Invasive plant weed-out at Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area on Jan. 12

Division of Fish and Wildlife seeks volunteers for invasive plant weed-out

at Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area on Jan. 12

DOVER (Dec. 18, 2013) – DNREC’s Division of Fish and Wildlife is looking for volunteers to help with a habitat restoration project to remove invasive plants at the Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area east of Smyrna from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014.

At the Vogel Tract on the Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area, non-native ornamental shrubs are outcompeting native plants and taking over the understory, impacting native wildlife habitat as they spread. To remove these shrubs, volunteers will use hand saws, pruners and loppers, which will be provided along with work gloves, or volunteers may bring their own.

Volunteers under the age of 18 must provide a parental consent form, which can be printed from the Division of Fish and Wildlife’s volunteer website (see address below). Participants under the age of 16 also must be accompanied by an adult.

Volunteers will meet at the Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area’s Vogel Tract. Follow Thoroughfare Neck Road, cross over Collins Beach Road and continue to the end of the dirt road. A map with directions can be found on the Fish & Wildlife online volunteer calendar by clicking Cedar Swamp Vogel property map.

For more information, or to sign up for this wildlife area project, please contact Lynne Pusey at 302-735-3600 or email lynne.pusey@state.de.us. Volunteers are strongly encouraged to pre-register with contact information so they can be notified in case of inclement weather leading to postponement.

For more information on other volunteer opportunities with the DNREC Division of Fish and Wildlife, as well as parental consent forms, maps and directions to volunteer project sites, visit www.fw.delaware.gov/volunteers.

This project is part of DNREC’s Delaware Bayshore Initiative, a landscape approach to restore and protect fish and wildlife habitat, increase volunteer participation in habitat stewardship projects, enhance low-impact outdoor recreation and ecotourism opportunities, and promote associated environmentally compatible economic development. For more information, click Delaware Bayshore.