Southeast VT CISMA

We want to introduce you to Sam Pierce, the new rust Program's Land Management Coordinator serving with us for 2024-25! She has a background in environmental education, and she is excited to facilitate more opportunities for anyone looking to learn about and respond to introduced species in our community. She will be updating our website and newsletters regularly with upcoming events and learning materials, so stay tuned!

Come help the Windham County Natural Resource Conservation District celebrate all of the invasive species work they have accomplished this year!

Join the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation Districts for our Annual Meeting Thursday November 14th 2024!
At 3pm we will be touring recent water quality improvements that the district implemented at the Dummerston Covered Bridge. No registration required for this portion of the event.
Starting at 5pm at Scott Farm Orchard we will begin the evening with a silent auction followed by a delicious dinner from The Porch Restaurant. Enjoy a drink from the cash bar or some homemade dessert as you try to win a door raffle prize and listen to live music from Frost Heaves & Hales. Keynote presentation by Vern Grubinger.
Space is limited, please register here, www.windhamcountynrcd.org/annual-meeting-registration or email [email protected] with any questions.

Join the Southeast Vermont Cooperative Invasive Species Management Association (CISMA) on a forest walk in the Whetstone watershed. We will be joined by members of the CISMA and a Forester from Long View Forest to talk about invasive plant management and planning.
At this event, we will teach plant identification, discuss invasive plant management, and how to use iNaturalist. Our walk will take place off of Reservoir Road on an 85 acre woodlot owned by The Housing Foundation.
Please provide RSVP For parking details and weather information. RSVP: tinyurl.com/whetstonewalk or email [email protected].

This summer, join the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District to monitor for the invasive water chestnut! No prior experience with invasives required! Participants will bring a kayak, canoe, or small boating vessel, life preserver, and sunscreen (email [email protected] if you need one). At each session, we will start by sharing how to identify water chestnut, remove it safely and clean their kayaks.
If you are interested in joining, please fill out this survey: https://forms.gle/tXvgzNV8uqGt8rCP6

Current schedule:
Rockingham: June 20, July 12 and 13, August 11 and 14, and September 13 and 15
Vernon: June 28 and 29, July 21 and 23, August 23 and 24, and September 27 and 28

Each paddle is themed! Let us know if you have ideas!

Kayak for Conservation Join the Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District to monitor for the invasive water chestnut! No prior experience with invasives required! Participants will bring a kayak, canoe, or small boating vessel, life preserver, and sunscreen. At each session, we will start by sharing how to id...

Come join the Tree-of-Heaven Scavenger Hunt at Living Memorial Park on June 15th. From 11 - 2, the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative will review how to identify spotted lanternfly and Tree-of-Heaven. Participants will receive spotted lanternfly traps to put up and monitor on their property. We hope everyone will sign up for an area to look for Tree-of-Heaven! Time and weather permitting, the group will hunt for Tree-of-Heaven at some nearby locations.
Register by June 8th here: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=WHcXHGtN3EOq6zucQlYpZ9nugR8WeCNAv9e29zxkHpxUMllETFg0UEFRUkFCTTM5MDlDRlRWQ1NBRy4u
For more information on this project, visit the landing page: https://vtinvasives.org/tree-of-heaven-early-detection-community-science-opportunity

Tree-of-Heaven Early Detection Community Science Opportunity! | Vermont Invasives Tree-of-Heaven Early Detection is a community scientist project managed by the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative (FEMC) intended to document the presence and absence of Tree-of-Heaven throughout Vermont. The information collected will be invaluable for the management of two invasive species:...

Calling landscapers, foresters, and residents in Brattleboro and Marlboro! SEVT CISMA needs your help mapping invasive plants within the Whetstone Brook watershed.
Bittersweet, buckthorn, knotweed, and the like are a handful for anyone working alone. Mapping helps us plan how to deal with these problems on a watershed scale – and allows us to detect and address new invasive species early before they become another entrenched problem.
Click here to share information with the project, sign up for a workshop, or request a free home visit from one of CISMA’s plant experts! https://forms.gle/VSmVTbSMKGuqnCh7A
This project is funded by the Vermont Watershed Grant program.

Protecting Whetstone Brook Riparian Zones; Mapping, Planning, and Outreach project. The Southeast Vermont Cooperative Invasive Species Management Association (SEVT CISMA) is mapping terrestrial invasive plants growing within the Whetstone Brook watershed as part of our Protecting Whetstone Brook Riparian Zones, Phase 2: Mapping, Planning, and Outreach Project. We want to work with....

SE VT CISMA will be hosting an Invasive Scavenger Hunt and an Invasive Pull with Prizes at the The Herrick’s Cove Wildlife Festival. There will be prizes, so bring your whole family and get involved with this fun event!

10:30: Scavenger Hunt and Walk: Terrestrial and Aquatic Invasives
2:30: Invasive Pull Competition!

We hope to see you there!

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Let's get planting!
Did you know that one of the most important ways to combat invasives is to plant native ones? Sign up to pick up yours today!

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This a wonderful collaborative event with Southeast VT CISMA and Women and Our Woods. Register in the event information below.

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What a delectable treat! Come join the BK CISMA for this mouth watering event!

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Please help restore the Orvis Property in Manchester, VT! And then you can check out the Batten Kill Fly Fishing Festival afterwards :)

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Cooperative Invasive Species Management Associations, or CISMAs, are regional partnerships that share information and manage the spread of invasives in a targeted region. Did you know that Vermont has five CISMAs? You can learn more about them and hear from their representatives at our upcoming webinar “Tackling Invasives Together: CISMAs in Vermont” on April 15 from 7-8pm.

Join us to learn about how we can work together to slow the spread of invasive species across Vermont. Learn more and register here: https://vlt.org/events/tackling-invasives-together-cismas-in-vermont/

Join the Southeast Vermont Cooperative Invasive Species Management Association (CISMA) on January 31st from 6 - 7pm to hear their report on monitoring invasive plants along the Whetstone Brook. The CISMA worked with the community to map invasive species in iNaturalist. At the webinar, we will share the results of this project and hear feedback from you!
How can we reach more areas in the watershed? What invasive plants are missing? Let us know!
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/report-on-the-whetstone-watershed-tickets-781027864367?aff=oddtdtcreator . Questions? Email: [email protected] or call: 802-689-3024

Beware of the berries!🍒🌿

The holiday season has already kicked off, and folks are adorning their homes with cheerful decor. Whether you are decorating your tree, designing a mantle, or building a wreath, remember to utilize foliage from our native species, rather than the invasive ones. 🌲

A common mistake people will make during this time of year is using invasive berries in place of the traditional glistening, spherical, apple-red berries of the winterberry plant. Winterberry IS native, but several look-alikes are not! Some examples of invasive look-alikes include Oriental Bittersweet, Winged Euonymus, Japanese Barberry, and Autumn Olive. Choose your wreaths and decorations carefully and reduce the spread of invasives in your own backyard!

Invasive Foliage in Autumn, Part Three! As many plants have lost their leaves, many invasive plants still hold on to their leaves...which makes them easy to spot!

To learn more about Invasive Species and their management, check out our Resources tab on our website at:
https://sites.google.com/view/sevtcisma/home

Invasive Foliage in Autumn, Part Two! Here are more invasive plants that you might find on your riverside/ wetland autumn walks.

To learn more about Invasive Species and their management, check out our Resources tab on our website at: https://sites.google.com/view/sevtcisma/resources/invasive-plants

As you are pulling out your winter gear and folding away your summer attire, plants are doing the same. As you take your late autumn walks, you’ll notice that some plants hang onto their summer leaves a little bit longer than others. Browse your local trails and observe that many of Vermont’s invasive plant species still have much of their leaves and berries. Take a look at the pictures above and see if you can identify these species in your backyard… it is helpful knowledge if you would like to enact some late fall or early spring invasive species management!

To learn more about Invasive Species and their management, check out our Resources tab on our website at: https://sites.google.com/view/sevtcisma/resources/invasive-plants

We want to introduce to you, Astara (they/them), the new Vermont Land Trust VHCB AmeriCorps Program's Land Management Coordinator serving with us Southeast Vermont Cisma for 2023-24! Astara has dedicated much of their career to nature- and place-based education across the country, most recently as a Behavior Specialist for troubled teens. They have a passion for the outdoors and for connecting the ecological community to the human community, especially those who are underserved. Astara will be supporting our work Southeast Vermont Cisma on invasive species management and outreach and digging in the dirt with us while we restore conserved lands with native species and healthy landscapes. Welcome aboard, Astara!

Accessibility: Picture of Astara (they/them), a light-skinned human with dark pink short hair, kneeling with an oak tree sapling in their left hand and dirt in their right hand. Astara is smiling at the camera while planting the sapling into a hole in the earth and is surrounded by grassy wetland.

Help the Southeast VT CISMA to mapping terrestrial invasive plants growing within the Whetstone Brook watershed! Join us the Friday, September 1st at 3:30pm at the Roots Social Justice Center on an informational walk. We will walk along the Whetstone Brook, identify invasive species, and show how to report them on the iNaturalist app. Our walk will end in town, just in time for Gallery Walk!
If you are interested in this event, register now at:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-science-walk-whetstone-brook-invasive-plants-tickets-699204749227?aff=oddtdtcreator
We will cover how to record and map invasive plants using iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/whetstone-brook-invasive-plants).
If you are interested in having an SE VT CISMA member evaluate and record the invasive plants on your property, please fill out our form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12DwX3jGMhYgRKNC8xC77MR6Dpvse2TNi84gAiP7vuGw/viewform?edit_requested=true

Protecting Whetstone Brook Riparian Zones; Mapping, Planning, and Outreach project. Provide your contact information below and an SE VT CISMA member will reach out to you.

In July the invasive plant known as pale swallowwort was confirmed in Burlington and Georgia, VT! It is a perennial climbing vine native to Europe.
To identify this plant look for twining vines up to 7 ft in length with opposite, long, oval leaves that come to a pointed tip and star-like pink-maroon colored flowers. It closely resembles its relative black swallowwort, another invasive plant that has deep purple flowers.

Click these links below for more information and images of pale swallowwort:

https://www.vtinvasives.org/invasive/swallowwort-pale

https://files.constantcontact.com/a2bee447101/af1633b0-c5c1-434c-a365-4ab8900c1774.pdf?rdr=true

Join us for our Community Science in the Whetstone Brook event on Friday August 4th!
Follow this link to register- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-science-walk-whetstone-brook-invasive-plants-tickets-667047365627?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Southeast Vermont Cooperative Invasive Species Management Association (SEVT CISMA) is mapping terrestrial invasive plants growing within the Whetstone Brook watershed as part of our Protecting Whetstone Brook Riparian Zones: Mapping, Planning, and Outreach Project. We will be working with residents within the Whetstone Brook watershed to record and map invasive plants using iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/whetstone-brook-invasive-plants).

On July 13th at 6:30 we will walk through identifying invasive species at Orchard Hill in Brattleboro and how to report these species on the iNaturalist app.

Please register for this event at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kickoff-community-science-walk-whetstone-brook-invasive-plants-tickets-667039341627?aff=oddtdtcreator

If you are interested in having an SE VT CISMA member evaluate and record the invasive plants on your property, please fill out our form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12DwX3jGMhYgRKNC8xC77MR6Dpvse2TNi84gAiP7vuGw/viewform?edit_requested=true

Learn about the invasive Japanese stiltgrass growing in your neighborhood with the Southeast Vermont Cooperative Invasive Species Management Association (SEVT CISMA). Join us on a walk around a residential neighborhood to show where stiltgrass typically grows, what it looks like, how to differentiate it from other plants, and how it can be removed.
The walk will begin at the Retreat Farm’s Woodland Trail head on June 14th at 5:00 pm. To register for this event, email us at: [email protected] or call: 802-689-3024.
Visit www.sevtcisma.org to learn more about our work on invasive species in our area. For more information about stiltgrass, visit: https://vtinvasives.org/invasive/japanese-stiltgrass

Register here- https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stilt-grass-neighborhood-walk-tickets-640562147627

The second installment of our invasive plant series is taking place at a property in Dummerston that has received invasive plant treatment. Learn about your options for invasive plant management and sharpen your identification skills!

Follow this link to register
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/se-vermont-invasive-plant-management-and-dummerston-case-study-site-visit-tickets-602738205197
Or visit sevtcisma.org

Who doesn’t like a splash of color from a flower in early spring? Well, if that splash is lesser celandine, it may turn into a tsunami in a couple years’ time. All the green in these pictures is lesser celandine. This plant is highly invasive and should be dug as soon as it is found. The area seen in these pictures was heavily infested with other invasives (honeysuckle, multi-flora rose, and bittersweet) and when they were mowed it created the perfect conditions for lesser celandine to move in and take over.

Visit https://adkinvasives.com/Invasive-Species/Detail/56 for more information.