Wisconsin Headwaters Invasives Partnership annual meeting provides year in review

Last week the Wisconsin Headwaters Invasives Partnership (WHIP) steering committee held their annual meeting and looked at both their year in review and their strategic plan. WHIP is the Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area (CISMA) that covers Oneida, Vilas and Lincoln Counties. It is one of 14 CISMAs in Wisconsin. As a cooperative of 16 partners, WHIP offers invasive species education and also invasive species management.

Rosie Page, the WHIP coordinator, gave a report to the steering committee regarding where she was with various projects. WHIP is completely grant funded, with grants being used for various boots on the ground projects. Page said the organization was currently funded by 10 grant sources, but that she was looking at two others and hoped to add them by the summer field season.

Page started with the $10,000 grant from Lumberjack RC&D. Lumberjack is also WHIP’s fiscal sponsor. This grant was guaranteed for a seven-year period and will be reviewed again in four years. This grant funds Page’s position as well as purchasing last minute supplies needed during project implementation.

The next grant Page spoke about was a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant from the U.S. Forest Service. This grant runs form 2021 to 2024 and totaled $32,222. This grant is being used, and had been used, for invasive species prevention in the Great Lakes Watershed. The boots-on-the-ground projects funded through these grants are in Northern Vilas and part of Oneida County that fall within the Great Lakes watershed. Some of the work done with these grants is educational in nature. Some focus on “Access Points,” or at trailheads, lake landings and other places where people may be accessing forests. 

This GLRI grant has also been used for invasive species management activities at Frontier Lakes and Natural Lakes where honeysuckle and buckthorn surveys and removal efforts have been ongoing. 

This grant is also being used for purple loosestrife (PL) biocontrol at Tenderfoot Lakes and Little Presque Isle Lake, where PL has recently been found. WHIP raises biocontrol beetles and releases them at these sites. They also conduct paddles every year looking for other places where this invasive species might appear in order to get ahead of it before it takes hold completely. This grant also covers Page’s spring and fall herbicide treatments at Natural Lakes and other locations in the town of Presque Isle. Page will also be looking at scheduling spring control of marsh thistle and bull thistle with these grant funds. Billboards will also be scheduled for prevention awareness and boot brush stations will be installed through this grant this year as well.

She also spoke about another GLRI grant WHIP received for work through the end of last year. That $10,000 grant funded the Building Awareness at the Gateway to the Great Lakes project. This project looked to enhance outreach efforts to seasonal residence. In the past, Page said, educational workshops had been set up in the winter, off-season months. Because of the number of seasonal residents, having more outreach in the spring and summer was able to target more people.

The next grant about which Page spoke was a Weed Management Area (WMA) grant from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This was a $6,500 grant, which WHIP used in combatting buckthorn in Oneida County and garlic mustard in Vilas County starting last year and running through this year. The buckthorn was reported near Squash Lake in the towns of Crescent and Woodboro. Funds in this grant allowed Page to work with volunteers to mark some of the trees and pull seedlings. Some removal will also be done in the fall. Page said she hoped to move that outreach and efforts to the entire county this year.

The second WMA grant received by WHIP was for $9,781. This grant has two main objectives. One is to enhance WHIP’s ability to deal with invasive knotweed. Japanese knotweed, giant knotweed and a hybrid between the two are the main focus. All of these invasive species behave similarly, she said, meaning there was not much difference when it came to control measures for the various knotweeds. Previously, WHIP did not have funding to help private land owners with knotweed other than to help with identification. This funding will allow Page to come in and do herbicide treatments for land owners if that is the decision the land owner makes. When it comes to knotweed, chemical treatment provides the best control and is likely the only viable measure. 

Page said she was able to treat two spots in Oneida County last year. She has a few additional sites for this summer.

“This is where people at this meeting can kind of help us spread the word.” she said. “Help us recruit participants for this summer.” She said typically the land owner and/or friends and family help out by doing stem clipping throughout the summer to keep the plants shorter. From there Page comes in to do herbicide treatments on the stems in the fall.

The next grant of $1,256 was WHIP’s portion of a Vilas County grant to fight AIS. WHIP works in partnership with Cathy Higley at Vilas County land and water. This grant supports Page’s hours outside of the Great Lakes Basin, on the Eagle River Chain. A training is already set up for July 22 to teach volunteers to identify phragmites as well as knotweeds. 

Page said she just received an email from WEC Energies to renew their contract with WHIP for completing some Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) work on some hydroelectric projects in Lincoln County, specifically on Lake Mohawksin and Grandfather Falls on the Wisconsin River. WPS, she said, would like beetle releases for biocontrol of PL. WPS, she said, has funding for outreach this year, which will work to make these efforts even more effective.

The largest grant under which WHIP does work is a grant to Lumberjack originating from the U.S. Forest Service and partners WHIP with the Timberland Invasives Partnership (TIP) and the Wisconsin Young Forest Partnership (WYFP). This is a $143,575 grant used to help promote conservation practices throughout all of Lumberjack’s 10-county area. Much of that, Page said, is focused on invasive species, but not all of it.

The first part of the funding is being used for media outreach. The partnership created a website: yourforests.com, where people can learn more about improving their lands, finding workshops and events nearby and more. There have also been radio ads as well as billboards. 

A series of billboards spread over the Lumberjack area raising awareness of forest health and fighting terrestrial invasive species was also made possible through this grant. This is one half of the grant, she said, with the second half being meant for boots-on-the-ground projects.

“If you haven’t had one near you yet, there is still time,” she said. “We have two field seasons left, two years to go. We will still be getting this money spread out a little bit better in Lincoln and Oneida.” She spoke about working with the Blackwell Job Corps on some invasive species at Trees for Tomorrow. That same work will be done again likely in the end of April. Marsh thistle, bull thistle, barberry and buckthorn are all targets of the work being done on this project, she said. 

The second site was at the Military Creek trailhead. Page did an herbicide treatment there last fall. The site was brought to WHIP’s attention by Quita Sheehan from Vilas County land and water. It is an area that is an intersection of many different trails, so a variety of user groups could find themselves at this intersection off of County Road E in Phelps. Page said this was the perfect place for a boot brush as well as signage highlighting the number of invasive species in the area. Tansy and spotted knapweed have been spotted in that area, she said.

Page said she applied for GLRI funding in the fall and would find out about those funds this spring. She also spoke about a contact to the county land and water department from a science teacher at Rhinelander High School.

This project would focus on removing buckthorn on the RHS forest trails. Page said she wanted to get involved in a project like this for many years. Students typically do community work on May 2, so she said she looked forward to working with science class volunteers to do some of this removal as well as outreach and education with that group.

Those looking for more information on Lumberjack, or how the group can help land owners fight invasive species on their property, can see more on their website whipinvasives.org.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].