Weed Busters!

Last year, we trained our first generation of Weed Watcher volunteers! Weed Watchers explore our preserves and map new occurrences of invasive plant species that threaten our native flora. The Conservancy's weed management philosophy emphasizes preventing new weed infestations to minimize the impact and expense of weed control.

The second part of this program is promptly controlling new weed infestations. That's where Weed Busters come in. Control may include pulling, cutting, digging roots, mowing, or applying herbicide to foliage or cut stumps. In some cases, we have enough advance notice to describe the projects on this website and in our volunteer newsletter, along with our other outdoor projects. In other cases, we won't have enough time.

So, we've developed a list of volunteers who want to be contacted about these short-notice field projects. If a given workday does not fit your schedule, we'll understand and hope to see you at the next one! We conduct 6-10 weed control workdays throughout Maryland in a given growing season (April through November), and we hope that people on the Weed Busters list will be able to participate in 2 or more workdays per season.

If you'd like to be notified about these field projects, please send an e-mail to dbarber@tnc.org or call Deborah Barber, Volunteer Coordinator at (301) 897-8570. Thanks, and we hope to see you in the field!