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Cooperative Weed Management Areas
Headquarters POC
Cooperative Weed Management Areas (CWMA), also known as Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM's) or Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas (CISMA's), are partnerships that cross boundaries in order to combat the spread of invasive plant species. CWMA's operate with a defined geographic area. This area may be defined by common geography, weed problem, community, climate, political boundary, or even land use. CWMA's solicit the aide of citizens, tribal organizations, governmental organizations, and even private businesses in order to achieve their goals.
CWMA's rely on a broad cross-section of landowners and natural resource managers to operate. CWM's facilitate the exchange of information and resources via the cooperation and coordination of partners across jurisdictional boundaries. CWMA's strive to combat invasive species using comprehensive plans that cover prevention, control, and mitigation of said species. Though these types of partnerships have been known to occur without CWMA's, CWMA's foster a long-term commitment to cooperation and attract large numbers of partners.
CWMA's have been wildly popular in the Western United States. CWMA's got their start in 1992 when the Greater Yellowstone Cooperative formed a unified strategy for approaching invasives in the wake of a large wildfire. Similar weed management plans proliferated in the west where tracts of land are often large and federal lands abound. Some states have even neared 100% coverage by CWMA's. The eastern U.S., however, has been slow to adopt the ways of CWMA's. The eastern U.S. has far less federal lands than the West, and land tracts in the east tend to be much smaller. These facts have been cited as the reason that CWMA's have been slow to form. Still, the Eastern U.S. faces a great deal of invasive species too, and could benefit from the development of more CWMAs.
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Introduction to CWMA slideshow