Appalachian Trail Conservancy Joins National Public Lands Day Attack on Invasive Exotic Species

September 4, 2007 — The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), in partnership with land agency partners and local organizations, is taking part in the 14th annual National Public Lands Day (NPLD), the largest hands-on day for volunteers working to preserve and protect America’s lands.  The focus of this year’s effort—on Saturday, September 29--is what the USDA Forest Service considers one of biggest threats to biodiversity in our natural ecosystems: the changes wrought by invasive exotic species of plants, such as habitat destruction, global diversity loss and economic devastation (according to the US Department of Agriculture, the federal government spends over $120 million annually controlling impacts).

ATC has long been a national leader in coordinating volunteers to conserve public lands, bringing under its umbrella about 5,500 men and women each year to contribute upwards of 185,000 hours in maintaining and managing the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and its 250,000-acre greenway.

The workday in Hot Springs on September 29th will begin with identification and removal techniques for 12 of the most threatening plants that invade significant habitats and jeopardize rare, threatened and endangered species. Volunteers will have the opportunity to work removing the plants along the French Broad River on the Appalachian Trail in Pisgah National Forest.

With the coordinated effort of partners including Western North Carolina Alliance, Equinox Environmental, Inc., the U.S. Forest Service, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the management of invasives removal is greatly increasing. The partnership in Hot Springs has already hosted three successful work days, bringing volunteers to the area from North Carolina state parks, Virginia and Tennessee.  Over the past few years, volunteers have monitored the encroachment of those plants, documenting their specific locations. 

NPLD is a program of the National Environmental Education Foundation, which is donating $1,000 to the Hot Springs project. This year, the National Invasive Species Council joined seven federal agencies and more than thirty state park agencies as NPLD partners.

“We are excited that participating volunteers get more than they bargained for.  Not only are volunteers acting as stewards for their public lands, such as the Appalachian Trail, but they also are learning how to identify and control these plants in their own yards,” says Julie Judkins, Appalachian Trail Conservancy resource program manager based in Asheville, N.C. 

This year’s goal is to exceed the 2006 National Public Lands Day achievement of enlisting 100,000 volunteers by at least 10,000.  Participants in the event on September 29 will earn a T-shirt, snacks and educational materials. For questions and registration information, contact Julie Judkins at (828) 254-3708 or by e-mail at jjudkins@appalachiantrail.org.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a volunteer-based, private, nonprofit organization dedicated for more than 80 years to the conservation of the 2,174-mile Appalachian Trail, so that it will forever remain a simple footpath, within a protected greenway, along the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Maine.