[APWG] Water Garden & Aquarium Outreach materials available

[Olivia Kwong]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: IPAW at yahoogroups.com [mailto:IPAW at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Kearns, Susan (Kelly)
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 1:38 PM
Subject: [IPAW] Water Garden and Aquarium Outreach materials available

For those of you with garden centers, nurseries or pet stores selling
potentially invasive aquatic species, here are some materials that might be
useful for you:

Announcing: New products aimed at preventing the spread of aquatic invasive
species by water gardeners and aquarium hobbyists

"Do Not Release" - Water garden educational materials

For the last couple of years, WI DNR and UW-Extension have been working
with Minnesota and Michigan Sea Grant programs to develop educational
materials for display and distribution by water garden plant and supply
retailers. Our goal is to educate water gardeners about potentially
invasive aquatic plants and animals, and to teach them not to release
garden plants and animals into our waters. The materials include tags to
stick in the pots or tie around bags (for the floating plants and fish).
They also include small and large posters for display or distribution, as
well as tip cards to place near the cash register. These products were
developed in Minnesota after conducting surveys and working with focus
groups (gardeners and industry folks) to develop the best message and
language. They are not regulatory in any way, but simply focus on keeping
these plants and animals out of our waters.

We have the following products to offer:
       WT-833 - Potentially invasive water garden plants (poster) - For
       display by retailers near water garden plants if possible.
       WT-834 - Do not release water garden plants poster (poster) - For
       display by retailers near water garden plants if possible.
       WT-835 - Do not release water garden plants (flier) - Small version
       of the posters, good to post if space is too limited for large
       poster, or can be distributed upon requests (quantities are limited,
       though)
       WT-836 - Do not release (plant sticks, bundles of 100) - Stick in
       pots of all non-native aquatic plants
       WT-837 - Do not release (plant tags, bundles of 100) - Tie on bags of
       floating plants or fish
       WT-838 - Important tips for water gardeners (tip cards, bundles of
       100) - To be placed at the counter (in a brochure holder if you like)
       and given to the customers as a reminder after purchase!
In addition to these materials, we will be posting information on the DNR
Web site (dnr.wi.us/invasives) very soon. This will include a PowerPoint
presentation (and script) on this topic, as well as a display that you can
download and reproduce. These should come in handy at upcoming industry or
home and garden shows, and any other events where you're asked to speak. We
have a couple of copies of this display if anyone would like to arrange to
borrow one. Photos of the materials listed above will also be posted
online, in case you would like to see them before you order.


We only know of a handful of nurseries right now, so we need your help to
get these materials out to many others. If you are willing to order
materials to distribute to local nurseries, that would be wonderful. Or,
you can share this information with them and have them contact us directly.
Also, if you work with any Master Gardeners or other volunteer groups that
you think might be willing to lend a hand in getting these new materials
out to retailers, please feel free to forward this along to them.


Please contact Al Byla (608-261-6450, algis.byla at dnr.state.wi.us) if you
would like to help distribute these materials to water garden plant and
supply retailers in your area. We would like to keep a list of retail
stores that receive our materials to help us evaluate their efficacy.


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"Please Don't Dump Your Aquarium" - Habitattitude Campaign

The WDNR and UWEX have partnered with Habitattitude 
(www.Habitattitude.net), a new national public education and outreach 
effort targeting aquarium product consumers. The goal of this campaign is 
to raise awareness among aquarium product consumers about how they can 
help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species by encouraging them to 
choose alternatives to releasing their unwanted aquatic plants and fish.

We have developed two new publications to be placed in aquarium retail
stores:
        WT-841- "Don't Dump Your Aquarium Poster" - Great for hanging at the
       retail store, perhaps by the aquarium products or at the counter!
        WT-842- "Don't Dump Your Aquarium Tip Card" - Placed at the counter
       in a brochure holder, these can be given to the customers as a
       reminder after purchase!
Since the national campaign, Habitattitude, is concentrating on the big box
chain stores like Wal-mart and Petsmart, we would like to target the
independent retail stores in Wisconsin. Please contact Al Byla
(608-261-6450, algis.byla at dnr.state.wi.us) if you would like to help
distribute these materials to aquarium/pet stores in your area. We would
like to keep a list of retail stores that receive our materials in order to
evaluate if the poster and tip card are effective.


Thank you for working to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species!


Kerrie Cunningham and Al Byla


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Algis B. Byla
Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist
Bureau of Watershed Management
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
101 S. Webster St., P.O. Box 7921
Madison, WI 53707-7921
(() phone: 608 - 261 - 6450
(() fax: 608 - 267 - 2800
(+) e-mail: algis.byla at dnr.state.wi.us
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