June Invasive Species Awareness Month 2009 Weed Champion Awards

June is Invasive Species Awareness Month in the State of Wisconsin. The effort to control invasive plants and animals throughout our state is an important part of protecting the plant and animal communities that we know and love. Everyday we hear more about invasive species moving into the state or in the direction of Sauk County. Names like gypsy moth, japanese spurge, zebra mussels, garlic mustard, japanese knotweed, asian carp and emerald ash borer have become a regular part of our language and hopefully taking steps to slow their spread have become a regular part of our behavior.

Cleaning boats and trailers, emptying live wells, not transporting firewood, investigating the latest new garden plant before planting it, and cleaning your boots after taking a hike are all simple measures we can take to help slow the spread of these invasive species and reduce the damage they do to our local habitats and native species.

Hopefully, these are the steps we all take to prevent spreading invasives, but there are some very dedicated people out there that are doing much more and are in the forefront of our local efforts. The Greater Sauk County Invasive Team is an affiliation of the individuals and organizations working on various aspects of invasive control; whether it be control efforts on public lands like our state parks, to non-profit organizations working on preservation lands they own and manage, to private individuals fighting the nuisance plants on their property, to the educational partners who are working to spread the word regarding invasives and the impact they can have on our natural resources.

Each year in June, as part of Invasive Species Awareness Month, the group selects its Weed Champion Award winners from among the many dedicated people combatting invasives. The 2009 winners of the Weed Champion awards are:

Individual Award -Frank Piraino.

Frank's dedication to the battle against invasives is reflected in the fact that he was nominated by three different individuals that have worked with Frank on invasive control. The following quotes are just a sampling of the qualifications outlined in those nominations. Frank’s work at Badger is astounding in its completeness and impact. He understands the science behind integrating different methods to effectively control invasive plants on the various sites at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant. He has adopted the Kindschi Prairie along Highway 12 at the south side of Badger and after his car died, he rode his bike between Baraboo and the site everyday for nearly two weeks. He hand-pulled parsnip, sweet clover, and any other invasive he could get his hands on, and the site has never looked so great. It is estimated that he spent more than 100 hours at the site in less than a month. He has not used herbicides but claims his short-handled shovel works great, as well as double leather gloves when pulling thistle. He has also been collecting seed from shooting star, prairie smoke, golden alexanders and creamy wild indigo and will be working with the International Crane Foundation to assist in their germination and transplanting for next year.

Group Award -Sauk Prairie River PAL

The Sauk Prairie River Project Association, LTD (SP River PAL) holds an annual Garlic Mustard Pull and Wisconsin River Clean-up. Their 2007 Garlic Mustard Festival removed over 2,000 pounds of garlic mustard from the August Derleth Park area. As a measure of their success, the 2009 festival generated a reduced amount, but they still bagged 700 pounds of garlic

mustard. They are looking forward to the day when they hold their Garlic Mustard Festival and there is no garlic mustard to be found.

They also have completed native plant restoration projects associated with the Adopt-a-Riverbank program. They partner with local municipalities and organizations such as Youth Environmental Projects of Sauk County (YEPS) and the Land Conservation Department to provide educational programs. The group also regularly publishes articles on invasive plants in their newsletters, on their website and in the local newspapers.

Individual members of the organization have also taken the lessons learned about invasives and gone a step farther in their efforts to restore lost native habitats. One of the PAL members was also nominated in the individual category for her continued efforts along the river trail in Sauk City. Sue Kenney works on this project almost daily throughout the spring, summer and fall. Sue has been spotted working amid clouds of pesky mosquitos on muggy summer days. She has hauled literally tons of invasive plants, mainly garlic mustard and buckthorn, away from the wooded shoreline near the Village's riverfront path. In their place, she has planted a wide variety of native forbes characteristic of the historic riverside landscape.

Professional Award -Alanna Koshollek and the Land Stewardship Interns at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Dana Bishop and Mark Witecha for 2008 and Kate Losey and Jen Mazalewski for 2009

This group has been entirely responsible for the control of invasives on the 2,000 acre Leopold Memorial Reserve (in particular: buckthorn, garlic mustard, and japanese hedge parsley) and have also worked with landowners throughout the county giving advice on sound control methods affecting thousands of acres. Alanna worked with Steve Swenson at the Aldo Leopold Foundation to develop an intensive protocol for managing garlic mustard while serving as one of the interns herself in 2005 and has since added a sophisticated GIS element to increase the efficiency of their operation. Alanna now runs the Woodland School and is attempting to integrate information on invasives into all of the courses to help landowners maintain the health and integrity of their own land. Dana and Mark have been largely responsible for putting the plan into action in 2008, gathering data that will help us learn more in the future about how garlic mustard can be effectively controlled on a large scale. This year Kate and Jen spent about five weeks fighting garlic mustard on the Leopold Reserve -finding and treating hundreds of new populations that had been previously undiscovered. Soon, they will start revisiting every population to hand-pull any plant that they missed spraying with herbicide. This is representative of the effort it takes to be a Weed Champion.

All of the Weed Champion Awards were presented by County Conservationist Joe Van Berkel during the Sauk County Board meeting on Tuesday, June 16.