Grant to help pay for removing invasive plants from parks

A $150,000 federal grant will help remove invasive  plants from local county parks, including Waubedonia County Park and Hawthorne Hills County Park.

The Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department was recently awarded a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Sustain Our Great Lakes program to improve the ecology at those and other parks.

The grant will help pay for county staff and private contractors to control invasive plant species. 

Members of AmeriCorps, Milwaukee Community Service Corps and Wisconsin Youth Conservation Corps also will be used.

The grant requires a 75% match, or $112,500, in local funds.

That will be provided by other grants from the Brookby Foundation, the Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium, We Energies Foundation and in-kind county staff time, equipment and supplies.

The grant will be applied to more than 1,000 acres of county parks. Other county parks involved include Covered Bridge County Park, Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve, Tendick Nature Park, Ehlers Park, River Oaks Park and the Ulao Creek Habitat Restoration Area.