Timberland Invasives Partnership members pulling invasive garlic mustard along with a town road in Wisconsin.  Photo: USFS

From the USDA Forest Service - May 23, 2020

The USDA Forest Service is proud to announce funding of over $880,000 in Cooperative Weed Management Area (CWMA) grants to 23 programs dedicated to controlling harmful invasive plants in the Great Lakes region. These projects are funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This year, recipients within the Great Lakes basin states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio received funding ranging from $15,000 to $40,000. Each recipient provides a minimum 20% match for this funding, in collaboration with state or local partners, donors or volunteers.

Their work builds on overall GLRI restoration and protection efforts, focused on:

• Cleaning up Great Lakes areas of concern
• Preventing and controlling invasive species
• Reducing nutrient runoff that contributes to harmful/nuisance algal blooms
• Restoring habitat to protect native species
• Implementing science-based adaptive management

Organizations implementing these targeted management plans include partnerships of federal, state and local government agencies, tribes, individuals and others that manage invasive plants across jurisdictional and ownership boundaries and work together to address the most serious threats. 

“The Forest Service is proud to financially assist organizations aiming to promote watershed stability and biological diversity within the Great Lakes watershed,” said Robert Lueckel, Acting Regional Forester for the Forest Service’s Eastern Region. “By monitoring and reducing the spread of invasive plant species, CWMA grant recipients make the Great Lakes basin a better place for people, wildlife, and native plant communities.”

The two North Shore area project receiving the Forest Service funds are:

• Managing Invasive Species and Strengthening Partnerships – Minnesota: The Cook County Invasive Team's (CCIT) project will detect and prevent non-native invasive plant (NNIP) infestations in Cook County, Minnesota, within the Lake Superior watershed.
• Lake County Regional Coordination and Facilitation of Non-native Invasive Species – Minnesota: Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District's Lake County Invasives Team, a CWMA, and its partners will detect and manage invasive plant infestations in Lake County, Minnesota, that fall within the Lake Superior Basin subwatersheds. 

To learn more about CWMA recipients in your area and the Forest Service’s Great Lakes CWMA grant program, visit the CWMA website.