Friday, September 4, 2009

Announcing the Invasive Plant Management Field Workshop

The Invasive Plant Management Workshop: A Silvicultural Perspective is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at Shaver’s Creek Outdoor Classroom and Stone Valley Experimental Forest, Petersburg, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. The program is scheduled from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Registration begins at 8:30 AM. The cost is $45.00 per person and includes refreshments and lunch.

Invasions of nonnative plants into our forests continue to go unchecked and unmonitored. Invasive nonnative plants infest forest understories and forest openings. Increasingly these plants begin to reduce forest productivity, hinder forest use and management activities, and degrade diversity and wildlife habitat. Invasive non-native plants occur as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns, and forbs. Some have been introduced accidentally, but most have been brought intentionally as ornamentals or livestock forage. These plants arrived without their natural controls (insects and diseases) that tend to keep native plants in balance. Most are able to increase across the landscape with little opposition.

This workshop is designed for natural resource management professionals, vegetation managers, land managers, and forest landowners and will focus on identification, impact, and control of the most severe forest invasive plants.

The workshop was developed in cooperation with the Penn State University School of Forest Resources, Penn State Stone Valley Experimental Forest, Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, and Alenza. It qualifies for Pennsylvania certified pesticide applicator credits in Core and Categories 5, 10, 14, 18, and 23. It is also approved for Society of American Foresters CFE credits in categories 1 and 2.

Pre-registration for this workshop is required prior to Tuesday, September 29, 2009. For registration or additional information contact Penn State Cooperative Extension at 814-355-4897 or CentreExt@psu.edu. Space is limited so register early.

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