Bellingham, WA Thursday, April 21, 2016; 1:00pm - 3:30pm Address: Whatcom County Noxious Weed Control Board, 322 N. Commercial St., Suite 110, Bellingham WA 98225.This training is free and capacity is limited. If you would like to attend, PLEASE REGISTER WITH JULIE COMBS at pnw.ipc.org@gmail.com (or call 615-812-5295) to reserve your place!The PNW Invasive Plant Council is a non-profit conservation group (http://www.pnw-ipc.org/) working in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, Washington Dept. of Agriculture (WSDA), county noxious weed boards, and other state and local conservation groups on a Citizen Science EDRR (Early Detection Rapid Response) program. With funding from the NFF, NFWF, WSDA and others we are gearing up for our fifth year to search for priority and newly emerging invasive plants in our National Forests, Parks and beyond. We are excited to recruit new volunteers and inspire our current volunteer base to search for invasive plant populations. We have specific focal areas in National Forests and Parks, and DNR Natural Areas Preserves but there is a great need to document emerging invasive populations on all public lands. If you are hiking, boating, kayaking, horseback riding or working on public lands and are interested in participating in our program and/or interested in learning more about invasive plants and the problems they cause you are invited to attend.Citizen Science Invasive Plant EDRR Volunteer TrainingOur mission is to train citizens to identify a suite of invasive plants and to take basic data on their location and population numbers so we can inform land managers of their presence which will help lead to their eradication before they spread. We will train volunteers to identify target invasive plants in a 2.5 hour training which includes a PowerPoint presentation and examination of herbarium specimens and live material. Volunteers who sign up for the program will receive a training booklet to help ID species in the field along with survey forms and instruction on how to fill out the survey form. Trainings are intended to equip volunteers with the knowledge necessary to conduct invasive plant surveys in the places volunteers love to recreate in. We hope that each volunteer who signs up will conduct at least 1 to 2 surveys over the field season.