Are you a landowner who has been battling invasives on your land for years? Or an individual who is passionate about increasing natives in Indiana?
The Montgomery County Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area steering committee may be a way for you to share your knowledge and skills with other like-minded individuals to help manage invasives in the community.
A CISMA is a local group or partnership of people who collectively manage the problem of invasive species spreading across the landscape. CISMAs operate by engaging citizens interested in addressing invasive species across a variety of land ownership. Work began in Montgomery County in 2020 under the direction of the county’s Soil and Water Conservation District. Organizers are now trying to expand beyond singular events and include more of the community by forming a steering committee, creating a Facebook Group to share knowledge and generating more programs in the county.
The steering committee is open to all — from professional land managers, landowners large or small and those without land. The committee is looking for individuals who are willing to get involved with others to manage invasive species through various tasks such as the hands on managing of invasives, organizing events, outreach and education and more.
Those interested in joing the committee should send their name and email address to Megan Sweeney, who serves as the program coordinator at the MCSWCD and manages the local CISMA. Organizers also would like to create a working group of individuals who will move to different landowner’s properties to conduct control operations. This will be a place to find other like-minded individuals, ask questions and learn from one another.
To learn more about the organization, visit https://montgomerycoswcd.com/mccisma and join the email and or mailing list at http://montgomerycoswcd.com/subscribe.
Those interested also can join the MC-CISMA Facebook group at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/montgomerycountycisma.
The Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District is located at 2036 Lebanon Road, Crawfordsville, and can be reached at 765-363-0405, ext. 3 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
