[APWG] Vote for WRISC's Earthworm Ed Project

Fri Mar 2 12:49:50 CST 2012

Can you please send this to the listserv. Thanks!

PLESE READ AND VOTE FOR THE WILD RIVERS INVASIVE SPECIES COALITION'S "SLOW THE SPREAD: EARTHWORM EDUCATION FOR ANGLERS" PROJECT. PLEASE  VOTE NOW and VOTE DAILY!

As you may or may not know, earthworms are not native to the Lake States. European settlers brought earthworms with them when they settled here. At least 15 non-native earthworm species have been documented in this region. Earthworms are detrimental to hardwood forests because they consume the duff layer and mix soil layers, permanently altering the forest floor. The duff layer is the natural growing environment for wildflowers and ferns, ground nesting birds, reptiles, amphibians, and some small mammals. When earthworms invade, they eat the duff layer and destroy this critical habitat and kill tree seedlings. Once a forest has been invaded by earthworms, they can't be removed. The only way to protect our forests is to prevent new earthworm infestations.

The Wild Rivers Invasive Species Coalition (WRISC) is a Cooperative Weed Management Area (CWMA) whose management area includes northeast Wisconsin and the southwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  WRISC is currently competing for a NATIOWIDE grant to secure funds to provide education to anglers about proper earthworm bait disposal and the impacts earthworms have on the ecosystems here. For the complete application packet and to learn more about earthworms and WRISC, please visit our website http://www.wrisc.org

WRISC's grant application was accepted by the BoatUS Foundation Grassroots Grant and is now 1 of 13 projects selected nationwide for the final phase, a voting round. THE PROJECT WITH THE MOST VOTES GETS THEIR PROJECT FUNDED. Voting opened on March 1 and closes March 15. Please help WRISC and the Chequamegon-Nicolet NF with this project by casting your vote! You can vote once on the BoatUS website and once on the Facebook page PER DAY. SO PLEASE VOTE DAILY ON BOTH PAGES!

TO VOTE, CLICK ON THESE LINKS TO VOTE FOR THE PROJECT: "Slow the Spread: Earthworm Education for Anglers"
Website: http://bit.ly/x0X68f

Facebook: http://on.fb.me/zXTSJJ

Please vote daily to help us fund this project. Your votes can get us there!  And share with others you know that love our northern hardwood forests!

Thank you for your help!

Melissa, a WRISC Partner

                            Melissa Simpson
[Description: Description: orchidcomp.jpg]     Ecologist
Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest
Eagle River-Florence District
mdsimpson at fs.fed.us<mailto:mdsimpson at fs.fed.us>
715-528-4464 x 139 work
618-841-5008 cell
715-528-4497 fax
                                                5638 Forestry Drive, Florence, WI 54121

This electronic message contains information generated by the USDA solely for the intended recipients. Any unauthorized interception of this message or the use or disclosure of the information it contains may violate the law and subject the violator to civil or criminal penalties. If you believe you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20120302/c34b996f/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15410 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20120302/c34b996f/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4253 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/apwg_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20120302/c34b996f/attachment-0001.jpg>