Overview

Sticky sage, an invasive plant threatening native ecosystems along the Appalachian Trail and surrounding areas, has been a key focus of the Conservation Dogs Program in 2024. Through advanced training protocols and field deployments, our dog-handler teams detected and removed over 1,100 sticky sage plants—protecting critical habitat and reducing the risk of seed dispersal.

👉 Read more in our field feature: Putting a Stopper on Sticky Sage Along the Appalachian Trail

Key Goals

• Detect sticky sage plants early in the growth cycle
• Remove invasive individuals before seeding
• Expand training protocols to new canine teams
• Support land managers in long-term habitat protection

Why Dogs?

Sticky sage is hard to spot until it’s already damaging the landscape. Dogs, however, can detect it by scent early and reliably, covering more ground than human surveyors and finding plants in difficult or overgrown areas.

Project Highlights

• Dogs trained: 3
• Training hours: 20.4
• Training reps completed: 447
• Operational search days: 24
• Sites surveyed: 16
• Plants removed: 1,105
• Total area covered: 194 acres
• Miles walked by dogs: 136+

Impact

• Removed 100% of detected plants across all sites
• Protected hundreds of acres of native habitat
• Engaged 50+ community members through public events and outreach
• Brought national attention to our CDP invasive species efforts via podcasts and social media (4,310 reached)
• In 2024, ISF managed 551 sticky sage plants along the Appalachian Trail. 2–4 weeks later, the Conservation Dogs Program swept the same areas and detected an additional 363 plants—boosting total management by over 65%!
• Each year, sticky sage plant numbers have gone down drastically:
  • 2021: 54,479      2022: 26,505      2023: 17,922    2024: 9084