Cooperative Agreement for affiliated Partner with the Great Lakes-Northern Forest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

style="margin-left:0in;">Prairies are vital to the Midwest's cultural heritage and rural economies. They provide habitat for diverse wildlife, including birds, pollinators, and the iconic American bison; support hunting, fishing, and birdwatching; and sustain clean water and soils that enhance the productivity of surrounding farmland. But land-use change, wildfire, drought, and invasive species have damaged prairies across the region. Invasive plants are particularly hard to manage, as they thrive after disturbances and outcompete native plants, making conventional management strategies less effective. To learn which management actions are most effective under different weather conditions, this project will leverage an unprecedented database from the Prairie Reconstruction Initiative (PRI), a multi-agency partnership managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 2012, PRI has been developing a comprehensive and ever-growing database of monitoring and management information from 160 locations across several Midwest states. The database includes planting details, dates, locations, and post-restoration monitoring inventories of established plant species, including the most prevalent invasives. Importantly, it also includes records of past management actions (e.g., herbicide, prescribed fire) and when they occurred. By using the database to identify effective strategies, findings from this project will help managers adaptively manage midwestern prairies in the face of plant invasions and weather disturbances. This work supports:

• EO 14313 - Establishing the President's Make America Beautiful Again Commission (July 3, 2025);  
• SO 3447 -Expanding Hunting and Fishing Access, Removing Unnecessary Barriers, and Ensuring Consistency Across the Department of the Interior Lands and Waters (January 7, 2026) by advancing science-based natural resource conservation and strengthening the capacity of agencies and communities to safeguard vulnerable ecosystems from biological degradation, including the preservation of recreational opportunities.
• EO 14239 -Achieving Efficiency Through State and Local Preparedness (March 19, 2025) by helping state and local practitioners mitigate invasive species-associated hazards, such as the increased risk of wildfire caused by invasive grasses.
• EO 14303 -Restoring Gold Standard Science (May 23, 2025) and SO 3441 -Implementing the Requirements of EO 14303, Restoring Gold Standard Science (August 29, 2025 ) by strengthening American leadership in adaptation science and providing DOI with an opportunity to conduct new research on an untapped database.