The Overland Expo Foundation is proud to announce the awarding of a $1,244 grant to Friends of Ironwood Forest for their Stop the Stink(net)! project. The project addresses the developing catastrophe that is silently spreading across the southwestern U.S. Stinknet, an invasive plant from South Africa, is aggressively moving through southern California, central Arizona, and the Sonoran borderlands of Mexico, and it has been recently found in Nevada.
ABOUT Friends of Ironwood Forest
Friends of Ironwood Forest works for the permanent protection of the biological, geological, archaeological, and historical resources for which the Ironwood Forest National Monument was established through education, community outreach, and advocacy.
The Impact
Stinknet degrades habitat for wildlife, is a human health hazard, and its dried foliage is highly flammable. This project will reach out to overlanders, offer education about stinknet, alert them to its human health hazards and propensity to spread via contact with vehicles, and ask them to enlist in the efforts to report and combat the spread of stinknet. The effort badly needs observers in the public lands, where far fewer residents go, to track the spread of stinknet and this project mobilizes overlanders to observe, report, and join the fight.
Stinknet seeds travel in tire treads, behind bumpers and in other cavities in vehicles, construction equipment, and farm machinery, that, along with air currents, are the principal vectors moving stinknet along roadways. Once established, stinknet is extremely difficult to eradicate and portends significant and costly efforts to control its spread. Large stinknet populations can reduce the local carrying capacity of natural areas for wildlife. Besides its ecological impact and flammability, stinknet also has human health concerns. In close contact, it can cause skin rashes, lung irritation, and headaches, and is particularly worrisome for those with pre-existing health issues.
Learn more about Friends of Ironwood Forest
For more information about Friends of Ironwood Forest and how you can help Stop the Stink(net)! visit their website: ironwoodforest.org.