Blue Ridge PRISM

10/13/2026

📣 Our workdays are making news — and it's not too late to sign up!

📰 The "Daily Progress" recently highlighted a Blue Ridge PRISM workday in Charlottesville. But you can sign up for many more across the Blue Ridge.

🌿 Join Jacob and Natali, our invasive plant specialists, for 2 hours during a free, hands-on workday and help restore the natural spaces in your community.

👇🏼 Read the article in the link in the first comment.

Volunteer opportunities and eco-education events—sign up and get involved.

10/13/2026

👏🏻 Many thanks to the "Daily Progress" for covering Blue Ridge PRISM workdays and walks. Read the article to learn more and sign up for workdays near you at the link in the first comment.

📰

A recent invasive species workday at the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont was an education in how porcelain berry is choking not just trees, but rivers and wildlife.

10/13/2026

🌿 It's TOOL TUESDAY! What's your favorite tool for tackling invasive plants?

🧤 Rod Walker, founder of Blue Ridge PRISM, shares his favorite for cutting woody invasives in the latest Tool Tuesday.

👇🏼 Tell us about your go-to tool in the Comments.

10/13/2026

🌿 Fall ID Webinar today — October 13 — at 1 pm!

🔎 Our invasive management specialists will teach you how to identify dozens of invasive plants in Fall. Join us for this FREE online webinar, where you’ll learn ID features from stems and leaves to flowers and fruit, plus habitat and native lookalikes.

🗓️ Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 1-2 pm
👉🏼 Register at the link in the first comment.

🪏 Also: Learn to manage and control Invasive Plants in Summer in our webinar on Wednesday, October 14, 1-2 pm.

Virginia Invasive Plant Coalition

10/09/2026

⭐️ Partner Spotlight: Department of Forestry — Managing Forest Health Threats

👏🏻 Blue Ridge PRISM applauds the Virginia Department of Forestry Forest Health Program.

"The program works to manage forest health threats throughout the state,” said Graydon Monroe, invasive species specialist, Virginia Department of Forestry. “Invasive plant species are an emerging threat to the health of Virginia's forests. Blue Ridge PRISM is instrumental in galvanizing landowners to manage invasive species on their private lands, which has a huge impact on Virginia's forests at a landscape scale.”

👉🏼 See the photos for more on how the Department of Forestry supports forest health.
• Invasive Species Technician David Prudente treats an ash tree with emamectin benzoate to protect it from the emerald ash borer.
• Invasive species Specialist Sal Flower demonstrates proper use of an Ez-Ject lance and glyphosate shells to treat invasive mimosa trees.
• Forest Technician Dalton Maddox assists the Forest Health team using an Ez-Ject lance and glyphosate shells to treat invasive mimosa trees.

Photo credits: Department of Forestry
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10/08/2026

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Garden Center Survey. We received 166 surveys, 30% more than the 2025 total.

Special congratulations to Hunter Bengtson of Roanoke, winner of the $100 gift card to a native plant nursery of his choice. Hunter came across the survey in the PRISM newsletter and got in just under the wire by submitting on September 16.

“I’ve always been a proponent of proliferating native plants in our backyards,” Hunter said. “I’m hoping the word can spread to nurseries about how adding natives back into our landscapes will promote more diversity and healthier ecosystems.”

“Living in the Blue Ridge Mountains, we are extremely fortunate to be surrounded by beautiful wildlife that need these natives to thrive and survive,” he added. “If I can plant back any native that I can, then I know I’m adding back for wildlife to continue and hopefully expand beyond my garden.”

More information on the survey results will be coming up, so stay tuned. Or be like Hunter — subscribe to Blue Ridge PRISM emails. Sign up at the link in the first comment.

10/07/2026

🌿 W**D IT WEDNESDAY: Blackberry Lily (Iris domestica)

🌏 Blackberry lily is actually a member of the iris family. Native to Asia, this garden perennial has escaped cultivation in parts of Virginia and is being monitored in the hope of keeping it from spreading. After its spotted orange summer flowers disappear, the seed capsules split open to reveal clusters of shiny black seeds that resemble blackberries, giving the plant its name.

🔎ID
• Habitat: Sunny to partly shaded sites including roadsides, woodland edges, and prairies.
• Form: Upright perennial generally reaching 2–3 feet tall.
• Leaves: Flat, sword-shaped leaves grow from yellowish-orange rhizomes.
• Flowers: Orange flowers with darker red or orange spots appear in summer at the end of branches and grow to 1 1/2–2 1/2 inches across. Flowers have 3 stamens and open only for one day.
• Fruit and seeds: Pear-shaped capsules about 1 inch long split open in late summer and fall, exposing conspicuous clusters of glossy black seeds.
• Spread: Spreads primarily by seed and also vegetatively via rhizomes.

🪏 Control
• In fall, clip off seed heads before seeds can disperse, then bag and trash.
• Dig up plants, taking care to remove rhizomes.
• Check the area in subsequent seasons for seedlings or regrowth.

Further Information
Missouri Department of Conservation: https://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/blackberry-lily

10/06/2026

🌿 What's the best way to tackle invasive plants on your property? Find out Wednesday, October 14.

🪏 Join us for a FREE online webinar where you’ll learn how to manage and control Invasive Plants in Fall. Techniques will include manual and mechanical methods, as well as careful, strategic use of herbicides where necessary. You’ll get a chance to ask questions at the end.

🗓️ Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 1-2 pm
👉🏼 Register at the link in the first comment.

🔎 Also: Get help identifying that mystery plant! Join us for Invasive Plants in Fall: Introduction & Identification on Wednesday, October 13, 1-2 pm.

Join us for a FREE online webinar where you’ll learn how to manage and control invasive plants in the fall season. Techniques will include manual and mechanical methods, as well as careful, strategic use of herbicides where necessary. Come ready to learn practical management skills that you can ap...

10/06/2026

Introducing - a new trial project from Rockfish Valluey Foundation - CVA: Conservation Connection. This short series aims to highlight the success stories, special stewards, and opportunities for environmental engagement across the Shenandoah Valley, Rockfish Valley, and regional Central Virginia.

It's our way to spread awareness of connecting the dots between eager volunteers and visitors and the awesome work being done by local Virginian stewards.

Our first episode steers towards workshops for backyard buffers, rain barrels and native habitats, old-growth forest presentatons -- with a celebration for 50 Years of raptor migration at Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch.

Watch, sign up, and share -- send us stories for future episodes!

- Backyard Buffer Workshops
-- https://jamesriverconsortium.org/backyard-buffer-design-workshops-october-6-20/

- Blue Ridge PRISM ( Fall Meeting with Joan Maloof
-- https://blueridgeprism.info/event/prism-fall-meeting-with-guest-speaker-joan-maloof/

- Blue Ridge PRISM Events
-- https://blueridgeprism.info/events/month/

- Fluvanna Rain Barrel Workshop
-- https://thejamesriver.org/event/rain-barrel-workshop-at-cunningham-creek-winery-in-fluvanna-county/

- Shenandoah Valley Conservancy Event
-- https://shenandoah.org/events/

- Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch Schedule
-- https://teamup.com/ks8ce2f67675d2e336

10/05/2026

🌲 For years, Joan Maloof studied forests — until she decided that wasn’t enough. Find out tomorrow how that led to the Old-Growth Forest Network.

🌳 As a university professor and forest ecologist, Joan Maloof spent years immersed in the complex relationships among trees, plants, and wildlife. But she was increasingly troubled by how little she could do as a scientist to protect old forests.

🛻 In 2010, she decided to spend the years ahead helping to save the forests she loves. She left her tenured position, packed a mattress into an old pickup truck, and spent two summers traveling through the eastern United States in search of old-growth forests.

🍂 From those experiences grew an ambitious vision — that every U.S. county that can support forests should have at least one permanently protected, publicly accessible forest that will never be logged. In 2012, Joan founded the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN).

👉🏼 Hear Joan’s story and the OGFN is working today to save old-growth forests that have been protected in roadless areas.

👇🏼 Wednesday, October 7, 11:30 a.m.—1 p.m.
Register at the link in the 1st comment

Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) is a 501(c)(3) public charity. We provide education, training, site visits, w**d alerts, ID & Control app, and volunteer management tools for invasive plant removal.