Invasive plants, such as this patch of purple loosestrife in Saginaw Bay, have been out-competing native plants in the Midwest for years.Photo courtesy of Karen Holland, USEPA
The unchecked spread of invasive plants is causing alarm
throughout the Great Lakes region. Invasives are plants that are
often imported for ornamental use, and have now gone wild and
spread to places they’re not wanted. The concern over these plants
is so great that hundreds of land managers, educators, botanists and
others attended a recent conference in Eau Claire,
Wisconsin to learn more about the problem. In the first of a
three-part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mary Jo Wagner reports: