In April 2022, RAIST conducted outreach at the annual Sustainability Festival's Family Day in Murray, KY. Volunteer Noah Lasley taught kids to identify multiple invasive species and individuals also played a game to learn more about native plants and the native species that rely on them. 

Click here for a copy of our Native Plants and Wildlife Activity. 

Our Fall 2023 event took place at Cherokee State Park in Marshall County, KY.  We were joined by 17 awesome volunteers. Volunteers learned about plant identification with Gage Barnes and management of invasive plants with Rosie Carey. Then, we spent several hours removing bush honeysuckle from a portion of the park trail system where this invasive was common. 

In 2023, RAIST volunteers Evan, Cord, and Rosie helped with outreach events at the annual Sustainability Festival's Family Day and MSU's Biofest in Murray, KY. During this event, the students taught people that attended about how Callery pears are moved by birds. They explained that the Callery pear tree in your yard may not be an issue to you, but the seeds of the plant can be dispersed into native grasslands and cause issues in these ecosystems. 

Click here for a copy of our Invasive Plant Seed Dispersal Activity. 

In Fall 2022, we revisited the same private landowner's property we had treated in Fall 2021. We had 15 student members of the Murray State Wildlife Society attend this event and a smaller helper (5 yo) who also enjoyed the day! We focused on removal of Bradford pears during this field event. 

In April 2022, RAIST conducted outreach at the annual Sustainability Festival's Family Day in Murray, KY. Volunteers Rosie, Leigha, Frannie, and Brandon (from left to right) taught kids about Bradford pears and how they can negatively influence prairie/savanna ecosystems and the organisms (like butterflies!) that inhabit them. 

You can find the activity we made for this event here!

Our first RAIST event took place on a local landowner's property in Calloway County. Our target species on this property was Bradford pear - during the day we removed > 60 Bradford pears from the property. Volunteers were students from the Murray State University Wildlife and Fisheries Society. 

While some students were removing invasive plants, two others were conducting an outreach event on campus. Kids could come by to make kudzu monsters. While there, they learned about invasive plants and even sang a song about kudzu!