| Inside This Edition All About HIP: - Help HIP!
- Upcoming Volunteer Workdays
- Trade In Program
- Native Nectar is back!
Programs and Services: - Photo Contest
- Rain Barrels & Accessories Still Available
- Rain on Main Dates
- 2023 Plat Books are Now Available
- Women4theLand Interest Form
- Native Tree Sale Coming Soon
District News: - Welcome Jacob and Casey
- 2023 Board Meeting Information
- Become an Affiliate Member this Year!
Conservation Corner: - Stop the Seed: Managing Invasive Species in the Summer
- Donate Your Extra Vegetables
Extras - OISC Clean Sweep Pesticide Disposal Information
- Hamilton County 4 - H Fair
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| | | | | Help Hamilton County Invasives Partnership (HIP) HIP is looking for volunteers! |
| HIP is made up of concerned citizens, property owners and managers and representatives from groups such as: municipalities, parks and recreation departments, environmental organizations, community groups, non-profits, businesses, and more.
While there are subject matter experts part of the HIP team, you certainly do not have be an expert to join. HIP is a great place to apply your knowledge and skills or learn. Programs: - Educational Events
- Boot Brush Stations
- GIS Invasive Species Monitoring
- Weed Wrangle Volunteer Workdays
- Strike Team Workdays
- Native for Invasive Trade In
- Workshops & Training
- Invasive Species Property Surveys
- and more!
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| The Hamilton County Invasives Partnership (HIP) was established in 2019 as the county's Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA). The Partnership serves to unite land owners and managers, organizations, and citizens in the battle against invasive species and the destruction they cause across the county.
Vision: That Hamilton County's ecology, economy, and public health will be unobstructed by invasive species. |
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| | |  | Program Guidelines:
Invasive species must be properly identified, removed, and properly disposed of by the homeowner. Landscape plantings of callery pear species (bradford, Cleveland, etc.), burning bush, Japanese barberry, and Norway Maple are the preferred species for removal but you can apply when removing other invasive species listed on the Official Indiana Invasive Species Council Invasive Plant List (found here).
HIP and the SWCD reserve the right to change the program guidelines and requirements. |
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| Native Nectar is back! This time with blackberry! To bring awareness to native plants and the invasive species that threaten them, we’ve partnered with Bier Brewery for a second round of Native Nectar. Visit Bier Brewery in Indianapolis (5133 E. 65th St.) on June 29th to get a pint or 6 pack. Native Nectar will also be available at the Carmel taproom (13720 N. Meridian) at a later date. Bier Brewery is family owned and operated. Their third location will feature a 6,000 square foot taproom, a large outdoor green space including a dog park and children’s playground and more just off of the Allisonville Road Trail right in Noblesville. The Noblesville location is set to open this winter. |
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| | Only a few more rain barrels & its accessories are
left for this year!! Get yours while they last!! You do not need to be a Hamilton County, Indiana resident to place an order in any of the SWCD sales but you do need to pick up in Noblesville, Indiana. 5 Quick & Powerful Benefits of Having a Rain Barrel: - Reduces Rainwater Runoff
- Provides Water During Droughts
- Saves You Money on Water Bill
- Plants Love Rainwater
- Overall Improves Local Water Quality
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| | | Jacob Luken has a bachelor’s degree in environmental management from Indiana University Bloomington. He has a professional certification in watershed management, a certificate in underwater resource management, and is training as a Certified Ecological Restorations Practitioner. Jacob has worked extensively with ecological restorations, invasive species control, and forestry in the urban environment. |
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| | Casey Venable recently graduated in May from the University of Indianapolis with a bachelor’s in Environmental Sustainability. While in college she completed research work in spider taxonomy, including illustration and species identification. In the fall she will be attending The O’Neill school at IU for her Master of Science in Environmental Science. Beyond her studies she considers herself a caring granddaughter and girlfriend. She has interests in biology, evolution, criminology, and the pursuit of learning. Her hobbies include drawing, painting, and watching movies in her free time. Casey also enjoys traveling with her family and hiking. |
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| | | Become an Affiliate Member this Year! | Who are SWCD Affiliate Members?
Affiliate members are concerned about the conservation and proper use and care of our natural resources. Affiliate members are businesses who want to support district efforts and connect with landowners. Affiliate members are event attendees and program participants who were happy with the support they were provided and want to give back to the District.
Members include: - Farmers
- Homeowners
- Landowners
- Businesses and partner organizations
- Teachers & schools
- Community leaders
- Those who care about our environment.
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Why is your membership important? By becoming an Affiliate Member of Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District, you are helping our organization provide services and educational programs which protect and enhance the natural resources of Hamilton County. Donations, whether volunteer hours or a financial contribution, are a valuable asset. Our supporters ensure we can hold workshops and programs for all ages, produce educational publications, establish demonstration sites, and support the many services offered by the SWCD. All levels receive a Friend of Conservation t-shirt and will be recognized at the Annual Meeting, on our brochure, and on our website. Partner and Champion of Conservation levels will receive ad space in all Town and County Newsletter, a link from our webpage and a social media post sharing your information and website. |
| Affiliate Membership Levels
$25+ Friend of Conservation
$50+ Compassionate Conservationist
$100+ Conservation Hero
$300+ Partner in Conservation (Advertisement offered)
$500+ Champion of Conservation (Advertisement offered)
Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. |
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| | | | | One of the biggest challenges when managing invasive species is controlling the population before it goes to seed. Most invasive plants have hundreds or thousands of seeds each and once it releases them it exponentially increases the effort needed to control the population. This is especially important in newly established populations. Each viable seed that is allowed to enter the ground represents a potential new plant which will in turn produce seed unless stopped, therefore early management is key to reducing the spread and maintaining natural environments.
Although control methods and timing can vary slightly by species and geographic location, it’s generally best to either spray or cut invasive species in the early spring (March or April). This reduces negative impacts on desirable species while also ensuring the species is controlled before seed can be produced. Sometimes early spring control is simply not possible – maybe you weren’t able to identify it early on, missed a certain area, or were simply busy – that doesn’t mean all is lost. One possible method of slowing down invasion is to cut the seed head off, bag it up, and throw it away. Before we start talking about how to control plants with mature seed heads it is important to understand what they are and how to recognize them on a plant. We are exposed to seeds regularly in daily life, but some seeds might not look how you would expect. It is easy to recognize sunflower seeds, bird seeds, or the seeds inside tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc., but take a look at these pictures to test if you would recognize where seeds are stored on these invasive plants. Many herbaceous invasive plants produce their seeds in the late summer, making it ineffective to spray or mow which might spread the seeds even further, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still manage them. The best way to keep seeds from spreading in late summer on many herbaceous invasive species is to cut off its seed head or flowers. Unfortunately, this isn’t always practical or safe. When dealing with large populations or monocultures it is often easiest to simply spray the plant with herbicide until numbers are significantly reduced. As always, herbicide should be applied in accordance with the label using appropriate chemical application methods as outlined by Purdue Extension.In some cases – such as with Poison Hemlock - it is unsafe to cut the seeds off of a plant due to its toxic nature. For a more complete management guide regarding poison hemlock, please use this link from the Dubois County SWCD. When cutting the seeds off a plant, immediately put it into a yard waste bag without walking around or shaking the seed off of the plant (this will spread the seed). Additionally, it is smart to use shears, trimmers, or a knife which is sharp to minimize shaking the plant. It’ is important to make sure that the bag is tied shut and there aren’t any holes or tears in the bag so that seed can’t escape and spread further. If your bag gets a hole in it or tears simply double bag it before disposal.
It’s important to remember that cutting seed heads off won’t kill the plant, but it does help to significantly reduce how fast it spreads to buy time until next growing season. A good practice after cutting seed heads is to spray the plant with an appropriate herbicide, this will kill the existing plant, opening up space for natives to colonize the area. After you have cut off the seed head and sprayed, cut, or mowed the plant to kill the plant you will need to keep an eye out for any new sprouts or missed seed heads and treat those accordingly. Email Jacob with any questions about invasive species management, identification, and other urban conservation topics. |
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| | Donate Your Garden Vegetables to a Local Food Pantry Nearly 1.2 million Hoosiers experienced food insecurities in 2020, and Hamilton County was no exception. Food banks and pantries continue to report increase demand for food across the county in the past year. Fresh produce is in particular demand. Food insecurity is when a household lacks consistent access to nutritious and affordable food due to a lack of money. In the United States, 12.7% of families are food insecure. In Indiana, that figure is even higher--15.3% of Hoosier families are food insecure. Food pantries in Hamilton County help families all across the county, and the fresh produce distributed by the pantries helps to keep kids and adults healthy. The desire for fresh produce means that almost all food pantries in the county would like to receive more produce to distribute to their families. The more food that is grown in the gardens of Hamilton County, the more produce that can be donated to food pantries. There is no minimum amount of produce required to donate to a food pantry--one small bag of tomatoes from your backyard garden may not seem like much, but the family or families who receive them from the food pantry will be very grateful for them! |
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| | | 2023 OISC Clean Sweep Pesticide Disposal Information WHAT: An OISC Clean Sweep Pesticide Disposal Program designed to collect and dispose of suspended, canceled, banned, unusable, opened, unopened or just unwanted pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, rodenticides, fungicides, miticides, etc.) is being sponsored by the Office of Indiana State Chemist (OISC). This disposal service is free of charge up to 250 pounds per participant. Over 250 pounds there will be a $2.00 per pound charge. This is a great opportunity for you to legally dispose of unwanted products at little or no cost. WHO: All public and private schools, golf courses, nurseries, farmers, ag dealers, public, cities, towns, municipalities and county units of government or others receiving this notice are eligible to participate. WHEN: 9:00am to 3:00pm Local Time WHERE: - August 15, 2023: Wayne County Fairgrounds 861 N. Salisbury Rd. Richmond, Indiana 47374
- August 16, 2023: Jackson County Fairgrounds 476 E. County Rd. 100 S. Brownstown, Indiana 47220
- August 17, 2023: Elkhart County Solid Waste 59530 County Rd. 7 Elkhart, Indiana 46517
- August 22, 2023: Posey County Co-Op (Gibson County) 235 State Rd. 68 Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
- August 23, 2023: Newton County Highway Department 3640 S. 275 W. Morocco, Indiana 47963
- August 24, 2023: Hendricks County Fairgrounds 1900 E. Main St. Danville, Indiana 46122
HOW: Complete the enclosed Clean Sweep Pesticide Disposal Participant Form to the best of your ability. Mail, fax or e-mail the completed form to Nathan Davis at 765- 494-4331 or cleansweep@groups.purdue.edu no later than Wed., August 9, 2023. Questions may be directed to Nathan at 765-494-7108. Then bring your leak free and safe to transport containers to the collection site. DO NOT mix materials. ***Empty pesticide containers will not be accepted, please follow label directions for proper disposal of empty pesticide containers*** *NOTE: OISC reserves the right to cancel this Pesticide Clean Sweep Project if there is not adequate demand. Participants submitting the enclosed planning form by August 9, 2023 will be contacted immediately if cancellation is necessary. |
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