Diane Turner spends most of her holiday season looking for bad news.

As a Nursery Inspector & Compliance Officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, she has been showing up unannounced at nurseries, greenhouses and big box stores. There, she combs through the aisles of Christmas decorations, looking for tiny invasive threats like spotted lanternflies and spongy moths.

"We check the branches and the stems of this material very closely," Turner said. Fake or real? Which type of Christmas tree is the most enviromentally friendly?

Armed with her loupe, a tiny, trusty magnifying device that she carries around her neck, she goes through a store's inventory piece by piece, wreath by wreath. "It's time consuming, and it keeps us pretty busy, for sure."

Turner is one of 12 people

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