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Public Asked To Help Find And Eliminate National Forest Land Invasives

Pixabay.com

Invasive plant species have invaded the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and officials are asking the public to help find and remove them.

The Forest announced the release a plan to control non-native plant species. Forest resource specialists have completed their analysis on 477 newly-detected invasive plant sites and control work is being prioritized for this season.

Possible control methods include cutting, pulling, and/or herbicide application. Non-native plant species can impact ecosystems by reducing tree growth and reducing food and nesting sites for wildlife. Some invasive plants such as wild parsnip even affect human health by causing blistering burns.

Marjorie Brzeskiewicz is a Forest botanist. She says a couple of new species have been discovered...

"...A lot of new sites that pop up. We might have missed them in prior years. We do have citizens reporting invasive locations which is great. We've got a couple of smart phone apps to report invasives that you find and they're sophisticated enough now that when somebody reports something we will know whether it's something we already know about or it's a new one and we're glad to receive information on new invasive plant sites..."

Brzeskiewicz says program empowers the public, local communities, states, tribes, and many other groups to help the Forest Service confront threats from harmful exotic plants, animals, and pathogens that invade America’s wild places Among the higher priority species are garlic mustard, buckthorn and Asiatic honeysuckle.

The plan can be found on the Forest’s website.

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