The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Friday announced that the Invasive Plant Council of New York State will be holding its first statewide conference titled, "Invasive Plants on the Horizon and More."

The gathering will be held at the Holiday Inn on Wolf Road in Albany on February 7 and 8, 2007.

The conference will bring together partners from around the state to exchange information and further efforts to combat the threat of invasive species. DEC, along with New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and New York State Department of Transportation, are sponsors of the conference.

The Invasive Plant Council is a not-for-profit organization that grew out of an ad hoc group of agencies and organizations incorporated in 1999 to provide education about invasive plant issues and to coordinate and guide management of invasive plants in New York State. Today, the Invasive Plant Council provides an information clearinghouse for invasive plant identification, research and management, and has planned and organized the conference.

The New York State Invasive Species Task Force, co-chaired by DEC and New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, was created to assesses the nature, scope and magnitude of the environmental, ecological, agricultural, economic, recreational, and social impacts caused by invasive species in the state. The Task Force includes representatives of a number of state agencies, as well as the state's land grant college Cornell University, New York Sea Grant, and representatives of other organizations concerned with the impact of invasive species, such as The Nature Conservancy, the New York State Farm Bureau, and the Empire State Marine Trades Association.