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In: AIS, El Lower, Invasive species language workshop, Michigan Sea Grant, National Invasive Species Awareness Week, National Sea Grant Office, North American Invasive Species Management Association, Tim Campbell

Communicating effectively about invasive species, whether the plants and animals are on land or in water, can be challenging. Is it better to “wage a war” on invasives, or should communicators take an alternative approach?

Purple loosestrife, a pretty but invasive plant. Image credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant

In conjunction with National Invasive Species Awareness Week, the Sea Grant programs in Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin are hosting a workshop with the North American Invasive Species Management Association on the topic of using messaging and metaphors in communicating about invasion biology. The “Invasive Species Language Workshop,” will be held online and in-person on Feb. 27-28. A virtual half-day of webinar presentations will be followed by a full-day workshop in Washington, D.C., where attendees will draft guidelines and research priorities for inclusive communication and naming conventions. Researchers, science communicators and invasive species managers are encouraged to attend.

“Our goal is to learn what everybody’s doing in their respective fields, and then get everyone together to talk it out and describe any successes they’ve had in advocating for better and more inclusive language about invasive species,” said El Lower, Great Lakes Aquatic Nonindigenous Species Information System communications specialist with Michigan Sea Grant. “It’s about how we can work together to promote a set of best practices and present a unified front across invasion biology.

“We can come up with different metaphors that are not just ‘good versus evil, us versus them,’ and actually get into some of the nuance involved in managing invasive species. Sometimes that gets lost in the wash if you’re simply focusing on military metaphors,” Lower added.

Another issue with invasive species are their names. Some species names may contain racial slurs or reinforce xenophobic concepts. Efforts to develop more inclusive guidelines for naming invasive species have been limited, and this will be an additional focus of the webinar and workshop.

“Scientists and natural resource managers often believe that the language and points they make are neutral; that they’re just the facts. However, even when communicating facts, we all use value-laden language or language that may be received differently than intended,” said Tim Campbell, Wisconsin Sea Grant AIS program coordinator. “By embracing this inclusive language and naming conventions, we can reduce unintended consequences of our communication products, and we be more effective in our aquatic invasive species management efforts.” 

Registration is now open for the sessions. Visit the website here.

Funding for the workshop was provided by the National Sea Grant Office.

The post Invasive Species Language Workshop designed to get people talking first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

News Releases | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/news/invasive-species-language-workshop-designed-to-get-people-talking/

Marie Zhuikov

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In: aquatic invasive species, Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species, inclusive language, invasive species language workshop 2024, naming conventions, National Invasive Species Awareness Week, spiny waterflea education video, Tim Campbell

The calendar has flipped to 2024. Our staff members are already tackling new projects. Before they move too deeply into the new year, however, some staff members took a moment to retain the glow of their favorite 2023 project. Tim Campbell, aquatic invasive species outreach specialist, shared his thoughts.

My favorite project of 2023 is connected to my favorite project from 2021! I’m still enjoying the work I’m doing on language used for invasive species communication. I’m not sure I would’ve thought that in 2016 when University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Bret Shaw and I produced our spiny waterflea education video, that this is where I’d be with this work, but here we are.

What started as a very targeted and theoretically informed video led us to more detailed research on how themed messages impact invasive species communications, which then progressed to coordinated action on the results of our research and other related work.

Tim Campbell. Image credit: Wisconsin Sea Grant

This year, thanks to Sea Grant leadership, the Great Lakes Panel on Aquatic Nuisance Species (GLP) developed a position statement on inclusive communication and naming conventions. The statement encourages GLP members to be mindful of messages and consider the unintended impacts of place-based invasive species names. Alternatively, names could describe characteristics or behaviors that help members of the public identify these species.

The position statement has already led to the change of one national awareness campaign that had used militaristic language. The campaign has been forwarded to the national Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force for consideration as a template for other organizations. 

Sea Grant’s work has also resulted in the National Sea Grant Office funding Michigan Sea Grant to host a meeting on inclusive language and naming conventions as part of National Invasive Species Awareness Week. The meeting will be held Feb. 27 and 28 in Washington, D.C., https://naisma.org/event/nisaw-webinar-the-invasive-species-language-workshop/2024-02-27/. A virtual half day of presentations will be followed by a full-day workshop where attendees will draft guidelines and research priorities for inclusive communication and naming conventions.

Seeing people from all aspects of invasive species management coalesce around this issue and recognize the need for us to change is rewarding. Scientists and natural resource managers often believe that the language and points they make are neutral; that they’re just the facts. However, even when communicating facts, we all use value-laden language or language that may be received differently than intend.

By embracing this inclusive language and naming conventions, we can all be more intentional with the language we use so that we reduce unintended consequences of our communication products and we can build more support for aquatic invasive species management efforts. 

 

The post Communicating about aquatic invasive species first appeared on Wisconsin Sea Grant.

Original Article

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

Blog | Wisconsin Sea Grant

https://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/blog/communicating-about-aquatic-invasive-species/

Tim Campbell