Greene County Soil & Water Conservation District

Stream Stewardship Program

 

Japanese Knotweed

Breakout Session:  Education and Outreach

 

Some things that were passed around: tool kit for volunteers, training manual, Japanese Knotweed Initiative Brochure

 

What are some goals and objectives regarding knotweed, particularly regarding education and outreach?

· Eradication, controlling or mitigating the spread of knotweed.

· Public recognition and awareness.  To get the public to be able to identify knotweed and know that it is different.  Public understanding that it is not good and why (difficult to communicate that in non-technical terms).

· Change habits of highway departments and provide them with an understanding of BMPs.

· It is important to establish partnerships with landowners and other agencies and organizations to address the knotweed issue.

 

Who are the target audiences?

· Landowners, particularly waterfront landowners, including second home owners.  To appeal to landowners, can inform them that it eventually devalues the property because of the long term maintenance involved once invasive species take hold.

· Outdoorsmen, people that are interested in fishing and hunting also appreciate that invasive species may impact their fishing and hunting activities.

· Nursery Industry, they need to know the impact of invasive species, provide them with alternatives to sell.

· Town and county level local elected officials, contractors, and transportation departments.

· Will need to develop different forms of educational materials and outreach efforts that cater to different audiences.

 

What are some of the stumbling blocks to education, outreach and knotweed management?

· Money.

· Volunteer involvement, keeping momentum, volunteer retention.

· Dealing with private property issues.

· Resistance to use of herbicides by landowners and agencies.

· Potential concern about landowner liability when allowing treatment efforts to take place on their property.

· Some landowners may not want the GIS maps of their property made public.

· Sometimes difficult to communicate the problems with knotweed without using technical terms.

· Nursery Industry.  Determine how much of it is being sold in NYS by nurseries- provide a list of alternative species.

· Low attendance at public meetings.

· When management efforts are on private property need to call every landowner every time they go onto their property.

· Knotweed is an effective visual barrier for landowners, which makes them like it.

· Tendency to operate on organizational boundaries rather than on natural boundaries.

 

What are some methods that can be used for education and outreach efforts?

· Adirondack example:  worked with PBS affiliates to cover invasive issues.  Invasive species are a threat to the Adirondack Park- and will be covered during a PBS series that shows some of the history, use and threats to the park.

· Public meetings and presentations given to landowners.  Send invites to landowners for a presentation to explain what the infestations look like and how bad the problem is locally.

· Newspaper articles, newsletters.  Example- a series of articles was written on invasive plants as they appeared last summer with photos and short stories for why we should be concerned.

· Sending home a poster with school children to bring to parents; will educate students and parents and potentially create interest in the issue.

· Include information in hunting and fishing guides about invasive species/knotweed.  Everyone who gets a license is also given a guide.  Suggestion to contact DEC to have that information added to the guide.

· Suggestion to reach out to Scout, 4H groups, Lions Club, Rotary Club.

· Kiosks at State Parks, public recreational areas, etc. that provide information on knotweed.

· Provide education and outreach information at local flea markets.

· Suggestion to give presentations at an annual statewide town supervisors meeting, and at local highway supervisors and town or county meetings.

· “Invasive Species: Meet them Eat them” a walk, eating event and presentation.

· Going to each riparian landowner with an information sheet about the plant, explaining how it is spreading.  This step may be necessary when attendance at public meetings is low.

· A DEC annually issued press release about invasive species and knotweed, providing basic information about things to do or NOT to do.  Similar to press releases about bears.

· Internet resources.

· Contact the companies that provide fill materials and make sure they are knotweed free

 

What information should be included in educational materials and outreach efforts?

· It depends on the target audience what message you will present, it will vary between landowners, general public, transportation departments or organizations like Trout Unlimited.

· Pictures- simple and dramatic, share quality photographs.  4-5 different stages:  emerging shoot, grown plant, flower, knotweed stand, knotweed in winter----- to help identify the plant.  This would also show the dramatic changes from young to grown, a diagram for the huge growth spurt.  It is important to show when it is young because that is when people are disturbing and moving affected soils.  Share good pictures because poor pictures lack impact.  Need a scale for the picture- a person standing near the knotweed.  Also take/show a picture of the plant in winter and show how it exposes young soil/land to erosion.  Show how it looks in growing season versus winter.

· As organized and concerned organizations (government and non-governmental) need to teach about knotweed and how NOT to spread it, not only how to treat and manage it.  This should be the first line of defense in education and outreach because people don’t know how they are spreading it.

· Provide a list of BMPs for dealing with knotweed.

· Limit the use of technical jargon.  Provide basic information: what it is, why it is a problem.

· Provide live samples for visitor interpretation during presentations or at park facilities.

· Suggestion to have a sample project on public property- make a display that can be left on public property.  Demonstration projects with BMP’s.

· Inform audience of the benefits of their participation in knotweed management.  Improved wildlife habitat is a motivator to landowners to prevent or treat knotweed.

· When there is opposition to herbicide use, show landowners other areas that have been treated with herbicide use successfully and now have native vegetation growing.

· Always suggest alternative plantings.

· Compare the damage of knotweed to the damage of herbicide use.

· Don’t open a site up without re-vegetating it with indigenous species.

· Promoting or requiring use of clean fill.  Inform landowners and try to develop a public demand for clean fill, may have a better impact than just targeting contractors and highway people regarding fill if get landowners to request that.

· Try to inform local officials, zoning, planning members that it would be beneficial to require certain mitigation/prevention efforts during development permitting (ex.  Need to only use clean fill if you will get a permit for development).

 

Important things to keep in mind.

· Patience, time and constant contact with ALL landowners.

· Volunteers can be useful in spreading the message.  Volunteer retention is important so need to make it fun and give recognition to their efforts and participation.

· Suggestion to organize control efforts after education and outreach has taken hold and inventory efforts have taken place.  Build momentum so not building expectations.  There has to be a sustained effort, because you can lose momentum.

· Quantify existing data and add to invasive plant council database.

· Regional data set helps with management and prevention of spread.

· Understand the motivations of different groups (public groups and individuals) to determine how best to target and present educational materials.

· Provide a list of possible flyers for people to use when developing new ones or to hand out the existing ones.

· Oregon and Connecticut TNC have great brochures to follow as a model.

· Communication and outreach is the most time consuming effort for dealing with and managing knotweed.  It is important to be available to municipalities or separate groups to work on their knotweed problems.

· New York State Invasive Species Task Force, contact them and develop partnerships with them, which may help with recognition of the problem and provide potential financial resources.

· Ag&Markets has a list of plants that are illegal to sell.  See if knotweed is on the list, if not promote its’ listing as an illegal sell.