Outreach Materials & Ideas

Anglers 

The official opening date of the open water fishing season is the first Saturday in May but they'll be out as soon as they can put a boat in and until the ice keeps the boats out. Kick off at an appropriate time in your region with reminders to Inspect, Remove, Drain and Never Move! Review the Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers brochure and the Fishing with Bait brochure for content ideas.  

Great time of year to kick off Bait Shop Initiative visits! Here's a suggestion for a social media post from the initiative's toolkit in Box.

The Drain Campaign and Free Fishing Weekend are the first weekend in June and make a great outreach combo! Focus in the importance of draining live wells and buckets. Here's a folder of example articles used in the past for promoting the campaign. 

Gardeners 

Visit our Gardner Outreach page. People are actively ordering plants and in April many shops open for the new gardening season. Utilize our videos from Melinda Myers and promote the Landscaping Alternatives brochures and spring plant selection. Consider hosting a viewing party of one of the webinars or encouraging local groups to haven one.

Oneida County Annual Invasive Species Poster Contest (Statewide) 

Promote it to schools. Contact Stephanie Boismenue for information. Sboismenue@co.oneida.wi.us. 

Paddlers

The Rock River Coalition and River Alliance of Wisconsin created this great video using funding from a response grant for New Zealand mudsnails. When you share the video, think about all the different types of paddlers you're trying to reach and their various watercraft. You can shape messages for each of them. Know a paddle group? Get them to share it if they do social media or have a website. Can reshare in summer and fall.  Paddle Responsibly: Clean, Drain, Dry

Project RED, CBCW, and other big upcoming volunteer needs

Get your promotions and calls for volunteers out. 

Boat Launch AIS Signage

Ask folks to help you keep track of sign conditions or let you know about any needs they have over summer. Promote having your county partners with lake organizations helping you out by checking their signs and get them to report what they find using the SWIMS form for that purpose (see the Signage page).

Great Lakes Regional Landing Blitz

 The Landing Blitz is a concentrated watercraft inspection and AIS outreach effort that occurs during the July 4th holiday. Learn more about this campaign and how participating strengthens your CBCW efforts on the Drain Campaign & Landing Blitz webpage. 

Snapshot Day 

Related outreach and recruiting resources will be provided by Emily Heald, Rivers Educator, starting around June and through to the event. Share the posts on the AIS Programs Facebook page and follow the provided outreach calendar.

Gardeners 

Many will do summer clean up in July for weeds and overgrown plants. There's a video to share on the Garden Outreach page.

CBCW, Project RED, and CLMN

Get some photos of the work in action and use them in social media, offer them to local media, and add them to summer newsletters to share the great work you and your partners are doing. This will help promote the efforts and encourage others that people really do make a difference. This can be done for any of your other projects also. Make sure to get permissions to use photos per your organizations guidelines.

Zebra and Quagga Mussels

People are taking out docks in late summer and early fall. This is a great time to remind your local lake groups to check those docks for zebra mussels or do some outreach through social and local media.

Spiny Waterfleas

We can see spiny waterfleas more easily starting in late August and into the fall. Share ID information and advice on how to Stop the Spiny.

Gardeners 

More clean up at this time of year for weeds and overgrown plants. There's a video to share on the Garden Outreach page. 

Waterfowl Hunter AIS Outreach

Check out our webpage for outreach to these folks who will be out from some point in September into December. Hunt clubs and large regional and state organizations hold meetings and events. Many have newsletters, but will probably have lead times you need to meet if you want to provide content. Provide post suggestions for their social media, including sharing your own. To get buy in, request their input before posting. You may get valuable feedback that you can share with all of us for reaching this audience and they might be able to help tweak your content to make it more locally relevant. Bet some would love to share their hunting photos for your use, too. 

Prepare for wading angler outreach which comes up next, taking similar actions that you can for the hunters. 

Consider adding trappers to the mix!

Share your AIS related summer successes with local media and partners.

Ice Anglers 

Will they be out in early December or not until the end of January? It depends on where you are located and weather conditions in a particular year. The goal though is to attempt to push out any type of media as close as you can to when they hit the ice and then get out at least one reminder. 

Wading Anglers

See our webpage for their outreach and dates that impact your rollouts. 

Dock Service Providers 

Believe it or not, February or March is a good time to reach out to dock service providers in your work area. This audience hits the ground running as soon as ice if off and don't stop until it gets cold again to meet the demand of their customers. During the late winter/early spring months, this pathway is in full planning mode booking jobs, ordering inventory and repairing equipment, and hiring staff. It is a good time to remind them of the AIS prevention laws in our state, why it matters to their business, and how they can help prevent the spread. Visit the Dock Service Provider page for more information on outreach programming.