A Forum for Green Industry & Land Management Professionals

Registration is now open - and seats are limited so act now!

Don’t miss this opportunity to network with land managers, nurserymen, arborists, landscape architects and many other professionals. This amazing and innovative event will feature presentations, panel discussions, plus guided tours discussing ways the green industry and land managers can benefit each other. Speakers for the 2014 event include: Neil Diboll, Kurt Dreisilker, Kelly Schultz & Michael Yanny. We will see you there!

When: September 17, 2014; 8:00am - 3:00pm

Where: Johnson’s Nursery; W180 N6275 Marcy Road, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051

How to register: visit Where Ecology Meets Economy: Season 2 Registration

Hosted by: Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium, Inc. & Johnson’s Nursery, Inc.™

The purpose of the event is to continue personal dialog between the two groups that have not traditionally shared their experiences. This second annual meeting will continue the development of working relationships to create business opportunities and help improve the state of our ecological communities.  The full-day event will feature presentations about ways the Green Industry and Land Managers can work together for mutual benefit.  A topical panel discussion and educational tours of Johnson’s Nursery native’s plant production are also scheduled.

The Traveling Trophy Finds a New Home for 2014

Our Garlic Mustard Pull-A-Thon is an annual event, where we encourage people throughout southeastern Wisconsin to protect the woodlands of their neighborhoods by pulling this invasive plant. The pull-a-thon is a competition, a fundraiser, and a way for people to join together and have a positive impact on their environment. 

This spring, 18 teams formed by 332 volunteers helped to raise funds and awareness while controlling 10,060 pounds of garlic mustard and dame's rocket in our natural areas. Volunteers recruited friends, family and colleagues to sponsor their pulling efforts. What a fun way to make a real difference in the protection of the wild areas that we love!

The tax-deductable pledge contributions were shared between SEWISC and event partners and the funds will be used for invasive species education, prevention and control in southeastern Wisconsin. Thank you to all the 2014 teams and to their generous sponsors. 

The prestigous traveling trophy was recently passed from last year's winners, the  Ozaukee Washington Land Trust Sauk Creek Nature Preserve Team to the Mequon Nature Preserve Farmstead Woods Team.

The Garlic Mustard Pull-A-Thon Trophy is a team-to-team award for dedicated efforts to control invasive species in southeastern Wisconsin. Each year, the team with the most bags of pulled garlic mustard and/or dame’s rocket wins the trophy which travels throughout our eight-county region.

Join the fun.  It’s never too soon to begin recruiting 2015 Pull-A-Thon Teams! Will the impressive trophy be passed to another team in 2015, or will Mequon Nature Preserve win the competition and keep the trophy for another year?

Got garlic mustard?  If you would like to volunteer as a Team Leader in 2015 and add your worksite location to our event, please email us at: .

Our Regional Recipients

In 2005 Governor James Doyle demonstrated a firm commitment to address the issue of invasive species in Wisconsin by creating the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species and by declaring June as Invasive Species Awareness Month. 

That tradition has continued in an effort to raise awareness about non-native invasive plants and animals.  This annual event is a great opportunity for the Council to recognize the efforts of outstanding individuals and organizations that have demonstrated exemplary work in combating the spread of invasive species.

We are proud to report that Isis Eiserling, Maddy Keefe, Haley Pfister, and Jennifer Schroll (Girl Scout Troop #2789), Michael Yanny (Johnson’s Nursery, Inc. and SEWISC Board Member) and Jason Nickels (Mequon Nature Preserve) were chosen to receive 2014 awards for their dedicated work in southeastern Wisconsin!

The Invader Crusader Awards Ceremony was held on June 5th at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison.

2014 Field Experiences

During the summer, seven University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Geography students participated in fieldwork internships around Southeastern Wisconsin.

Nichalas Goetsch and Jeffrey Lobb worked with Jerry Ziegler, who manages seven nature preserves in Southeastern Wisconsin for The Nature Conservancy. The students completed a wide array of tasks, including pulling garlic mustard, restoring three-quarters of a mile of trail, and removing a beaver dam.  Nichalas and Jeffrey also assisted Dr. Tim Gerber and his students from University of Wisconsin-La Crosse who have diligently worked on hand removal of Eurasian water-milfoil in Lulu Lake for the past five years.

Schlitz Audubon Land Manager, Marc White had a great time working with interns Ethan Hintz, Derek Miller and Katie O'Dell Roeder.  The students used smart phone apps, Dropbox, Google Earth and ArcGIS to map small isolated infestations of garlic mustard and dame’s rocket.  The mapping was performed as a part of an early detection and rapid response protocol for the control of these invasive species.  Ethan, Derek and Katie worked as a team to import project data into a geographic database and produce a map showing the size and location of isolated infestations of the plant populations.

Other students placed with mentors this past summer include Jodie Saltzman and Ryan McQuilkin. 

Schlitz Audubon interns Ethan Hintz (black T-shirt), Derek Miller (blue shirt) and Katie O'Dell Roeder at work on their project

New Brochure Now Available

Meet the Knapweeds, a brochure developed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, is now available as a pdf download from the MIPN website. You can find it posted at Meet The Knapweeds.

The brochure overviews four invasive knapweed species confirmed in the Midwest (spotted, diffuse, meadow, and brown knapweed) and provides updated control information.

And Protecting Habitat

Most anglers can recite the Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) prevention steps they often hear about at boat launches, but did you know that these steps apply to waterfowl hunters too?  Wisconsin’s AIS coordinators and educators are working to raise awareness about the establishment and spread of AIS within the waterfowl hunting community.   They are asking for your help to develop an effective outreach campaign.  Please consider taking a few minutes to participate in a brief online survey by visiting  Help Protect Waterfowl Survey.  The survey is scheduled to run through October 31st. By participating, you may even learn a few simple tips to help protect your marshes, rivers and lakes!

Plan to attend this 3^rd biennial conference

The 2014 Upper Midwest Invasive Species Conference (UMISC) will be held in scenic Duluth, Minnesota on October 20-22, 2014.  Attendees will exchange information and expertise on all invasive aquatic and terrestrial plant, animal, insect and pathogen species.

The goal of UMISC is to strengthen management of invasive species, especially prevention, control, and containment.  Expected audience includes: researchers, land managers, natural resource professionals, university personnel, landscape and nursery professionals, agriculture and forestry employees, environmental specialists, lake association members, land owners, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and anyone interested in managing the spread of invasive species in the Upper Midwest.  Go to: UMISC 2014 for more information and to register.

Smartphone Apps

Do you love the outdoors and want to protect
your favorite spots from invasive species?

When you see an invasive species,
be a citizen monitor and report it!

Don’t own a GPS?
Not interested in lugging a clipboard around?
Always forgetting your invasive species ID guide at home?

Well now, there’s an App for that!  In fact, there are TWO Apps for that!  The online data sharing sites Midwest Invasive Species Information Network (MISIN) and Great Lakes Early Detection Network (GLEDN) both have smartphone Apps that allow users to report invasive species locations directly from the field.  The information will then be available online for anyone to view.

The Apps have some helpful features:

• Both Apps are FREE to use, but you must create an account for the respective site to submit any data.
• You can browse species images and information on your phone; no paper field guide is needed.
• If you don’t have a cell signal, the App will store the information on your phone and send the data when a signal is available.
• You can take a picture with your phone and submit it with your report. 
• MISIN and GLEDN share information, so it doesn’t matter which App you use. 

Visit the MISIN website for links to download the MISIN App www.misin.msu.edu.

You can also browse invasive locations and submit invasive sightings on the MISIN website.

Visit Bugwood Apps to download the GLEDN App apps.bugwood.org/gledn.html

Visit GLEDN’s website at GLEDN to browse or submit data via GLEDN

SEWISC 2014 Annual Symposium

Current Conservation: Connecting Communities to Ecological Efforts

1:00 pm Wednesday, November 19^th

Havenwoods Environmental Awareness Center
6141 N. Hopkins Street, Milwaukee WI 53209

Celebrate our recent accomplishments, meet this year’s Sweat Equity Award Winner
and learn about our plans for 2015 and beyond. 

This year’s guest speakers will discuss the importance and process of creating community-inclusive land stewardship opportunities and highlight successes in the field of invasive management and environmental justice.

The symposium is free and open to the public.  Local refreshments will be served.

Contact: to become a 2014 Symposium sponsor and/or to exhibit at this event!