Invasive Species in Central Kentucky (November 2020)

Submitted by William Lyons, Graduate Research Assistant and MS Student at Kentucky State University in the College of Agriculture, Community, and the Sciences. The image is from Raven Run Nature Sanctuary in Lexington, Kentucky, one of William’s study areas.

His thesis title: Accessing the Effects of Recreation Attributed Forest Fragmentation on the Spread of Invasive Species in Central Kentucky through UAV Multispectral Remote Sensing.

His project aims to (1) perform supervised classification and object based image analysis of 2019 NAIP imagery and multispectral UAV imagery to identify two endemic invasive plant species to Central Kentucky Amur honeysuckle, Lonicera maackii (Rupr.) Herder and Bradford pear, Pyrus calleryana Decne, and (2) determine the habitat attributes (slope, aspect, elevation, canopy height, and canopy density) that these species are found in abundance.