Inexperienced Landowner/Student Target Audience

Please keep in mind, that this video is being created for use by non-professional, inexperienced (or under/miss-educated) landowners and students. As you think about this project, keep in mind this population and what recommendations you might make to the "least of us".

For instance, without training and support personnel, would you recommend use of herbicides, garden torches, etc. in this particular video?

Hopefully, with future funding we will be able to add two vital components to this project. I will explain.

When Barbara Lucas' video on phragmities came to the attention of some of us in our community (thank you, Bill Olson), we saw it as a wonderful opportunity to educate our neighbors, and saw it a better opportunity if the video did not stand alone. So, we had a community gathering, invited our county invasive team leader up (Bob Bultman), showed the video, he answered questions and the next day we went on site with Bob for first hand experience and dialog. Those of us trained through that solid group of activities then distributed DVDs, put one in the library, went to people's living rooms to show the DVD and offered our help in controlling phragmities on their land. Folks could also look at the video online, but not many up here have high speed internet connections.

The hands on experience in the presence of an experienced expert, really propelled and validated the extent of the problem.

This is in contrast to the six or seven years we have spent trying to get our community (including Town Board, realtors, etc.) to take this problem seriously and to become active in controlling this invasive.

My experience with Wisconsin Family Forests and community forestry tells me that new landowners don't readily cope with big landscape projects such as big timber harvests using large equipment. We need small, smart initiatives which engage a whole spectrum of people.