The Missouri Invasive Plant Council (MoIP) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 MoIP Invasive Plant Action Awards. MoIP established its Invasive Plant Action Award program to recognize the outstanding work being done in Missouri to control invasive plant species. The MoIP Invasive Plant Action Awards recognize exceptional effort and leadership, and also serve as a way to demonstrate to the broader community how controlling the spread of invasive plants on Missouri farms, forests, woodlands, prairies, gardens, parks, neighborhoods, roadsides, and along waterways is attainable and very important land stewardship. Members of MoIP evaluate nominations and select winners annually. For more information about the awards program, visit the MoIP website, moinvasives.org.
The 2026 MoIP Award Winners
Mike Smith (Photo by Carol Davit)
Mike Smith is the winner in the Individual Citizen category, awarded to a private landowner that has demonstrated progress in reducing invasive plants over at least two years. In March 2015, he began volunteering at Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR) in Gray Summit, Missouri, and quickly became a regular. Mike became SNR’s first volunteer land steward in March 2018, leading workdays in 16 acres of SNR’s Brush Creek corridor. At the time, this area was classified as a high-priority restoration site where at least ten invasive species were successfully identified as targets. Through this project, Mike became a highly skilled and capable land manager. His education background is apparent in his work, keeping everyone eager and engaged.
“Through his work, Mike embodies the belief that stewardship fosters connection—between people and the land, and among one another. He demonstrates that shared effort on common ground can lead to meaningful, lasting change.” ~ Alex Conley, Missouri Botanical Garden – Shaw Nature Reserve
Brittany Shultz (Photo by Nathan Kwarta)
Brittany Shultz is the winner in the Individual Professional, awarded to a natural resources professional who has demonstrated progress in reducing invasive plants over at least two years. She is the Living Collections Data Specialist at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG). Brittany co-authored “The potential role of public gardens as sentinels of plant invasion” (2022) in the Invasive Plant Science and Management Journal.
Brittany played a central role in developing and implementing the Weed Risk Assessment (WRA), a tool to systematically categorize the likelihood that a plant in botanical collections may escape cultivation. She compiled and organized diverse invasive plant data sources for integration into the Garden’s Living Collections Management System (LCMS). She collaborated with database developers to build and refine the assessment framework, then tested and validated the scoring methodology, enabling the automated evaluation of more than 7,600 species for invasive potential.
Through this work, Brittany helped create a scalable decision-support tool that continues to guide responsible plant acquisition and collections management at MBG. This work minimizes the ecological risk of plants newly introduced to Missouri. Her participation in Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plants (PGSIP), a database for public gardens in North America to share information about plant taxa that they are observing escaping from cultivation on site, ensures best practices are shared with public gardens on a national level.
“Colleagues consistently describe Brittany as deeply passionate about invasive species prevention, exceptionally detail‐oriented, and unwavering [in] her dedication. Through innovation, collaboration, and sustained commitment, she has made a lasting contribution to invasive plant prevention and exemplifies the spirit of the MoIP Invasive Plant Action Award.” ~ Rebecca Sucher, Missouri Botanical Garden
For more information about the 2026 Invasive Plant Action Award Winners, please CLICK HERE.
About MoIP
The Missouri Invasive Plant Council (MoIP) advocates for making early detection and control of known and potential invasive plants a statewide priority. In 2015, the Missouri Prairie Foundation’s Grow Native! program spearheaded this multi-agency, multi-industry networking and advocacy group to bolster statewide efforts to identify and control the invasive plants that severely impact several sectors of the Missouri economy and native biodiversity. The purpose of MoIP—working as a united, supportive front—is to review, discuss, and recommend educational and regulatory action related to managing known and potential non-native invasive plants. Representatives from the fields of conservation, agriculture, botanical science, ecological services, plant production, horticulture, landscape services and design, and forestry make up the council.
By Don Corrigan
