Staff Program and Structure – Cooperative Weed Management Areas (CWMA) – Resources – Membership
The Western Invasives Network (WIN) is a regional partnership network of individuals, agencies, and organizations concerned with rural and urban invasive weed issues in northwestern Oregon and southwestern Washington.
The mission of the WIN Program is to prevent the introduction and to control the spread of harmful invasive plant species by coordinating information and activities of Cooperative Weed Management Areas (CWMAs) and willing land managers.
WIN Goals
The overall goal of WIN is to foster local decision making and on-the-ground partnership efforts through the CWMA’s while providing opportunities for collaborative management, prevention, and awareness of invasive weeds and other invasive species of concern in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.
The WIN program strengthens collaborative management, prevention, and awareness of invasive weeds and other invasive species of concern in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.
WIN Objectives
- Better invasive weed control: Landscape-level management and sharing of best management practices promotes more effective control plans and more efficient implementation. Weed invasions can be prevented or slowed, without needless duplication of effort.
- More funding for weed coordination activities: Cooperative efforts such as those embodied by Weed Management Areas increase the likelihood for success. As such these efforts tend to be favored for funding. In addition multi-partner activities increase the visibility of weed problems, raising the awareness of decision makers and the general public.
- Greater efficiency in use of funds and staff: The coordination offered by the WIN helps to facilitate meetings, sharing information across organizations, grant writing, data management, leveraging efforts of individual members. This coordination reduces the duplication of efforts among partners and increases their capacity to give them the time to do what they do best.
WIN partners
Member organizations include: Soil and Water Conservation Districts; Watershed Councils; State and local Parks and Recreation departments; Portland State University & OSU/WSU Extension; Native American Tribes; County Public Works departments; State and Federal Natural Resource Management agencies; Timber Companies; City and County Government departments; and many other organizations.
WIN Guiding Principles
- Develop and support local and regional partnerships and weed programs.
- Avoid duplicating work others are doing, augment local resources, and be an effective conduit for information.
- Address concerns which are widely shared at the local level but which are best addressed at a regional level.
- Coordinate activities and information sharing with local and state-wide weed groups.
- Represent a broad cross-section of weed-related interests and perspectives.
- Make decisions by consensus.
Why care about weeds?
The economic, ecological, and social effects of invasive weeds and the importance of their management are apparent. An analysis conducted by the Oregon Department of Agriculture in 2001 revealed that 21 of the 99 state-listed noxious weeds cost Oregon over $83 million per year.
Invasive plants degrade our native ecosystems; displace native fish and wildlife and reduce the value of our public lands for recreation and other outdoor pursuits, effectively reducing our quality of life.
For example, garlic mustard has displaced native forest understory species, reducing diversity, and decreasing forage availability for native wildlife. Garlic mustard is a priority for control due to its ability to quickly invade habitats and alter soil chemistry.
