Utah Conservation Corps Receives Invasive Species Mitigation Grant

LOGAN, Utah — The Utah Conservation Corps has received a grant from Utah Department of Agriculture and Food to remove noxious weeds and restore habitat in Logan.

The project will treat 152 acres on a mix of private, Utah State University, U.S. Forest Service, City of Logan, and Utah Department of Transportation properties from the mouth of Logan Canyon to roughly 200 East along the U.S. Highway 89 corridor.

Utah Conservation Corps AmeriCorps crews will collaborate with Cache County Vegetation Management Division to remove noxious weeds including Russian olive, goatsrue, Dalmatian toadflax, phragmites, Japanese knotweed, myrtle spurge and dyer’s woad.

Crews will reseed where high densitity of noxious weed locations with native seeds to mitigate reinvasion. UDAF’s Invasive Species Mitigation Grant provides $61,106 to support this work.

“We're very grateful for the opportunity to continue restoring valuable habitat along this beautiful and heavily-used greenspace right here in the heart of Logan. This funding will also give several early-career conservation professionals a chance to learn important job skills through our AmeriCorps program” said Benjamin Borgmann Winter, Utah Conservation Corps northern regional coordinator.

The goal of UDAF’s Invasive Species Mitigation Weed Control program is to allocate funds to projects with a high degree of potential success in the State of Utah.

“Controlling invasive plant species is not only important for Utah’s agriculture producers, but for the good of Utah’s natural habitats as well,” said Kelly Pehrson, UDAF Interim Commissioner. UDAF selects projects that target high priority species and reduce the number of outlier populations.

Utah Conservation Corps an AmeriCorps program within the Utah State University Center for Community Engagement. Since 2001, more than 3,000 Utah Conservation Corps AmeriCorps members have served 2.2 million hours creating or maintaining more than 5,000 miles of trail and nearly 600 miles of fence, restoring approximately 80,000 acres of public land and reaching over 540,000 students individuals with environmental education. For more information about the Utah Conservation Corps please visit www.usu.edu/ucc.