The Forest Health Works Project is requesting proposals for free invasive plant control projects in communities across Rhode Island.  Approximately five sites will be selected state-wide. Land trusts, towns, watershed groups, etc. are eligible to apply. For further information, download an application or email FHWP_RFP at rinhs dot org 
 
Application Due Date: Friday, Sept. 3rd

Mark your calendars!
 
Forest Health Works Project (FHWP) Open House
When:       Monday, August 23rd, 7 – 8:30pm
Where:      W. Alton Jones Campus -  Environmental Education Center, West Greenwich, RI

This is a community event where you can meet our high school summer crew, enjoy coffee & dessert, and learn about the current and future Forest Health Works Projects! The FHWP is a project of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, in partnership between state and local organizations, to help improve the health & sustainability of Rhode Island’s forests by inventorying and restoring up to 50,000 acres of priority forestland for invasive plants. 
 
We welcome the opportunity to meet members of the community and showcase our work. We hope to see you there!
 
For more information, please contact us at 401-874-5800  
 
Directions to the W. Alton Jones Campus Environmental Education Center

A periodic reassessment of invasive species in the marine environment in New England has revealed…nothing new. That’s good given the list of potentially disastrous introductions that could occur (think Caulerpa taxifolia, mitten crab, or rapa whelk). RINHS was involved in the previous assessment, in 2001, and has been following the current assessment from a distance through its partners, NBEP and RI Aquatic Invasive Species Working Group. Species lists from both assessments will be included in RINHS’s BORIIS database. Get the full story here:

link to story on seacoastonline.com

Okay, we get this question from time to time: why don’t we encourage people to develop a palate for invasive species as a way to control them? The usual answer is that encouraging human uses of invasive species encourages people to move them around, either intentionally, to create new populations for exploitation, or accidentally, because they’re bringing them along to cook later and they escape.

But here’s an interesting example from today’s news: Officials from NOAA are encouraging the development of a market for lionfish meat and a fishery to supply it as a way to control explosive population growth of a highly destructive invasive species.

Story at MSNBC

I’d like to know how they taste dredged through a thick beer batter and fried and served on a pile of french fries and a generous slosh of vinegar.