Tag Archives: Invaders of Texas Citizen Science Program

June 1, 2012 · 7:46 pm

Record Sightings of Invasives and Attend the Next Invasive Species Eradication Workshop

Reported locations of the Giant Reed (Arundo donax) around Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.

You too can join the fight against invasive species by attending the next Invasive Species Eradication workshop. This workshop helps you become a more active citizen scientist by teaching you about invasive species and how to report them.

I recorded my first invasive species, my nemesis the Giant Reed (Arundo donax), early last year with my GPS, pencil and paper, and digital camera, and I reported my information on the Texas Invasives website for other scientists to understand how invasive species were spreading.

Many other citizen scientists across Texas have reported their invasive sightings too. For example, View a map of the reported Giant Reed locations in Texas.

We won’t always need pencil and paper. The May 2012 iWire newsletter talks about a new Invaders of Texas mobile app to report invasive species. The Invaders of Texas program received an empowerment grant from the Motorola Foundation to develop a mobile application for Android devices.

Attend the next invasive species workshop in Austin

These invasive species workshops are held around the state throughout the year, and the next workshop in Austin will be on Saturday, June 16th, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

I look forward to attending this upcoming workshop to learn about the latest techniques for identifying and reporting invasives and meeting other citizen scientists. I want to learn more about how to use an iPhone to easily report invasives when I see them. The workshop will also cover the new Eradication Calculator, which will help to organize and coordinate removal efforts.

Learn more about this invasive species workshop and others around Texas at Texas Invasives workshops or contact Ms. Jessica Strickland, the Wildflower Center’s invasive species manager.

Your friend,
Ben

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Filed under Android, Eradication Calculator, Giant Reed, Invaders of Texas, Invaders of Texas Citizen Science Program, Invasive Species, iPhone, Jessica Strickland, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Motorola Foundation

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November 10, 2011 · 6:27 pm

Commander Ben rallies scientists at the 2011 Texas Invasive Plant and Pest Conference

I’m so excited to let you know that I gave my first formal talk about invasive species, “Origin of an invasive hunter: Educating kids of all ages about invasives”, yesterday at the 2011 Texas Invasive Plant and Pest Conference at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas.

It was a blast!  Thank you so much to the many scientists and citizen scientists in my audience who attended and gave me a rousing round of applause at the end of my talk.  (I also showed them The boy who cried invasives, as part of my presentation.)

I also want to thank the student from Moody High School in Corpus Cristi who raised his hand during the question and answer session to let me know “that was pretty awesome man!”  You’re cool too and you and your team of students have been doing great work against the saltcedar bandits!

Thanks again to the conference organizers who invited me to speak.  That was great!  I can’t wait to talk about invasives in front of everyone again!

I was honored to have a picture with Dr. Damon Waitt (right), Senior Director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and past president of the Texas Invasive Plant and Pest Council, and Mr. Travis Gallo (left), the Invaders of Texas Citizen Science Program Coordinator.

I had a fantastic opportunity to talk with many wonderful scientists during the conference, and I had a chance to create several short video interviews.  I’ll be uploading them in the coming days, and I look forward to sharing them with you so you can enjoy some of the conference fun and discover new secrets about invasive species.

Commander Ben signing off…

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Filed under 2011 Texas Invasive Plant Conference, Corpus Cristi, Damon Waitt, Invaders of Texas Citizen Science Program, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Moody High School, Mr. Travis Gallo, Texas Invasive Plant and Pest Council

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June 2, 2011 · 10:21 pm

Fantastic site to learn about invasive species in Texas

When I first wanted to learn more about invasive species for my science fair project, I turned to the web and found a great site to learn all about invasive species in Texas.  (Yes.  I’m a native Texan! 🙂 )
 
Texas Invasives at http://www.texasinvasives.org is a wonderful web site that teaches you all about the invasive species that are causing harm, both economically and ecologically, to our great state.  You can go into their invasives database to learn about each of the species, including the famous (or infamous!) Giant Reed–my favorite nemesis.
 
You can even sign up as a citizen scientist to report sightings of invasive species and have them added to a map that everyone can easily access.  I’ve already added a few sightings of my own and learned a lot about invasive and native plants along the way.
 
If you’re new to learning about invasives, especially in Texas, or if you’re a seasoned invasive hunter, this site will be a great resource for you.  Five green thumbs up for the Texas Invasives site!

Commander Ben signing off…

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Filed under Citizen Scientist, Giant Reed, Invaders of Texas Citizen Science Program, Texas Invasives, Volunteer Work

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