ALPENA — There are some plants most gardeners are happy to grow, then there are invasive species. A plant becomes invasive when it overgrows, prevents native plant growth and causes harm to humans and the environment.

To help control these species the Michigan Departments of Environmental Quality, Natural Resources, and Agriculture and Rural Development announced that 23 projects will share $3.6 million in state grants.

The grants are through the Michigan Invasive Species Grant Program, Joanne Foreman, invasive species program communications coordinator, said.

“These programs either have ways we can move needles forward in management of invasive species and encourage regional collaboration of invasive species,” Foreman said.

She said there are many projects to choose from and they focus on plants, aquatic species and more.

The money used will cover projects across the state including a project in Chippewa, Alpena, Kent, Iosco, Bay, Tuscola and Huron counties for $386,100. This is a statewide risk assessment and adaptive management of European frogbit.

The grant announcement said this project will advance the science and practice of European frogbi control in Michigan by: scientifically evaluating novel frogbit control activities; applying successful treatments to frogbit-invaded wetlands; using UAV-collected imagery to remotely detect frogbit in targeted regions and and creating statewide frogbit invasion risk maps.

Alpena Natural Resource Conservation Service Manager Grant Sork said Alpena often has the same invasive species as other areas in the state.

“Phragmites, we do have those. We have purple loosestrife which is a plant that tends to grow in ditches. It’s pretty purple flowers. They put out thousands of seeds and clog ditches. Japanese knotweed, this grows a lot of places it grows very vigorously. You see a lot of it along river banks,” he said.

He said many of the invasive plant species in the area are hard to kill and take several removals and treatments to keep them at bay.

“Usually when a species comes in with no natural control, whether it be an insect or virus, so what it does it explodes and crowds out the native species,” he said. “Once that happens you can have a monoculture from invasives. So it’s important to get rid of the invasives. Once they’re here, they are hard to control.”

Jordan Spence can be reached via email at jspence@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5687.