Training will be provided by the Benton County Noxious Weed Control Board, Native Plant Society, and Friends of Badger Mountain.  We expect the session to last for up to two hours, including an optional “field trip” at the end to observe noxious weeds growing among native plants in the wild. The Field Trip depends on finding a close-by area with several species, which are at a large enough growth stage to be able to distinguish varieties. The goal is education about invasive weeds, especially the particularly harmful ones classified as Noxious Weeds. We will focus on the several species that are infesting our local communities, including the ridgeline preserves of Badger and Candy Mountains.  In addition, we will discuss how to distinguish native plants from noxious weeds and talk about control measures that preserve native plants. 

Community members wanting to learn more about noxious weeds in the area are urged to attend – we all see them every day on vacant lots, roadsides, etc. Do you want to help restore and beautify our iconic ridgeline shrub steppe preserves? Friends of Badger Mountain has been deploying volunteer weeding crews to manually remove the noxious weeds from our wonderful mountain preserves and trails for the past nine years.  Significant reductions have been achieved, but like our gardens, weeds continue to return.   We are tentatively planning to start this year’s volunteer weeding crews sometime around the middle of May.  We especially invite those of you for this training who might be interested in volunteering to help us continue cleaning up the remaining Badger and Candy Mountain noxious weeds. Expect some tasty treats to keep your blood sugar levels up at the training.Please RSVP to me if you are thinking of attending the training session, it helps immensely with the planning! Invite others you think would be interested.