‘second to none’ as invasive species Weed Wrangler

Tracy Gililand, of Warsaw, received the Weed Wrangler Award for northeast Indiana during the Indiana Invasive Species Conference, held June 29.

The conference, hosted by the nonprofit State of Indiana Cooperative Invasive Management, featured a multi-track lineup of presenters from various areas of conservation, including the Indiana Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, Purdue Extension and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, among others.

Gililand was selected for the Weed Wrangler award for his commitment to controlling invasive plants in Kosciusko County.

“Tracy is an absolute machine when it comes to eliminating invasive plants,” said Dugan Julian, SICIM’s northeast regional specialist, who nominated Gililand for the award. “He’s been a member of Kosciusko Water and Woodland Invasive Partnership for years; he’s a member of the Strike Team and when there’s a Weed Wrangle, no one goes after those inva- sives like Tracy.”

Gililand is an active member of Kosciusko Water and Woodland Invasive Partnership, which is a Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area founded in 2019. The Kosciusko invasives partnerships and other cooperative invasive species management areas around the state, work to educate communities, share resources and actively remove invasive species from the natural areas of a county.

One of the tools cooperative invasive species management areas use is the Weed Wrangle, which is a nationwide grassroots movement dedicated to eradicating invasive plants from public lands. The Kosciusko group and dozens of other management areas in Indiana lead the nation in the number of Weed Wrangle events held annually, with more than 200 events hosted in 2022.

“Volunteers, like Tracy, are the lifeblood of Weed Wrangle events,” said Julian. “I’ve been a part of over 20 Weed Wrangles and as far as individual effort goes, Tracy is second to none.”

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invasive species and conservation efforts in Kosciusko County, Weed Wrangle events or volunteer opportunities, visit www.kwwip.org, www.sicim. info or contact Julian by sending an email to at dugan@sicim. info.