Extension agronomists traditionally target agricultural professionals and producers as their primary audiences for outreach programming. Yet the opportunity to reach a more diversified clientele is clearly within the land grant mandate because all citizens of the state support the university. I will present outreach activities with new audiences that include horse owners, recreational land owners and those concerned with invasive plants.

As a group, horse owners are willing learners of how to identify and manage weeds. We have capitalized on this interest and developed a distance education course on Pasture Management for Horse Owners which includes the pertinent weed-related topics. The value of wooded land often exceeds that of agricultural land in Wisconsin because there is great demand for recreational land ownership. Invasive weeds are often a concern on these sites and the land owners are seldom capable of assessing the situation or developing a plan of action.

The area of invasive species has opened doors and is fertile ground for weed scientists to do applied research, field demonstrations, and educational programming with many new organizations, agencies and individuals. A broad spectrum coalition with diversified interests has worked diligently to develop a new noxious weed law for Wisconsin. I have worked with the Basin Educators and Natural Resource Agents of UW-Extension and the NRCS to establish field demonstrations on managing invasive woody species (multiflora rose, buckthorn, prickly ash) and to publish an invasive plant identification booklet. The Dept. of Defense is the site of an integrated control project on leafy spurge and the state Dept. of Transportation has collaborated on Canada thistle control. Additionally, the creation of the Invasive Plant Association of Wisconsin and the state Invasive Species Council opens avenues for weed scientists to engage with even more diversified audience groups.