Minutes
Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin
Board of Directors Meeting
Tuesday, March 8th, 2005, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
The Nature Conservancy – Forest Room
633 W. Main St., Madison, WI
Board members present: Tom Boos, Nancy Braker, Gene Roark, Rolf Utegaard
Members joining via conference call: David Hamel, Steve Strachota, Patrick Goggin, Jim Reinartz, Dan Undersander
Also present: Kelly Kearns, Angie Ashley
Vice President, Utegaard, called the meeting to order.
I. Administration
- Minutes of the January board meeting were approved as submitted.
- Budget approval is scheduled for next meeting. Boos will email the budget, revenue included, to the board explaining which items need attention.
II. Old Business
- Update on board election process (Braker) – Braker and Ashley are preparing ballots to be sent out next week. Undersander will write letter to members to be included with mailing. First meeting after election will be officer elections. Board is encouraged to think about what role they can play.
- Business cards (Boos) - Boos will work with designer to create bookmark (two-fold business card) and have sample made so board can approve.
- Upcoming IPAW Conferences –
January 2006 – WI Wetlands conference - board agreed to have symposium
December 2006 – Weed Science Society - board agreed to have symposium
October 2007 – Master Gardner Association in Eau Claire - board agreed to have a booth or sponsor a talk. IPAW should encourage WI Wetlands to have conference close to a weekend. Boos will write up points of letter to WI Wetlands Association and send to Undersander to write. Undersander will then send final version to Roark who will send on to WI Wetlands.
- Newletter status – Deadline has been postponed to March 8th. Braker is checking with Susan Slapnick to see if she will volunteer to be the new layout person. Kearns will write short legislative article for each newsletter and will also write up article for next newsletter on grants. Kearns will get the URL for ISAM’s website to D. Beckmann or Utegaard to be included in this newsletter.
- Economic Impact Statements – Board discussed some changes that should be made to the statements:
- Specify the area that “estimated value of crops” represents
- Look at what are alternative species to use if planting adjacent to a natural area. A sentence or two should be added after the alternative stating which are better in some areas than others.
- Kentucky Bluegrass is in a different category. Remove fescues and add “is invasive, but ubiquitous in prairies and not feasible to control”.
Strachota will send revised statements to the board and Kearns. Ashley to send updated IPAW board email list to Strachota.
Board discussed that it would be helpful to know which WI companies grow seed to sell, so that the board would have a good idea of the economic impact it would have on companies if a species was added to the list. Strachota will send a survey to WI seed companies to gather the seed sale data.
When the impact statements are added to the website, it should be stated that the statements are a work in progress and that suggestions are welcome.
III. New Business:
- Science committee mapping project (Boos/Kearns) – Three work groups have been formed:
- standards/data collection – developing a standardized data reporting form
- strategic planning
- recording control methods – developing standardized control work form
All working groups will meet Wednesday, March 16th. Contact Kearns if you want to attend or phone in.
- Education committee – To be discussed at next meeting. Staffen has put together a huge database of partners that deal with invasive plants. Ashley will ask Staffen for list. IPAW should use this list to promote the list serve.
- New website material – Boos reported that he has received about six requests for presentations. Slide shows have also been requested. It’s a possibility that a basic and advanced slide show could be made for people to borrow.
- Legislative committee (Kearns/Roark) – Kearns will submit a legislative summary for each newsletter.
- The Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species (previously known as the “Governor’s Invasive Species Council”) will be presenting the first annual Wisconsin Invasive Species Achievement Awards this June at the Council’s meeting at the state capitol. These awards will cover all types of invasives and any types of achievements. Awards will likely be given in each of two categories – community and industry/government.
- Kearns gave an update on the Governor’s budget proposal to the legislature which includes a significant increase in funds going towards invasive species in the next two fiscal years.
- Invasive Species Classification Rule Revision – Wisconsin Statute 23.22 that set up the Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species also gave DNR the authority to establish a legal classification system for all invasive species. DNR, DATCP and the Council are working on developing:
- categories for the classification system
- legal restrictions and allowable activities associated with each category
- criteria for evaluating species and placing them into categories
- process for public input, evaluation and assignment into categories
- The Conservation Congress will hold their spring hearings Monday, April 11 at 7 p.m., in each county, to discuss their list of questions. There are four questions that deal with invasives, mostly aquatic. For more info, contact Gene Roark.
Ashley to add Jayne Meyer to IPAW mailing list. Roark will get address to Ashley.
Grants Update (Kearns) – Kearns will write grants summary for next newsletter.
- DNR’s Forestry Division received $30,000 from the State and Private Forestry Forest Health Program of the US Forest Service to train foresters about invasive plants.
- A USFS Invasive Species Suppression Grant has been awarded to the WDNR for on the ground control of early detection invasive forest plants.
- Citizens-Based Monitoring Group applied for grant money for training on early detection work. Make sure speaker’s bureau gets invited to training. Promote through list serve and newsletter.
- Pulling Together grant
- Sauk County Weed Group applied
- Hogweed project applied
- A grant from BLM’s America’s Outdoors Program is providing funds to purchase copies of Betty Czarapata’s “Invasive Plants of the Upper Midwest” and distribute them along with an invasive plants curriculum to educators. Books will be out in June/July. Contact Kearns if you know of anyone who should receive a book. Education committee could also help with this.
- Invasive Species Awareness Month (ISAM) – Website should be up now. It is a subset of the Governor’s Council on Invasive Species website. Kearns will get the URL to D. Beckmann or Utegaard to be included in this newsletter. All IPAW board members are highly recommended to do something for ISAM that they can tag IPAW’s name to.
- Agency advisory (Boos) – Boos will contact agencies, NRCS, etc. for liason. Add to next agenda.
· Legislative field days – The Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species will be hosting several Legislative Field Days this spring and summer. IPAW’s Legislative Committee will assist. The purpose is to show legislators, agency administrators and others the impacts of invasive species on forests, lakes, and other natural communities. If you know of legislators or other decision-makers who might be interested in attending, or if you are interested in helping set up a field day in your area, please contact Kelly Kearns at 608-267-5066 (kearns@dnr.state.wi.us).
- Hamel’s 5-month absence – Board agreed that Hamel should continue on as a board member during his five month leave from May 1st through October 1st, but take a leave of absence. Board to make certain that newsletter articles are turned in by the deadline during this time.
- IPAW Yahoo list serve (Braker) – Braker and Dave Beckmann now approve new members who want to join the list serve, which has cut back on the amount of spam received. Braker asked for direction from board regarding items on list serve not directly related to invasive plants, such as natural areas job postings. Board doesn’t have a problem with job postings or other natural areas related content. Board agreed to advertise the list serve on the IPAW booth and business cards. Braker will send IPAW list serve ad for booth to Utegaard.
- IPAW vendor for book – IPAW could buy “Invasive Plants of the Upper Midwest” at wholesale to sell at conferences. Possibly give a discount to IPAW members. Braker will check on limit IPAW can sell before having to pay sales tax. Kearns will check with UW Press on other legalities.
Utegaard suggested having contact info available so conference attendees know where they can buy the books that are at the IPAW booth. Utegaard will send list to Kearns. Kearns will add digital images of book covers to list and send to Marsha to be put on website.
- Additional matters –
- Utegaard will send list of valuable conferences he attends to Boos.
- Ashley will order 2,000 IPAW envelopes.
- Agenda items for next meeting –
- Contract for IPAW assistant starting July 1, 2005 (Boos)
- Fundraising for assistant’s position (Boos)
- Agency Advisory (Boos)
- Education committee report (Staffen)
- New website material (Staffen)
- ISAM update (Staffen)
The next IPAW board meeting will be Tuesday, April 12th from 11:00-1:00. Location to be determined
Meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
Minutes prepared by Angie Ashley, IPAW Program Assistant
