New York - New Jersey Trail Conference Invasives Strike Force
Started in 2011, the Invasives Strike Force (ISF) is a project born out of the ideas, learning, and experiences of a project between the Trail Conference and Rutgers University.
The goals of the ISF include:
- Collecting information about what invasive plants exist and how abundant they are along our trails
- Using that information to identify areas where the removal of invasive species will allow us to prevent them from spreading into un-invaded communities
- Scheduling ISF trail crew work at those target locations and working to prevent and reverse the invasion along our trails
Seasonal ISF Conservation Corps Crew also conducts removals around the Lower Hudson region and serves as the Lower Hudson PRISM's rapid response crew.
Become an ISF volunteer
Standard Surveying volunteers
- Attend a 1-day training to learn how to identify 14 common invasive plants, how to collect data and how to use a GPS
- You will be assigned a trail section (~2 miles long)
- Walk the trail while identifying and mapping these invaisve plants.
Intermediate Surveying volunteers
- Attend a half-day training session to learn 11 more invasive plants. Surveys are conducted along hiking trails using the same methods as in Standard surveys.
BlockBuster Surveying volunteers
- Attend a 1-day training session to take your surveys on the road over a 3x3 mile block.
- Learn several more invasive plants and search for these as well as Standard level and Intermediate level plants using the same survey methods.
Visit the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference web site to sign up for the above workshops.
