Invasive Species Ambassador Training

Fifty-nine students completed the inaugural Wild Spotter Invasive Species Ambassador Training, held December 5 – 7, 2023, as part of the nationwide Invasives Free USA campaign, and are the first class of certified Invasive Species Ambassadors. The training was held in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and brought together a diverse array of people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand to share information within the entire natural resources management field. The training was hosted and coordinated by the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, Invasive Plant Control, Inc. (IPC), and the USDA Forest Service.

Invasives Free USA and Wild Spotter, in unison as concept and program, provide the foundation on which the Ambassador program is based, emphasizing a grassroots movement focused on building local capacity and increasing community engagement regarding invasive species management. The Invasives Free USA campaign, initiated in 2016 by privately-owned IPC, focuses on protecting our favorite outdoor places from invasive species. Wild Spotter engages and empowers the public to find, map, and prevent invasive species in America’s wild places via Smartphone app, putting the power of citizen science at your fingertips.

The content presented at the intensive training is evidence of a shift away from standard invasive species practices that have been for the past several decades. Mike Ielmini, National Invasive Species Program Manager for the USDA Forest Service said, “This shift will be heavy on community capacity building and grassroots engagements, and light on bureaucratic organizational structures which have the potential to waste time and money. It’s necessary for the invasive species community to get back to a ‘place-based,’ ground-up approach rather than a top-down, centralized approach.”

“The training is more about the human factor of the invasive species threat and community engagement, [and] less on prevention, control, or eradication of invasive plants, pathogens, or animals,” said Steve Manning, president of Invasive Plant Control, Inc., a Tennessee-based company focused on managing invasive species nationwide.

The three-day training course, with nearly 20 speakers, addressed key topics geared toward natural resources managers and volunteers on how to engage, implement, manage, measure, market and sustain program success. Attendees gained advanced knowledge on building program support, creating mutual partnerships, sourcing program funding, learning volunteer recruitment and management strategies, implementing relationship building techniques and boosting program communication and promotion.

“The goal of the Invasive Species Ambassador training is to energize people and affect change at the ground level,” said Chuck Bargeron, Director of the UGA Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health. “The training familiarized natural resource managers and volunteers with the Invasives Free USA campaign, the Wild Spotter program, and stocked them with a comprehensive toolbox of best practices for grassroots program success. Invasive species management success is powered by people.”

The culmination of the training had attendees put learning into practice with team development of an invasive species management campaign and presentation for a defined invasive species occurrence scenario. Ambassadors received jackets and medals at the graduation awards banquet.

Common themes of “start small to accomplish something big; build momentum and think long term; make achievable goals; engage, plan, and work with partners; identify priority areas in a community and work to engage, support and accomplish those efforts,” echoed enthusiastically among attendees. Armed with a fresh approach to invasive species management and a supportive colleague network, the newly minted ‘Class of 2023’ Ambassadors are ready to create invasive free spaces in their local areas.

Looking forward, the annual “Innovations in Invasive Species Management” conference, hosted by IPC in December 2024, continues to provide valuable information about the latest tools and technologies to detect, prevent, control, and eradicate terrestrial and aquatic invasive species threating the planet.

The next Wild Spotter Invasive Species Ambassador Training is being planned for February 3-7, 2025, in Lake Guntersville State Park, Alabama.

The Wild Spotter Invasive Species Ambassador Training supports the movement towards Invasives Free USA and a refocusing on grassroots community engagement and capacity building against invasive species in America’s wild places.