July, 2006

1. Calendar for July and beyond: California Invasive Weed Awareness Week, July 17-23, Planning Committee Meeting in August, and Cal-IPC Field Course and Symposium in Rohnert Park in October
2. Invasive Weed News: Japanese Dodder Alert, State WMA funding update, Cal-HIP newsletter
3. Latest additions to the website: Report on Demonstration Project
4. Resource of the month: Cal-IPC Website
5. In-kind reports up to June 30, 2006 are requested.
6. How to submit items for the MCWMA newsletter.

1. Our calendar for July, and beyond, is now available [ click here]. All MCWMA meetings are open to the public. Highlights are:
   • July 17-23, 2006: California Invasive Weeds Awareness Week
     see the Cal-IPC webpage for a listing of events state-wide. If your organization has a weed-related event during or following this period, please send the details to coord@mcwma.org for posting on our website and promotion at our outreach tables at the Mendocino Coast Farmer's Markets.
   • October 4-7, 2006: California Invasive Plant Council Field Course and Symposium
     in Rohnert Park, see the Symposium registation. You can also register for the field course only. If you haven't attended a Cal-IPC Symposium or Field Course in the past, don't pass up this nearby opportunity in 2006! Great for technical information, networking and renewing your motivation.
   
   
2. Invasive Weed News:
   • Japanese Dodder Alert: in the Sacramento area and elsewhere in California.
   • Update on State WMA Funding: it's in the legislative budget.
   • California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (CAL-HIP) newsletter, Summer 2006. St Louis voluntary codes adopted, information on fountain grass, ivies and pampas/jubata grass requested.
   See our website for current and past news items.
   
   
3. The latest edition to our website is a report on the Demonstration Project at the Intersection of Highways 1 and 20 in Fort Bragg.
   
   
4. Resource Review. In recent newsletters, I have been reviewing web portals on invasive species. These are websites that serve as a gateway to many other resources, although there may be original content on the portal as well. This month I will describe the California Invasive Plant Council website, which is much more than a portal. The website has recently been remodelled, so your old bookmarks or links to the previous website will need to be updated. There is much valuable information on this site: many of the links on the MCWMA website are to the Cal-IPC pages. Major topical categories on the Cal-IPC website are:
   • About Us
   • Invasive Plants
     • Definitions & Impacts
     • Invasive Plant Inventory
     • Management
     • Research
     • Mapping
   • Responsible Landscaping
   • Policy
   • Cal-IPC Symposia
   • Field Courses
   • Publications & Resources
   • Related Sites
   • Contact Us
   Helpful features to aid navigation include rollover menus (if you have javascript enabled), a sitemap and a search engine (scroll to the bottom of the page if necessary). Many services, including membership, donation, purchases, publication downloads and meeting or course registration, are available online. The Related Links page is quite comprehensive.
   
   
5. In-kind contribution reports up to June 30, 2006 are requested. MCWMA partners and associates: if you have not done so already, please turn in your reports on in-kind contributions up to June 30, 2006. Form are available from the website in a variety of formats [click here]. Please recall that all invasive plant-related efforts, volunteer or paid, for the Mendocino Coast Weed Management Area may be reported, and help us meet our target for matching contributions to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant. However, please note on the form if the hours were paid from federal funds or are used as matching funds for another federal grant, as we cannot use such efforts as local matching contributions for our grant.
   
   
6. How to submit items for the MCWMA newsletter. The MCWMA e-mail and online newsletter will be distributed on the first of each month. Please send items for the newsletter to webmaster@mcwma.org at least 2 days in advance to allow time for editing.