[APWG] Fw: County Recruits Geocachers in Battle Against Invasive Weeds
Jil_Swearingen at nps.gov
Jil_Swearingen at nps.gov
Fri Jun 18 10:48:05 CDT 2010
Hi,
Here's a clever idea to engage the public in invasive plant monitoring.
It's a super educational vehicle too.
Thanks,
Jil
________________
JIL SWEARINGEN
IPM and Invasive Species Coordinator
NPS National Capital Region
Center for Urban Ecology
4598 MacArthur Blvd. NW
Washington DC 20007
202-342-1443, ex 218
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.nps.gov/cue
www.nps.gov/plants/alien
www.invasiveplantatlas.org
What's a weed? A plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered. Ralph Waldo
Emerson
What's an invasive weed? A plant whose vices outweigh its virtues. - JS
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Subject
County Recruits Geocachers in
Battle Against Invasive Weeds
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/765293
County Recruits Geocachers in Battle Against Invasive Weeds
(Embedded image moved to file: pic00658.jpg)
http://media.govtech.net/NewsPhotos/2010/June2010/weeds_geocaching.JPG
Jun 15, 2010, By Russell Nichols, Staff Writer
Geocachers in Ada County, Idaho, have a new mission, should they choose to
accept it: tracking down hidden containers that hold data on noxious weeds.
This is part of an ongoing operation set up by the county's Weed, Pest and
Mosquito Abatement Department to pinpoint expanding noxious weeds before
they wreak havoc on the environment. In years past, the department used
informational brochures and fliers to educate the public on harmful weeds.
Now they're taking the high-tech, hide-and-seek approach known as
geocaching to spread the word.
"There are a lot of people in the county who do this," said Jake Mundt, the
department's administrative operations manager. "We put in a more formal
mechanism to allow geocachers, if they find the same weed in another area,
to report where it is. This helps us develop our action plans to help us
control or eradicate noxious weeds in the region."
Geocaching is a global phenomenon in which recreationists use GPS receivers
and other navigational tools to locate any of the million-plus containers,
called caches, hidden in rural and urban areas around the globe. For the
past 10 years, devotees have declared that geocaching forces you to go to
places you've never gone before.
Seeking to attract visitors and inspire residents to go exploring, more
state and local governments have been looking to "cache" in. Georgia
reportedly launched a high-tech treasure hunt in May, hiding caches at
state parks for seekers to find. In Palm Coast, Fla., the GIS division
planted containers in parks, trails and natural reserves with "a treat"
inside each cache.
"We've taken the time to plant 10 geocaches in locations we feel are the
hidden gems of Palm Coast," according to the city's website. "Just plug the
coordinates into your GPS receiver and start hunting."
In Ada County, local officials took a different path. Bounded by two rivers
and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the county already lures
recreationists out of their homes to explore the great outdoors: hikers,
mountain bikers and, of course, the geocachers, according to Laura Wylde,
the Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement Department's public outreach
coordinator.
But of the 64 plant species the state lists as noxious weeds, 32 of them
can be found in Ada County, local officials said. These weeds threaten
public health, crops, livestock and land. To help keep them from spreading,
the county hid four caches throughout the county, stocked with information
about weed infestations and weed control efforts. Officials plan to hide
more in the future.
Armed with handheld GPS receivers and maps, geocachers can track these
containers, learn about the weeds, and log and submit the coordinates of
any other infestations they come across. It makes sense to recruit
geocachers. For them, going new places and discovering new things comes
with the territory.
"It's the challenge of going new places you may never have gone," said
Clint Hutchison, webmaster for Idaho Geocachers, which has more than 1,000
members. "There's a lot of things to see that people don't realize are
there."
Ed Lenhart of Boise has lived in Idaho for 35 years, but since he started
geocaching nine years ago, he said he's seen more of the state and country
than ever before. Retired from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Lenhart was
the one who pitched the geocaching idea to the county's Weed, Pest and
Mosquito Abatement Department.
He said he goes on geocaching expeditions four times a week and he even
bought a few nature books for research, but wanted a way to report his
findings. He believes this program will help local geocachers get active in
the fight against noxious weeds.
"It'll be a lot more eyes out there looking for this stuff once we educate
geocachers on what to look for," Lenhart said. "I just want to see more
counties and states get involved, and maybe even a federal agency. If
geocachers can help, I think we can spot a lot of weeds."
For more information on the geocaching project, visit the Weed, Pest and
Mosquito Abatement Department.
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