In conjunction with Invasive Species Awareness Month, the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species is pleased to announce the 2006 recipients of the Invader Crusader Award.

The award serves to honor Wisconsin citizens and organizations for their exemplary efforts at addressing issues surrounding terrestrial and aquatic invasive species, as well as forest pests. The Invader Crusader is being awarded for two categories: exceptional voluntary and exceptional professional efforts. The selection process is always difficult. There were 35 nominations for 29 individuals/groups.

The 2006 Invader Crusaders are:

Voluntary Efforts:

Mike Fort, Wales:  Mike was nominated for his work as a volunteer at Lapham Peak Unit – Kettle Moraine State Forest. Mike began volunteering in 1995 and has become the park’s resident expert on invasive species. He founded and essentially runs the invasive species control program at the park. Each year he donates hundreds, if not thousands of hours to the effort. Mike has literally changed the face of Lapham Peak. While the exact acreage that has benefited from his work is difficult to estimate, last winter alone, Mike and his mixed crew of volunteers and park limited-term employees (LTEs) burned 412 big piles of buckthorn and honeysuckle that were cut earlier. Mike works with school and youth groups, conservation organizations, and volunteers to control the invasive species in the park and to the restore areas that were impacted by them.

Amy Staffen, Madison:  Amy was nominated for her effort to make last year’s First Annual Invasive Species Awareness Month (ISAM) a success. The impact she had was huge. Her efforts put ISAM on the map, and we now hear people outside of the invasive plant world talking about it. She is also a very active board member for the Invasive Plant Association of Wisconsin (IPAW). Her role as Education Committee chair has been the reason why the education committee is so successful spreading the word about invasives and ISAM. She was the link between the Governors Council on Invasive Species and IPAW, which has helped both organizations tremendously.

Jane Swenson, Iron River:  Jane was nominated for her tireless effort to educate everyone she met about Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) in the Pike Chain and the Delta Chain of Lakes, and the surrounding areas. Her leadership in the AIS campaign made a significant difference by limiting the spread Eurasian water milfoil in the Pike Chain and controlling purple loosestrife along a 1000 ft. stretch of Lake Millicent & Buskey Bay. Many of the lake people, boaters, and tourists have already seen the results of last year’s efforts to control aquatic invasives in the area and the positive impact that awareness of the dangers these exotics have on our lakes. She also worked with local groups, assisting them with grant writing, and attending town meetings to encourage the boards to sponsor AIS grants.

Co-Winners : Vilas County Aquatic Invasive Species Partnership and Vilas County Lakes Association, Vilas County:  The Vilas County AIS Partnership, a group of over 200 volunteers, has dramatically increased awareness of AIS risks by local residents. Because of their effort, nine of Vilas County’s 10 town boards have created Town Lakes Committees and AIS action teams have been formed at the county level. Visitor Guides, local media, and many private businesses are now partners in the campaign. The Partnership has inspired the drafting of new legislation to provide $5 million annually to control existing AIS infestations. The Vilas County Lakes Association (VCLA) has worked to keep Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) out of the 90% of the more than 1300 lakes in Vilas County that still have healthy ecosystems. This has been accomplished by means of newsletters, educational outreach, lake fairs, workshops, grant support, targeting aquatic exotics education, area wide prevention, identification, monitoring, and management, plus water quality monitoring programs. They also forwarded a resolution on aquatic invasive species that triggered a chain of actions that resulted in the Vilas County Aquatic Invasive Species Strategic Planning Project.

Professional Efforts:

Fred Clark, Clark Forestry, Baraboo:  Fred was nominated because he has taken a true leadership role in the fight against invasive species.  He serves on the Wisconsin Council on Forestry, and chairs the Forestry Invasives Leadership Team (FILT).  Through the FILT committee he has led an effort to develop Best Management Practice for invasive species prevention and control in four areas:  forestry, recreation, urban forestry, and rights-of-way.  His energy and initiative has truly launched this innovative effort (believed to be the first of its kind in the nation). Fred has conducted training sessions for WDNR professionals and the urban forestry community through organized workshops.  He also works one-on-one with private landowners who wish to control invasives on their property.  More recently, through his efforts on the Wisconsin Council on Forestry, he is having an impact on the political and policy community.

Gigi La Budde, Community Forestry Resource Center, Spring Green:  Gigi was nominated for the countless hours she spends each year working with landowners, foresters, loggers and others teaching about the identification and management of woodland invasive species.  She does much of this work through her position as Ecology Education Coordinator for the Community Forestry Resource Center.  She is an enthusiastic and inspiring teacher who has motivated many private landowners to manage the invasive species on their property.

Rhonda Reisenbuechler, L. B. Clarke Middle School, Manitowoc;  Rhonda was nominated for her work as a middle school teacher where she created a new elective course last year that teaches students about invasive species and provides them hands-on experience. Her eight-grade students have had the opportunity of raising and releasing the purple loosestrife-eating beetles and learning about the gypsy moth, as well as learning about many other invasive species. Her class is becoming popular and it looks as though she’ll be teaching this hands-on course for eight-graders for years to come.

South Central Region State Natural Area Crew, Department of Natural Resources, Fitchburg:  The crew was nominated because, simply put, its known as the group that ‘gets things done on the landscape’. They are dedicated, knowledgeable, persistent, and effective, and are deserving of recognition for the work that they do. As the party responsible for managing many of our best remaining examples of prairies and savannas in southern Wisconsin, they are the people on the forefront of trying to control the invasive plants threatening our State Natural Areas (SNA). Their actions benefit a whole suite of people: the public benefits by having natural areas that are better protected as a result of the crew’s actions; partners and colleagues benefit from the knowledge that the crew shares both about the resource and about how to protect it from invasives (and restore it when invasives have already become established), other landowners (including local conservation organizations) benefit from their recommendations for and assistance in managing privately owned SNAs. The crew also plays a key role in educating the public, both through structured field trips and through casual, one-on-one conversations.

The Invader Crusaders will be recognized at the June 2 meeting of the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species. The award ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. in the Governor’s Conference Room at the State Capital in Madison. Arrangements will also be made to recognize the winners at a meeting of their own organization, industry or other forum of their peers.

All nominees:

Voluntary Nominees

Shara Bassler Mortensen

Dan Bohlin

Tom and Kathie Brock

Sharon Duerkop

Mike Fort

Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve

Dr. Kent Hall

Michael Meeker

Lake Nokomis Concerned Citizens

Nelson Lake Association

John Ochsner

Prairie Bluff Chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts

Connie Ramthun

Ken Solis

Amy Staffen

Don Stoffels

Jane Swenson

Vilas County AIS Partnership

Vilas County Lakes Association

Dan Wallace

Julie Zolondek

Professional Nominees

Fred Clark, Clark Forestry

Gigi La Budde, Community Forestry Resource Center

Lee Krueger, Kettle Moraine State Forest – Northern Unit

Colleen Matula, DNR

Rhonda Reisenbuechler, L. B. Clarke Middle School

SCR SNA Crew, DNR

Joy Wolf, UW-Parkside

Brock Woods, DNR