Volunteers needed in the Ohio River Basin to map purple loosestrife

CHIP-N (the Central Hardwoods Invasive Plant Network) is a partnership between the Appalachian Ohio Weed Control Partnership, River to River Cooperative Weed Management Area, and Southern Indiana Cooperative Invasive Management. CHIP-N and the Ohio River Basin Fish Habitat Partnership are working together to coordinate the volunteer mapping of purple loosestrife in the Ohio River Basin. This data will help local and regional managers determine the best management strategies and identify possible biocontrol release points. Purple loosestrife is very easy to identify from July-September and would take minimal effort to report it while conducting other activities (water sampling, surveying, canoeing, hiking, etc). If you are interested in participating, please contact Eric Boyda (appalachianohioweeds@gmail.com, 740-534-6578) and he will forward you on more information about what data to collect and how to easily identify purple loosestrife.

This is a great opportunity for organizations to get volunteers interested in reporting and mapping invasive species and possibly expand their programs in the future to include more or different species. Please forward this on to anyone you think would be interested.