written by Andrea Locke
WNY PRISM is celebrating ten years of our Crew Assistance Program – ten years of great partnerships, projects, success and fun, and we’re excited to be celebrating with you!
The WNY PRISM Crew Assistance Program was established in 2014 (along with our office!) with the goal to build relationships with regional partners, to improve the success of management activities, and increase regional capacity for projects through sharing of resources and expertise. We also wanted to be additive, to provide our partners with the assistance needed to help move projects forward that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible – those projects where a few extra hands could make the most difference. But most of all, we wanted to work with our partners. The Crew Assistance Program (CAP) offers valuable opportunities for partners to work alongside WNY PRISM’s experienced staff and trained seasonal crew to learn about invasive species management and gain experience with various data collection protocols, removal tools and methods, and to see firsthand how strategies including adaptive management and integrated pest management are used to achieve long-term success with invasive species management.
During the first couple years of the program (2014-2015), WNY PRISM actively sought partners and jointly developed projects on which to work. We did a lot of invasive species surveys in those days! But the popularity of the program grew quickly and partner requests for assistance soon outpaced our ability to help. In response, ahead of the 2016 season we developed a process for partners to submit proposals that would be prioritized and selected based on established criteria. This allowed us to assess each project for how well it met our program goals and the overall WNY PRISM mission and priorities, and to fairly make difficult decisions on what projects we’d be able to work on.
From 2016-2023, WNY PRISM received 123 project proposals, averaging fifteen per year. The fewest we received was eight, in 2017, and the most was twenty, in 2019. Proposals have been received from thirty-six different partners for projects in all eight of our counties, the most of which being for projects within Erie (51), Chautauqua (24) and Niagara (22) counties. Eighty-nine project proposals involved removal, thirty-two involved surveys and two focused on native plant restoration. WNY PRISM selected and completed 105 projects from 2016-2023. Partners recognized WNY PRISM’s efforts through social media posts, organizational newsletters and press releases in local newspapers.
With 105 amazing projects to choose from it’s hard to pick just a few to highlight, but those that stand out most are the ones that allowed the Crew to work alongside our partners in some of the most unique locations and plant communities that can be found here in western New York. Our staff and partners were able to learn from one another and especially rewarding was to see those efforts be leveraged for, or transitioned to, new projects that may not have otherwise been implemented.
We are so proud of the work that has been accomplished over the last ten years, and we are looking forward to many more great projects in the future. If you’re interested in learning more about the Crew Assistance Program, visit our website where you can find information on past projects and see our selection criteria. We’ll be releasing the request for proposals in early December for 2024, so if you haven’t started thinking of a project, now’s the time!
Originally published in WNY PRISM Fall 2023 Newsletter. Republished with permission.
Image caption: 2019 Bergen Partners – WNY PRISM worked at Bergen Swamp alongside Bill Des Jardin, Bergen Swamp Preservation Society Membership Chair, on barberry removal in 2019.
