Blue Ridge PRISM, Inc.

Our next major ecological disaster and one which most people are unaware of is the impact of invasive species in destroying our native ecosystems. Our native trees are being replaced by nonnative trees and being torn down by nonnative vines.  Nonnative shrubs are filling our fields and forest understories.  Nonnative grasses and forbs create monocultures that smother our native plants and prevent regeneration of forest trees.  Aquatic nonnative plants are having dramatic impacts in our ponds, rivers and lakes.  Research shows that as these nonnatives spread we have less native wildlife.  Here, these nonnative plants have none of the bugs, diseases, grazing animals, etc. that keep them in check in their countries of origin.  Literally nothing stops them.  They proceed to fill every ecological niche that they can.  

We have chosen 10 counties of Virginia including almost 3 million acres and the entire Shenandoah National Park as our target area to demonstrate how to approach this problem on a landscape scale.  We would use the prize funding to:

- Provide more education and assistance to the tens of thousands of landowners in our territory,  

- Expand our research efforts for better solutions, and

- Improve public awareness of the problem.

My wife and I started dealing with invasive plant problems on our own land.  We realized that even if we solved this problem on our property, that we would then have to defend our borders to prevent reintroductions of the same and new plants.  What better way to defend your borders than to have the neighbors do the same work?  We started with a discussion with the lead invasive plant expert at the Shenandoah National Park, which neighbors our property.  He suggested we start the first Cooperative Weed Management Area in Virginia and go after this problem on a large scale to try to make a real difference.  So we founded the Blue Ridge PRISM and involved a wide range of federal agencies, state agencies, conservation organizations, academic institutions, and private landowners.  Our objective is to prove that this is not a hopeless task, even though it is totally daunting, and show how this problem can be dealt with through collaborative efforts across a wide area.  In six and a half years we have made great progress and hope upgrade our programs and replicate them across the entire state.

This is a complex, global problem that is growing worse quickly.  Despite efforts by many governmental units and research organizations, there is no evidence whatsoever that this problem is being managed in a way that will forestall widespread, serious ecological damage.  One simple example is the clear trend for invasive vines to bring down forest canopies.  While many people are trying to stop decimation of tropical forests and encourage tree planting, they are completely overlooking this threat that will transform vast swaths of existing forests into endless green mounds of kudzu, oriental bittersweet and other vines that bring down canopies all up and down the eastern mountains.  The Blue Ridge PRISM is addressing this problem through:

- Landowner programs will inform, inspire and assist them in removing invasive plants from their lands,

- Research efforts to improve our ability to map specific species over wide areas,

- State level programs to stop the continuing sale and planting (even by state agencies) of the plants identified by the state as the worst offenders,  and 

- Through the formation of additional PRISMs in Virginia.

This problem will effect everyone and is already costing billions of dollars per year, just in the US.

While there are several hundred Cooperative Weed Management Areas in the US, we not aware of any of them taking the same approach that we are taking.  Most of them are collaborations of federal agencies, state agencies and conservation organizations formed to better manage just those lands overseen by those specific organizations.

We in the Blue Ridge PRISM are not focused on the lands we manage, but on working to engage ALL the landowners in our targeted 10-county area.  We have roughly 50,000 landowners with 5 acres or more in these 10 counties, plus many, many more landowners with smaller holdings.

This problem can only be "solved" by obtaining widespread participation across the entire area.  In six and a half years we have gone from a standing start to having over 2,000 landowners on our email list and the number is increasing by almost 50% per year.

We are now recognized in Virginia as leading this charge and the "go to" organization for this topic.

We seek your support in taking this effort to the next level!

If this problem is not solved, the impact on humanity, both here and worldwide will be devastating.  Climate change is now a widely recognized problem.  The invasive plant challenge is arguably in the same class of impact, but not yet widely understood.  Just as climate change snuck up on humanity, this problem is doing the same thing.  And this, too, will be harder and harder to solve, the longer we wait.

We are working to demonstrate how to deal with the problem through a multi-track approach including:

- Prevention of new problems,

- Stopping the introduction of known problem plants,

- Better tools for understanding and communicating the problem,

- Control and removal of the plants that are already out there, 

- Research on better methods and tools, and

- Increasing public awareness of the problem.

As noted earlier, our programs in all these areas are underway and having impacts.  Feedback from landowners, state agencies, and other conservation organizations is all tremendously positive and encouraging.