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Groups And Landowners Working To Fight Invasive Species In And Around Shenandoah National Park

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Private lands west of Shenandoah National Park/Kurt Repanshek

A collaborative effort is under way to halt the spread of invasive plant species on lands surrounding Shenandoah National Park, such as these west of the park/Kurt Repanshek

An effort by landowners, local, state, and National Park Service officials is under way to develop and maintain a 3-million-acre buffer of lands around Shenandoah National Park in Virginia that are free of invasive plants.

The project, to develop a Cooperative Weed Management Area called the Blue Ridge PRISM, was the idea of Rod Walker, who owns a 1,500-acre farm that runs along the eastern boundary of the park.

"We feel that having Shenandoah National Park as our next-door neighbor means that we need to take extra care to manage our property wisely," Mr. Walker told the Shenandoah National Park Trust.

On their Middle Mountain Farm, the Walkers constantly battle encroachment of autumn olive, Oriental bittersweet, tree of heaven, and other invasives.

"We know how daunting it is to do this on our own property. And we understand how daunting it is for the park to do this work across its 200,000 acres," said Mr. Walker. "But we also know that the work we're doing on our land benefits the park, and vice versa."

The Blue Ridge PRISM, which is in the closing stages of being formalized, is the first CWMA in Virginia. It would wrap Shenandoah, said Susan Sherman, executive director of the Shenandoah National Park Trust.

"This is really the gateway communities around Shenandoah National Park, as well as another (county) to the north. So, ultimately the idea is this would serve as a model and would inspire other CWMAs to form across Virginia," she said. "And then ultimately the entire state of Virgina would be covered by CWMAs."

Jim Northup, superintendent of the national park, worked with a similar CWMA when he was superintendent of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

"We were participants in a Cooperative Weed Management Area, a collaboration of federal, state, and local officials just trying to work together to manage invasive species. That’s what this is all about. We are very excited about it," Superintendent Northup said during a phone interview.

Mr. Walker and his wife, Maggie, want to be good neighbors, the superintendent added, "but also wants us to be a good neighbor. We work very hard in the park to manage invasives, but we obviously are somewhat limited in what we can do. We have a very large area and a small staff that works on that, so with Rod’s leadership, and full cooperation from the park, he’s been able to bring together people from the counties that surround the park and other federal state and local groups."

The Shenandoah National Park Trust is working to land grants to help fund the work to be done.

"One of the federal grants that’s being pursued right now, it would be money that would go into a federal landowner’s assistance program that would provide cost-share dollars for landowners that are working to address non-native invastive species on their properties," said Ms. Sherman. "An incentive and financial assistance (program) as well as technical assistance that the PRISM would provide to help landowners manage this issue.

“Then the other grant, which is a smaller dollar amount, would be more to hire a coordinator for the PRISM, so we could get a paid staff person in place, and ramp up the educational outreach and research development aspects of the Blue Ridge PRISM," she added during a phone call.

While the funds would go to landowners outside the park, the Trust continues to work to raise monies that can help Shenandoah staff combat invasives within the park's borders.

“This is really an extension of the funding that we are providing to the national park for this work inside the park boundaries," said Ms. Sherman. "So that work and that funding continues, and we continue to raise money for that work inside the park boundaries.”

The program only addresses vegetative invasive species, and not insects such as the emerald ash borer that kills ash trees in Shenandoah.

Groups participating in the Blue Ridge PRISM include:

* Virginia Department of Forestry

* Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

* Virginia Department of Transportation

* Virginia Master Naturalists

* Virginia Native Plant Society

* Virginia Cooperative Extension

* Shenandoah National Park

* The Shenandoah National Park Trust

* Piedmont Environmental Council

* Smithsonian

* The Nature Conservancy

* Ivy Creek Foundation

* Chesapeake Bay Foundation

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