The GCA Speaks at National Meeting of Invasive Plant Experts

October 26, 2017

Cayce McAlister, GCA Zone IX chairman and member of Garden Club of Nashville, spoke at the joint annual meeting of the North American Invasive Species Management Association and the Nevada Weed Management Association, held October 23-26 in Reno, Nevada.  Some 400 invasive species managers, researchers, federal, state, and local agency land managers, nonprofit managers, and academics were expected to attend.

McAlister spoke during an October 25 concurrent session entitled Success Stories: Partnerships, Prevention, and Eradication, during which she will feature two GCA invasive plant initiatives, Weed Wrangle and the Botanical Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and Promotion Act, H.R 1054.  

McAlister’s Nashville club established Weed Wrangle^® in 2015 as a one-day, citywide volunteer effort to help rescue public parks and green spaces from invasive species through hands-on removal of especially harmful trees, vines, and flowering plants.  The initiative has grown from the local Nashville effort into a sophisticated multi-state volunteer force in just three years, with Weed Wrangles held in eighty cities across Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Oregon.  Garden Club of Nashville created a template to encourage GCA clubs and other organizations throughout the country to mount successful Weed Wrangle projects.

The Botanical Sciences Bill, H.R. 1054, responds to the GCA's long-standing call for more botanists and the protection of native plants on public lands.  The GCA’s National Affairs & Legislation Committee worked with Chicago Botanic Garden and other organizations to refine and promote this legislation, which was introduced February 14, 2017, by U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), vice chair of the Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition, and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).  To date, the bill has 19 cosponsors and has been referred to committee.

 

This article was amended from an earlier version which was posted prior to the occurence of the event. 

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