Pulling Together to Fight Invasive Species

By Cynthia Sandeno on Mar 3, 2010

The Monongahela National Forest is leading the fight against invasive species in West Virginia by developing the state's first Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Area.

The Monongahela National Forest is leading the fight against nonnative invasive species (NNIS) in West Virginia. Just over a year ago, the Monongahela invited over 30 partners to come together to discuss the creation of West Virginia's first Cooperative Weed and Pest Management Area (CWPMA). The goals of this meeting were to establish a geographic boundary for the area, prioritize the objectives of the organization, to develop a list of potential partners and of potential funding sources, and to establish a Steering Committee. The group quickly decided to focus on an area that would center on Smoke Hole and North Fork Mountain in the eastern panhandle of the state. This area was selected because of its extensive forests, rivers, and rare plant communities, such as limestone barrens, glades, and cliff communities. It was also selected because of existing baseline data on NNIS and this was a landscape in which the group felt they could make a difference.

The Steering Committee has spent the last few months building the organizational capacity of the CWPMA and developing partnerships. The Potomac Highlands CWPMA covers lands in Grant, Hardy, and Pendleton Counties in West Virginia and Augusta and Highland Counties Virginia. This area covers just over 670,000 acres, most of which is in private ownership. The Potomac Highlands CWPMA includes some of the most unique landscapes found in West Virginia, from the 11-mile long Smoke Hole Canyon along the South Branch of the Potomac River, to the dramatic, 4000+ feet peaks on North Fork Mountain. This landscape contains a diverse mix of hardwood forests and woodlands, limestone glades and barrens, cedar woodlands, high elevation pine/heath barrens, rocky summits, cliffs and balds, and subalpine coniferous forests. Over 120 rare animals, plants, and natural communities have been identified in this area, making it one of the richest concentrations of biological diversity in the East. The cedar glades support a number of species restricted to this part of the Appalachians, including Smoke Hole bergamot, and the high, dry crests of North Fork Mountain support the largest pine barrens of the Central Appalachians. The summits also support virgin red pine and spruce forests, dramatic tundra-like communities of boreal plants, and a wealth of rare Appalachian and boreal species.

Development of the Potomac Highlands CWPMA is a key step in helping land management organizations, conservation organizations, agricultural interests, and others address the growing threat from non-native invasive species in this landscape. In the short term, the desire is to establish a structure for coordination on all fronts. Long term, the objective is to build a broad constituency that supports and actively participates in accomplishing the goals of the CWPMA, which include the following:

1. Decrease the impacts of invasive species on native plant and animal communities, public and private forestland, agricultural lands, and local economies.

2.Develop and support partnerships among a diverse group of private land owners, concerned citizens, agencies, non-profit organizations, educational facilities, and local governments.

3.Increase public awareness of the invasive species problem through workshops, field tours, public meetings, and by sharing informational resources.

The Potomac Highlands CWPMA was recently notified that they had received over $44,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Pulling Together Initiative. The primary activities that will be employed through this grant will fall into three broad categories including:

1. Build the organizational capacity of the CWPMA by supporting a full-time coordinator who will focus on organizing public meetings, devising mapping protocols, assisting with the setting of project priorities, securing permanent funding sources, and sustaining public outreach and restoration activities.

2.Facilitate public meetings, outreach opportunities, and educational workshops focusing on NNIS identification and the requirements for acquiring an herbicide applicator license in the state of West Virginia, as well as providing kits that will be available for private landowners interested in controlling NNIS.

3.Develop demonstration areas on private lands within the CWPMA to help build support for NNIS control among private landowners.

"The Potomac Highlands CWPMA initiative will not only help prioritize management of invasive species in the eastern panhandle, it will also serve as a test landscape for a larger statewide initiative to develop a comprehensive NNIS management plan for the State of West Virginia," said Keith Fisher, Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy. While only a year old, this CWPMA is already showing a lot of success. And, the CWPMA Steering Committee will be taking this partnership to the public in the next few weeks.