New grant funding for our Buckthorn control project in the Bog
Jim Reinartz, FOCB President
As we reported in the Spring 2025 issue of the BogHaunter, last winter was a very productive season for our buckthorn control project. Crews were able to control fruiting-sized buckthorn on 183 acres of the Bog. We are hoping for the Bog to freeze solidly again this winter to complete our current three-year control project. This work can’t be done efficiently unless the Bog is frozen.
FOCB has been successful in raising grant funding for this project. Our collaborator, the Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium, SEWISC (https://sewisc.org/), has $40,000 of National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funding remaining for the project. FOCB was awarded a $20,000 WDNR Friends Stewardship Grant, a $10,000 James E. Dutton Foundation (https://www.jameseduttonfoundation.org/) Grant, and a newly awarded $20,000 Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund (https://www.wisconservation.org/cherish/) grant from the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin to continue the project this year. The Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund is a public-private partnership between the Foundation and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources that provides support for habitat management and ecological restoration on state-managed public lands.
Our current funding total of $90,000 could control glossy buckthorn on another 70 acres based on our previous cost per acre. We are pleased at the level of support that this project has been able to generate. That support indicates that many outside reviewers have been convinced of the value of doing stewardship work to protect the Cedarburg Bog.
