WIN Quarterly Winter 2021 Newsletter

Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation & Development Western Invasives Network (WIN) Coordinator (and 2021 OISC Vice Chair!) Troy Abercrombie, is providing a quarterly WIN newsletter to subscribers. The most recent newsletter is packed with program updates, partner and CWMA spotlights, upcoming events, job postings, a dad joke of the day, and more! Check out the Winter 2021 Newsletter here. Do you have additions for the next newsletter? Contact Troy at weeds@cascadepacific.org.

For those that don’t know, WIN is a multi-agency network of individuals and organizations concerned with rural and urban invasive weed issues in NW Oregon and SW Washington. WIN partners include members from Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Watershed Councils, State and local Parks and Recreation departments, Portland State University & OSU/WSU Extension, Native American Tribes, County Public Works departments, State and Federal Natural Resource Management agencies, Timber Companies, City and County Government departments; and many others! To learn more about WIN, click here.

Oregon Invasive Species Hotline Launches Redesigned Website

The Oregon Invasive Species Hotline, an online reporting and reviewing tool used by citizens and dozens of local and state agencies, has been relaunched with a new look and new functionality. Funding for the Hotline upgrade was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and contributions from members of the Oregon Forest Pest Detector Program and the interagency Oregon Invasive Species Council. The new website will make it even easier for citizens to report sightings and learn about the invasive species that threaten Oregon’s environment and economy.

Hotline visitors can easily search for existing reports by clicking icons on the map, or typing in more detailed searches into a search bar. Photos are now more prominent and easier to add to reports from a mobile phone. The site has been redesigned with smart phones in mind, and reports can be easily made or searched from your phone’s internet browser.

The Hotline was first launched in 2008 and has been an invaluable tool for citizens and managers, particularly for the management of new locations of priority species. The most effective ways to manage invasive species are to either prevent their spread or to quickly manage new sites, and the Hotline provides an easy way for Oregonians to get information about infestations to local managers. With the new redesign and mobile compatibility, the Hotline will be more effective than ever.

The Hotline continues to partner with the Oregon iMapInvasives program, incorporating reports from Oregonians into a statewide invasive species dataset that is further shared with local, state, and national agencies. Both the Oregon Invasive Species Hotline and the Oregon iMapInvasives program are housed at Portland State University and the hotline is managed in partnership with the Western Invasives Network and the Oregon Invasive Species Council.