If you are a hunter, you may encounter invasive plants such as common crupina, garlic mustard, knapweeds, or yellow starthistle. Or you might be interested in tracking down feral swine.
What Can I Do?
Clean vehicles, equipment, personal gear, and animals. To prevent invasive species from hitching a ride on you, your animals, or your gear, you can take the following actions:
- Regularly inspect and remove caked-on soil and seeds from tires and undercarriages of any vehicles or equipment that moved between potentially infested and uninfested areas. See:
- Limit travel through infestations, particularly when seeds are viable.
- Brush off or wash dogs that have been running around natural areas.
- Inspect and brush your footwear and clothing clean of caked-on soil and seeds, particularly if you walk through an area of heavy invasive species infestation.
- Shake out your tent, camp chairs, sleeping bags, and other accessories before leaving a campsite to remove any plant or seed materials. Learn more about the Don’t Move Firewood campaign.
- For more details, see best management practices for preventing the spread of invasive species Web site.
Clean your boat, trailers, and other equipment that entered the water. Specifically, you can:
- Inspect your boat and equipment for mud, plants, fish, and animals, and remove everything you see.
- Drain water from all equipment once you are on dry land.
- Allow your boat and any equipment that entered the water to dry thoroughly before moving them.
- Stop at boat inspection checkpoints in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and other states. You will not be subject to penalties if staff find aquatic invasive species on your boat.