NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — Whether it’s law enforcement, agriculture, or environmental justice, the group “Working Dogs for Conservation” helps to make sure our environment and land is safe and prosperous.
And as we know in North Dakota, sometimes invasive weeds can make or break a crop. This is why these dogs are necessary for saving our agricultural land.
When it comes to invasive plants or weeds, sometimes two plants can be really similar-looking in their morphology. This means a bad plant may look like a good plant to the human eye.
That’s where these working dogs come into play.
There are times when human surveyors miss the mark, but these dogs smell out the dangerous plants. Workers with the dogs then grab the potentially dangerous plants and test them. Almost always, they are the invasive plant and weed they were trying to find.
“They can detect that before you get a big infestation. So, they’re really good for prevention. And then at the other end, if you’re trying to eradicate, they can stop an infestation of weeds or weevils. We’ve worked on emerald ash. They can stop a lot of agricultural pests,” said Pete Coppolillo, the executive director for Working Dogs for Conservation.
He says dogs are very good at detecting low densities of things from seeds to insects, which helps our farmers, immensely.