Join the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Nebraska Invasive Species Council in celebrating the first annual Nebraska Invasive Species Awareness Week! Each day from 5/27-5/30, an invasive species professional will present about invasive species issues in Nebraska. Join live or watch the recorded presentation on the Nebraska Game and Parks YouTube channel after the presentation.

Date: Tuesday, May 27th

Time: 1:00-2:00PM CT

Where: Click on the following Zoom link to join: https://outdoornebraska.zoom.us/j/95877980351

Presentation Title: Invasive Plants Are Bad, Weedy Plants Are Just Misunderstood

Nebraska has plenty of truly invasive plants that can harm ecosystems and agricultural production. We absolutely need to suppress their growth and spread and limit the damage they cause. However, Nebraska also has a lot of other plants that we call ‘weeds’ or ‘weedy’ that really aren’t harmful at all. Many of them are just opportunists who can appear quicky and in big numbers when nearby plant competition is reduced by grazing, flooding, fire, or other forces. Those opportunists provide great pollinator and wildlife value or, at worst, just come and go without really causing any lasting damage to anyone or anything. Let’s talk about how to tell the difference and why it matters.

Presenter: Chris Helzer, The Nature Conservancy

Chris Helzer is the Nebraska Director of Science and Stewardship for The Nature Conservancy. He conducts research on grasslands, helps develop and test land management strategies, supervises the stewardship of the Conservancy’s staffed preserves in Nebraska, and spends lot of time blathering on about how beautiful and valuable prairies are. Chris started his career as a land manager for the Conservancy 28 years ago and still regrets giving up that job.

Changes to this event can be found on the Outdoor Calendar at calendar.outdoornebraska.gov. Please contact Jena Paugels at 402-429-8716 or jena.paugels@nebraska.gov with questions.