Michigan conservation districts are teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service and other partners to focus on Japanese and giant knotweed in an effort to help forest resiliency and wildlife habitat.

“A lot of it has to do with teamwork, going after the invasive species,” Jenny Ricker, district manager for Iron Baraga Conservation District, said. “It has the ability to go through roadways, destroy infrastructure, go through people’s foundations. We play just a very small part of the project. We’re kind of a tiny wheel in the maze of the whole machine.”

As part of the Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership (LRP) project, the district is working on about 40 acres throughout Iron, Gogebic and Ontonagon counties.

The partnership, Partnering for Watershed Restoration of Lake Superior (Ottawa National Forest), is a landscape-scale restoration project covering the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the heart of the Lake Superior watershed. It is part of a Partners for Watershed Restoration, a larger partnership effort that has expanded over the past four years.

Designed to increase forest resiliency, the project uses efforts to reduce wildfire threats through outreach, fuel reduction, and stand management on private and tribal lands. Partners also provide abundant clean water for all residential, recreational and industrial needs. The project looks to improve and restore at-risk fish and aquatic species habitat on federal and private forest lands.

Other partners include Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Superior Watershed Partnership, Keweenaw Land Trust, Central Upper Peninsula Cooperative Weed Management Area, Ruffed Grouse Society, Superior Watershed Partnership and The Nature Conservancy.

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