Projects with Partners

Door County Soil & Water Conservation along with the help of partners and municipalities aims to control populations Phragmites, Japanese knotweed, teasel spp., and wild parsnip through donations and grant funding. Since the start of these efforts DCIST and partners have secured through match and grant awards a total of 1.1 million dollars to control at least one of the priority species!  To see the current inventory check out: http://map.co.door.wi.us/map/# click the conservation folder in layers, then open invasive plants and click on the population you are interested in!  

The  Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve is maintained by the Door County Land Trust to restore an ecologically important area. There are several rare and threatened species on this preserve such as  the dune thistle, dune goldenrod, dwarf lake iris, bald eagle, Caspian tern and osprey. 

Bayshore Blufflands Nature Preserve is owned and maintained by Door County Land Trust. An area that was once cleared for timber, farms and resorts is being restored to a natural landscape. Coordinated efforts are currently underway to restore the area's ecological health. They are also preserving the land to protect sensitive species such as the threatened ram’s head lady’s slipper and federally endangered land snails.

The Ridges Sanctuary is partnering with UW-Green Bay and others to treat Phragmites australis, a highly aggressive, invasive plant that has been identified on The Ridges properties, UW-Green Bay’s Toft Point and neighboring privately owned shoreline properties.  The Phragmites management project is being done through a grant awarded by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Aquatic Invasive Species Control grant program. The project has included management objectives, control actions and follow up activity.

The Sustain Our Great Lakes crew, a four person crew, finished another season working under The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The crew worked on TNC land and partner organization's land in Door County within the Ramsar designated wetlands. The summer of 2017 was the first year the crew worked on inventorying and controlling six priority invasive species in the county. These species are Phragmites, Japanese knotweed, European marsh thistle, narrow leaf cattail, reed canary grass and glossy buckthorn. The crew continued this work during the 2018 field season and TNC staff are continuing to monitor the areas the crew controlled. 

Wisconsin DNR staff are working on the preserving the natural areas on land they own in Door County including the Mud Lake State Wildlife Area and the Newport Conifer-Hardwoods State Natural Area.

The Clean Boats, Clean Waters program is an education and prevention program for aquatic invasive species. Volunteers and interns educate the public on the harmful effects of invasive species in water bodies, provide informational handouts and inspect boats for any invaders. You will see inspectors at boat landings around Door County throughout the summer.