Washoe County Sheriff’s Office community service crews will help battle a noxious weed invasion at the county’s Crystal Peak Park next week by pulling poison hemlock and other weeds that are trying to establish a foothold in this riverside park.

Crystal Peak Park is located off Old Highway 40 in Verdi.Crews are scheduled to be at the park Aug. 29-30. The crews begin work from about 8:30am-1pm each day.

Funding for the crews’ equipment and supervision is provided by a grant from the Community Foundation of Western Nevada’s Truckee River Fund.

The Sheriff’s Community Work Program requires sentenced defendants to perform a specific number of hours or days of community service. Participants are typically low risk offenders with no violent felony charges, no current violent misdemeanor charges, no record of escape and no open charges.

Since 2008, the Truckee River Fund has awarded the Sheriff’s Office more than $90,000 in grants to fund projects that address local quality of life and public safety issues. These grants support the hiring of a work crew supervisor and the purchase of equipment needed for a number of river bank projects such as weeding invasive plant species, removing debris left along the river from homeless camps, and helping to protect trees from beaver damage.