Dr. Emma Hudgins’ spoke with the Carleton Newsroom about her research, which focuses on the health of trees and the impacts of invasive insects with the aim of producing the best pest management strategies for Canada, is increasingly important, considering both the ecological and economic value of urban trees and the interconnected, anthropogenic threats they face.
For her post-doctoral research, supervised by Joseph Bennett, Dr. Hudgins is shifting the focus of her research from the U.S. to Canada. Instead of attempting to understand where insects will kill trees, she’s looking into how we can manage and change the trajectory of invasive species’ spread to limit the impacts on urban trees. More specifically, Dr. Hudgins focused on the emerald ash borer, which was the most damaging invader in her previous analyses, and a pair of approaches to pest management: quarantining, which in this context means controlling the movement of wood and wood products, and the release of biological control organisms. Beyond the emerald ash borer, Dr. Hudgins is hoping to build a tool that can be used to manage other insects.
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