Partnering with Suffolk County Parks for Invasive Species Management

A critical aspect of our recent invasive species project involved obtaining a permit through Suffolk County Parks. Event permits require a fee per attendee, but no fees were charged for beneficial services. However, in further correspondence with SC Parks, we would needed an event permit and an additional research permit. Our invasive species knowledge was an additional plus in that we would attend events and educate volunteers on identification, hand tools, and removal techniques. We were also about to request a date range, as this gave us the ability to be flexible with our volunteers. Overall, the only caveat meant that Quality Parks do a final report and thank Suffolk Count Parks for partnering with us.

Lessons Learned

We lacked a community base and financial resources to improve volunteer outreach efforts. But we went on with the project non-the-less, scaling it way down. There's also a shortage of trail maintainers (even though an abundance of folks utilize and rely on recreational trails). We need to rethink these efforts and welcome advice and comments below.