This is a bumper sticker that a great bunch of students from John A. Holmes High School in Edenton, North Carolina created to help get the message out about a non-native aquatic invasive weed called Hydrilla (Hydrilla  verticillata) that is endangering their local river, the Chowan, and many other lakes, ponds, and slow-moving rivers throughout the southeastern US.

These kids and their Earth Science teacher, Stephen Karl, gave an excellent presentation at the joint annual meeting and symposium of the Southeast Exotic Pest Plant Council and the NC Invasive Plant Council that was held at the NC Botanical Garden on May 26-28. I’ll be writing more about the many great presentations I heard over the coming weeks. However, because the topic of non-native invasive species in the southeastern US is not a happy one, I feel obliged to intersperse what I learned with more upbeat posts about my garden.

The objective of this high school project was “to raise awareness by posting videos, posters, brochures, and digital boat ramp signs. ” They are also placing compost barrels at boat ramps along with rakes they’ve re-shaped to fit easily around boat propellers. Their aim is to persuade boaters to rake out the hydrilla from the bottom of their boats when they take them out of the water, and compost the hydrilla in the barrels provided. Hydrilla is mostly spread by boats when they move from contaminated waters to uncontaminated ones.

These are good, relatively simple ideas, and the project made them a finalist in the 2015 Emerging Issues High School Prize for Innovation sponsored by NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues. The bumper sticker they printed sports the name they gave themselves: Hydrilla Guerrillas — such a great name!

Theirs was not the smoothest presentation I saw that week. Many of the kids were visibly terrified, even though they had rehearsed their talk. Every student got a chance to speak. At first, they were pretty wooden, standing stiffly at the front of the room, but as they got into their talk, their enthusiasm for the project overpowered their shyness. These kids were passionate about stopping the invader in their home river.

I confess I actually felt hope for the future when these kids started talking about their project. I still am hopeful, mostly, but that hope is tempered by the conclusions of the students themselves. First, they were disheartened to discover that almost no boaters or other local adults they talked to had heard of hydrilla or knew it was a problem.

Second, they’re not confident that their message will have any lasting impact, although I think they certainly tried everything they could think of that was within their budgetary constraints. Third, they’re not convinced that people will change their behaviors. Cleaning boats of hydrilla when they are removed from the water takes time; most folks don’t want to spend that time on something high school kids are telling them about. In fact, the kids expect the special rakes they’ve created to be stolen from the boat ramps. Despite their evident teenage passion, their faith in their ability to change adult behavior is not strong. Frankly, I don’t blame them.

Even so, my take-home feeling for this presentation was one of hope. Mr. Karl, the Earth Science teacher, got his kids energized and focused on a critical problem that will adversely impact their future and the future of their children. I’m hopeful that they will hold on to their enthusiasm and concern as they become adults, so they can teach their children and grandchildren to be better caretakers of Planet Earth than the adults whose behavior they are trying to change.

In their matching T-shirts, the Hydrilla Guerrillas pose for a shot on the grounds of the NC Botanical Garden (photo by NCBG staff).