The Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve has received a grant from the National Forest Foundation to restore the health of sensitive wetlands in the McCormick Wilderness Area by removing non-native invasive plants and reseeding treated areas with native species. These wetlands provide habitat for several varieties of rare, threatened, and endangered plants and should be protected for this reason.

The project will continue to eradicate European Swamp Thistle in particular, the prominent invasive plant species in the wilderness’s wetlands. This plant is an aggressive and prolific colonizer and is out competing many native plants. We will remove these invasive plant communities through manual pulling and transport it out of the area to a proper disposal area. We will then plant a variety of plants that are known to be native to this ecosystem. Staff and volunteers will collect pertinent information using approved reporting forms and analyze the data to evaluate success. By doing this, we will effectively reduce the invasive plant population and increase these wetland’s ability to support native species.

Our project aims to have a wide reach within the local communities in order to continue to build a sustaining, long term effort to protect this area. Multiple community groups will be participating throughout the project on various levels, including youth and Native American groups. Throughout the project, we will increase the level of awareness about protecting wetlands from invasive plants by reaching out to the community in numerous ways. Results will be shared through social media, printed publications, and public presentations. We requested $5000 to achieve our goal of restoring and protecting wetland habitat. Field work will take place June 15 to September 1, 2013. If you are interested in volunteering for this project please contact us at the office 906-345-9223.