The Jackson County Soil & Water Conservation District has been trying to work with trustees and trustee advisory board members, the state and county highway departments, and the public to educate them the on importance of eradicating noxious and invasive weeds and keeping up on maintenance to keep them off of their land for a couple of years. We have held meetings, conducted surveys at the Farmer’s Ag Breakfast and the Crop Production Workshop, and put up a fair displays showing pictures of various noxious and invasive weeds. At the fair booth, we provided brochures on this topic and talked with visitors about the concerns they have on their property.
The SWCD board decided we should form a Cooperative Weed Management Area group and take advantage of the Southern Indiana Cooperative Invasive Management group’s grant. We invited commissioners, county council members, drainage board members, state and county highway department heads, IDNR Wildlife Biologist, Jackson-Washington State Forest Manager, SWCD board members, and local individuals with an interest in this topic. Some landowners were asked because they filled out a slip at our fair booth asking for more information. One landowner believes he lost some cattle due to having poison hemlock in the hay fed to his cattle. Allison Shoaf, from Brown County, was invited because of her success with starting a CWMA group in her county and Teena Ligman, Hoosier National Forest, was one of the charter members for the SICIM. We felt they would be able to help guide us in what we needed to do to get started on a good foundation.
The first meeting was held on Dec. 8, 2016 with 11 people in attendance. We have had an average of 8 people attending the monthly meetings and everyone participates in the discussions. We are currently working on filling out the application for the SICIM grant for start-up groups. We are also excited to begin educating everyone to do their part to get rid of noxious and invasive weeds.
Submitted by Terry Ault, District Coordinator