego County in 2004, they brushed it off, meanwhile, the beetle forged
onward. While few were watching, it bored into the vascular systems of grown, mature trees,
cutting off supplies of water and minerals to starve them to death. In 2008, proof coalesced into a
verdict and the goldspotted oak borer was charged with the widespread die off of native oaks.
Now it’s started to spread north, with known casualties in Riverside County. Here’s Rob
Vinnette, a research biologist with the U.S. Forest Service from Saint Paul, Minnesota.
RV: Even though it originally comes from Arizona, it’s not at all native to the ecosystems here
and as a result the trees here are defenseless. And if this insect gets into the tree that tree will die.
VO: Vinette attended a meeting of oak-minding minds at the seventh Oak Symposium in Visalia
California, where scientists, field researchers, arborists and land managers gathered to discuss
the current status of the oak tree family in California. Here’s Tom Scott, a natural resource and
wildlife specialist with the University of California’s Cooperative Extension.
TS: . . . Worst case scenario. [Laughs]. I think that the worst case scenario is that this burns its
way through all of the Quercus agrifolia in California and that would be regrettable. Very, very
regrettable. I mean, that’s a very limited resource. Although it’s common wherever people are an
it’s common in in cities, it actually only occurs over a very thin ribbon of the Earth and it’s an
endemic to California and we could lose it.
JG: And that’s a big concern. Oaks a very iconic in California.
VO: That’s Jan Gonzales, U.C. Cooperative Extension.
34
JG: Just about anywhere you turn you’re going to see something named oak in it or Encino,
which is the Spanish version of it.
VO: Who can save these icons? Scientists? Arborists? It may be you. Saving native species from
invasive attackers may seem an insurmountable challenge but every contribution helps. You just
have to remember . . .
JG: Don’t move firewood. It’s so easy to move pests and pathogens. Don’t move firewood and
that’s the most important thing. If you are buying firewood make sure, really make sure, you’re
buying it from a reputable source, that you know where they’re obtaining their firewood from,
that it is pest free or that it has been well seasoned to be pest free. Be very, very aware of the
firewood issue.
VO: It may seem simple in the face of such a persistent and destructive threat, but the actions of
one individual could save or doom these trees.
35
Crayfish Creek
This photo essay about invasive red swamp crayfish removal in the Santa Monica Mountains
near Malibu, California, was taken in December 2014 by the author. Full-sized photos appear in
the left-hand box and accompanying captions on the right. The middle box contains a vertically
scrolling collection of thumbnail photos. As the thumbnails are clicked, the contents of the left
and right boxes change accordingly. The page was coded with HTML, CSS and JQuery.
Figure 15: Wyatt Rovera (left) and Anders Reimer, restoration technicians at the Mountain Trust
Restoration, wake up every morning and don waterproof waders. Between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. they
slog through over two miles of creek in the Malibu Creek Watershed, checking 300 traps for red
swamp crayfish. The Mountain Trust's goal is to completely eradicate the invasive species from
the entire watershed, an unprecedented scope.
36
Figure 16: Red swamp crayfish are native in much of the southern United States and were
introduced to California in the early 1900s. Reimer said they were probably introduced to the
Malibu Creek Watershed as bait for largemouth bass, also non-native, or for mass production.
The crayfish threaten native wildlife though, because they eat the eggs of native species, like fish
and insects. And they attack and kill the threatened California tree frog.
37
Figure 17: The Mountain Trust has placed 300 traps in two creeks in the Malibu Watershed.
Staff and volunteers check the contents every day. The traps are tied off to trees and branches
and are baited with chunks of fish and dog biscuits. Reimer and Kyle Troy, another restoration
technician, said they had to change the kinds of traps they use because the previous versions
were too easy for raccoons to open. They said the raccoons would fish the traps out of the creek,
pry them open, eat the crayfish and the bait and then throw them back into the water.
Figure 18: Reimer and Rovera pull the crayfish out one by one and measure them. They said
since they've started pulling the crustaceans out of the creek, the size has gradually dropped off,
although as they move to spots further downstream they start getting big again. Rovera said the
largest ones they've found have measured around 9 centimeters long.
38
Figure 19: Reimer and Rovera pull the crayfish out one by one and measure them. They said
since they've started pulling the crustaceans out of the creek, the size has gradually dropped off,
although as they move to spots further downstream they start getting big again. Rovera said the
largest ones they've found have measured around 9 centimeters long.
39
Figure 20: Navigating the creeks is no mean feat. Sunken branches and hidden rocks and deep
pools are constant obstacles. Reimer and Rovera wade through these areas every day, but they
say everyone eventually takes a fall and gets soaked.
Figure 21: Wyatt Rovera measures a crayfish.
40
Figure 22: Anders Reimer. Reimer said he's always surprised they don't draw more attention
when they're working. One creek location is behind an office building, which requires them to
clamber down behind the parking lot. The other is in the middle of a suburb.
Figure 23: Reimer and Rovera work mostly in silence, besides the almost rhythmic declarations
of, 'Female. Three [centimeters],' as Rovera measures and Reimer records.
41
Figure 24: The Mountain Trust received $800,000 from the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife to remove the crayfish. The area is 109 square miles and the project progresses in 100-
yard increments, but Troy, Reimer and Rovera think they're already starting to see some
progress.
42
Weeding the Watershed
One of the goals of this website was to create a platform that would allow for expansion in the
future, as time and budget allow. An example of this potential can be found on the page for
Weeding the Watershed, a documentary about invasive plant removal and native habitat
restoration projects in the Santa Anna Watershed and on Santa Catalina Island. This
documentary is being produced in a spring semester class and will not be completed until late
April. Being able to embed the documentary in the website post launch showcases the benefits of
a multimedia platform that leaves room for growth. This page was coded with HTML and CSS.
Figure 25: Screenshot of “Weeding the Watershed” page
43
About the Project and the Author
Also included in the website is an informational page about the author and the vision behind the
website. Viewer feedback is essential for improving a website’s appeal and usability, so contact
information for the author has also been included. This page was coded with HTML and CSS.
Figure 26: Screenshot of “About the Project and the Author” page
The first time I ever spoke with entomologist Dan Horton, I was calling to ask him about a
dragonfly drone collaboration between the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of
Technology.
44
When I got him on the phone, he told me he hadn't had any time to focus on that particular
project because he'd gotten so wrapped up in addressing the Spotted Wing Drosophila problem.
And well, that was an opening if I had ever heard one.
That's fine, I told him. Tell me about the Spotted Wing Drosophila. It was the most important
lead I ever followed.
Horton had a lot to say about the fruit fly, its spread through the Georgia blueberry industry and
how farmers were reacting to the invasive species. So did the president of the Georgia Blueberry
Growers' Association. I blew through my word limit, much to my editor's consternation.
It was the first article about an invasive species I ever wrote. During my two years as the science
beat reporter for The Red & Black, I wound up writing about invasive species quite often-tawny
crazy ant, emerald ash borer, kudzu bug. Those articles were the start of a preoccupation with
invasive species, their ecological and economic effects, and the people who try to manage and
control them.
I came to the Masters of Specialized Journalism program at the University of Southern California
for the multimedia skills I could learn and for California's fascinating agricultural issues. When I
was brainstorming theses topics, though, I settled on California's equally fascinating invasive
species issues.
45
While working on this project I've: visited a USDA quarantine facility and insect hatchery,
waded through a creek filled with red swamp crayfish, attended a symposium dedicated entirely
to oak trees and watched the sun set over Santa Catalina Island.
I've met some dedicated ecologists, entomologists and land managers who get up happily at the
crack of dawn and were kind enough to let me tag along to watch them work.
I hope you've learned something new about some of your unwelcome neighbors on this website.
I'd love to hear any comments or suggestions you might have.
46
Conclusion
The passion researchers, conservationists, land managers and others show for the effects invasive
species have on the environment is clear. It only remains to see if the general public becomes
similarly involved before orange juice disappears off the grocery store shelves or the Southern
California coastal live oaks all die. But preventative action is difficult to elicit when the
consequences are not clearly understood. The SoCal Critters website is designed to engage the
viewer, to involve him or her in the struggle to control and manage invasive species. Even if the
viewer cannot relate to the potential ecological damage caused by red swamp crayfish, he or she
may relate to two men donning waders at the crack of dawn to pull them out a stream for six
hours. A multimedia website allows for that kind of connection, for the transference of passion
from one person to another even through a computer screen.
47
References:
Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program. “The Disease: Huanglongbing.”
CaliforniaCitrusThreat.org. 2015. http://www.californiacitrusthreat.org/huanglongbing-citrus-
greening.php.
Everest, John W., James H. Miller, Donald M. Ball, and Mike Patterson. “Kudzu in Alabama:
History, Uses, and Control.” Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Accessed March 24, 2015.
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/uncaptured/ja_everest001.pdf.
Executive Order 13112 of February 3, 1999, Invasive Species. Federal Register 64, no 25
(1999): 6183-6186. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1999-02-08/pdf/99-3184.pdf.
Invasive Species Advisory Committee. “Invasive Species Definition Clarification and Guidance
White Paper.” National Invasive Species Council, 2006:
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/docs/council/isacdef.pdf.
Latzman, Phil. “Citrus Industry Really Being Squeezed in Florida.” Sun-Sentinel.com. March 4,
2015. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/commentary/fl-plcol-oped0305-20150304-
column.html.
Pimentel, David, Rodolfo Zuniga, and Doug Morrison. “Update on the environmental and
economic costs associated with alien-invasive species in the United States.” Ecological
Economics 52, no. 3 (2005): 273-288. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2004.10.002.
Roberts, Jerry. “Waging the War on Weeds.” CatalinaConservancy.org. May 19, 2003.
http://ecatalina.com/news/2013-05-19/Waging-the-War-on-Weeds.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Frequently Asked Questions about Invasive Species.”
FWS.gov. November 20, 2012. http://www.fws.gov/invasives/faq.html#q5.
Wilcove, David S., David Rothstein, Jason Dubow, Ali Phillips and Elizabeth C. Losos.
“Quantifying threats to imperiled species in the United States: Assessing the relative importance
of habitat destruction, alien species, pollution, overexploitation, and disease.” BioScience 48, no.
8 (1998): 607-615.
Zembal, Richard. “Habitat Restoration.” Orange County Water District. 20013.
http://www.ocwd.com/Environment/PradoWetlands/HabitatRestoration.aspx.
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This thesis explores the presence and effects of invasive species in Southern California through a multimedia website featuring text, audio and visual element. I coded the SoCal Critters (sciencekaz.com/home.html) website myself using basic HTML, CSS and JQuery elements. SoCal Critters is designed to be a platform with the potential for expansion over time, perhaps even to include stories about invasive species from across the United States, with three live stories and a fourth in production. ❧ I first became interested in invasive species during my undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia, covering science for the independent student newspaper The Red & Black. Spotted Wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii) was a growing concern among Georgia blueberry farmers and research scientists, including Dan Horton who was on the faculty of the university’s entomology department. Spotted Wing Drosophila, which is native to eastern Asia, was attacking ripe blueberries and costing farmers a substantial amount of money. As I covered this and other stories about invasive species in Georgia—kudzu bug, emerald ash borer, tawny crazy ant—I became deeply interested in what I viewed as the underappreciated work of conservationists struggling to stem the seemingly endless tide of invasive species in the United States. ❧ This website is an attempt to engage the general viewer in that passion by connecting them to people who are actively working with invasive species through multimedia story telling. The SoCal Critters website reveals that invasive species are not some distant problem. They can be found in our own back yards.
Linked assets
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
Asset Metadata
Creator
Kazmierczak, Jeanette Alexandra
(author)
Core Title
SoCal critters: invasive species in Southern California
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Specialized Journalism
Publication Date
04/24/2015
Defense Date
04/23/2015
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
Asian citrus psyllid,coding,digital journalism,exotic species,gold spotted oak borer,invasive animals,invasive insects,invasive plants,invasive species,journalism,multimedia journalism,non-native species,OAI-PMH Harvest,photojournalism,programming,radio journalism,red swamp cray fish,Santa Ana Watershed,Santa Catalina Island,science journalism,Star Trek,tribbles,video journalism,website
Format
application/pdf
(imt)
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Cole, K. C. (
committee chair
), Bustamante, Peggy (
committee member
), Hedgecock, Dennis (
committee member
)
Creator Email
jeanette.science.kaz@gmail.com,kazmierc@usc.edu
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-560046
Unique identifier
UC11300398
Identifier
etd-Kazmiercza-3398.pdf (filename),usctheses-c3-560046 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-Kazmiercza-3398.pdf
Dmrecord
560046
Document Type
Thesis
Format
application/pdf (imt)
Rights
Kazmierczak, Jeanette Alexandra
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository Location
USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA
Tags
Asian citrus psyllid
coding
digital journalism
exotic species
gold spotted oak borer
invasive animals
invasive insects
invasive plants
invasive species
journalism
multimedia journalism
non-native species
photojournalism
programming
radio journalism
red swamp cray fish
Santa Ana Watershed
science journalism
Star Trek
tribbles
video journalism
website